“I’ve had sort of an odd obsession with vinyl since I was a little kid. My dad is a musician and we had some of his singles on 45’s. My sister and I used to play his records all of the time and we thought he was the shit. He had his own record with his name on it and he was our dad. His vinyl collection was insane! And the best part was that he let us listen to everything, and even encouraged it.
We had crates and crates of 45’s…Motown, Doo-wop, Swing, Folk, Rock…everything. When I was alone, I would put blankets all over the floor of our room arrange all of the records, side by side, according to label color. We had so many that I’d back my self into a corner and just stare at all the records, a rainbow vinyl terrazzo before me. One day my mom caught me with all of the records out and she took them away from me. I was heartbroken at the time, but I look back now and I’m glad she did or probably would have ruined all of it and hated myself.
My family has a vacation house in the Poconos, near East Stroudsburg, PA. I go up there to hang out every now and then to relax or write. There’s a great record shop called Main Street Jukebox and they’ve always had an excellent selection. I’ve been going there for years and I’ve found things there that I could never find anywhere else. There was a fire there years back and I was so bummed for them. But they bounced back like nothing happened and, thankfully, they’re still around and doing incredibly well. There’s real cool little music scene there and I think Main Street Jukebox is a big part of that scene, like a little heartbeat keeping it all going.
I wouldn’t say my own collection is respectable in size or quality by most standards. And my turntable isn’t anything magnificent either. But I’ll take any of my records on my garage-sale turntable over the highest quality digital recording any day. There’s just something magical in those 180 grams of crackle and pop.“
April Smith and the Great Picture Show – Movie Loves A Screen (Mp3)
April Smith and the Great Picture Show – Colors (Mp3)
Suitably swooning with an odd obsession with vinyl ala April’s? Spill it in the comments to this post and we’ll award one of you a pair of tickets to see April Smith and the Great Picture Show this Saturday night (3/13) at The Rock and Roll Hotel with Here We Go Magic.
You have til noon on Friday (3/12) to inspire us with your tale. Remember to leave us contact info too! Now, go!
