So I've been buying and listening to (otherwise stated as collecting) records of bands I like since high school. As the age of iTunes started settling among society, I found myself not wanting to give up buying CDs that I once upon a time cherished. I loved looking at the artwork and booklet that was included with CDs. I also had a appreciation for the tactility. When you purchased it, it actually felt like you bought SOMETHING. My biggest gripe with paying for music digitally was the fact that it came with no tactile artwork that you could look at while listening to such music. Instead, music became a product of invisibility. You could pay to download one band's entire discography on iTunes, but not only does that just sound retarded, you're sure to feel retarded when the day comes that you end up deleting these Mp3's that you paid for from your hard drive for whatever reason, accidentally or not. You have nothing to show for it.
As I started going to more "underground" shows and listening to genres with less than polished attitudes, sounds, and styles, I recognized that many of them were releasing vinyl records. Some of my friends had record players and minimal record collections growing up, but I never even considered buying records as growing up in the 90's, I laughed at the idea of such big annoying discs that you couldn't even rewind or pause. Being a bit older and knowledgeable, I kinda understood that records encouraged listeners to listen to a musical piece as one; a collection of songs, an anthology, that should be heard together and in full. Not in separately sorted Mp3 tracks. How weird is it if you are listening to a large collection of music on shuffle and the next track that comes on is a 1 and a half minute interlude track? I don't wanna hear that shit. However, if a band has created such a track, it must serve some form of artistic purpose, and that meaning may only make sense if heard in the order of tracks that it was designed to run in. A continuous play, which is the only method a vinyl record can be heard, is necessary. Listening to music on vinyl does gives you this snobby sense. It is something lots of people brag of.
On the other side of the spectrum, it is also true that a shuffled playlist can be nice. It can, I agree. I love listening to all of one of my favorite bands songs on shuffle. It helps me emulate a sort of fake live re-enactment in my mind which can get me stoked if I am perhaps going to see them play in the near future. It's like a possible setlist.
So anyways, I started feeling stupid for still buying CDs when I could just be downloading them, because by then I would just rip it to my computer and to my iPod and then stack the case somewhere, never really looking at it again if I could help it. This record thing these bands were doing interested me. I originally picked up the habit of owning these flat pieces of wax, specifically, on 4/20 of 2008, my Junior year of high school. (More on that story later)
Fast forward to now,
I had been meaning to take a picture of my recently completed Downpresser Record/Tape Collection for about a month. After I finally got around to it, I began taking individual pictures of each of my Downpresser pieces, and then of all my other records, and them uploading them to my tradelist on Dead Format. I don't have as much as most collectors I don't think, but I have a pretty sizable amount. I still haven't finished capturing them all yet. But I'm really bored with simply taking their pictures for documentation. I see guys like Marcus Andrews (http://endlessquestrecords.blogspot.com/) writing, in the style of news articles, or I guess blogging (did I mention I've never really been fond of the idea of keeping a constantly updated blog? I've tried starting one here and there but they usually don't last past the first post. I'm trying to give this one meaning, so hopefully it doesn't end up like the others) about his collection of records. And in addition to writing about his collection, he backs the writing up with snapshots of the records, giving an ultimate visual to the story of the record and how it came to be where it is at the time of the blog post. I've been getting photo documentation of each of my records INDIVIDUALLY for my trade list on Dead Format, but offering no real comments on how I ended up with them, or perhaps my feelings about them. This blog is here to serve that purpose. I'm not using it to brag about my cr00sh coppings. If anything, it will simply give me something nice to look back on. It's also a good way, in my opinion, to spend my free time. I'm currently taking a College English course, and it's helped me realize that I find writing highly enjoyable, and the extra practice can only help my abilities I'd say.
Sorry if this post was boring. It's just words with no pictures. My others should be more exciting.
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