Since moving to Massachusetts in January I've rediscovered vinyl records.
In about 1991, CD's took over Tower Records on West 4th. Suddenly long boxes filled the bins where records once roosted.
Except for my hard to find reggae albums, I sold all my vinyl to Sounds on St Mark's Place when I lived on E 7th, across the street from McSorely's, and started buying CD's. I was happy to get rid of surface noise.
In 1993 I moved to Jersey City, New Jersey, and bought a 1981 Buick Park Ave which made it possible to travel around the state, going to tag sales and flea markets, where I bought a nice $25 Technics turntable, and started buying records here and there. About that time an old friend since high school, emailed me and said he was getting rid of all his records and did I want them?
"Yes", I said. They arrived weeks later, shipped in the cheapest possible way, in three large boxes, about 150 of them. It turned out about half had been mine. Mostly Art Rock, prog, King Crimson, Genesis, Roxy Music, and Richard Thompson albums.
Back in the day, the first time I played something I liked, I taped it on cassette, and wore that out instead of the disc. My copy of Genesis "Foxtrot", for instance, is still like new.
Within a year of receiving the boxes, my friend's house in Malibu Canyon burned down to the ground with everything in it. The records had narrowly escaped.
I never really played the records, as the turntable didn't fit where my sound system was located. But now, in the new house it's at the center, and that $25 1978-9 Technics sells for between $350-$1,000 on eBay.
Bandcamp Friday, the first of the month, last May, I ordered an album by SUSS, a Brooklyn based ambient Americana band I'd already downloaded. When it arrived, I had the opportunity to A/B the brand new vinyl with the files in my computer over the same system. They sounded identical, except the vinyl record had a certain something I couldn't put my finger on. I thought about it for months while I went on to buy over 50 LP's, many from Sal at discogs.
What I've ultimately concluded is that the difference is every spin of a record is a unique performance, and a linear experience, while the digital files are "canned" and pixilated. I still play the 2000+ CD's I bought, mostly from Sal at NYCD, during lunch hour, while I worked at The Museum Of Natural History, and nearly 2TB of files in my computer, but pulling the record out of the sleeve, putting it on the turntable, and looking at the cover takes me back to my teen years, and at 66, that's a good place to be.
I've been buying both old favorites, and new records by vaporwave artists. When ordered on bandcamp I get a link to immediately download the files, which I play until the record arrives, which is a lot like my old practice of taping to cassette to keep the record new sounding.
I just recently ordered Arthur Russell's "World Of Echo", which I first downloaded off a blog somewhere. It was recorded in 1985/6. He was a cellist, and the musical director of New York avant-garde venue The Kitchen in 1974-5. He died of AIDS related illnesses in 1992, still in relative obscurity and poverty. "World Of Echo" sounds like nothing else, and I love this song.
Here's a Halloween tune I recorded in 2020:
A recent record haul:
I hate Spotify. I don't stream anywhere except the music I own on bandcamp.
-BBJ
6 comments:
Buzz! Long time, no...anything.
Thanks for stepping in during Sal's absence-my can't properly begin until I've burned a little wood.
both Devendra Banhart and Meshell Ndegeocello name checked Arthur Russell in recent Amoeba's "What's In My Bag" youtube series. fascinating person, occasionally the documentary "Wild Combination" will pop up on youtube.
Good post BBJ. I too gave up vinyl to go down the rabbit hole of cds for 20 or so years. Actually, I gave my vinyl collection to Sal back in 2016. But with the pandemic, I got the urge to get back into vinyl and I have been going full force since them. I of course had some necessary records that had to be in vinyl and I acted accordingly. But now, at the age of 72, I have a new process for purchasing vinyl records. I listen to the cd version, in my collection, and then I determine if that record is vinyl worthy or would I just be happy with a digital copy.
If the vinyl rings the bell for that record, I try to search out a quality vinyl pressing. I recently purchased from Sal, an early copy of Aja that sounds fantastic. No need for a remastered copy here. The adventure continues. Joe
I'm not a very artsy fartsy person. But I know what I like. SUSS will be in the airpods on my next kaleidoscopic backpacking trip. A steel guitar and an ambient elixir for my nakedness on the crest.
Enjoyed your spooky surf music meets Peer Gynt on reds. Today, as in every Halloween since 1971, we blast Hawkwind's "Sunshine Special" with strobes, fog, and screams of horror. It scares the shit out of the little ones and makes their parents apprehensive. But that's what they want. Best house on the block. Decorations out of a movie and candy galore. I, as Carolyn Jones' Morticia, dispense the tricks and treats. And the good will toward men. Peace.
VR
Dig that Bill Nelson record in your haul. "Stand Up" is my favorite Tull album. "Benefit" is number two. Then "Living in the Past." Got 95 Theses to nail and a bottomless smoking cauldron of bonbons to edify. And the love that twirls.
Hey BBJ! Thanks for sharing memories and music. I think I get the same vinyl thrill you do when playing a CD. It too is a physical act and while the CD just plays like a CD (no variables from one day to the next) the act of selecting an album, taking it out of its tray and sitting down to listen makes it all more meaningful.
Thanks for providing an enjoyable, very readable dissertation, probably because your record collection mirrored mine at that time. Have to confess I thought the 1981 Buick Park Avenue must be an apartment you'd moved into. Had to google it to discover it was a car - mind you, it seemed as big as an apartment! Cheers.....
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