Don't believe the hype.
I've got a USB turntable I screw around with and three shelves worth of inherited vinyl. I enjoy the nostalgia of it. I feel a lot more warmth from the album art and the physical act of dropping the needle. It's a lot more personal than just downloading some bits. That said, I'm disgusted by a $50 copy of The Wall at Urban Outfitters. Fuck you guys. The last new vinyl I bought was a Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots because it's her favorite band and she wanted to get it signed. Anything else is money I don't have.
I was shopping for vinyl a few years ago at a thrift store in Denver. Most records were priced between $0.99 and $1.99 with an occasional $2.99 for something that was in really good shape. I cam across a John Denver album for $19.99 and it wasn't in very good shape. My wife is a John D. fan, so as I wrapped up my shopping, I took the 3 or 4 other albums and the John D record up to the front and asked the woman "Hey, I've picked out a few records to buy, but this one seems to be priced wrong, can you check it out?" came the reply "Oh no, sir - that's no mistake. He's dead now, so his records are worth much more" I reminded her that this was a thrift store and that I was surrounded by old clothes and shoes and lace doilies and brass candlesticks and that at least one of the other records I had in my hand was by a dead artist. She shrugged and said "yah, but he was from here". Rather than take the time to explain history to her, I just kindly said "never mind - no thank you", put the records back on the shelf and left. I think it was cgod who mentioned a pricing threshold for vinyl. I will admit to being SUPER cheap about music - but I think I'd drop up to $40 on just the right vinyl, but I usually stick to under $15 or $20. And I'm still partial to the $0.99 thrift store specials.
If it's a 1st pressing or a rare issue then yeah sure I might work some overtime but paying more than retail just for the vinyl's sake is depressing to me. You're absolutely right though. Thrift and Ma Pa record stores are the only way to go if you've got the patience. All the chain retailers are gouging just to tap the hipster niche.
See, that's just hipster dumbness. I bought a few records at thrift stores back in like '95. And they were 29 cents each. If you wanted like "a lot" of records they'd sell by the foot... I bought CDs that way but primarily because records were a pain in the ass. I had some fancy-schmancy belt-driven somethingorother that I got from an audiophile, then the belt fried. Then I replaced the belt. Then it blew a cap. Then I fixed it. Then I had to get an RIAA preamp to interface it to my receiver, and that was made with pre-RoHS bits, and one of them blew and you could never get them again. And that was about 2004 and I said fuck records forever and you know what? I don't miss them. not even a little bit. Every time I'm at my father-in-law's house I look over their records. They've got some weird ones. Then I look them up on what.cd and I can pull down a FLAC in 2 minutes. Yeah, there's great physicality to media but I also like knowing all my weird shit is backed up on a hard drive that's also on a RAID server and slung into the cloud two different ways that can be ported around four places in my house and played back on every device I own. Nostalgia? I've got a 5GB Firewire iPod. It came out on my birthday. And it's still got the playlists I built for my wife when we were dating. I'm good nostalgia-wise.
I'll admit I'm an edge case but I specifically buy old comedy records. These are things you just can't find in digital format. Some braggadocio: A promo of Chris Rock rapping A Jerry Stiller/Anne Meara radio promo sketch record where they even do some improv. I get what you are saying, and like I said I'm an edge case, but there are really fun things about going into a record store and finding things. Making a date out of it can be fun too.
We had a party the other night and played records. There's no equivalent to the physical object of a record, CD or tape. If they're displayed well, it's so much easier and more inviting for someone to thumb through them and pick something out. How many people casually stroll over to your iPod or computer and start flipping through your MP3's? Nobody, or at least almost nobody (I actually might). It's a much more social way to consume music imo. Plus album art and liner notes are actually cooler in this format. I'm not the guy that beats the "it sounds better" drum, but I really enjoy my records for the artifact.
And therein lies the problem: nobody flips through my music. If I've got a party, I queue up some Thievery Corporation, a couple Buddha Bar discs, some Kruder & Dorfmeister and maybe a little Boards of Canada if I'm feeling like the audience is a little adventurous. No one - no one - is at all interested in flipping through my music collection. Vast swaths of it have never even existed in any format other than digital and it isn't a too-hip-for-words "I listen to bands you've never heard of" it's a brutally-frank "my musical interests are not something you feel like sharing, trust me this is the voice of experience." - January 1995. Recording 101. Assigned the task of selecting a track that we think exemplifies "great recording" and then explaining why. I give them this: ...and proceed to have my musical tastes mocked by the instructor for ten minutes in front of the entire class. - August 1998. Rebuilt a goth club from the ground up. Needed to test out the system to see what it would do. Put this in the rig: ...and even as we're shaking ashtrays off the bar, the owners ask if we could please play something else. - October 2002. Go down to set up a DJ system for a friend. Again, nothing but goth kids. Ring out the system with this: ...and am instructed to kindly hurry up because they're not into "hip hop." - January 2003. Tell my girlfriend (who listens to folk, if anything) that she's almost perfect, except for her taste in music. She scoffs and replies "I can go down to the grocery store and find music I like. You have to order bizarre screechy things from Germany. I think it's your taste in music that's the problem." (I'll admit it - I laughed heartily) So that's just it - nobody has ever pawed through my CDs with jealousy or interest. It's one long WTF. Now - my music tastes aren't particularly extreme, or even that weird; I'm probably one of the few people who know the bands bfv starts his weekly music thread with (I've mixed a lot of them). But even amongst that herd, I'm a deviant. So files are better for me. They allow me to hide my dirty little secrets where nobody need examine them. They permit me to serve up Pablum Lounge Mix #7 year-in, year-out and have people say "this is really cool music - what is it?" without them having to suffer through four minutes of Banco De Gaia before the melody hits. Look at it this way: if it was pressed on vinyl that means it's mainstream enough that someone was willing to spring for a vinyl pressing. Or that the band was confident enough to press a bunch of records before going on a tour. Or that the fans own little enough music that they can find it all without having to resort to a database. As discussed on IRC, tonight was "Letter L" night for my music collection. "Bands that start with L" comprise 8GB of music 'round these parts. And I managed to find my long-lost mis-tagged NASA voyager recordings because Tune-Up had misattributed them to "Laserlight Recordings" and hidden them from me forever. And that's the sort of shit that I only find by going through all my music every decade and tuning ID3 tags. If I had to put up with that world on vinyl I'd need a temperature-controlled vault the size of a shipping container. 'cuz I grew up in the desert; I've seen what happens to vinyl when you accidentally leave it on the windowsill. Do... you listen to five hours of space warbles with any regularity? Do you know anyone who does? Well, you do now because I can find it again. And I'm okay being the only one, and I'm okay not fetishizing over something that's never been inside a recording studio and most assuredly isn't better on vinyl than CD. 'cuz music isn't social for me. Not even a little tiny bit. So the fact that my 200GB porn folder is, in fact, full of music instead of beaver shots suits me just fine.
Interested in mostly electronic, or is acoustic new classical also up your alley?
You know how people like to say "I like all music" even when it isn't vaguely true? I don't much care for swing. I mixed it for a living for three years so I can say this authoritatively. And I don't much care for R&B, although rap I do fine with (as in, I had a guest subscription to Stone's Throw for six months and deleted it all with no compunction whatsoever yet I own more than a little Public Enemy). And try as I might, the Aphex Twin/Autechre school of electronic music strikes me as "trying too hard/learn to play" music. But I own everything Air Liquide has ever done, so there you go. I keep trying to get into Dubstep. Seeing as it's basically a raga riff on anthem trance and I dig ragas and I dig anthem trance, it's a natural combo. But I think it's the lack of musicality that bugs me. But beyond that, I will entertain anything.
Eh... thing is, I grew up with techno. Polyrhythms and melody are kind of important. This stuff is to dub what Squarepusher was to D'n'B. This is in my DNA: This is in my DNA: This is in my DNA: ("i do not own this song. i have no right to it. the rights are held by the producers and artists of this song. and possibly kate bush" God bless Youtube) That's Golden Oldies for you, and I fully recognize that. But for us oldsters, Goa Trance kinda took the "musicality" of techno and the "energy" of techno and pushed it as far as it could go, then said "job well done" and vanished from the face of the earth. So the whole "lounge" fork is kinda, well, eh. And when the lounge fork meets the dubstep fork... This is also in my DNA. (I doubt even Kurzweil thought anyone would actually use that thunder/lightning patch - this entire album is a K2000S) So the "chillout" fork kinda went in the direction that those of us who got old liked. Not to shit on your music. It's interesting and I appreciate listening to it. But I guess I still like... musicality in my music. (yes, I know - the old folks home is that way --------->>>>>)
Fair play. I'm all for Techno and used to be big into Trance too. I've also been to a fair few 'old school' nights, so I somewhat get where you're coming from (without trying to sound patronising!). Of course, I'll unfortunately never truly get to experience what those days were like though. I'll sign off with my favourite Techno track:
First rave I ever went to was in '90. Portland, ME. There was so little music available that they were playing anything electronic, including a bunch of KMFDM and Skinny Puppy (yes, I was at a rave where they played Harsh Stone White). Chick walked up to me and said "you need a pick-me-up." then she shoved a tube of Vick's Vapo-Rub in my left nostril and instructed me to breathe deeply. When I started coughing she said "Oh, you're not on E. It's no good if you're not on E." Then she walked away. Now Skrillex is making six figures a concert.
Well, I'm willing to wager your ears are even bigger than mine, so I'll throw in a few things that aren't necessarily my cup of tea, but you might find interesting. Shostakovich: Complete String Quartets - Emerson String Quartet Starts out as tonal as Shostakovich ever gets (with Number 1), and end up going to some pretty crazy and dark places. Nothing like Stalinist Russia to bring out the sarcasm in someone. No. 8 is the most Famous - here's the second movement. Honorable mention goes to Sonata for Contrabass Solo by Mieczyslaw Weinberg, Op. 108 . A student and colleague of Shostakovich. I'm playing this piece for my master's recital, and there's a great recording on Spotify by Joel Quarrington (also probably available on itunes). Charles Ives - Piano Sonata no.2 "Concord, Mass. 1840-60" I have no idea why I like Ives' music. It is WAY out of my wheelhouse in a lot of respects. However, his chamber music is amazing, and the Concord Sonata is no exception. Honorable mention goes to His Violin Sonatas, which Hilary Hahn recorded a while back. Fantastic recording, available on itunes etc. Gyorgi Ligeti - Artikulation One of many electronic pieces by this composer. Tried to find an album, but this stuff in't often sold in stores: Honorable mention: Schoenberg: Five Pieces for Orchestra - London Symphony Orchestra with Fred Sherry Most of the music you're listening to on this list probably wouldn't have been made until much later if not for this guy. He solidified Serial atonal music from a theoretical standpoint, and was one of the first people to use it as a technique to write music. Honorable mention: Webern - Six orchestral pieces Student of Schoenberg, well respected in his own right. His opera, Wozzek, is probably one of the most commonly performed modern operas. Pierre Boulez: Le Marteau Sans Maître I hate this man. He is, however, well known for his advancement of multiple serialism, in which not just he notes, but rhythms, dynamics, etc. are all set up in serial patterns, derivatives of which are used to compose. Honorable Mention: Stravinsky: Rite of Spring (with the ballet if you can for the first listen) I'm gonna be straight with you, while i love this piece, I legit can't listen to it after dark - it scares the shit out of me. This ballet's production (which is using the original choreography, i think)... doesn't help me with that. Karlheinz Stockhausen: Elektronische Musik 1952-1960 My friend, you are going to dig the shit out of this. Honorable mention: Well, hopefully that will give you some stuff you like, and some composers to look more into.
Well, I've spent the entire morning listening to other people's music choices and I gotta say - Thanks. For the record: Shostakovich, Stravinsky, all things Russian: My mother is a classical violist. I grew up with wall-to-wall Russian composers. I love me some Mussorgsky (much better when it isn't Emerson, Lake and Palmer), love me some Stravinsky (Firebird is a fave), love me nearly everything Russian. I oughtta pick up some Shostakovich 'cuz I don't own any; my wife isn't fond of the Russians 'cuz they're a little too "mathy" but I think they're great. Charles Ives: Pleasant enough, but not particularly memorable. I shall marinate in it further. iTunes is great for this. Ligeti: Pioneer or no, he's got that "I'm just fucking around with synthesizers" vibe which was pretty cool back when nobody had ever seen a synth before but I kinda feel those guys were assed out the minute Walter Carlos got on the scene. Hell, the Barrons kinda shut the Ligeti school down as far as I'm concerned: The Ligeti school is also well-represented amongst Kyma users. It's just too easy to do things that aren't musical when your stuff doesn't lend itself to music. Shoenberg: Awesome. Have heard before, will hear again. Boulez: Everything I hate about Philip Glass, I hate about Boulez. Stockhausen: The rivetheads have been worshipping Stockhausen for 30 years. I've never gotten into it, but I probably should. Ensturzende Neubauten owes a lot to the guy; I have a hard time listening to a lot of Neubauten, though. Wanna see something awesome? Know why it's awesome? 'cuz it's 4 solid minutes of '70s era Laurie Spiegel in a tween summer blockbuster.
This might or might not be up your alley, but I totally forgot to include some Musique Concrète: Pierre Schaeffer: And speaking of schaeffers, there's also R. Murray Schaeffer, who sometimes writes not just for instrumentalists, but also the environment - allowing nature to interact with the musicians, or placing the musicians around a lake to take advantage of the natural reverb and echoes Steve Reich is another composer you might dig, if you've never heard. I wasn't sure if you were looking for earlier stuff, so I kept to the last 100 years-ish.
The Musique Concrete guys are a little amusical for my tastes, but I appreciate what they do. So I typed "steve Reich" into my iTunes to see what comes up - I have a bunch of ambient weirdness from backintheday that I bought in bulk and I don't always know what it is. One song came up: By damn.The song also uses a harmonica sample from Ennio Morricone's The Man With The Harmonica (from the film Once Upon a Time in the West) and parts of Electric Counterpoint, a piece for multitracked guitars composed by Steve Reich and recorded by Pat Metheny. Reich was "genuinely flattered"[8] by The Orb's use of his work and instructed his record company not to sue.
I fondly remember wondering if that was real blood on the razors glued to that Genocide Organ album. My music collection is all digital now, and I'd never go back because
but I can see the love. $ du -chs music 598G music 598G total
This may sound odd, but is there any way I could peruse your music collection? It seems fascinating.
...hmmm... Not easily, I don't think. Altho - http://www.last.fm/user/kleinbl00 As you can tell, I haven't cueued up Last.fm in nearly a year. I go through fits'n'starts, and I think it got disconnected from iTunes about then.
No file-sharing site I know of allows such large amounts of data. If you ever find a way, please tell me. Pardon me, I did not see your edit. Is this an online radio station?
I went through a brief period of biting records by current bands I like. I was nice when I lived with my parents but after moving out and becoming busier in life I realized how little I actually sit and listen to an album. The near majority of my music listening is on the go unless I'm cleaning the house or something. I ended up giving the records and player to a friend of mine who has since put it to much better use.