"A few months ago, the term cassette tape was taken out of the Oxford English Dictionary.

It may seem ironic, then, that the cassette has experienced a quiet comeback over the last few years, as independent labels issuing tape-only releases have begun popping up around the world.

What better excuse to take a look back at this beloved musical format?

As recorded sound continues its love affair with the downloadable, ethereal digital file, the tangible artefact is quickly becoming a thing of the past.

Help us celebrate the A Side, the B Side, the mixtape, and the whole of cassette culture by supporting Cassette: A Documentary. We'll look at all parts of popular culture influenced by the cassette, including hip-hop and B-Boy culture, indie rock, home recording, and beyond."

Zack Taylor and Seth Smoot are trying to raise $$$ via Kickstarter to make Cassette: A Documentary. They're currently at 1/3 of their goal.

For more details, head to their kickstarter page and check out a video trailer below.

Continue reading "cassettes making a comeback; help fund the documentary"

by BBG

Hold on tight, the following post may make the internet completely collapse upon itself. Christopher Weingarten, notorious blogger/tweeter (as 1000TimesYes) and ex-drummer of Parts & Labor, welcomed his latest book Hipster Puppies over the summer. In celebration, Weingarten is throwing two upcoming events. The first is a (rescheduled due to hurricane Irene) "Hipster Puppies instore" at Sound Fix Records this Saturday (9/10). "Bring a dog, get a dollar off a book." Chris will be DJing. Flyer below.

The second, more my style, is a release party on September 21st at Public Assembly with live musical appearances from Zs, Burning Star Core, Mountains, and Dinowalrus, all of which appear on the Hipster Puppies: New York Cassette which is also celebrating its release that night. Limited to 350 copies, this 87-minute tape is available for purchase or for free to the first 50 people to buy tickets. Tickets are on sale now.

Zs

In addition, Zs will also celebrate their own release of a Sky Burial cassette, "an extremely limited 18-minute sound collage of lo-fi recordings snatched from the band's European encores". Available in two editions, a golden mirror finish and a white one (limited to 50 and 150 respectively), the release is the first of a trilogy of recordings for Zs that will include a 2x7" called 33 and an LP entitled This Body Will be a Corpse. Look for the LP on Playbutton and the 7" on Northern Spy (who will release many upcoming Zs recordings) but in the meantime, stream "33" and a snippet from the Sky Burial below.

Zs is also scheduled to play a release show for 33 in November (details forthcoming) as well as the first night of the Spy Music Festival going down on Oct 1st (at Shea Stadium) and 2nd (at Zebulon). Zs will join Bird Names, Colin L. Orchestra, Dan Melchior und das Menace, Neptune, Eleven Twenty-Nine, and Haunted House for the first night, while the second night will feature appearances from The Spanish Donkey, Hubble, Angels in America, Weyes Blood, and Zaimph. The shows are in celebration of record label Northern Spy's first anniversary. Full details on the festival are below.

In related news, Sam of Zs also is a member of Diamond Terrifier, who will play The Gutter on Sunday (9/11) with Charlie Looker (Extra Life), Patrick Higgins, and Eric Wubbels. $5 gets you into this 21+ event of avant-garde experimentalism. Stream an excerpt from Diamond Terrifer's forthcoming Himalayan Appalachia below, and look for it on limited cassette on 9/17.

Extra Life also have a show coming up at Glasslands.

All streams, Spy Music Fest details, Zs dates and stuff below...

Continue reading "Hipster Puppy events, limited cassettes, Zs, Spy Music Fest"

Press release reads:

Indie godfathers Dinosaur Jr. have announced the reissue of their classic 1988 album Bug on cassette via Joyful Noise Recordings. Slated for release on June 21, the cassette reissue coincides with the band's 15-date US/European tour in which Bug will be performed live in its entirety.

Originally released on cassette in 1988 via the legendary SST label, this is the first ever reissue of a Dinosaur Jr. album on its original cassette format. Hell - as far as we can tell, this is the first ever cassette reissue of any album originally released on the format...

Dinosaur Jr. start playing "Bug" in its entirety on tour on June 21st, the June 23rd NYC show at Terminal 5 with Fucked Up included. An updated set of dates is below.

Fucked Up meanwhile are releasing David Comes to Live on Tuesday (June 7th), aka at midnight tonight, and they have a gimmick of their own too...

"To celebrate the release of Fucked Up's David Comes To Life, the album will be on sale for $3.99 (in MP3) as "MIDNIGHT MADNESS" takes over MatadorRecords.com starting at 12am EST tonight.

The catch is, the album will only be $3.99 for about 2 minutes. That's right. From midnight until noon tomorrow, the price of the MP3 album will be steadily going up until it hits full price once again.

And that's not all.... while we can't compete with Fucked Up's physical world antics in Toronto, our version of "MIDNIGHT MADNESS" will also include a virtual pop-up store with a screening room, characters from the "story", a live webcam from Toronto "MIDNIGHT MADNESS" and a preview of our just about ready to launch "MataCloudTM."

Act quick if you don't want to pay $4.01 or more! All tour dates below...

Continue reading "Dinosaur Jr. reissuing 'Bug' on cassette, Fucked Up releasing 'David' for $4 (for 2 minutes)"

Conventional wisdom has it that CDs are selling in ever-decreasing numbers, but there's one place where business is booming: prison. A Los Angeles company called Pack Central started selling music to The USA's incarcerated in 2003, and is now doing $1 million of business every year. [Music Radar]

Racy photos of Miley Cyrus are popular in prison too.