Record Store Road Trip

[Hudson]

In case you missed it, this past Saturday (April 21) was Record Store Day. I hope you visited your local (read: non-chain) record store and perused their selection of new and used records (or CDs, if you must). Anything to enhance your music collection and spur the local economy. Saturday afternoon, I added my two-cents (or $20, I forget) picking up a few vinyl treasures and I can't wait for a moment alone in my house to listen to George Carlin's "Seven Words You Can't Say on TV" from the "Class Clown" record.

Last fall, my buddy and I took out love of records to another level. In one fourteen-hour period, we traveled through three states and visited six records stores, fighting a freak October snowstorm, and discovering treasures twelve inches of vinyl at a time. Please check out what I've documented about the day and pass it on to your music-loving/car-loving/adventure-loving friends!

http://automotivetraveler.com/jump/3946

[Justin Bimmer]

I have about 100 LPs. I just recently bought the remastered Pink Floyd LP Wish You Were Here. I enjoy my LP collection.

[Hudson]

I have about 100 LPs. I just recently bought the remastered Pink Floyd LP Wish You Were Here. I enjoy my LP collection.

There's something about the sound of a record over any other format. There's also something about placing the record on the turntable, moving the needle in place, and flipping the record every 20 minutes. It's more interactive than playing a CD.

My collection is around 1,000 records (about 300 documented...and about 700 more that I've just never gone through because I bought them as a lot to get a few prizes in the collection).

[G. David Felt]

UGH, people still are hung up on thinking scratchy extraneous noise of a record is better than a digital version? Come on we have moved past this. I was so happy to finally stop having to watch a film based movie where you see all the scratches. In todays day and age, nothing wrong with Digital purity. I disagree with everyone here that thinks it is better sounding.

[Justin Bimmer]

not better different

[G. David Felt]

LP's are like Tube Amps. I still do not hear or see a difference of why some say tubes are better than digital. Then again, maybe my hearing is going to the dogs.

[Hudson]

I'm not saying that vinyl records sound superior or inferior to CDs, but they are better. There's more of an experience with playing a record...it's more visceral and engaging. I like my digital music collection, which numbers well over 600 CDs, because it can be played in my car or just about anywhere. The artwork on an album cover is four times the size, which makes it better. And the packaging can be better...like Alice Cooper's "School's Out" shaped like an old desk.

I can point to CD cases that are outstanding (Tool's Grammy-winning cover for "10,000 Days" comes to mind), but the larger canvas of an LP allows for a wider range of possibilities.

CD sound is cleaner but purists will tell you that a CD is a digitized version of the analog sound you get from an LP. I won't defend that since they're both reproductions. I like the sound on both.

Records have other reasons to appreciate them.

[G. David Felt]

Valid points made Hudson.

[Hudson]

Two people here have opinions and memories to share about vinyl records? C'mon! I know more than a couple of you folks still own a record! When was the last time you went shopping for records? What was the last vinyl record you bought? For that matter, what was the FIRST record you ever bought? What was your most memorable record store story?

[G. David Felt]

In 2005 I sold all my 45's and spent the almost 1K I made on upgrading my Suburban.

[regfootball]

UGH, people still are hung up on thinking scratchy extraneous noise of a record is better than a digital version? Come on we have moved past this. I was so happy to finally stop having to watch a film based movie where you see all the scratches. In todays day and age, nothing wrong with Digital purity. I disagree with everyone here that thinks it is better sounding.

agree

[Hudson]

45's? I'm talking long-playing records...33 1/3!

$1,000 worth of old singles is quite a collection, though!

[G. David Felt]

45's? I'm talking long-playing records...33 1/3!

$1,000 worth of old singles is quite a collection, though!

Yea growing up I was always collecting the various colored 45's. I remember some would be bright green, red, orange.This I think was more a 70's early 80's thing. Along with their custom cover since they only had to cover 2 songs, one on each side so each side of the 45 cover was dedicated to that specific song by the artist.

Edited April 30, 2012 by dfelt

[Hudson]

Yea growing up I was always collecting the various colored 45's. I remember some would be bright green, red, orange.This I think was more a 70's early 80's thing. Along with their custom cover since they only had to cover 2 songs, one on each side so each side of the 45 cover was dedicated to that specific song by the artist.

I've seen red, yellow (Starz' "Cherry Baby" from 1977), clear, and purple (Prince's "Purple Rain" from 1984)...as well as 7" (A Flock of Seagulls' "Nightmares") and 12" (soundtrack to Footloose and Boston's first album) picture discs. I even have one album (Dennis DeYoung's "Desert Moon") has a dark tint when lit from behind, but looks normal when lit from above.

[Robert Hall]

I never got into vinyl as a kid, went from cassettes to CDs in the late '80s...but I did get into vinyl around 2000, I like the large format of the packaging and have bought a few records...have a record player in my home theatre component set that I use occasionally.

[G. David Felt]

I have a couple 33 1/3 records left that I held onto due to it being my favorite band. I need to pull them out and look at them since It has been a long time. Wonder what shape they are in.

[§carlet §wordfish]

I've still got my dad's entire record collection to go through. I've been slowly copying it all to digital.

I had know idea about Record Store Day. There was a place in Youngstown called Indie Wax Records that sold new and old vinyl, but they closed in December

[Robert Hall]

I still frequent the local record store chain (Zia) to look for new and used CDs.. I know it's certainly easier to order something off Amazon or download MP3s through iTunes or Amazon, but I enjoy going and browsing through the stacks. I miss Tower Records stores---used to frequent one in Ann Arbor and Denver when I lived in those cities, even went to one in Sacramento that was supposed to be the original. A2 and Denver also have/had several good local independent record stores.

[Hudson]

I never got into cassettes...I didn't like how they wouldn't last. I'd record my albums to play in my car, but I refused to buy pre-recorded cassettes.

I love used CD and record stores...and I've got hundreds of CDs to show for it. Visiting a record store is like revisiting periods in my life. Stumbling across an album I remember from high school or college or from some particular event in my life is fantastic fun. Usually it ends with me buying said record. When I found the Cheech and Chong records, the memories of listening to AM radio (from across the country) at night when they played "Sister Mary Elephant" just hit me. I had to have it!

[G. David Felt]

Only record store that I am aware of is in Downtown Seattle.