in grunts and the occaisional hello.

on a totally different topic, way back in Chicago I handed Thurston a cassette version of my band's demo (besides the cd itself). I did it because I heard he never listens to cds and sometimes just gives them away.

It was kind of surreal but he took it.
Not that now my band is any better. Eh.

let's revive this thread! This is basically in reply to this post by NYCgaf16 where he said:


Can anyone explain me why all of a sudden cassettes have become so popular again? Yes, I liked cassettes when I was young (eighties/early ninties), to record stuff from the radio, and later I would rent CD's from the library and copy them onto cassettes, and whenever I got tired of them I would record something else over them. But buying new records on cassette? I hardly ever did.


This was at a time when there were still walkmans, and no iPod, or even mobile phones. Does anyone still use walkmans, the real original ones where you would put a tape in it, and all of a sudden the sound would be warbled and you'd open the thing and it was one big spaghetti mesh inside. And you'd have to use a pencil and try to recover the darned tape?



I got rid of all my tape collection like 10 years ago, because I didn't have a cassette player anymore, and if I wanted to record something, I would use CDR's. Or just transfer it to mp3's.



Now since a couple of years, artists are releasing stuff on cassette only. It's really bizarre to me. One of my favorite local labels Jesus Factory brings out many of its releases only on cassette nowadays.

I’m sure many thought cassettes fell away into nothingness much like 8-tracks did long ago. For me, it’s a medium I’ve always cherished! Making a mixtape and trading it for one from: Glice, Pookie, Danny Himself or many others here at SYG or with total strangers from around the world......the energy exchanged is personal and hard to duplicate. Being able to share/discuss here at SYG made it all the more fun. Personally, I backed off cassettes a bit when I no longer had a vehicles that had cassette players......but I’ve always had home tape decks!

When I saw Wolf Eyes earlier this month, they had two “tour only” cassettes at the merch table. Being able to take home something only available at shows, only listenable on a tape deck and having a brief discussion with John Olson at time of purchase......it’s a tangible memory NOT duplicated via a download or streaming service.

The number of cassette only labels is staggering. I’m assuming there must be some sort of profit for someone because tapes are selling out, often times before ever being released.

SONY has a new Walkman that’s soon to be released......for $500
If you can find old Walkmans at pawn shops or 2nd hand stores, I suggest buying any you find cheaply priced, because they are going up in value. Oh - Goodwill is a great place to score used tape decks. I picked up at Yamaha for $5 when visiting my cousin in Abilene earlier this year.

Speaking of value, many artist understand that a segment of the music buying public isn’t interested in purchasing $30 vinyls.