Cheap Girls’ Ian Graham Explains Why the Hell a Label Would Start Releasing Cassettes in 2015

Cassettes create a dividing line among music collectors. Some have a cultish love for the nostalgic appeal of physically sliding them into a tapedeck and hearing the clicking sound that comes with pushing down on the big play button. Others fail to see the point of keeping alive an otherwise obsolete format. But really, in a digital age where everything is instantly downloadable or streamable, does producing cassettes make any less sense than producing vinyl records, which saw a sales spike of 52 percent last year?

Which ever side you fall on that line, it’s undeniable that cassettes are having something of a comeback, or at bare minimum, they’ve become a fad. Cassettes are more commonplace on bands’ merch tables, labels like Burger Records are seemingly thriving with cassette releases, and there’s even a Cassette Store Day celebrating cassette culture.

Ian Graham is one of those people of the opinion that cassette culture deserves a rewind. His label, Business Casual, which until now has primarily served to produce vinyl releases for his band Cheap Girls, has just stepped into the tape world, not to be confused with the now defunct mall music store, Tape World, which went out of business after the world lost interest in tapes.

The label’s first cassette release is Beach Slang’s EPs, followed by the forthcoming release of Jeff Rosenstock’s album, We Cool?, and a new release each month after that. Since the dedication to start a cassette label in 2015 seems to border somewhere between delusion and irony, I asked Graham to defend this new endeavor.

Noisey: Hi Ian. It’s 2015. Why would you start a cassette label?
Graham: It’s not a cassette label. It’s a cassette phase of a label.

Oh. OK. So… why?
I just like the packaging, I like the look of them. The same reason any physical media is fun. I do get that 2015 is a more difficult year to find a way to play them. To be completely honest, I have no idea to what extent people really give a shit about cassettes. I don’t see it as some brilliant idea.

What is the demand like for cassettes in 2015?
I know that they are selling. I don’t think it’s genre-specific. But it’s certainly not a large percentage of every genre. It seems to be like vinyl was until the last 10 years where it was a little more rock-centric fans—geeks. People who care about music too much and like possessing things related to the music they like.

Do you think cassettes will ever have a revival like vinyl?
No, absolutely not. No. They’re a cool alternative but they don’t have the ability to compete with sound quality and even aesthetically. They’re cool but either they work for you or they don’t. My roommate is 24 and he thinks it’s the dumbest fucking thing imaginable. But in the early to mid-90s, you could go to Target and get cassettes. By the time he was 10, they just weren’t around.

So is it nostalgia?
I don’t think it’s pure nostalgia. They’re small and compact and easier to move than records.

How many cassettes do you own?
I’m gonna say 500.

Where do you listen to them?
My car. Also on a Walkman that plugs into where my iPod also plugs into in the van. And I have a tapedeck in my bedroom. I don’t think people are crazy if they don’t listen to cassettes. But if you do, I think they’re a fun hobby. They’re sort of the PEZ dispenser of music. There's something toyish about cassettes. It’s more physical and hands-on.

What advantages do cassettes have over, say, literally any other format?
They don’t, honestly. They’re just a fun option. It could go either way. I don’t think they were around long enough, were they?

They had a pretty good run before CDs.
But for how long? They had the 80s. Tapes were the 80s.

I think the official end of cassettes was marked by that joke in The Wedding Singer, which is supposed to take place in the late 80s where he buys an expensive CD player.
Yeah, Glenn Guglia. So CDs were creeping in in the late 80s. But you still had vinyl. I might be eating my words soon, but they just appeal to me. It’s that simple. I like the idea that you can still do something special with the packaging and make a well-packaged, well-printed high quality item and not charge much for it.

I feel like your argument here is, well, if the format does exist, there might as well be good music on it?
Yeah exactly. And high quality. We have one release and more coming out. We have the Beach Slang seven-inches where we just took one per side, probably just because I was on tour with them when I came up with the idea. The next one is the new Jeff Rosenstock record. It’s just friends, basically, who want their albums on cassette.

Would you advise all bands to put out cassettes?
I can’t fight too hard. [Laughs] Again, you either like ’em or you don’t.

You can buy Business Casual’s cassette releases if that’s your thing here. And Cheap Girls are on tour soon…

2/27 - Minneapolis, MN @ Turf Club^
2/28 - Fargo, ND @ The Aquarium^
3/03 - Seattle, WA @ El Corazon Lounge#
3/04 - Portland, OR @ Dante's#
3/05 - San Francisco, CA @ Milk Bar#
3/06 - Santa Ana, CA @ Observatory#
3/07 - San Diego, CA @ The Hideout#
3/08 - Los Angeles, CA @ Jewel's Catch One#
3/10 - Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge#
3/11 - Denver, CO @ Moon Room#
3/12 - Kansas City, MO @ Record Bar#

^ = w/ Restorations, Chris Farren
# = w/ Restorations, Chris Farren, Hard Girls