Cassette Culture: Where the INDIES are....
Greg Taylor
and it seemed like it might be useful to post here, since a
fair number of people wondered about getting indie cassette
stuff the last time anything was posted on it. Of course, the
USENET compilation is not listed here....yet!
Isn't the Walkman wonderful? Overnight, it has created an
enormous market where nothing existed before...a veritable
Harvard Biz School fantasy. It has also created an enormous
population of entirely autistic adults, dancing to the beat
of a different drummer. I suspect you've had the sensation
of standing next to someone in the elevator with those fara-
way eyes, and realizing with a start that you can quite
clearly hear the Lionel Ritchie tape from the other side of
the elevator that must surely be turning their brains to
Philly Creme Cheese. Some of the cassette (or K-7 as they're
called in France) people even feign normalcy--driving their
cars, whizzing around on bikes, and dozing next to us on the
train. Insidious stuff.
All of this may serve to distract you somewhat from the _ i_ d_ e_ a
of the cassette: a small, nifty, easily produced bit of cul-
ture. Some wily shoppers have even twigged to the fact that
recording companies occasionally do things on a tape that
don't show up on the records. For example, David Byrne's
solo music for Twyla Tharp's "Catherine Wheel" clocks in at
an out-of-order 40 something minutes on vinyl. The cassette
is a full seventy minutes--the entire ballet score in
correct performance order, at the same price.
We're sitting through a rather quiet revolution in the
cassette industry right now which is less visible if all you
ever hear is what the radio tells you to buy. The cassette
has caught the attention of a lot of people who make their
own music, and a lot of other people who distribute the
stuff, and is quietly producing a lot of music of the sort
that was once called "the independent revolution" in the
late 70's (that's where punk came from, before all the bucks
and MTV). The cassette is appealing because it's a satisfy-
ingly appropriate technology, and requires less of the mega-
buck outlay of a record (and correspondingly less of the
pressure to make least-common-denominator product).
The trick is finding out what's out there. Since I've been
writing for this august paper, by far the most regular com-
ment I receive is, " How do you _ f_ i_ n_ d this stuff, anyhow?"
The quick answer (and the correct one) is: I look for it. I
am probably much more normal than most of you reading this
paper. Horribly conventional, in fact, save for this
interest I have in finding interesting things. And I know
where to look, since I'm interested in it. But there's no
mystery to that at all. You need to know where to look, and
it helps to find a sympathetic partner in the retail busi-
ness who may share your interests. Acquiring these things is
a little like learning to taste wines. There is as much
pleasure in learning as there is in doing once you've
learned.
There's a caveat here: cassette culture is a lot like the
records produced by independent labels. There's a fair
amount of junk out there. There is also a fair amount of
stuff that you could probably care less about. There is also
something lurking out there that you can really wrap you
brains around and love. True, it's a crapshoot: but it's
either that or a life of solo albums by big rock stars and
whoever some chump decides you're gonna like next.
Let's begin with _ w_ h_ e_ r_ e to look. Initially, it's good to have
help. The thing to remember is that you're making your way
into a whole dfferent way of finding and locating things.
This is an alternative distribution network. For this rea-
son, it's often best to check with your local record mer-
chant when you start the search. If they care at all about
any of the same things you do, they'll probably be able to
either steer you in the right direction, or know how to get
the stuff which will do the steering. Besides, supporting
local businesses is good sense anyhow...appropriate technol-
ogy, local self-determination and all that. Cassette culture
isn't like a big record company with lots of resources to
pump into selling the product. Since most of the people who
produce the stuff know that, there are a variety of publica-
tions out there that cover nothing but independently pro-
duced and released music. Not a single mention of Culture
Club or Lou Reed or (fill in your current most loathsome
media darling here) in an entire issue. Page after page of
stuff you have never heard of made by people you have never
heard of. Most of you will see this in somewhat the same way
that people who stand at the edge of the jungle and look in:
there's either too much of something, to something beyond
the tangle.
The best example of such a publication is/was OP, published
by the Lost Music Network in Olympia, Washington. It covered
nothing but independent music--both cassettes and
LPs...hundreds of them every two months. OP was a project
whose purpose was to put out 26 issues, one for each letter
of the alphabet. When they got to Z, they stopped. You can
find back issues in some local record stores from time to
time, and they're worth their weight in gold.
The mantle of OP magazine has been taken up by not one, but
_ t_ h_ r_ e_ e publications. Each one of them will run you about a
buck or two per issue or $12 per year,and are chock full of
articles and reviews that give you a sense of what people
are doing out there. You can usually talk any reasonably
good record store into finding copies of the stuff in the
magazine (since the people distributing this kind of music
are usually always mentioned, along with prices and
addresses). In fact, they may already know about them, but
have been hesitant to get the stuff in the store for fear
that no one out there is interested (believe me, it
happens). Here's the names and numbers--the rest is up to
you:
_ C_ L_ E_ M is the Contact List of Electronic Music. It comes out
twice a year, and is put out by a guy who works in a ski
resort north of Vancouver named Alex Douglas. Alex puts out
a catalog of recordings, publications, and contacts for peo-
ple who do electronic music from all over the world--
literally. It's usually a xerox (the people's publishing)
format, and is a truly dizzying batch of listings. Alex
charges $12 for a year and a half (3 issues), but you can
probably pick up a copy by beating on a local retailer.
Alex's address is: CLEM, P.O. Box 86010, N. Vancouver, Brit-
ish Columbia, Canada, V7L 4J5. This covers everything from
the mainstream to the extreme fringe.
_ S_ o_ u_ n_ d _ C_ h_ o_ i_ c_ e is one of the two inheritors of the OP legacy.
Any given issue features both feature articles, irate
letters, publication reviews, and lots of reviews of
independent stuff. I've seen copies of their first issue at
a local record emporium already, so I'm pretty sure you can
get it down at the corner. If not, try writing The Audio
Evolution Network, P.O. Box 1251, Ojai, CA 93023.
_ O_ P_ t_ i_ o_ n is the other post-OP digest of stuff. Their first
issue is probably out March 1st, but I'd figure that it's
pretty much like OP and Sound Choice, since about half of
the old OP review staff went to one publication, and the
other half to another. They're also $12 a year, and probably
also available here eventually. If you can't find them
here, try P.O. Box 491034, Lost Angeles, CA 90049.
_ C_ a_ s_ s_ e_ t_ t_ e_ r_ a is a new publication that covers _ o_ n_ l_ y cassette
releases. It functions as a kind of enormous clearinghouse
for all of the thousand things out there in the galaxy.
Their exclusively cassette format is unusual. Fortunately,
they're intending to function as a sort of "Whole Earth
Catalog" for the cassette culture. Try to find them locally,
or contact them at P.O. Box 893 Boston, MA