“When I was a kid there was a huge shelf of vinyl that I would constantly look through.”
“Mostly at the covers. Weird colors and shapes were almost more interesting than what was inside. Block figures contorted in dance on Stevie Wonder, R. Crumb’s Janis cover, Grateful Dead logo and Mars Hotel landscape, red and white striped Steely Dan, laughing bandits on a wall on Allman Brothers, all infinitely more attention-grabbing than the music on the album to my young eye and ear.
Then I saw this one with a band of merry men lounging in and around a castle. This one. Rolling Stones Hot Rocks Vol 1. All of these songs jumped off the record and cracked me in half. “Gimme Shelter” in particular. I played this song in my room so much my mother started to worry if my young mind was in danger and would peek her head in from time to time to try to get me to explore the rest of our collection. It still hits. Hard.
I’ve been buying my records ever since about this time. LPs and 45s and 78s. Whenever possible. The best records are the ones with moving power, taking you back to a time and place.
A discount store you had to bike through the woods to get to. A show you and friends drove 4 hours to and had enough money left to get food or buy a 7-inch. A stop at a friend’s record shop after a day bar shift. A pawn shop no one thought to look for records in. A moldy trailer. The back of a venue, side of a van. All trapped in the groove.”
—Duane
BIRDS’ debut LP Everything All At Once arrives in stores on August 18, 2017 via Greenway Records—on vinyl.
