Was messing around at a garage sale over the weekend and came across a pile of tapes and managed to replace my long lost debut cassette by Bad Brains as a really good live set by the Skatalites and a really good 21st Century Dub tape.

Probably ROIR are most famous for releasing the first Bad brains recording as a cassette only release already mentioned as well as stuff by James Chance, the New York Thrash compilation and more...all initially on cassette only. Lost of really good hardcore and reggae/ska/dub all on cassette only.

Anyone else a fan?

I used to have (and subsequently lost) the great Television bootleg/ROIR release -- The Blow Up.
Awful sound quality, but a blistering performance. In its own way, it is every bit the equal of Marquee Moon.
Now I need to dig up another copy.

Weird. A friend of mine just IM'd me minutes ago and told me she was listening to one of my comps. Turns out it was the Valentine's Day free download comp ROIR put out earlier this year.

I've never been a HUGE fan of the label, but certainly the Bad Brains stuff and the Skatalites.

Yeah, they have always been a bit scatter-shot and have tended over the years to put out maybe some oddball releases by bands their normal label maybe wasn't interested in or live stuff or bootleg sorta things. But, they have some real gems in the catalog as well, particularly in their reggae section.

I don't really know much from ROIR outside of the Bad Brains debut (and probably a couple of other things I didn't realize were on ROIR), but I noticed a while back that Exuma put out an album in the '80s on ROIR. The cassette can still be found, I think, and I considered ordering one (new) for about $20. I think it's probably a lot more "pop"/80s sounding than his early '70s stuff that I'm familiar with.

Yup, ROIR is good people. Used to be in contact with them when I was doing my radio show--mostly to talk and play their various dub-related releases.

Dub Trio was probably the biggest thing for them lately, but I remember fondly listening to Bush Tetras, their GG Allin releases, Bad Brains of course, and the Bill Laswell stuff.

All cassettes ordered in '85 or so:

New York Thrash - v/a
Garage Sale - v/a killer unsigned garage band comp
Blast Off! - The Fleshtones
The Blow Up - Television
Fuck 'em If The Can't Take A Joke - The Dictators
Lipstick Killers - NY Dolls
Babes In Arms - MC5 (awesome liner notes by John Sinclair, or should I say "John Rock and Roll Sinclair"?)
Loud Fast Rules - The Stimulators
whatever the Dickies comp was