Vinyl

I'm writing this post from the Cupcake Royale off California Ave in West Seattle, and I'm literally the only person sitting at these tables. It's weird. It's a Saturday night at a quarter to six. Then again it is the last Saturday before Christmas, so shopping is in overdrive. 

That was gratuitous, but I wanted to write this little post about the start of my record collection. I went to a show a few weeks ago where Arkomo and Silver Torches played at the Tractor Tavern. It was a good time, seeing a bunch of people I knew and hadn't seen in awhile. And while I was there, I picked up the Arkomo record. Arkomo is local musician Sam Anderson's solo project - Sam usually played cello with Hey Marseilles, so obviously I was going to go.

The only way I could buy Sam's music was on vinyl. It's so pretty that I couldn't say no. Seriously, look at it. It's clear. What the heck. But that night got me thinking - I have a few records. Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin gave me a copy of their record when my photo was published in it. I own several 7" records from We Are Scientists that I've collected from Ebay over the years, and I did find a rare 7" single from the Morning Benders when they were still the Morning Benders. My uncle has an extensive record collection, and with the newfound explosion of vinyl, I thought I needed to jump on the bandwagon. Most of the time, vinyls come with a download code for the digital songs so you can just put the songs on your computer without having to go through an arduous process.

There are a couple other records that I will soon add to my collection - We Are Scientists' Business Casual EP should be shipped on Jan. 1, and my friend Ben's band St Paul de Vence will be pressing their next album to vinyl and as my perk for donating to their Kickstarter I chose to get the album on vinyl. I've had quite an extensive music collection my whole life, whether it was a CD rack or a library of pirated music - I'm quite the aficionado. So starting a record collection was the natural next step.

But to be honest, getting a record player first probably would have been a better "next step."