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Old 03-22-2010, 12:46 AM   #1 (permalink)
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The Late Great Record Shop

I was sitting down and having a few drinks with the band after a set earlier this evening and we got talking about how great it used to be to go out shopping for music. Now I'm not talking about chain music stores with racks of cd's with little selection other then the most popular bands, I'm talking about those small time, independent music stores you'd find in most any town. A small shop, usually in the bad part of town, that smells like mildew and has every little amazing musical gem you could think of hiding amongst the shelves. Independent artists you've never heard of, rare b-sides, imports, bootlegs, rare live recordings...and more vinyl then you can shake a stick at.

When I was younger I used to spend so much time in these places looking for that one recording I'd always heard of but could never find. I'd gather up a group of friends and we'd head off for the day to scour these shops, section by section we'd brush aside dust too see if that rare live recording of Jaco Pastorius from Miami in '78 might be hiding in the back, keeping an eye out for the usual black and white, photocopied album cover. Or you stumble on an old 45, released only in Europe or Japan with that one song on the b-side you'd always heard was better then anything else the band recorded. You'd pull it out of the jacket, eyeball it for scratches and cracks and then take a deep whiff...the smell was intoxicating. At the end of the day you lug armfuls of records, 45's, cd's, cassettes and 8 tracks back to the car, buy a nice bag of weed, head to somebodies place and settle in for a nice listening party.

Then the internet happened, you could go to ebay or any website that sold music, do a quick search and BAM theres the album all you have to is wait for it to arrive...then along came mp3s, filing sharing, torrents and itunes ushering in the end of the great record scavenger hunt. It almost seemed pointless after awhile to waste time in these out of the way shops when every thing you want is right there at the click of a mouse. Now, in 2010 I rarely see these shops anymore. Here in Nashville, Music City,there are only a couple still lingering in the hipper parts of town and the selection for the most part pretty lousy...and its not just Nashville either, my old haunts in New England are closed down or on the verge of shutting down and I rarely see them when I'm out traveling anymore. It would seem the hobby has nearly been lost to technology and time.

So does anybody here have found memories of record shopping? A favorite store? A really cool find? Maybe a ritual? Still have a ridiculously huge collection, stuffed into milk crates cluttering up your closets? I'd love to hear if anybody else here had the same passion for it I did.
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Old 03-27-2010, 10:02 PM   #2 (permalink)
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When I hear this sort of Nostalgia, I come to this thought:

"Why do old folks hate that people can find good music, with less hassle, than ever before?"

I love, love having a hard copy of an album, complete with the booklet and all that jazz. I love the tactile feeling of new music. But I would never be able to afford to listen to the amount of music I have, if I never had the internet.
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Old 03-28-2010, 12:57 AM   #3 (permalink)
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LOL at old folks hate that people can find good music and all that. Who's hating on it? Most of what I buy is usually from the Internet these days but lets face it clicking a mouse button and docking ipods just doesn't carry with it the same charm.

Besides it not about how much music you can get anyway (actually I used to get a LOT more music the old fashioned way, used record stores ruled), its about how you get it, its in the search and what kind of gems you can find hidden in the back of the shop. Can surfing around itunes carry with it the same joy as scouring record shops, yard sales and thrift stores for years looking for original 78's by Blind Willie Johnson or Charley Patton? Old 45 demos recorded by Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker? Hand numbered and written 45's recorded by Black Flag recorded before Rollins joined? An 8 track of Never Mind the Bullocks? An original pressing of Love Buzz?

Spending the day with friends, traveling, getting your fingers dirty and sticky flipping through records is all part of the charm. Its just a completely different thing from buying music online in every way shape and form.
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Old 03-28-2010, 02:11 AM   #4 (permalink)
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What a load of crap!

"little amazing musical gem you could think of hiding amongst the shelves", "what kind of gems you can find hidden in the back of the shop". [Is it just me or is there a stunning similarity between these posts?]

Call me a Philistine, but surely the aim is to find the music. To hunt down obscure artists like Jeremy Taylor [check him out] or to find tracks from Bob Wills which have been out of print for 40 years is just impossible, even in the land of conspicuous consumption, but since the advent of the internet, e v e r y t h i n g is available. Software like P2P has made the entire playlist of the universe available and quite frankly, given the choice of surfing for 30 minutes, or spending hour upon hour grubbing through cardboard boxes in a filthy storeroom to find something which is scratched to buggery and is probably on 78 RPM anyway - well - you make the choice.

I'm an old fart who should probably be complaining about "new-fangled technology", but folks, the one resource which is not renewable for we puny humans is TIME. As far as I'm concerned, the internet rules, OK.
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Old 03-28-2010, 03:58 AM   #5 (permalink)
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I used to scour second hand record shops in London for old vinyl, taped records my friends told me about, and bought all manner of interesting things for pennies. It opened my musical horizons dramatically.

Now, I look at websites, swap recordings electronically with friends, and download things for pennies. Some people even download for free (I've heard).

I am exposed to more music variety now than I was then.

I fondly remember the old days cruising round second hand shops, and near where I live there is a town full of them that I spend a day trawling round every once in a while (although it's all CDs now) and still find things I'd heard of but not tried.

The game's still played, but the rules and the equipment have changed.
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Old 03-28-2010, 04:54 AM   #6 (permalink)
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When I was 13-15 I used to search through shelves and piles of 78 records for old jazz that I wanted. For hours, many Saturdays. I also checked supermarkets for low priced jazz and classical LPs that I knew or that seemed to be what I wanted. Even in the 1980s I would get a gig in Cologne and spend all of the money at the great record shop in that town.
I still collect music but save mp3s to external drives.
I have four - 5000gb - so far :-)
Takes little space and I can find what I want quickly.
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Old 03-28-2010, 08:18 AM   #7 (permalink)
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Sometimes, if you ask the owners of mom and pop music stores, they'll let you into the attic or basement and you'll find a treasure trove of vinyl to devour. I love going into these places, coming out covered in dust with some new (old) vinyl. The hunt makes it even better for me. When I was spinning in clubs, I did this all the time.
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Old 03-28-2010, 11:06 AM   #8 (permalink)
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When I only bought CDs I just knew my music better. I guess depending on what you like music for, the current situation is good or bad. If you like to collect music, I suppose it's easier now, but when I had to buy albums in hard copy, I find I just valued it more. It was harder won. And since I aim to internalize most things to point of wanting to at least be able to sing a few of the different parts, the more I am excited to have the experience of "putting on a CD," the more I miss the old days.

Having said that, I can access pretty much any performance I hear of.

More is not better though. If I had 1000 girlfriends, would that make me a more loving person?
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Old 03-28-2010, 12:38 PM   #9 (permalink)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by guccilvr View Post
Sometimes, if you ask the owners of mom and pop music stores, they'll let you into the attic or basement and you'll find a treasure trove of vinyl to devour. I love going into these places, coming out covered in dust with some new (old) vinyl. The hunt makes it even better for me. When I was spinning in clubs, I did this all the time.
That's what I loved about it too, the hunt. An album just sounded that much better when I had to look for it (sometimes for years), it was rewarding...like cooking your own meal vs going to a restaurant. The time and energy you spend in the kitchen preparing the meal is half the fun.

I like using the Internet to find music too, its often times cheaper, its quicker and you have more selection. However for the sake of convenience you do give up a lot of what made the hobby of collecting music so much great.
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Old 03-29-2010, 05:41 PM   #10 (permalink)
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I don't think think the hunt is gone on the internet. I can now dig through more free resources than ever before. I can hunting interesting blogs, webzines, and artists who I've never heard before through the power of social networking.

For instance, my love of modern alt-country brought me to the No Depression webzine, which gave me a sense of history, which has allowed me to dig around the local record store for important works in the genre, which has led me to The Rising Storm, a music critic/aficianado's blog on 60's/70's americana, country, country-rock, folk, and psychedelia. I now have more access to the underground music of the past than ever before.

The hunt isn't gone. The tools have changed. The tactile sensations are different. But it's the same story.
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Old 03-29-2010, 08:29 PM   #11 (permalink)
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Oh I hear you Candle, its not a bad thing...but in my opinion the difference doesn't lie in what you're getting but how you're getting it. I use the internet for EVERYTHING these days, including researching and purchasing music and its fantastic but sitting in my living room on a laptop just isn't the same thing. I guess I miss the sensations and experiences that went along with record shopping...in what? I don't what you would call it, real life? In a way it just feels wrong surfing the net for a couple of hours and getting something that before would have taken me months or years to find, its like using a cheat code for a video game or something, the game is still fun, you still get to play but when you finally beat it you don't get that same sense of accomplishment.

Different strokes for different folks or however that saying goes, both have their good and bad points I suppose.

I don't know, I'm tired as all fuck right now so I hope that made sense.
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Old 04-02-2010, 09:09 PM   #12 (permalink)
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I understand the allure. With the innernets you never run into the crazy guy trying to build a radio station in his attic, not knowing it's illegal. You don't the girl who shaved her head so she could better wear a different neon wig every day. You don't hear a bunch of kids talking about how they like the afternoon talk show host when you assume they should be listening to alt rock.

For me, Repo Records was my haunt between jobs every Friday. Every time I listen to L7 or the MTV 120 I remember it. I also remember 120 which was a kick ass show, back when MTV played music.
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