Vinyl Whoring

[Partridge's Love Child]

Being not only a luddite, but also a twat, I'm a sucker for a bit of vinyl over any other musical format.  I still insist that some of the magic has been taken away from music purchasing (indeed some of the purchasing has been taken away) since vinyl became superceeded.

There's only two things that give us real pleasure.  One is unwrapping a newly bought CD, the other is watching other people fail.

I have no qualm with the second of those, but I've always found buying CDs a disappointment, and only started really buying them when I went to Uni and therefore didn't have room for a stereo with a record player on it.  My rather crap stereo then disappeared from my bedroom, like much of my stuff did, and wound up at my cousin's house (my Mum handed them to him, without any exchange of cash I noted.  He's not a thief).  Since then, I'd not had anything to play vinyl on until Christmas, when I managed to pick up a rather lovely stereo off e-bum for the glorious total of £40 including delivery.  Well.  Worth.  It.  Anyway, I digress.  The point is, the miniturised and plastic clickety nonsense of the CD has never had the same thrill for me.  Admittedly, when they first came out, there was a definite feeling of looking at the future with CDs.  It was so, well, compact, and it had that rainbow effect on it, which until that time you would only see whilst beaming a light through a triangular prism in science lessons or on those rare occasions when you saw a real rainbow*.  However, once that novelty had worn off, I always felt cheated.  When you bought a record, it used to feel like you'd really made a big purchase.  It was big, and not easy to transport home without bashing it into your legs repeatedly.  Then on the bus home you'd slowly take it apart, smelling the different textures of paper and cardboard that it was presented in, looking at the inner sleeve, maybe there'd be a pull-out booklet containing pictures or all the lyrics, and then you'd even expose the record itself, taking in that black shimmer with an expectancy and impatience that you would soon be able to slip it on to the player and slowly descend the needle, a momentary quiver taking you as you panic that you might plop it down kak-handedly and damage it.

And now I do that again.  Regardless of whether I've picked the item up in a charity shop for 50p, or if it's a brand new record from HMV.  And this is the point of this utter rambling, so sorry about all this romantic waffle at the start.  I was wondering where people buy their vinyl from.  I ask, you see, because I seem to be under the impression that it's still reasonable easy to come by.  Admittedly I'll have to go into central London, or buy off the web, but I can't understand quite how some records seem to be shifting for such a high price.  I've just been looking on e-bum, y'see, and noticed that PJ Harvey's Uh Huh Her is going at a starting price of about £15, with the trusty old "rare" next to it.  Is it?  Naturally there's less vinyl copies than CD, but I picked it up fairly easily.  Am I just used to being able to get things in London?  Or is it just that people don't know where to look?  I was under the impression that when I leave London in a few years time, if I need to get a vinyl album I can just order it off Rough Trade, or even HMV online.  Am I wrong?

Oh, I love charity shops.

* I saw one the other day, whilst The Walker Brothers' My Ship Is Coming In poured through my ears.  Twas a lovely moment and no mistake, and took away the frustration of waiting nearly an hour for a train for a few seconds.

[Peking O]

One of the things that saddens me about CDs is you can no longer hear a lot of albums as they were originally intended to sound. Unless you track down the vinyl of course. The digital remastering process is just unappealing to my ears, and leaves a glossy sheen over albums that makes them all sound very same-y. Mind you, even that's not as bad as some of the DVD mastering of concerts that goes on. The sound on those is so polished that they bear absolutely no resemblance to the original performances - so what's the point?

[phes]

Vinyl has it's disadvantages but no other format will ever capture the magic. It's so simple that it will never occur to anyone to invent something with the same charm. I agree with everything PLC says. With regards to Dj'ing - Although other formats have made it possible to achieve stuff we could never have done before, nothing will ever match the direct link between mind, body, format and sound vinyl allows. Apologies for using this phrase, but it really is very sexy.
Fingers on buttons, or fingers on vinyl, c'mon there's no competition.
With regards to record buying - If you are buying music released by an Indie type label then I would recommend looking on the labels website                        ( yes, 'Rough Trade' sell online ). Otherwise try Musicstack or Netsounds.
Depending where you go when you leave London you may have trouble finding a good Independent/Dance store. I would suggest planning you entire move around finding a good record store, sod other irrelevencies.

[falafel]

There are plenty of places in Leeds to buy records, that's for sure. Even HMV stocks them, albeit on a much smaller scale than it does CDs. The silver lining to this approach is that they tend to steer clear of the shit in favour of the sort of stuff that discerning, vinyl-purchasing consumers would go for, because, I suppose, it wouldn't be cost-effective otherwise.

The main drawback of vinyl for me is that the wobbly floor in my creaky studo house prevents me from dancing around for fear of making the needle skip and fucking up my listening pleasure.

[dan dirty ape]

Aside from mixing and a warmer sound, a copy of your favourite album on vinyl just LOOKS cooler.

[phes]

Need a surface to roll yourself a King-sized cigarette? 400 Fascinating designs to choose from

[poison popcorn]

there's only 2 or 3 music shops here and only one of them stocks any vinyl, and not much at that, just a few dance records. they do order stuff if you ask them though. i seem to have lapsed into buying cd's over vinyl, but still look out for interesting stuff in charity shops. found a heap of great stuff about a year ago, talking heads, breeders, stranglers, pink floyd, motorhead... someone must have had a clearout or something. or maybe a fall out...

[phes]

there's only 2 or 3 music shops here and only one of them stocks any vinyl, and not much at that, just a few dance records. they do order stuff if you ask them though. i seem to have lapsed into buying cd's over vinyl, but still look out for interesting stuff in charity shops. found a heap of great stuff about a year ago, talking heads, breeders, stranglers, pink floyd, motorhead... someone must have had a clearout or something. or maybe a fall out...

This could be an interesting take on the popular memory game - 'I went shopping and I bought'

I went to the charty shop ( Specify charity, in this case Help The Aged ) and I bought.

One Tony Hancock Lp (best of) - 30p
One Not the Nine'o'Clock news Lp - 30p
One EARLY Queen Lp ( News of The World ) - 30p

I went to 'Save The Children' and I bought ( Change direction ).

One Jesus and Mary Chain Lp ( Psychochandy ) - 80p
One Grandmaster Flash, Melle Mel and the Furious Five Lp ( Work party ) - 80p
One Spangly coloured door hanging thing ( Y'know, with all the spangly strips that get caught on you as you walk through ) - 2 Pounds
One 'Gollywog' Ashtray - Free to a good home, to be used in conjunction with UKIP PP broadcasts.
One Johnny Mathis super sized dinner plate - 25p

And so on.............

[The Region Legion]

I'm becoming a bit of a vinyl freak now - only buy absolutely mint condition items (ie. can't have a SINGLE mark on the cover, has to look completely new), so charity shops aren't really my bag.

May I recommend Beanos in Croydon, Reckless Records in Soho's Berwick Street and Music & Video Exchange - the Rock/Pop one (but only the upstairs section).

Also, eBay. Best place in the world for vinyl but if you buy from the US expect shipping of $10+.

[Peking O]

Talking of the US, the best place to buy vinyl is, well, the US. Incredible bargains can be found there as long as you're not in a major city. In the - admittedly highly unlikely - event that any of you happen to be in New Jersey, this place is an absolute goldmine:

http://www.prex.com/

[phes]

Hehe!!!! DevlinC you sound like my flatmate. He has a massive collection of Prog/Psychedelia/Rock, and condition/release/label is a really important factor for him. I buy lots of vinyl, but he's the 'Record Collector'. You should see the way his face contorts when he watches how I handle records when I'm mixing.

[Hornet]

Apart from the sound, (has anyone tried a Digital to Analogue Converter?) which in my view is far superior on vinyl, for me it is the covers.

Apart from the fact that it is so hard to read any of the credits on CD wallets, some of the quality of the covers, particularly in the 70s was amazing.  What do we get now - poorly printed nasty cheap paper that will never go back into the plastic covers properly.

[Peking O]

Apart from the fact that it is so hard to read any of the credits on CD wallets, some of the quality of the covers, particularly in the 70s was amazing.  What d we get now - poorly printed nasty cheap paper that will never go back into the plastic covers properly.

Good point. I also hate CDs that have Parental Advisory warnings as part of the actual cover instead of being a peel off sticker. Then you turn it over and there's printed warnings about piracy, cover protection, a huge logo of the record company, etc. I know some old records contained the old 'home taping is killing music' slogan, but all this guff now is destroying the artwork, which is already crap because it's so small... bloody major labels ...rant... wheeze... stop... and breath! Ahh!

[poison popcorn]

Apart from the fact that it is so hard to read any of the credits on CD wallets, some of the quality of the covers, particularly in the 70s was amazing.  What do we get now - poorly printed nasty cheap paper that will never go back into the plastic covers properly.

i'm sure this is one reason minidiscs never took off.

[NattyDread]

Ah, one of the dearest subjects to my heart!

The only vinyl in my town is a tiny overpriced selection in HMV. Thankfully I'm near Edinburgh, but even Fopp (used to be the best) has gone more and more dance oriented. I don't know where I'd be without e-bay and sites like http://www.opalmusic.com/home.htm (very reasonably priced that one).
E-bay can be very addictive though, I can't let albums pass when they're going cheaply, even if I can't afford them.

I'm the same with turntables. Just bought a new one yesterday which brings the current total to 8! (ridiculous, I know) Really going to have to flog some as I'm starting to trip over them. Two are up the loft mind.

There's some really good 'audiophile quality' pressings available these days.
I've heard before that when the record companies where promoting the new c.d format, standards slipped in the pressing and mastering quality of records and were never deemed important enough (by the majors that is) to bother improving again. Some late 80's records seem almost paper thin.

Anyway, vinyl! Bloody love it. I'm off to bid on some more Hendrix (19 albums and counting).

[thatmuch]

One of the things that saddens me about CDs is you can no longer hear a lot of albums as they were originally intended to sound. Unless you track down the vinyl of course. The digital remastering process is just unappealing to my ears, and leaves a glossy sheen over albums that makes them all sound very same-y. Mind you, even that's not as bad as some of the DVD mastering of concerts that goes on. The sound on those is so polished that they bear absolutely no resemblance to the original performances - so what's the point?

Somedigital remastering is much better now though. I've got about fifteen CDs from the reggae reissue company Blood and Fire, and they take great pains to keep the warmth and feel of the original recording. The same with a lot of blues reissues too. It all depends on the the care taken with the remastering.
Also I think buying new LPs on vinyl is pointless now (unless you like the sleeve etc) as the whole process up to the transcription onto CD or record is exactly the same. I've heard the new PJ Harvey LP on CD and vinyl and I can't tell the difference.