Cassettes and Vinyl
Today I received my first package from Scotch">http://www.freewebs.com/scotchtapes/">Scotch Tapes! Inside the cardboard-reinforced padded envelope were five cassettes and three 7-inch EPs:
Stephen Mejias
Now on Newsstands: Stereophile, Vol.33 No.1
The January 2010 issue of Stereophile is now on newsstands. Hooray! A new volume! A new year! Twelve more issues of Stereophile! Whee! We are pretty excited about starting the year off with a review of a PC soundcard. And at just $200, the ASUS Xonar Essence is the least expensive product to ever grace the cover of our magazine. Plus, it’s got that pretty golden tiger thing on it. What aroused John Atkinson’s interest, however, was the ASUS’s claimed signal/noise ratio of 124dB: “True high-end territory.”
Where the Tapes Is
I’ve received two packages in the mail today. Both were from Portland, Oregon, a hotbed for outstanding independent music, and both contained tapeshttp://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/why_cassettes/">tapes;.
Why Cassettes?
I was introduced to Scotch">http://www.freewebs.com/scotchtapes/">Scotch Tapes, “the worst hi-tech music label ever,” on December 9, by a Twitterhttp://twitter.com/stereophilemag">Twitter; post from Jagjaguwarhttp://www.jagjaguwar.com/">Jagjaguwar;. Oneida would be releasing a limited-edition cassette through Scotch Tapes. This was interesting news to me, first because I">http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/the_way_we_listened_then/">I’ve been fascinated with the idea of a “cassette tape revival,” and second because Oneida is a well-established name in the world of underground rock bands. Why would Oneida release work on a format that had been all but forgotten by the music industry? Why cassettes?
Intermission
A few things:
Number Three
Oh yeah: Matador's">http://www.matadorrecords.com/matablog/2009/12/09/this-christmas-just-g… having a holiday sale.
Iris Records Closes
Where did I hide that Replacements record, dammit?
The Labor of Love
I wonder if Karenhttp://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/not_not_fun/">Karen;, over at Other">http://www.othermusic.com/index.cgi">Other Music, has gotten around to listening to Sex Worker’s The">http://www.notnotfun.com/now.html">The Labor of Love. I’d like to tell her about it. I probably wouldn’t tell her like this:
The Way We Listened Then
Have you read thathttp://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/the_way_we_listen_now/">that<…;, yet? Okay, now read this: “Reconsidering">http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/116282-reconsidering-the-revival-o… the Revival of Cassette Tape Culture,” by PopMatters’ Calum Marsh.
Even in the Rain
Here’s the video for the Fiery Furnaces’s hit single, “Even in the Rain,” which is possibly my favorite track from the band’s excellently easy-to-listen-to album, I’m Going Away. (It’s not really a “hit.” I just made that up. But it could be, if we lived in a different world.)