Plustapes
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.
In late 2008, Dustin Drase and Michael Ardaiolo scrapped together some cash to start a cassette label called Plustapes. Since its humble beginnings, Plustapes has grown into one of Chicago’s most beloved labels, having produced more than 40 tapes by a diverse array of musical acts. Plustapes has released music by spacey krautrockers Verma, garage-pop act Hollows, and metal mavens Chicago Thrash Ensemble. The label has plenty of new releases lined up for 2011, including a live cassette by minimalist garage-rock act Disappears with Sonic Youth’s Steve Shelley on drums.
The A.V. Club met up with Drase and Plustapes general operations manager Morgan Phillips at the label’s Headquarters at Drase’s Lincoln Square apartment to discuss all things cassettes—how tapes are a fun impulse buy, what options cassettes offer over other mediums, and how a 5-year-old can make some pretty gnarly tape art.
