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"What a year for cassettes, the scrappy little format that refuses to die. Tapes had a resurgence in 2013, from dedicated cassette labels to bands selling them at shows. Why are cassettes back? It&amp;apos;s easy. They&amp;apos;re cheap and they make noise. They&amp;apos;re quick. They&amp;apos;re intimate. They have personality, not just another digital file. And they sound great, if you like the ambient hum of cassette sound. (I do.)\r\nMost of my 2013 faves I bought at rock shows, feeding them to my trusty Walkman or my battered old boombox. Tapes are the ultimate DIY format &amp;#x2013; bands can crank out their homemade goodies fast, design a groovy cover, stack them on the merch table for $5 a pop. It&amp;apos;s a way to indulge weird experiments or the drummer&amp;apos;s side project. For fans, they&amp;apos;re cheaper to gobble up than vinyl or CDs, not to mention more fun to share with friends.\r\nThey also have a bit of old-school mystery. You can&amp;apos;t just click on a cassette and get the back story. You have to let the tape roll in real time, asking yourself questions like &amp;quot;Where did this come from?&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;How long does this stupid thing go on?&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;Why the hell did anyone spend an hour of their life making this?&amp;quot; You have to forget what you know and surrender to what you hear. It&amp;apos;s a format that rewards the curious of ear and stout of heart.\r\nAnd even though tapes are officially obsolete media, it&amp;apos;s not like it&amp;apos;s hard to play them. Any chain drugstore has an aisle where they sell cheapo Walkman knock-offs. (My most recent portable-cassette-player purchase was in October &amp;#x2013; my iPod died, so I popped into the nearest CVS. Ten minutes later I was listening to the dubbed C-90 Europe &amp;apos;72 I keep in my bag for emergencies. &amp;quot;Ramble on Rose,&amp;quot; bitches!)\r\nSome of my 2013 favorites are on labels, some are self-released. I&amp;apos;m not 100 per cent sure where some of these came from or when they came out. I can&amp;apos;t even necessarily verify that these artists exist, beyond a one-off baked afternoon project while waiting for the pizza guy. All I know for sure is that all 10 of these tapes logged quality time in my Walkman this year. And all 10 served with honor. C-30, C-60, C-90 &amp;#x2013; go!\r\nBY ROB SHEFFIELD"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.rollingstone.com/music/pictures/10-best-cassettes-of-2013-20131226>