Record Store Day has a special place in our hearts. It’s a great way to get music buyers out on the streets, spending money, and picking up some pretty sweet limited edition records. I mean where else can I buy Tenacious D’s Jazz? Well ebay, but that’s besides the point. Now cassette lovers don’t need to feel left out the equation as the first official Cassette Store Day was announced for September 7, 2013.
From the website:
No longer the inadequate, younger sibling of Vinyl and CD, the humble Cassette has been making a resurgence of late. Proving that cassette tapes are not just for those of us who remember buying Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’ with birthday money, or making lovingly compiled mixtapes for the object of our teenage affections. International Cassette Store Day 2013 is a celebration of a physical product that is accessible, fun, cheap and still going strong in the turbulent current musical climate.
This event sees limited releases from its organisers — SEXBEAT (Fucked Up), Kissability (tbc), and Suplex Cassettes (Fair Ohs, Proper Ornaments); as well as classic albums reissued in this fun format by Transgressive (At the Drive-In, Pulled Apart By Horses), Bella Union (The Flaming Lips), Domino (The Pastels), 4AD (Deerhunter), Wichita Recordings (Hard Skin), Burger Records and many more. Other labels involved spreading the Cassette love with limited releases are Jade Tree, Mirror Universe, Reeks of Effort, Art is Hard, Faux Discx, and Tie Dye Tapes and more to be confirmed.
In addition to its London Launch (which features live performances and DJ sets instore), there will also be similar events run in record stores in Los Angeles, New York, and Tokyo amongst other UK, US, and EU cities.
Cassettes have had somewhat of a polarizing existence over the past couple of years: there is no doubt the audio quality is inferior to vinyl but there is certainly a degree of nostalgia, they’re inexpensive, and they are a physical piece of media for fans to take home and cherish
So now we open the floor, what do you all think? Is Cassette Store Day an appropriate extension of Record Store Day, is it a waste of my time, or should we even care? (if that’s the case I should probably get back to my day job). Let us know in the comment box way down below (It’s about to get heated son)!