Why the Cassette Tape Is Still Not Dead
Burger’s catalog now has over 1,000 releases, including albums from Brian Jonestown Massacre and Devon Williams. The label hosts an annual Burgerama festival in nearby Santa Ana, and there have been Burger-themed shows in San Francisco, Paris, Stockholm, Milan, Melbourne and Tel Aviv. “It’s big to be on the Burger scene,” says Justin Eckley, who has released two albums on the label. “We just went up to Seattle and back. Just saying we’re a Burger band and we put out a new cassette with them got us booked. I don’t think the tour would have been as good had we not had the Burger label behind us.”
Burger sells cassettes for no more than $5 each. While National Audio has found a way to turn a profit, purveyors on the artistic grassroots side of the cassette revival are still trying to figure out how to earn a living on mid-20th-century technology. “How do you put a price on a counterculture or a teen scene?” Rickard asks. “We’ve invested a lot and been selfless in that sense. We don’t know how much longer we can continue that path without bankrupting ourselves finically, spiritually. It’s the Wild West. Anything goes. It’s got us this far. It’s fun, but people are snakes. There are agendas everywhere.”