5.21.13: THIS JUST IN (AND WE’RE BACK)

Jeff Daily, the dude behind the Austin, Texas cassette label Teflon Beast and frequent reviewer over at Cassette Gods, is working on a new bozo-style podcast that should have it’s inaugural episode up sometime next month (with your help).

The show, This Just In (And We’re Back), is going to concentrate on “funny, novelty, and just plain weird/humorous music on tape”. Not so much weirdo classic finds or thrift store scores, though if they fit the show they wont be turned down, but the main focus Daily is after is people creating new material to play on the show. Like all good ideas, this one was burrito based.

“One afternoon I got a text from a friend, Ted, who had this vision whilst eating a particularly spicy burrito. He started singing of spicy times. He’s in a duo called Plastic Uno (band). The two guys have been recording weird songs for a decade and I wanted to gather other weird tunes.”

Jeff is going to assemble all of the jams and curate the show, but says the hosts will be ever changing and anonymous. Dude used the word “enigma”, so it should add an extra layer of zoinkerness to it all.

For info on submit something for the show you can email teflonbeast at gmail dot com with the subject line “Podcast”.

Here are five of Jeff’s favorite “novelty” jams for inspiration. Watch, enjoy, and get to work!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jjiWS__Mp0

5.16.13: CASSETTE ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEMS
So there I was, enjoying a nice quiet Wednesday or Thursday or whatever today is when this twit was tweeted on Twitter:

So, I’m a busy guy. I don’t have a lot of time on my hands well with the stock market, Benghazi, and the current sport that is going on during this current sport season (Go Scorpions!) but I decided to click the hyperlink kindly sent from Rano Records anyways. Holy shit, am I ever glad I did.

Before I dive in here, allow me to lay some groundwork. The Tabs Out crew loves video game music. Devotees to the show may recall that Episode #22 opened up with some music from 1988 scrolling beat’em up Target: Renegade. Dave snagged the sounds off of YouTube, noting it was the music that was played on the game when you died and that he would die on purpose just to hear it. In the game, not in real life. In the same episode we played the audio-data from a ZX Spectrum video game cassette. A format we learned about a few weeks earlier on Episode #21 and began an obsession for us. Alright. With that said let me tell you about what I saw after I clicked on the above link.

A label from Bloomington, Indiana by the name of Auris Apothecary has done something that rivals with man walking on the moon, sliced bread, and slicing bread on the moon. They have released soundtracks from NES games on pro-dubbed cassette tapes! And not bands or noisers recreating retro video game sounds sort of like that band The Advantage. No, I’m talking about the game’s original soundtrack transferred from the .nsf files to tape. The cassettes are imprinted with the title of the game in an 8-bit font with the game’s logo on the cover of the Jcard. I’m getting out of breath just thinking about it, and I’m not even on the running pad. Here are some of the titles that are getting me extra giddy.

 

My advise to you? Up-Up-Down-Down-Left-Right-Left-Right-B-A yourself and use all 30 of your lives to grip these jams up. They are $8.00 each / 3 for $21. Click here to grip, and let us know what other game’s soundtrack you’d like to see! – MH

UPDATE: It turns out that this is the SECOND batch of NES soundtrack cassettes from Auris. The first group came out almost two years ago and included gems such as Zelda, Mega Man, R.C. Pro-AM, and Tetris! My mind just went from jello to jello with fruit in it.

 

 

5.3.13: MEALS ON REELS – RECIPE TAPES FROM SICSIC
There is one universal truth for everyone who heads out on the road for an extensive tour. You gotta grub. Those Denny’s, Cracker Barrels, and various rest stop grease spots get real old, real quick. If you get lucky, a kind soul will take you in for the night and order up a few pizzas. While that should be EXTREMELY APPRECIATED (don’t be a jerk! you could be sleeping in the backseat of your ride eating a bag of Cheetos) it’s still basically junk food. That’s cool for the extra-admirable dude or lady who’s chilling in the comfort of their own home, but you’ve probably been eating junk for every… Fucking… Meal. And to quote the always brilliant Cookie Monster, that stuff “is a sometime food”. A mantra that is equally as ingenious as this one taken from SicSic‘s description for their new series of Recipe Tapes – “Traveling musicians need to eat, promoters need to COOK”. With that in mind SicSic Tapes and the Phantom Limbo booking crew are working on some cassettes aimed to get good eats into the bellies of traveling jammers. “Recipes – A Kitchen Tape Series”.

The inaugural meal (sicsic054) is for a red pasta sauce by Phantom Limbo’s Holger Adam. Besides some short intro/outro music, the recording on the C15 is Holger transcribing the recipe in English with a thick German accent.  “You need an onion. You need a small spoon of honey. You need 2 or 3 cloves of garlic”. It’s like something from the 80’s, when recipes on cassettes would be a futuristic vehicle for this sort of thing. The concept is straight up weird and useful at the same time. It’s like an experimental cassette that isn’t experimental at all, if that makes any sense. To get a bit of insight I spoke with Daniel Voigt of SicSic and Holger Adam over the electronic mail about the series.

TABS OUT: Tell me a little bit of a back story. How did you come up with the idea and who is involved?

HOLGER: Under the moniker of Phantom Limbo we are setting up shows around where we live since early 2009. Johannes (who’s also doing a lot of artwork for SicSic) is doing most of the posters to promote the shows, Ronnie (also a member of Datashock and various other projects), Daniel and me are taking care of the booking and when it comes to cook for the bands we host it’s (mostly) me being the chef . When we hosted Former Selves, Tidal and two projects of close friends (Agnes Beil and Neu Getre) in November 2012 I got a message from Paul (Former Selves) soon after the gig asking about the recipe for the pasta sauce we had for dinner that evening. It was a nice gesture that Paul asked and I immediately translated the recipe and sent it over to Paul. Of course I told Daniel about Paul’s message. We had a laugh and I was joking around about recording bilingual versions of the recipe and releasing these on tape. It was just a joke, because I’ve never had any ambitions to record or whatever. But Daniel was hooked, immediately. He was totally into the idea of doing this and I was trapped, no way out. I should have kept my big mouth shut, but a few weeks after I found myself alone at home in front of a single microphone trying to record the recipes. (For 2 and a half years Daniel and me also did a monthly Phantom Limbo radio show which was fun to do – sitting in a studio having a few beers and talking bullshit in between songs, but that “recording session” was weird.) But, well, there it is: the first edition in the Sic Sic Recipes Kitchen Tape Series.

DANIEL: We are also happy that Moritz Finkbeiner, who is running the Waggon in Stuttgart, one of our favorite venues in Germany by the way, composed the perfect musical aperitif & digestif for the Kitchen Tape Series. Last but not least, Johannes Schebler created the artwork.

HOLGER: And since it’s a series of recipes the artwork for each new tape is supposed to be similar – only the title (cook/recipe/venue) and the picture (ingredients) in the frame will change, of course.

TABS OUT: Who else have you asked to participate?

DANIEL: I already asked some friends that are also promoting show in other parts of Germany. Since we like to visit shows and also traveling to play in other cities, these ties are are important – and meeting friendly people is always about hanging and eating good food, right.

TABS OUT: These are going to be free, Right? Just giveaways with orders?

HOLGER: I think it’s a good idea that the tapes are giveaways. SicSic is focused on music and the more informal character of the giveaway tapes suits the recipes, they’re sort of “backstage”, like meals on tour.

DANIEL: Meals on Reels! The plan is to give thise tapes away as a preorder item – so if people preorder the whole batch of tapes, they will get a cooking tape delivered with their order…first come first serve. I am not really sure how this will work out in the end, but I want to keep those tapes limited, we started doing 35 recipe tapes. Seems to be a good  number.

TABS OUT: Are the recipes going to be on the Jcard, spoken on the cassette, or both?

HOLGER: Yeah both, since my spoken English is somewhat unique, to say the least it’s good to have the recipe on the jcard, too!

DANIEL: It’s also good to have the j-card as an alternative shopping list when strolling through the supermarket.

TABS OUT: Do you do a lot of cooking?

HOLGER: When it comes to Phantom Limbo I do most of the cooking. But I’m not really into cooking as a hobby or anything. I’m aware that good food for musicians helps to provide good vibes and a good show.

DANIEL: Next question please…

TABS OUT: Any tour-meal horror stories?

HOLGER: No horror stories from touring, but as the Phantom Limbo chef I can be a pain in the ass for Johannes and Daniel when I get the feeling that I don’t have enough time to prepare everything correctly. I tend to be a control freak in the kitchen sometimes, but mostly a beer or two helps to ease my nerves.

DANIEL: Speaking of beers, as long as there are enough cold ones in the fridge, everything is fine.

TABS OUT: Any great meals you gripped on the road?

HOLGER: When I drove Ronnie & Ruth (Flamingo Creatures) around for shows with Limpe Fuchs I had some delicious homegrown food at Limpe Fuchs’ place where we stayed for three days. Tasty stuff from her garden, delicious!

DANIEL: Selfmade Organic Kvass and Vegan Borscht made out of freshly harvested ingredients from the field was definitely a highlight, while being a guest to a festival in Moldova. Not to forget the Swabian Käsespätzle (traditional cheese noodles) made by Moritz from the Waggon in Stuttgart.

 

The next batch of SicSic tapes is scheduled to be released sometime in June. Here is what the lineup is looking like:

sicsic055 – Asio Otus / Innercity – Split
sicsic056 – Headboggle – Hillboggle
sicsic057 – Space Habitat – Rising Interiors
sicsic058 – Suspicion Breeds Confidence – Grafamen
sicsic059 – Afterlife – Sensory Overdose
sicsic060 – Buchikamashi – Superbrain

Now, allow me to leave you with a recipe for Tabs Out Red & Brown Gnocchi.

16 oz package of Gnocchi
2 tbsp of Butter
1 cup of Walnuts
4 cloves of Garlic, minced
1 bunch of Fresh Spinach, torn
1/4 tsp of Salt
1/4 tsp of Pepper
1/4 cup of Parmesan Cheese, shredded
1 pint of Grape Tomatoes, sliced

1. Cook the Gnocchi according to package directions and drain.
2. Heat Butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add Walnuts to the pan and cook until the Butter and Walnuts are lightly browned (about 3 minutes), stirring constantly.
3. Add Garlic and cook for about 1 minute, lowering heat to not let the garlic burn.
4. Add the Gnocchi and Spinach, cooking until the Spinach wilts (about 1 minute).
5. Stir in Salt, Pepper, and Parmesan Cheese.
6. Scoop into bowl and top with Grape Tomatoes.

4.25.13: TAPE OF THE MONTH – APRIL 2013
ARTIST: Horsehair Everywhere

TITLE: When Eyes Walk

LABEL: Goldtimers

LENGTH: C52

DUBBED: Pro

EDITION: 50

 

 

 

 

 

I felt like the Chicago imprint Goldtimers was gone for a long long time. As if they were the proverbial label who went out for a pack of smokes and some blank tapes to not return. But, as it turns out, it has only been about a year since they released a batch of goodies from the likes of Venn Rain, Former Selves, Kevin Greenspon, and wouldn’t ya know it, Me. Perhaps I was just being a tad bit impatient and needy for more golden goodness. Well, they are back with a handful of new cassettes from, among others, Seabat, Red Electric Rainbow, No Mind Meditation, and this little doozey that is our Tape of the Month for April,  Horsehair Everywhere.

I’ve avoided listening to Horsehair Everywhere because I was confusing them with the band Psychedelic Horseshit. I saw Psychedelic Horseshit play at a gig in Philadelphia a few years back and thought it was simply god awful (Disclaimer: I may be confusing Psychedelic Horseshit’ with another band as well. It’s extremely plausible, but I’m pretty sure I got it right.) and as a result dodged any Horsehair Everywhere releases that have crossed my path. Then Goldtimers released “When Eyes Walk” and I was able to scope the membership listed on the back flap of the Jcard. It was then clear; I had a classic noise-equestrian foul up on my hands and this was a totally different group of dudes. And a solid group at that. The Horsehair lineup is like a virtual super group, perhaps the Tater Totz  of noise dudes playing rock(ish) zoner jams. Hmmm. Unless Burnt Hills is the Tater Totz, which makes these guys the… Let’s go with… Atoms For Peace. I’ve never heard that band before, I just want Flea up in the mix here.

It goes down like this: Frank Baugh (who has dropped bucket loads of goodness under the moniker Sparkling Wide Pressure), Stephen Molyneux and Geoffrey Sexton (who both play under their own names), Lee Noble (who does the same, and is also head honcho over at No Kings Record Co), TJ Richards (whom I’m not really familiar with, so let’s him be Flea), and the Steelman brothers, little Caleb and big Samuel. It should be known that I’m not sure which one of those guys is older, or even if they are actually brothers. But you get the point, right? The septet recorded these 52 minutes in Nashville and Murfreesboro, TN in 2010 and 2011.

As I said a few sentences back, Horsehair Everywhere plays what would pretty much fall under the umbrella of rock music. It’s impromptu and loose, sometimes almost clumsy. As if all seven members are lying on the floor, feeling completely spent (even the drummer?  how does that work??), but slowly and surely they make killer patterns emerge. Moments where you can imagine everyone gradually standing up and looking at each other as if to say “Yeah, this is working. This is the one”. The form these moments evolve into runs the gamut. Sometimes there are tribal, rhythmic plunges, other times it’s more spacey, punk tooling around. Sometimes it almost reminds me of bits and pieces from Sonic Youth’s “NYC Ghosts & Flowers”. The stuff I’m digging the most on “When Eyes Walk” though is the more angsty (that’s a word, right?) manic jamming. With the spouting of quick, shrill vocals and a raw, post-whatever feeling it has a sorta 90’s DC/Ian Svenonius inspired vibe to it all. Totally all over the place tape and not at all what I was expecting. Try painting a room or cleaning up the backyard while you play this at a serious volume. Trust me, I did it. It helps.

The Jcard is full color, double-sided, and vibrant. Molyneux took both photographs that are on it while spending some time in Thailand. The cover features the bright, ornate walls and ceiling of a temple along with the words “HORSEHAIR EVERYWHERE” and “WHEN EYES WALK” in black text on a white background. The photo on the inside is of a (random?) dude diving into a lake near Ankgor Wat with the band’s name, cassette title, and label name in white with a thick white border around the image. It’s a clean layout that pairs nicely with the cassette itself. The shells are clear with a gold foil inlay and a white imprinting. The imprint, which is text only and on both sides, reflects off the foil if you hold it just so. It’s a pretty tight effect, especially if your sorta stoned and have far to much time on your hands.

You can sample and pick up the  Horsehair Everywhere “When Eyes Walk” C52 from Goldtimer’s bandcamp page for $ix bone$. – MH

 

 

 

4.8.13: THE YEAR IN MISPRONUNCIATIONS

If you’ve listened to the podcast at all during the first year you’ve probably picked up on two things. 1) We talk about and play cassette tapes. 2) We have a fairly rough time pronouncing pretty much anything. If your name isn’t “John Smith” or “Mary Johnson”, we’ve most likely mangled the hell out of it. If you named your project or label something with more than, oh let’s say, 6 letters, or ANY of those letters are an X or Q, forget about it. We fucked it up. I blame the current state of our education system. Either that or noiser’s habit of naming shit Xamblesav77l. I mean, come on now.

So here is a 10-minute montage of us screwing up names. Possibly yours. It’s by no means all of our blunders from year one, but it’s a damn fine sampling, with an intro from Brad Rose. Enjoy!

3.27.13: DON’T FORGET THE CASSETTE
London-based graphic designer Neil Stevens has taken the distinctive look of classic Jcards, those commonly paired with 60, 90, and 120-minute blanks, head-cleaners, and loop tapes for early answering machines, and is using them as inspiration for his new series of prints “Don’t Forget The Cassette“.

The colors for these inlays were usually RGB and mimicked a TV test pattern, or flooded with browns, yellows, and oranges much like the Brady Bunch’s kitchen. They often had coextending lines, heavy block typography, and signifiers for details of the tapes such as bias, side, and length. All aspects that Stevens has captured wonderfully in the eight prints he’s designed for the series.

It was actually not cassettes, but another format all together that got the ball rolling (can I say “spools spinning” or would that be going too far?) on this project. As Stevens expressed on his site “…there’s a lot of talk about vinyl and the growing revival of that format. This lead me to explore the graphics and layout of cassette inlay designs”.

As of right now these wall prints are for Neil’s personal stash, but if there is positive feedback and interest they will be made available for purchase. You can check out the series in full, and the rest of Neil’ incredible work, on his site: https://www.crayonfire.co.uk/. – MH

 

 

 

 

 

3.24.13: TAPE OF THE MONTH – MARCH 2013

ARTIST: Alan Gesso

TITLE: Obliscence

LABEL: Field Studies

LENGTH: C39

DUBBED: Pro

EDITION: 100

 

 

 

 

 

I’m amazed how much crazy good stuff has been released in the short amount of time since February’s Tape Of The Month. There were two damn fine batches from Canada’s La Cohu (Charles Barabé!!) and Fadeaway (Sundrips!!), some bangers on Elm Recordings out of Connecticut, and a self released debut from Ohioan Tiger Village that ya’ll should try to check out (what’s still available that is). All honorable mentions to the jam I’ve been playing over and over again for the last few weeks that was brought to us by Field Studies.

Chicago, IL imprint Field Studies has been providing one hell of a public service, that service of course being introducing me to artists that I have never heard of. Artist that come through strong I might add. The latest being New Yorker Alan Gesso and his 2nd release (as far as I can tell), “Obliscence”. I don’t know much about Gesso other than he has a previous cassette from 2011 on the label Natural Causes called “Idenity” (thanks, Discogs) and that he is self-employed and in an open relationship (thanks, Facebook). I’m not a stalker by the way. Just so you know. I just know about Google and really like this cassette. So….

“Obliscence” contains nine cuts, each a teleportation of paranormal vibes. The sounds are rich and crystallized when they need to be, dark and atmospheric when that’s called for, with shifting and blending used to mesh it all together. The opening track, People In The Stereo, sounds like a Halloween sound FX LP you would find at a thrift store, if that thrift store was on another planet and it’s inhabitants only heard about Halloween through third and fourth hand stories. It’s all very interesting, “Obliscence”, the entire 39 minutes. Gesso has these little tricks of throwing sudden changes of tempo or mood in places where they almost don’t belong, but also fit so perfectly. It’s weird. He’ll be jamming on a melody for a bit, bringing things into a comfort zone, and then lay a “womp-um” on ya, or make a quick speed adjustment before bringing things back to where they were. He does a good job of not hitting you over the head with these happy glitches, instead doing just enough to keep you on your toes. The soundscapes are way pretty and pleasant, but far from being background music. Let’s call it “Stay-Focused-Drone” maybe? Is that a genre yet? If not, I think Alan Gesso is doing his damnedest to make it happen. And he is doing it right.

The JCard is three panels with the patented white spine with black text (in Garamond Bold Oblique) that Field Studies keeps consistent throughout their catalog. Each panel has a unique feeling while managing to maintain a consistent flow. We at Tabs Out had a minor disagreement when we played this on the show as to whether the second panel looked like a “profile of a dude holding his dong, but it’s censored” as Dave said (and Joe B agreed with), or the way more normal thought that it’s “some sort of body of land off of a map” that I chimed in with. It’s pictured above, so you be the judge.

Either way, it’s an impressive color scheme and layout. One thing in particular that I’m sure goes unnoticed by most noise-folk, but is a mega-commendable task, is getting that tiny 1/16″ border even around each panel.  Eric Hanss, head Field Studier, has a steady hand/personality and get’s it perfect every time. He cuts these things down by hand, which has got to be labor intensive. It’s not one of those fly-by-night jobs you see what cassettes all the time. We all have those tapes that look like someone took a pair of scissors or a paper slicers and just chopped away like Ray Charles clipping coupons. Hanss spends the time and get that shit right. Someone in Chicago, buy this dude a beer next time you see him out. He deserves it.

The cassettes themselves are white with a matching printed label on the A side only. Kudos for throwing that shitty band-aid middle part thing from the label in the trash where it belongs and not on the B side (or even worse: The Norelco!!). I’d rather see total blankness than the littering of that little piece of trash. I spit in it’s general direction. *spit*… I should calm down about that, but it really get’s to me.

“Obliscence” is still available for a mere $7, along with the other two releases from this most recent batch by Daniel Wyche and ZERFALLT (both burners). The Bil Vermette C40 from a bit back appears to still be around as well, so grab that if you know what’s good for ya, kid!

You can purchase a copy of Alan Gesso “Obliscence” from Field Studies.

You can hear a track on Episode #22 of Tabs Out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3.11.13: CASSETTE PLAYERS – PHOTOS AND TEXT FROM AUCTIONS AND SALES

On Friday, August 30th, 1963 The Philips company first introduced the cassette tape at the Berlin Radio Show. In the 50 years since it’s introduction to humankind we’ve managed to dream up untold variations of machines to play these bad boys with. From the awesomely boutique to ridiculous novelties, everyone from Nakamichi to Nintendo got in on the game.

I have a nasty habit of purchasing every cassette deck, Walkman, and portable tape recorder I see at thrift stores and flea markets. Most of the time they don’t work, and most of the time I don’t bother throwing them away. I have a refrigerator in my basement with a jammer’s dozen (9 or 10) decks that either produce a gnarly warble or need to be tested. For whatever reason I just dig looking at them and going around my house on D battery hunts.

As it turns out Gabe Holcombe, the dude who runs Chicago imprint Lillerne Tapes, shares a similar attraction. He had the idea of “highlighting the history/weirdness of the cassette tape player/recorder”. To do this he’s created the extremely to-the-point Tumblr Cassette Players. As it says on the top of the site, Cassette Players is “No commentary, just photos and text from auctions and sales”. That’s it. A congregation of decks that, for the most part, people are just dying to get out of their basements or off the shelves at Goodwill. So simple. So amazing.

The site is hot off the internet presses. In fact, Cassette Players has only been active since this weekend (March 9th to be exact) but already has some gems to check out. Here are a few of my personal favorites so far…

Very stoked to see what pops up on Gabe’s site in the future. With all of the great, horrible, and great/horrible at the same time shit people decided to construct to play cassettes it should be a treasure trove. Follow it’s activity at https://cassetteplayers.tumblr.com. – MH