Sat 9/27 @ noon
A nostalgia for, and the revival on a limited scale of, vinyl albums has a sort of logic. The sound quality is warm and nuanced, and the size allows for a range of creative packaging options.
The nostalgia for, and even more limited revival of cassettes, baffles me. Other than portability, the format had little to recommend it. Sound quality was poor, packaging was often minimal — even when released by a major label — and it was difficult to jump to tracks you wanted to listen to. Yet there has been a small burp of labels devoted exclusively to releasing music on cassettes.
But someone’s nostalgic for everything it seems, so Record Store Day (taking place in April) has begat Cassette Store Day. And really, who cares why, as long as it’s an excuse for a party and to drive patrons into record stores? Like Record Store Day, this one will feature exclusive releases — in cassette.
Of course, the independent record stores on Waterloo Road have jumped right on it. Music Saves is an official Cassette Day participant so they’ll have some of the releases available. One very exclusive one they’ll have features four songs from four area bands — Vanity Crash doing “White Light, White Heat”, the Chromes covering the Jags’ 1979 power-pop classic “Back of My Hand,” Frigid Touch doing the Doors’ “Strange Days,” and a track by Golden Streets of Paradise, the duo of Adam Boose and Myk Porter. Only 100 were pressed, and they’ll be available from noon until whenever they run out.
Blue Arrow Records isn’t an official Cassette Day sponsor, but they’re joining in the fun to give you an additional reason to head up to Waterloo Saturday afternoon. They’ll be putting out rare and collectible cassettes for the occasion, as well as cassettes from local groups like GoldMINES and Shitbox Jimmy. As a special treat, they’ll have local surf/garage rockers Shale Satans doing at DJ set at 4pm and some acoustic jams as well.
Photo by Anastasia Pantsios
Cleveland, OH 44110
Cleveland, OH 44110