About

Before the Internet, before CD burners, we used tapes to find new music. Bands used tapes to get people to listen to their music. Entire underground networks sprung up to order, trade, sell, and discuss demo tapes. Some tapes even reached legendary status – possibly even getting re-issued officially. Most just disappeared to the sands of time.

But with the rise of the Internet, interest in digging up and archiving these ancient treasures was born. There are entire websites devoted to everything from early rap tapes to underground metal tapes. The Christian music world was no different, but rarely archived. I have been a hobby collector of underground Christian demo tapes for some time. I have recently been connecting with others, and digitizing their collections for them

This website is going to be me (and possibly others) blogging about the tapes we digitize. And maybe some vinyl and rare CDs as well. Hopefully some rare zines as well. The musical styles will be very wide in range: all shades of metal, alternative rock, industrial, electronic, experimental, folk, indie, rock, rap, punk, and many things in between. I’ll also try to cover the zines that promoted these bands. There will also be links to other sites that are releasing tapes, BandCamp sites selling tapes, Tapes uploaded to YouTube, and other websites of interest.

I am  basically “live blogging” me digitizing a large collection for someone else. But I am a good 30 tapes into that massive collection, so I will also be going back to those first 30 tapes, as well as my own collection as well.

My hope is that people will find this website, find music they made or knew who made it, and will share stories and details. If I find things other places that apply, I will try to copy that as well here (like Facebook comments or Tweets about certain bands).

What Counts as Christian?

There really aren’t any concrete rules here. Sorry if that offends you, but many different belief systems actually worked their way into the Christian Tape Underground. Some were lying about their beliefs just to get exposure. Some had different views on various issues like cuss words. I have personally never really identified with the “evangelical” label, so I don’t play theology police. Arguments that fall into that category will be deleted. This site will look at bands that were of interest for various reasons to the Christian Tape Underground.

Begging for Music

Most of the stuff I am converting now belongs to someone else, and he plans to sell them after they are digitized. Me sharing those files could hurt his sales, so it is up to him to share what he wants. If you are a member of some band on here and would like to hear your music again, of course we can get you a copy. For others, a lot of it is out of my hand for now. Right now I don’t really have time to keep up with trade requests. If you have something off the current Want List, you can possibly convince me to do a digital trade. Just make sure to lead off with what you have to trade, or else I might not respond. I’m not trying to be mean, I just get so many requests.

Just please realize that I do this tape transfer in what little free time I have on nights and weekends – so I may just not have time to respond to request after request for music.

Also, if I find any evidence of where to buy the music on here, I will post it. If its not in the post, then I don’t know. Most of this is stuff that might pop up on eBay once a year or so. But if someone has put it up on BandCamp or YouTube and I can find it, I will include it. If you know something is available and I missed it, please add a comment to the post. If its not in the post or comments – then I have no idea where to get it. Just remember – this is all really rare stuff.