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Monday, January 30, 2012

The key word is like not love, but I collected cassettes for several years, and have no regrets. I stopped a long time ago—not counting one limited-edition item last year—but I've hung on to my favorites, including mix tapes and out-of-print titles. My apartment is small, but they take up little space, so I have no plans to ditch any of them (and it's not like they're gonna garner big prices on eBay).

K.C. Fennessy

Among the stash, I have a few Cheap Trick and Led Zeppelin bootlegs (recorded off the original vinyl by Hugh Jones, former manager of Cellophane Square and editor of Proximity fanzine) and soundboard tapes of peak-era Mudhoney and the Flaming Lips (the latter courtesy producer/musician Dave Fridmann).

K.C. Fennessy

Some of these cassettes are also fairly attractive, because I tended to go crazy with the metallic pens and whatnot—another reason not to give 'em the boot.

K.C. Fennessy

That said, I rarely play tapes anymore, despite a functional CD/cassette player. Like the gents Dean Fawkes wrote about here, the compact disc remains my preferred music delivery system (I wrote about my overflowing stacks here).

K.C. Fennessy

Ironically enough, the cassette portion of my ancient Panasonic portable stereo system works fine, but the CD part is wonky, so I mostly use it as a radio (I have another player for CDs). But my turntable works great...too bad it's buried under a pile of DVDs and music magazines. And wouldn't you know it: I'm not alone.

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Comments (12) RSS

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Whole lot of my favorite music in there! My main system has a dead CD player, a bit of a wonky tape player, and a good turntable. Due to my own collection of "vintage" cassettes, I'm probably more inclined to upgrade the tape portion with an accessory unit than upgrade the additional CD player I have now. Wm. Gibson says that technology leads cultural change, but that doesn't necessarily mean towards new devices; sometimes it means a new response to old ones. As in, mainstream 45s and 12 " non-LP short releases might have died long before the late 80s (replaced through FM album oriented radio) without punk/new wave and dance music.

Posted by Estey on January 30, 2012 at 9:35 AM

I'm with you! I have tons of tapes, and I refuse to give 'em up

Posted by Kelly O on January 30, 2012 at 11:07 AM

@2 I guess we're ahead of the curve, since they're making a comeback of sorts. That said, I never went in for cassingles. Or eight-track tapes, although I'd still recommend the '95 documentary So Wrong They're Right about collectors of the latter.

Posted by Kathy Fennessy

on January 30, 2012 at 12:30 PM

I have that Rainy Day tape...someplace.

Posted by very bad homo on January 30, 2012 at 2:18 PM

Kathy, your input on line out is well needed. Thank you for making everything feel alright.

Posted by Summerisle

on January 30, 2012 at 2:23 PM

@5 Thanks, I appreciate that.

Posted by Kathy Fennessy

on January 30, 2012 at 2:47 PM

I still have a lot of pre-recorded cassettes that I bought new in the early 1980s, when cassettes were the most popular new-LP format, before CDs became the norm. They tend to screech when I try to play them these days, but I keep them for nostalgic value.

Posted by Space Funk Guru on January 30, 2012 at 2:56 PM

Nothing sounds better in an automobile than a cassette.

Posted by Dean Fawkes

on January 30, 2012 at 4:04 PM

My favorite-est new cassettes are almost all from Burger Records. I heart them.

http://www.burgerrecords.org/apps/websto…

Posted by Kelly O on January 30, 2012 at 4:41 PM

@9 So cool! I'm sad Thee Oh Sees is sold out.

Posted by Kathy Fennessy

on January 30, 2012 at 7:05 PM

It looks like Aquarius in SF has some Oh Sees tapes still.

http://aquariusrecords.org/bin/search.cg…

Posted by arls in charge on February 1, 2012 at 9:12 AM

Hey Kathy, these tape look familiar! Reminds me of the days (wo)manning the counter at the B-Square C-Square. I still have a crate of my own. Take care, and love reading your reviews on Amazon. Maurine (MB)

Posted by Maurine on March 3, 2013 at 3:48 PM