Portable Shrines

art by Brian Lightbody in Mixtape: the Art of Cassette Culture

The past few years have seen a resurgence of that antiquated and beloved media format, the cassette tape. This return to cassette is in part due to the zeitgeist of nostalgia that runs rampant in our culture and recycles hip about every 20 years or so. Many folks have been picking up on this return: designboom has a nice article about the art and culture of the cassette, Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth edited Mix Tape: the Art of Cassette Culture in 2005. The November 08 Wire magazine contained a few articles about cassettes, notably about the mystique of Les Rallizes Dénudés cassettes and another on Black Metal’s cassette rituals. While preparing this post Portable Shrines synchronously stumbled into Flying Squirrel Pizza in Seattle, a pizza joint that loves mix tapes. So much in fact that they have created “The Flying Squirrel Pizza Mix Tape Challenge”…plus their pizza rocks.

The time is again now for those lovely little objects.

Also, in this resurgence something more is brewing, bands such as Wooden Shjips, Eternal Tapestry, and Du Hexen Hase are utilizing the cassette as a means of putting out new music. Labels are doing the same…Amateur Depression out of Florida is putting out some great stuff (Menthols and Nerve City among others). Anaheim based Burger Records is releasing kick ass albums on vinyl, cd and cassette tape and Best Kept Secret is an all tape label based out of Italy. I personally love having new releases in the format, there is something to the nostalgia…being able to pop a tape of something you have never heard before in your car stereo and just go…

So, having noticed this trend for a while I presented a couple of questions to some of these folks, asking what their reason were for using this format versus compact discs and if they thought this format will stick around as long as vinyl will…

Wooden Shjips

Ripley from Wooden Shjips…

Why did you choose the cassette format for the holiday release last year?

Initially we wanted to do vinyl but the production cycle is way too long. We would have had to have songs finished in September –way too early to be thinking about winter holidays. But going through the process –buying a dubbing deck, dubbing each cassette, making the covers, reignited a forgotten love for tapes. It’s such an easy and cheap way to do an analog release, with a satisfying hands-on process. I understand the appeal of CD-Rs for musicians, because they’re practical and also cheap, but I don’t like them as objects. For me it’s hard to treasure a CD-R.

Do you see the cassette as a viable format that will endure the ebb and flow of popularity similar to that of vinyl?

I don’t think it has the enduring qualities of vinyl. Vinyl has quality advantages, in sound and packaging –the cover is a much bigger canvas for artwork. It’s more durable. Plus it has DJ support. I suspect that new cassettes will go away at some point, whenever tape manufacturers can no longer eke out a profit. Similar to what happened with Polaroid film. However, for sound artists, trafficking in limited releases, I think the format will be around for many years. There are plenty of old cassettes to dub over, and vintage decks that can be kept functioning.

Eternal Tapestry

Dewey from Eternal Tapestry…

As per tapes, I like making our music available in all formats, and just getting stuff out there-reaching more people, different scenes. Tapes have always been a huge part of the music underground – 80′s hardcore, dead shows, experimental dudes, anything fringe culture. They are inexpensive and simple to make, and have more charm then a cd-r. Also, we do all our recordings on tape so it’s cool to release it in the same medium. I think people see tapes as this fun, weird, old-fashioned kinda thing that makes them a little more excited about a band then an mp3.

Some of the killer offerings from Burger records-Thee Makeout Party! The Go and Audacity

Sean from Burger Records and Thee Makeout Party!…

Why did you choose the cassette format for your releases on Burger?

We chose tapes ’cause they are hand-held analog goodness. Did we mention that they are also easy and affordable to make plus they sound great! But we don’t solely rely on the tapes for our label, we do records and those other things too!

Do you see the cassette as a viable format that will endure the ebb and flow of popularity similar to that of vinyl?

(Laughter) Probably not. Vinyl is likely to be the only ebb flowing. But tapes are neat. And they work as Burger Business cards. Wanna burger?

check out these cassette related links…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassette_culture

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/28/business/media/28cassette.html
http://www.arthurmag.com/2007/05/21/leaderless-underground-cassette-culture-now-at-printed-matter/
http://mycassettes.blogspot.com/

Personally I hope cassettes will stick around…if not I can always go through that pile of ancient tapes and find some treasures…