Tapes ’n’ Tapes Catholic Tapes

Welcome to Tapes ’n’ Tapes, a bimonthly video series focusing on local cassette labels to help get the feel for why some people have turned to tapes for their musical medium.

Local experimental musician Brett Naucke is a young dude, but in tape years he’s the old man on the block. That’s because his label, Catholic Tapes, is one of the longest-running cassette labels in Chicago. For close to four years, Naucke has released dozens of tapes by left-of-field artists from around the country—including Chicago synth act Positive Shadow and solo work from White Car’s Elon Katz—making Catholic Tapes one of the biggest names in the national experimental community in the process. Recently, Naucke has ventured out into the world of vinyl. The label’s first vinyl release, Fielded’s Terrageist, received a Chicago Music Award nomination for “Best Rock Album.” Naucke and Priority Male Tapes head honcho Matthew Hord put out a joint vinyl release on a hybrid label called Catholic Male.

The A.V. Club swung by the Catholic Tapes HQ, located in Naucke’s Pilsen apartment, to chat about the cassette aesthetic, the appeal of hands-on tape production, and the record label as a work of art.