Exclusive photo: 'A Scene In Between: Tripping Through the Fashions of UK Indie Music' by Sam Knee

Next month sees the release of a very special book indeed, Sam Knee's A Scene In Between: Tripping Through the Fashions of UK Indie Music. If anything 'book' seems barely an adequate descriptor, it's a labour of love, a precious document - something like that. Blasted will have an interview with Mr Knee up on the site within the next week, but until then we've got an exclusive (never before seen) photo of the Shop Assistants to whet your appetite. Cheers Sam!

The Shop Assistants, 1985. Photo by Martin Whitehead. Courtesy of Sam Knee.

The First Worldwide Cassette Store Day: 7 September 2013

Last year Glasgow’s own Volcanic Tongue, specialists in the most underground music going, run by The Wire contributor David Keenan and experimental musician Heather Leigh Murray. This year, it’s gone global, albeit without consultation with the original proponents. Original or not, as Blasted readers will no doubt agree, anything that gets people into real record shops and buying music that you can – kinda, sorta – actually touch is definitely a good thing.

So, the first worldwide Cassette Store Day is happening tomorrow in shops across the UK, Europe, the USA and even at one phonographic emporium in Argentina. There are releases by such Blasted favourites as The Proper Ornaments, Molly Nilsson, Efterklang, and many others. A particular highlight is bound to be The Pastels’ Summer Rain retrospective of “Some of [their] favourite music [they’ve] made for Domino, starting around 1995 with Mobile Safari and ending with songs from the Slow Summits sessions”, the title track can be heard below.

We're really pleased to announce The Pastels participation in the inaugural Cassette Store Day, this Saturday, 7 September. They've compiled a unique C60 cassette of some of their favourite Pastels music, and it's called Summer Rain after the track of the same name taken from current album Slow Summits.