“When I was a child, I did not care much for music. I was far more interested in science fiction, video games, and comics, and the usual stuff that a young nerd would enjoy. I tried to like pop music like Michael Jackson or Cyndi Lauper, but it really wasn’t doing it for me in any way.”
“Then I noticed kids of my age wearing Iron Maiden t-shirts, which looked unbelievably cool and instantly piqued my interest. I wanted to know all about this stuff! Was it from a comic? A cartoon?
Nope, Heavy Metal! I was introduced to the world of Iron Maiden, Megadeth, Metallica, and Anthrax at a very young age by my school chums and it left a rather alarming first impression! It was far too abrasive and dangerous sounding, and I was instantly put off by the noisy dirge, so upon leaving my friend’s house I was lent a vinyl record that pretty much shaped my interest in music and led to a pursuit of some sort of career doing this kind of thing.
It was the tasteful and important body of work of cultural significance known as Appetite for Destruction by Guns N’ Roses, complete with the slightly distasteful rapey front cover. This kinda music I could get into, far more sleazy and exciting.
The record was slightly bent and I had no record player of my own, so I used my parents’ old and forgotten record player to record the album onto tape. The tape recording of the album constantly changed speed due to the warped vinyl and that is still the way I remember Appetite for Destruction, a kind of swaying mess of loud guitars, pounding drums, and cat-like wailing vocals.
Then the 90s happened and everyone was CDs up to the eyeballs, including myself until I started taking interest in the bands on Touch & Go records. Bands like Girls against Boys, The Jesus Lizard, Kepone, Brainiac, and most importantly, Shellac.
The rambling of Steve Albini changed my focus on the recording media that music is delivered on. I always assumed that the new CD format was far superior to the older solutions, and hearing this alternative opinion interested me a great deal.
So, I bought a record player and started buying a few records, mainly purchased from either 803 records in Glasgow, Fopp, or Southern Records mail order.
The first record that I bought is either The Original Losing Loser by Sentridoh or Terraform by Shellac, both purchased in 1998 and were highly exciting to receive and simply explore the packaging for the first time. Terraform in particular with its incredible artwork, each of the four “pages” of the packaging a brightly contrasting colour.
For the next few years I bought everything on vinyl, a very important time of musical exploration for me and almost all of my favourite albums were bought around this time. Lots of post-rock and indie rock stuff like Sebadoh, Ganger, Mogwai, Slint, Rodan, Turing Machine, A Minor Forest, Trans Am, Sweep the Leg Johnny, Autumn Rising, June of ’44, Rex, Ida, Braid, The Farewell Bend… the list goes on and on.
At that time, vinyl was far cheaper to buy than CD, so you could afford to be a little more experimental in your choices. Whenever I listen to these great records I remember the vinyl ritual that everyone knows about. Even if I’ve re-bought them on CD or listening to a digital version, I always remember what it was like pulling out the record from the sleeve, dropping the needle, and staring into the cover.”
—Kevin Black
Fat Goth release their second album Stud, via Hefty Dafty on 28th January 2013.
