Store-bought tapes you still listen to

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It's okay, we all do it. Don't we?

― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 8 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I got Screamadelica from Woolworths for £1.99 about four years ago. It never leaves the car.

― Nick Southall, Wednesday, 8 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Well, Nick, tapes don't have legs.

― nathalie, Wednesday, 8 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

aaaaand SCENE.

― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 8 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I remember buying plums in London and they mushed down into my bag and squidged up approx. 2 seconds of "Tunic (Song for Karen)." Now when I hear that song somewhere else it doesn't sound right.

― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 8 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i also have a copy of goo on cassette floating around my house. it sounds so warbly and nice.

further question: do you think we will ever see an era of cassette nostalgia? we see vinyl nostalgia all the time (even though it never really went away) but does the fact that the cassette is a horrible medium preclude any fetishization of it? we all love those old mix tapes ... i haven't made one in ages. clicking on "burn" just isn't the same somehow.

― fields of salmon, Wednesday, 8 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Loads and loads. One of the first I ever bought was Mott The Hoople's Mott, and it's still one of my favourites ever. I still love cassettes generally. I can tape things on them off the radio (like Dave Clarke's set on Peel last night), make up comps without everything having to be in digital format, and you can pick prerecorded tapes up very cheap because hardly anyone likes them. I think I have getting on for 2000 cassettes.

― Martin Skidmore, Wednesday, 8 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I still listen to my Megadeth and Slayer albums on tape. I've got loads of old metal tapes. Oh and Tool's Opiate is cool. There is something beautiful about the sound of an old mangled tape.

― jel --, Wednesday, 8 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Aside from the throwbacks to cassette-only culture (Shrimper/Freedom From/Cassingle USA), Neil Young's Harvest/Everybody Knows This Is Knowhere twofer cassette as well as the AWESOME Minutemen compilation My First Bells are two that get heavy rotation in my cassette player.

― http://gygax.pitas.com, Wednesday, 8 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Motley Crue, 'Shout At The Devil'. I've got it on vinyl and CD too

― dave q, Wednesday, 8 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I used to buy lots of pre-recorded cassettes during the 80s and my vinyl-loving friends used to criticise me for doing so.

I still listen to the Robert Wyatt "Rock Bottom" / "Ruth is Stranger than Richard" twofer cassette. I should replace it with the c.d. versions.

Does anyone remember the ROIR cassette-only label? I've got ROIR tapes by James Chance, Glenn Branca, the New York Dolls and Suicide. I think you can get most of the ROIR stuff on c.d. now.

― Mark Dixon, Wednesday, 8 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

There's a shop in San Franciso's North Beach that still has tons of factory-sealed tapes, thousands: I bought Deep Purple, The Stooges' first, the Yardbirds, and a bunch of soul stuff. But the guy is deluded and still sells them for $6.99 or something. Cassettes rule, especially old major label stuff where they had absolutely no interest in preserving the packaging aesthetic. They just put the album's front cover in a square on the front, and listed the songs on the little panel in the back. No songwriting credits, who played on what, where it was recorded; NOTHING.

― Andy, Wednesday, 8 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

My First Bells=Everything the Minutemen put out on SST before Double Nickles (For? To? I forgot) The Dime. And it was cheap, too. Classic.

― Christine "Green Leafy Dragon" Indigo, Wednesday, 8 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Oooh, oooh, oooh, Electric by The Cult resides in the glove compartment too!

― Nick Southall, Wednesday, 8 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Here area few I've played recently...

*B-52's-Whammy!
*Art Of Noise-Who's Afraid...
*Colourbox-Colourbox

― dek1, Wednesday, 8 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The only one I still play is the Misfits' "Walk Among Us." All of print on it is worn off so I can't determine which side is which without playing it.

― scott p., Wednesday, 8 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Funny how Goo is mentioned here as I too possess it as one of the only bought tapes I listen to anymore. That and Orbital "Insides". I don't think I listen to any others all that regularly. I think it's a shame the tape is dying... Definitely one of the more versatile formats (only beaten by the minidisc for recording fun- wizardry).

― dog latin, Wednesday, 8 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The only use for tapes for me anymore is in the car, and I haven't bothered with one in the house in years, really. About the only ones I keep around anymore are The Church's Heyday and a couple of those Cure two-fers that had bonus tracks on side two. In the car, though:
Moody Blues - Long Distance Voyager
ELO - Time
Blue Peter - can't remember title
Men Without Hats - Folk of the 80s
Rolling Stones - Tattoo You
plus five more great hits!!!

― Sean Carruthers, Wednesday, 8 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I think the last new cassette I bought was the 1st Weezer last summer. But I buy secondhand cassettes all the time. I like cassettes.

― sundar subramanian, Wednesday, 8 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Double Nickels On The Dime.

I will buy cassettes if they're cheap enough, sometimes for the car, sometimes to experiment with different genres. Rhino records in LA has parking lot sales once or twice a year where the cassettes go for 25 cents each. (CDs for $1 each, but there's fewer good things, or I just get there too late.)

― nickn, Thursday, 9 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm very proud of my Smiths' Hatful of Hollow cassette and fondle it regularly. If I can't get to sleep at night I try to convince myself it's worth a lot of money. Divine Madness gets played a lot too.

― Sister Disco, Thursday, 9 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

All Beatles albums through Revolver, all Westbound Funkadelic albums, Raspberries' Greatest Hits, and all Queen records from II through The Game.

― dleone, Thursday, 9 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

David Sylvian's Alchemy - An Index of Possibilities and Gone to Earth.

Tracey Chapman's entire discography.

King Crimson's Earthbound and USA.

Ani DiFranco's Out of Range, Not a Pretty Girl, Little Plastic Castle, Up Up Up Up Up, and To the Teeth.

― brian, Thursday, 9 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

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