Skip to main content

Vinyl Edge

As I started collecting Stephen King hardbacks last year, Matt started collecting old vinyl records. Nuggets from his youth, on wax, for roughly five dollars a pop. Since he listened to these records at his parents' house and not our house, I suggested to his girlfriend that she get him a turntable for Christmas.

Now there's a turntable in the reading room and Matt has played plenty of his records. From a Genesis live record to an obscure Frank Sinatra record, the needle has received plenty of use.

I've found plenty to marvel about with vinyl, but I have my reasons for not building up my own collection. Since I stopped writing for Punk Planet, I have not added any more. Sound quality and availability have been big reasons why for me. And the only reason why I bought 7-inches by punk bands was that the B-sides never appeared on CD. Plus, when a record was given to the KTCU music staff and I was the only one interested in it, I'd get it and find a proper home for it (usually, my stash).

A recent realization I had going through Matt's Sinatra records was the abundance of songs that have never appeared on CDs, aside from box sets. I don't know how many people are hankering for Old Blue Eyes' version of "Both Sides, Now," but it's sure nice to find deep album cuts. Especially when it comes to cover songs. Besides, for an artist like him, you're more likely to see greatest hits compilations on CDs than individual albums.

And what's also interesting about the recent addition of a turntable in our house? I have not once pulled out any of my records to play. I'm not against pulling out my records, but I don't have the hankering to do it yet. These days I'm too busy testing out Genius mixes on my iTunes library.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Catherine Wheel

Originally posted: Tuesday, August 29th, 2006 Despite managing to release five proper albums, Catherine Wheel was one of those bands that always seemed to slip past the mainstream rock crowd. Yes, they got some nice airplay in their day, but people seem to have forgotten about them. You may hear “Black Metallic” or “Waydown” on a “classic alternative” show on Sirius or XM or maybe even on terrestrial radio, but that’s about it. For me, they were one of most consistent rock bands of the ’90s, meandering through shoegazer, hard rock, space rock and pop rock, all while eluding mainstream pigeonholing. Led by the smooth, warm pipes of vocalist/guitarist Rob Dickinson (cousin of Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson), Catherine Wheel featured Brian Futter on lead guitar, Dave Hawes on bass and Neil Sims on drums. They weren’t a pretty-boy guitar band, but they weren’t a scuzzy bunch of ragamuffins either. Though the band hailed from England, Catherine Wheel found itself more welcome on American air

Best of 2021

  Last year, my attention span was not wide enough to listen to a lot of LPs from start to finish. Too much went on in 2020 to focus on 10-15 albums, so I went with only a couple to spotlight. Well, 2021 was a little better, as I have a list of top four records, and a lot of individual tracks.  (I made a lengthy Spotify playlist ) So, without further ado, here’s my list of favorites of the year: Albums Deafheaven, Infinite Granite (listen) Hands down, my favorite album of the year. I was not sure where Deafheaven would go after another record that brought My Bloody Valentine and death metal fans together, but they beautifully rebooted their sound on Infinite Granite. The divisive goblin vocals are vastly pared-down here, as are the blast beats. Sounding more inspired by Slowdive, the band has discovered a new sonic palette that I hope they explore more of in the future. It’s a welcome revelation. I still love their older material, but this has renewed my love of what these guys do.  J