“I’ve always been the sort of person who remembers how I felt about something and rarely have I been the sort of person who accurately remembers what happens. I sometimes start or end a narrative by stating, “This may not be exactly what happened, but it’s how I remember it…” or “you get the basics.” That’s just a way of comforting myself as I live in the memory. These are my first memories of vinyl. As far as I know they are completely accurate.”
“I have fond memories of sitting around our record player in our house in Kalispell, Montana. My dad had taken an old book shelf and drilled some holes in the back to turn it into a hi-fi stereo entertainment center. It had all the best gadgets. A sliver tuner/amp, which I would maintain probably still sounds great wherever it is now, a double cassette player that had a mic input, so I could record sweet songs and then dub them. He also had a cassette holder that looked like a drawer and had slots for up to 100 cassettes. It was sweet. And then the turn table. I don’t remember much about other than it was sliver and that at the time it was somewhat out dated, but not totally.
We had a little crate of vinyl nearby that contained the only records I was aware of. I remember a few Neil Young records, a James Taylor record, some Zeppelin, some CSNY. There were of course also my mom’s albums… Handel’s Messiah, Some Christmas jams, and I’m sure some choir music. I listened to these albums. My first attempt at playing guitar was me trying to pick out the intro to “Stairway to Heaven,” probably because of the Wayne’s World reference, on my dad’s gut string Goya. I remember thinking I had it. It was probably no where near the actual melody, but it felt good. I felt proud. I had made a connection with that record.
When I was in junior high, my Nana Weinland moved into a nursing home (she had lived with us for some time before) and as a result some of her belongings became available. She had a one piece turntable/radio unit. One of those where when its closed it just looks like a buffet or something. But when you slid the top open there was a tuner and a turntable and speakers were hidden in both sides. This thing sounded warm. It may have even run on tubes. The era would say that was true, but not being mechanical by nature I would have to research that to be sure. But it sounded warm and it was mine. So, I bought my first record.
At the time I was going through a big Dead Milkmen phase. I had a band (called Utter and named in honor of the Dead Milkmen). The first record I bought was Eat Your Paisley (1986 – though it was the ’90s when I bought it). I got it at Rockin Rudy’s in Missoula, Montana while visiting my brother or sister (who were both in college at the U). I played that record over and over and over again. I memorized every word. This is probably when I feel in love with old music aesthetics. Probably the reason I still record records to two inch tape over digital even though I can’t really afford it. I’d rather sacrifice time and money than quality when it comes to sound.
The next album I added to my collection was Bruce Springsteen’s Born in The USA. I found this in my dad’s 1974 camper van under the mattress. I don’t know how it go there or if he ever had a turn table in the van. But at some point it was put there for safe keeping and when he gave that van to WEINLAND so we could use it for a tour vehicle, I found it. Man I loved that van. It’s been broken down in my backyard for four years. We’re going to donate it to charity this year (I’ve been saying that for four years). But I love it enough we put it on our latest T-Shirt. And we added little wings so she can fly to heaven where she belongs.
I now have a small to medium vinyl collection. I pride myself on having only things I really love AND I pride myself on my collection of Portland band vinyl. I’ve got a good chunk of Portland’s last 5 years on record. The first record I “put out” as John Weinland was a vinyl only run of 250 copies. At the time I didn’t have a turntable so I had to dig one out of storage at work to listen to the test pressing and approve them. Now Breaks in The Sun (2009) and Los Processaur (2012) are on vinyl and I have a nice turntable and can add them to my collection.”
—Adam Shearer
WEINLAND’s third release, Los Processaur hit store shelves on November 6 via Jealous Butcher Records.
