🎧 Downbeat.fm Vol. 5 Track 4
This month’s playlist features Waxahatchee, Field Medic, Thursday, Ovlov, Slow Pulp, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, The Watson Twins, Slingshot Dakota, Sports Boyfriend, and more!
My friend Michele wrote about her experiences at record stores and it got me thinking about the handful of record shops that I regularly visit.
I love going to record stores. Being in Austin, I'm lucky to have 5 or 6 record stores and countless other places where you can buy records from around town. I also visit my old shops from when we lived in Houston, San Antonio, and New Braunfels when we are near them. There's a great shop in my parent's town in New Jersey that I always stop in when we're visiting and can't seem to get out of there for under $300.
But Breakaway Records in Austin is special. It's my main store, and when I go there, I make an afternoon of it. I call them "Mike Days". I'll show up there around opening and head right for the new arrivals bins and start flipping. I take my time and inspect the potential purchases. After I am done digging, Mike Day continues with a couple of slices of pizza and a root beer at Home Slice down the road. Music, pizza, and root beer makes Mike a happy guy.
When I first started collecting about 10 years ago my collection was small and I wanted to fill it out quickly. Now, space is a premium and I have to be a little more choosier on what I buy. I also regularly go through my collection once or twice a year and look for records that I don't listen to that much, or don't have any sentimental value to me and trade them in for store credit.
When I'm buying records, especially records from the 60s, 70s, and 80s, I want pressings from those eras. They don't necessarily have to be first pressings, but I want something that existed when the music was released. Something that someone owned previously. Something that someone listened to and loved previously. I want to give those previously loved records a new home where they will be loved like they were when they were first released.
In the early days of collecting, it was always exciting whenever I came across something that was on my wantlist. Especially when it had something special about it. I remember my first "oh shit" moment collecting, and it was at a record convention in a Courtyard Marriot ballroom in New Braunfels, Texas where I was living at the time (New Braunfels, not the hotel). I was flipping through records at some vendor's table and pulled out London Calling by The Clash. It was a used copy. It was in amazing shape. But it had a some interesting characteristics. "Train in Vain" was not mentioned in the tracklist on the jacket, or side 4 of the record. It was also stamped as a "Promotional" copy not intended for sale, so it was a little more rare than usual.
That record was priced at $30. At that point it would have been the most I ever spent on a record by about $15. I didn't hesitate to pull out my wallet and buy it immediately.
Most recently, I found an original pressing of Nine Inch Nail's Pretty Hate Machine. It still had the price tag and security sticker stuck to the shrink wrap from 1989.
After digging through tens of thousands of records over the years the big exciting finds don't come along as often, but when they do it's always an amazing feeling.
April's Playlist
This month’s playlist features Waxahatchee, Field Medic, Thursday, Ovlov, Slow Pulp, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, The Watson Twins, Slingshot Dakota, Sports Boyfriend, and more!
Listen to this month’s playlist on
Quick Listening and Other Links
30 years ago this April, we lost Kurt Cobain. His daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, wrote a touching memorial on her Instagram, and I urge you to read the full text.
Staying with Kurt and Nirvana for a moment, here is an interesting article about how Gen Z got hooked on Nirvana.
This is the most ridiculous video ever made about The Beatles.
With all the shows I go to, I don't have to deal with Live Nation/Ticketmaster too often, but I am very glad to see the Department of Justice is taking on their monopoly.
