Next up after Canadian Thanksgiving? Cassette Store Day
[I have this assignment to Gilles LeBlanc because you know how I feel about cassettes, right? – AC]
Did you all know that Cassette Store Day is on October 13th, 2018?
Yeah, Alan Cross doesn’t care much for tapes either.
Like it or lump it, audio’s arguably weakest-quality format has its own “day” in the same vein as vinyl. While I’d be all for a Mixtape Appreciation Day (How ’bout it, Checkiday.com?), cassettes just don’t have the same level of awareness, romanticism or revivalist attributes as records. Might as well also celebrate the 8-track and LaserDisc while we’re at it…
This hasn’t stopped otherwise reputable labels such as Third Man Records from jumping on the proverbial bandwagon. One of their marquee releases from 2018, The Sciences by doom metal power trio Sleep is being released on cassette, along with The White Stripes’ first three albums again. With all due respect, The Sciences is the type of listening that is best experienced on a hi-fi turntable when you have time to really get into the music – maybe even in a bean bag chair – and probably on October 17th or after up here in Canada. Or so I’m told at least.
The White Stripes’ cassettes were available last year in limited quantities but apparently sold out quickly. They were actually done by Canadian company Duplication.ca, so I can’t hate on the medium too much; for patriotic reasons, of course. So go ahead, break out your boomboxes and have lead pencils at the ready for those tapes you get on October 13th that are sure to unravel in short order.
You don’t seem like the format, so I question why on Earth you would write this piece? There is a no substance to it whatsoever and seems more like an a ‘photo opportunity’ for you rather than a quality piece about a format that yields global support from artists and labels alike. Canada and the US release and purchase more music on cassette than anywhere else in the world, closely followed by Japan where the format thrives not only online but in ‘bricks & mortar’ stores as well.
If you read it, you’ll see that I didn’t write it. I don’t put shackles on my writers.