Found cassette sounds.

May 19, 2007 4:46 AM

Tape Findings. Every week RJ from Sweet Thunder posts excerpts from one of a kind cassette tape recordings he finds at garage sales. Found due to Week 15 [better recording]. Other greats: Week 49, Week 73, Week 86. Dog damn.
posted by 6am (13 comments total)

Hey, cool site! Thanks, 6am!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:02 AM on May 19, 2007

Ok, and Week 91.
posted by 6am at 5:06 AM on May 19, 2007

If you like Tape Findings, you might be interested in The Audio Kitchen, a found sounds radio program that used to be on WFMU.
posted by buriedpaul at 5:47 AM on May 19, 2007

I like Pac Man Christmas Story.
posted by greasepig at 5:47 AM on May 19, 2007

I wonder if he will ever find one of RRRecords recycled releases:

RRRecords is extremely well known for their "Recycled Music" releases - recordings released on commercially available cassette tapes which have been recycled with new music, but still have the original insert or printing on the cassette. RRR Recycled tapes are labeled with a simple strip of adhesive tape along the spine of the insert with the artist's name hand-written upon it. Part of the charm of the recycled releases, is that each tape is unique, and that in some cases, the original audio is still partly audible. There have been numerous recycled tapes released by RRRecords, with everyone from internationally known artists down to small artists who had never had a release before. This is certainly due to the extremely low cost of reproducing the recordings onto cassettes which are cheaply available to the record store.

posted by mkb at 5:57 AM on May 19, 2007

Oh, and I've seen this instrument live. It's really cool!
posted by mkb at 6:00 AM on May 19, 2007

holy crap, I'd love to go the caverns and actually hear the thing. whats it like? would they let you actually play the organ itself?
posted by 6am at 6:24 AM on May 19, 2007

This reminded me of a "This American Life" episode dedicated to home movies found at garage sales. I see 93 week's worth of archives...there goes my night!
posted by squasha at 8:16 AM on May 19, 2007

Wow, flutter, and tape hiss. How I miss them.
posted by fydfyd at 8:31 AM on May 19, 2007

I'd never heard of the Stalacpipe Organ, so that alone was worth it. I can't believe those kids parents would let go of those tape recordings of them talking as kids -- you just know that's the kind of stuff that's pure gold when they're all grown up.

And how long do you think it's going to be before the cassette tape becomes what the 8 track was to a previous generation (a mysterious curio, an unfamiliar relic of the past known only indirectly by pop culture references)? Or is it already?
posted by Rhomboid at 8:35 AM on May 19, 2007

And how long do you think it's going to be before the cassette tape becomes what the 8 track was to a previous generation (a mysterious curio, an unfamiliar relic of the past known only indirectly by pop culture references)? Or is it already?

Cassettes have recently enjoyed a resurgance in New Weird America circles. Labels such as Fag Tapes, Heavy Tapes and other labels are pumping out great releases every month.

Today's cassette labels are a logical extension of the marvelous homebrewed tape releases from one of the best cassette labels ever, New Zealand's Xpressway, active in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

While the CDR is fantastic, I kind of miss buying Maxell XL-II C-90s at Costco by the ten pack every other month.
posted by porn in the woods at 8:46 AM on May 19, 2007 [1 favorite]

The WWII veteran's tape was just amazing. Best of the web indeed.
posted by wheelieman at 9:00 AM on May 19, 2007

You can get a tape deck for your standard PC tower case. (full logic!)
posted by Rhomboid at 9:01 AM on May 19, 2007