Of the many things made in Michigan that have become part of the fabric of American culture — the auto industry, Motown — punk rock is often overlooked. In 1967, years before The Sex Pistols performed incendiary anthems, Iggy Pop and his band The Stooges created an explosive new sound in Detroit that would influence generations of musicians.
Last summer, Shirley and Carney were setting up some science and technology workshops at the Nazaré orphanage in rural Brazil when the director of the orphanage mentioned in passing that there was a room full of unused instruments.
As the old saying goes, "everything old is new again."
Case in point, the cassette tape.
Those of us who were music consumers in the 70's and 80's remember those cassettes rattling around in your glove compartment.
They were so much smaller than those clunky eight-track tapes and no skipping or gunk on the needles like your vinyl records.
Many people went through the cassette era making their own mixes, working from a dual-tape unit and sharing them with friends, family and significant others.
Then came the CD, into prominence in the mid to late 80s. It was great to be able to jump right to the spot you wanted -no more fast forward and rewind.
Soon after the CD, the mp3 became popular and that is when the cassette tape became, for all intents and purposes, extinct.
But recently, the cassette tape is being revived and a Michigan-based recording label called 'Already Dead Tapes' is right out in front of this revival.
The label is run from Kalamazoo by Sean Hartman along with his Chicago-based partner Joshua Tabbia.
Sean and Joshua have said they don't think of Already Dead Tapes as a business because it's a "passion project."
Here is a video of Already Dead Tapes via the Chicago AV Club:
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