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lizb on 08/26/2010 at 09:00AM
Understanding the Tape Craze
About two years ago or so, great new bands began sending their latest albums to WFMU on cassette tapes. By no means am I a format purist, but... cassette tapes?! I couldn't help but recoil in aversion.
I chalked up the resurgence of cassette tapes to some sort of imagined nostalgia by a generation who are too young to have been scarred by their favorite album being melted in a dashboard or chewed up and spat out by a machine in revolt. I still apply that bitter sentiment to many tape releases, but in reality I must admit that making a mix CD or MP3 playlist will just never compare with the experience of making a mixtape, plus, a lot of music does sound great with that warm hiss in the background (check out the Polyps).
I gave a listen to some new songs added to the FMA by the band Lame Drivers (featuring Jason), and was delighted to discover that they turned a cassette tape mishap into awesome, sped-up, cartoon/chipmunk-like lo-fi dance jams. They call it a "Martian timeslip experiment." This is the kind of cassette tape release I can get behind!
