“True exploration of music began for me in my cousin’s closet in 1970. As a young punk, snooping the nooks and crannies of my Aunt Loretta’s abode, I opened the closet door, pulled the light chain and — BOING! — both closet dowels filled front to back with 45s!”
“The more records I observed, the more excited I became. What was this world of super cool labels on these plastic waffles? I ran to my cousin and asked if I could take a few of these records back home.
She let me grab two: “Mellow Yellow” and “Goin’ Down.” Once home, I ran to my bedroom, yanked off the “Good Ship Lollipop” and entered the world of rotating bliss, fantasy and meditation. The music was crazy good, but what really attracted me was the underneath, scratched and popped escapades from the more than just often played 45’s.
Part Two: A year later, at my older brother’s house, album collections, bigger sister next door, more album collections, more exploration. I came home with The Doors, Beatles, and Beach Boys. Perhaps Electric Prunes followed me home in another car or cab.
A new positive shift: As my mother was a lover of music and an organ player, she allowed me to run to a nickel and dime each week to purchase my 45 of choice. The doors that opened each Saturday morning never to be forgotten shaped much of my musical influences today. My turntable was a lifelong adopted friend and partner by now and never disappointed. The 45 represents the flash and fire of two great performances, yet the LP equaled big blocks of art, photos, inner sleeve magic: lyrics, more pictures, a view of the performer’s room. I was in deep, real deep.
Fast forward to 1977, I received my first Columbia Record House order. The vinyl was a true and pure obsession. Even when I purchased or received an album with a high lip, hence a first song skip, this memory was immediately etched, a character witness of millions from the same recording mass-produced, yet organically individual, and it brought me closer to the music. The 80’s were very pink, but the many evenings spent with band mates and friends listening to the likes of Laurie Anderson, The Residents, Todd Rundgren, and The Smiths to name a few, by candlelight, carried me home to LP heaven.
Personally, the vinyl has always represented the musical truth, the hardcover for the musical vehicle, the acknowledgment of art’s effect through ageless and influenced creativity: And those artists shaping you via the black grooves, awaiting a spin from an old friend or a welcome stranger. When the digital age and its welcome committee, AAD, ADD, and DDD came to town, we were sort of confused for some time. Do I own CDs? Yes. Do I still have a vinyl collection? YESYESYES and the vinyl wins the listener’s choice award every time!
Why? More human, has a soul, no slice and dice, true air, the air in the studio is really on the record. You can hear breathing, no breathing, sighs: You can drop back in time, the musical portal to a spot in your life and the needle hits the ground running, providing life lessons in a rotational universe.
Time to go. My wife is itching to play some old jazz records, blending colors and notes from our easel [record collection] to mold our day, today. I am the guy flipping to side two!”
—Fred Jeske, guitar/drums
AAA Battery’s debut LP, Year of the Woman lands on store shelves on December 3, on the Rescord Records imprint.
