The Top 10 Raddest Things About Buying Records

Wow. This blog post really and truly needs no introduction. I mean, it is pretty obvious from the title what you’re going to find here, right? I will say this, though: it all may seem like a desperate plea for attention (y’know, like “hey, come buy records here, everybody…please?”), but really these are just some of the things I most enjoy about the acts of buying and listening to vinyl, augmented with some help from some of our Facebook Fans (as noted). Seriously, these are things that you may have forgotten about, or things that you’ve potentially never experienced if you’ve never bought a piece of new vinyl. Not to say that it all applies to vinyl exclusively—some of these things can easily go for CD’s as well, especially some of the more significant items in the countdown.

That’s kind of a long introduction for something that supposedly “needed no introduction”, isn’t it? What do you say we get to it…?


The TRx Top 10 Things About Buying Records

10. The Music :::::::::: I know, I know. The music should be Number One. Obviously, it is the most important thing about the entire act of buying and playing vinyl. But it only barely squeaks into my Top Ten things about buying vinyl. Weird how sometimes the most important things about activities we enjoy aren’t always the things we enjoy the most…

9. Carrying Vinyl Out of the Store :::::::::: Ironically, my best anecdote to relate here is one I experienced after NOT buying vinyl—allow me to explain: So one time, I am making my way out of the Capitol Hill Sonic Boom store (which has since moved). I had happened to find some good used CD’s that day, but hadn’t really looked at new stuff, CD or vinyl. I go sauntering out with my little bag of a few CD’s, and I pass a lady having a cigarette on the corner. She eyes my bag, eyes me, eyes my bag, eyes me; then she says something amazing, something heroic. She says, “Oh well, maybe next time you can buy a couple records.” Now, mind you, my devotion to vinyl is and has always been beyond reproach, but she didn’t know that. She just saw a relatively young person buying music on CD as opposed to vinyl, and she felt the need to speak up. This leads to a lot of other questions really (most interestingly, was this a person who regularly spent time belittling random people on the basis of their music choices?), but they are immaterial. The thing to take away is: it is always unquestionably and undeniably cooler to walk out of a music store with vinyl in your hand.

8. The Cover Art (Thanks to Carl McKenzie for this one, and also Johnny Goss) :::::::::: It is such a cliché that I can’t possibly resist saying it here: Size matters. It’s not rocket science—you get 12 inches worth of artwork and eye-candy and awesome inserts and a big, significant hunk of physical property when you buy a record (obviously, 7-inches have their own particular mystique not addressed here). Not so much with a CD. And I say this, but I do concede that CD art and packaging has come a long way in the past 5 years or so…but you know what? The aesthetic strides that CD’s have made have come from ideas propagated by vinyl packaging (soft covers, paper booklets, photo inserts, gimmicky fastening mechanisms, etc.). However, if space and storage are major concerns for you, then CD’s are probably the way to go. Not that there’s anything wrong with that…

7. The Smells (Thanks to Patrick and to JYH for this one!) :::::::::: Ah, the smells. Whether it is the clean, vaguely chemical smell of vinyl that has never been played, or the subtle waft of musty, lived-in air that breezes up while you’re flipping through a rack of old records. The smells are great. Probably an acquired taste, but one you may very well find yourself extremely satisfied to have acquired, when all is said and done.

6. The Act of Playing Vinyl (Again, JYH gets props for this one, along with Chris Anderson) :::::::::: I am not talking about the sound here (that comes a little later in the countdown), but the act of taking a record out of its sleeve, situating it onto a turntable, powering on, and dropping the needle into the groove. I am talking about the subtle pop when the needle makes contact, the surface noise that tells you that you are in for something special, and the first noise you hear through the speakers. It is powerful. And it is scientifically proven (at least, I read somewhere that it was) that this added investment in the physical act of playing the music leads to a greater appreciation of the music itself. So win-win. Oh, man…I could go on and on about this…MUST…CHANGE…TOPIC…

5. Elton John :::::::::: I don’t care what your feelings are on The One and Only Rocketman. Whether you love him or hate him or are indifferent, his body of work sounds amazing on vinyl. Especially the older stuff (I am especially a fan of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Madman Across the Water, and Honkey Chateau), but they are all amazing. He, and his epic body of work, has singlehandedly made the act of buying vinyl better. For me, at least.

4. Finding Amazing Stuff :::::::::: One time, while scouring through the bins in a record store in North Carolina that mainly focused on goth and noise-rock, I found an original pressing (read: Aura Records’ disputed and possibly stolen version) of Nico’s Drama of Exile, AND a vintage Bowie Italian import that included the widely berated and unexplainably successful song “The Laughing Gnome”. I think I paid something like $8.00 for both titles combined. The point is this: You don’t always find good stuff in record bins, but every once in a while, you find amazing stuff. So few retail arenas carry that same air of mystery and possibility.

3. Digital Downloads :::::::::: What?! Did he just…?! Are you serious?!!! Yes, I did. And yes, I very much am. Peep this: one of the major drawbacks of vinyl is that you can’t listen to it while walking, or while driving, or while riding your lowrider bicycle, right? If this was a debate, and you made that argument, I would gladly give you a point—and maybe even a high-five. But then I would rock your world by saying the following: “What if there was a way in which you could buy the vinyl, and then also receive all the music in a digital download at no extra cost? If someone came up with a way to somehow give consumers the physical awesomeness of vinyl, but paired it with the ability to have the music as a digital download that could go anywhere, well then…I guess vinyl would pretty much be unstoppable now, wouldn’t it?” Now you would probably give me a high-five, but I wouldn’t be done. “But they have!!” I would exclaim. “They have! Easily 95% of new vinyl now comes with a digital download of the album for you to have on-the-go!! Anywhere! You can truly have your cake…and you can eat it, too. Viva Vinyl!!!” At this point, I can only imagine we would hug each other intensely, cry, and take a blood oath to always be awesome to one another. Wouldn’t we?

2. Analog Sound :::::::::: …and I’m going to temper my raving about digital convenience by sounding the rallying cry of any self-respecting audiophile. Simply put, the analog sound wave pressed into each vinyl groove is the truest known form of sound replication. Granted, digital sound is a more exact copy (and can be quite fantastic), but it is just that: a copy. Analog sound is the sound, as rendered through the recording equipment and pressed into wax. I have listened to and read a lot of debate on this issue, and at the end of the day, it is really a matter of personal preference. I happen to unequivocally prefer the warmth and depth of sound in vinyl, and I have yet to listen to the CD that makes me think otherwise, strictly in terms of sound quality. It is an opinion, and I am OK with it.

1. Connecting :::::::::: Like any purchase worth making, a purchase at a record store invests you in the community that created it. It is probably one of the easiest and least painful ways to make the jump from being someone who enjoys and appreciates a community’s output, to being someone who participates in that output and, by extension, helps the community thrive. Of course, the same can be said of any manner of local business, but I have always found that record stores have a certain place in the communities they inhabit, and the set of roots they grow is distinct from most other types of businesses. Consider that if you buy a record at an independent record store and you really love it, each time you re-create that experience of loving that album for yourself, you will also remember the place and the circumstances under which you came upon that particular piece of music. You may find, as I have many times through the years, that a piece of music connects you to a day, a season, or a feeling you had sometime in your life that you haven’t had since—and the place (the store, and the community) that facilitated it is sure to have a special place in your heart.

Connecting—isn’t that the point of all music in the first place?

The hiatus is over! Welcome back—

roar.