Last week, we told you about Soap Library, the “holistic” tape label specializing in cassettes that are not just objects to behold with your with your eyes and ears, but with your nose too. The brains behind this operation, Kerry Santullo and Rachel Barnhart–former co-workers at the Greenpoint-based Mexican Summer and, uh, current friends–decided to branch out from the predictability of the music industry machine, and go it alone with releases that are anything but “mechanical,” and instead occupy “more of a softer space.”
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New Tape Label Has Scented Cassingles, Ready to Mingle
(Photo: Nicole Disser)
One recent X-Mas, three, maybe four years ago, my then-BF/now very much ex-BF, and I were out gift shopping (aka escaping family time), and making our way through every thrift shop we could find in our hometown. I can’t remember the exact year this all went down, but I can say with certainty that it was long before rumors of a Twin Peaks remake were circulating. I distinctly remember this BF grabbing something off a dusty bookshelf and clutching it close to his chest like he’d come across a $1.99 bowling bag full of hundo stacks. Actually, it was beat-up old cassette tape, though not just any U2 or Bon Jovi piece of trash, but the soundtrack to Twin Peaks.
You’re Probably Going to Blow Your Life Savings On Vinyl in the Next Months
Cassettes are great and all but let’s face it, nothing beats plonking some vinyl onto a turntable and hearing some Hawaiian luau music crackle to life. On the off-chance you didn’t already blow all your walking-around money on the NYPL’s , you’ll probably want to know that two of the city’s bigger record fairs are coming up.
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Another Greenpoint Label Is Celebrating Five Years With a Blowout
Last month Captured Tracks turned five with a weekend of shows and now everyone’s doing it! Another one of our fave Greenpoint indie labels, Mexican Summer, is celebrating the big fiver with a two-day festival in Red Hook — and a hardcover book with a 10″ EP.
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The NYC Cassette Fair Celebrated the Comeback of a Magnetic Medium
(Photo: Peter D’Amato.)
Saturday evening at Silent Barn, the usual bored-looking über-hip were outnumbered by beaming tape nerds manning tables topped with an array of brightly colored cassettes; friendly dudes and girls repped tape labels hailing from Brooklyn and beyond, at the first annual NYC Cassette Fair.
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Here’s Your Chance to Mingle With Lovers of the Cassingle
Tapes are back! Well, at least for some established acts like Animal Collective and the Flaming Lips that are re-releasing material this Saturday to celebrate the first annual Cassette Store Day (a la Record Store Day). The truth is, tape culture never really died out for underground and experimental music — its cheap magnetic swathe has always been the most accessible medium for skuzzy punk bands and noise acts alike to lay down their tunes and distribute to audiences that tolerate their presence.
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So Deck! Forget Vinyl, This Label Is Still Releasing Cassettes
Ryan Martin’s two-years-in-the-making collaboration with Italian noise composer Maurizio Bianchi, “As Strong As Death Is,” isn’t available on Spotify, or Bandcamp, or even CD. It was released today as a double cassette (yes, cassette) on his tape-centric label, Robert & Leopold.
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