Stephen Mejias

From now until the end of time, 15% of all record purchases made at In Living Stereo will be credited toward stereo equipment and accessories.

Great Britain is dreaming of a silent night. A new recording of John Cage's controversial piece, “4'33",” stands a good chance of becoming Britain’s best-selling single during Christmas week. (Woo!)

Exactly six months after we’d seen them perform in Puerto Rico, at that strange island bar, Bamboo Beach (see “Records to Die For,” February 2010, pages 71-72), the Vivian Girls performed on Saturday night, this time so much closer to home, at Maxwell’s in Hoboken. I bought tickets for the whole crew—Rizzo, Fritzy, Papi Chulo, Fuzzy, and Tigga—so that, together again for the first time since that memorable trip, we could relive the magic. We ate well, drank too much, laughed, danced, and sang along as the Vivian Girls burned through their energetic set.

Was it really only yesterday? It feels like it was a hundred years ago.

John Atkinson measures the distance from his microphone to the Giya’s midrange drive-unit. For a larger view, visit our Gallery.

By now, you’re familiar with Record Store Day, the annual event that celebrates independent record stores and vinyl records. Now, we can celebrate another special music format: the cassette! The first Cassette Store Day will be held tomorrow, Saturday, September 7th.

Interested in new cassette releases, but don't know where to start? Cassettivity is a cassette-only distribution site, founded by music lover Dave Sandifer. In 2013, a cassette-only distro might seem like an odd venture, but I was delighted to see it: I’ve had a difficult time keeping up with the many new and exciting cassette-only labels—they’re often extremely obscure and titles are often extremely limited—so an intelligent distribution channel makes good sense.