I do NOT for a SECOND believe that cassettes are coming back the way vinyl already has. But tapes do keep appearing on my radar lately, quite a lot actually. Example, right down the street from my house at Laurie’s Planet of Sound there is a cassette tape which actually tempted me–a Chris Connelly release I’d not heard of before due to being either out of touch or the tape itself being…gasp…new?

Then there’s the Ohio-based Everybody’s Records, which proudly displays the mighty cassette tape rack shown above. I don’t know why anyone would shell out four dollars for one, but they advertise .99 cent tapes, too and that wouldn’t be a hard sell if the cover art were intact and you are a completist. Everybody’s Records–from the photos–looks like an amazingly cool place to shop. What is it with Ohio and their excellent record stores? I am always impressed when I go there…it seems to be an endless supply of great indies.

I don’t get the appeal of the cassettes these days, but I suppose nostalgia must be part of it…do the sellers of cassette tapes also sell cassette players, too? If not, they should. Ditto for anyone selling 8-tracks. Otherwise how in the world do you sweeten the deal for someone who has old gear that’s about to die, but still wants to revel in the old-old-OLD school playback experience? Me personally, I do miss that goofy “click/clunk” of the 8 track tape machines as they switched to the next track. I don’t miss having the track change in the middle of a song, however.