“I remember bunking off school to go and see The Cribs in a HMV when I was 15 years old. I wrote a little dentist appointment note or excused myself from class, ran home, swapped my school polo for a stripy t-shirt and got the train into town to see a band that I hadn’t really heard of before play a couple of songs from their new album, Men’s Needs, Women’s Needs, Whatever.”
“I wasn’t the kid to bunk off school. To my mind, this is probably the only textbook example of badass behaviour in my teenage years. After the 5 songs, there was a signing and I panic bought a 7” of the single “Men’s Needs” (with “I’ve Tried Everything” (acoustic) as the b-side). I kind of resigned myself to the fact it wouldn’t get played, but it would be a souvenir or something. My dad’s record player hadn’t seen light in years. And besides, who listened to records these days? It was 2007. My iPod Photo 32GB was the love of my life.
The 7” sat proudly in my window, emblazoned with Gary, Ryan, and Ross’s signatures. Alongside it sat giveaway Babyshambles and Coldplay 7”s that had been glued onto the front of recent copies of the NME, a Fuckshovel picture-disk and RHCP picture-disk (“Picture-disks” I thought to myself at the time, “now that’s an investment”).
The record player was bought out one day and I popped down with my 5 little pieces of plastic and put them on, at 33RPM naturally, until my dad came in to adjust the belt to 45RPM. But they sounded just as distorted and weird. Apparently, in the 7 months those records had gathered dust on the windowsill, they’d also warped and distorted in the sunlight. “Fuck this,” 15 year old me snorted “I’m going back to my iPod.”
I suppose my interest in records germinated from gimmicky runs by Third Man and the coloured vinyl I’d find in stores like Rare & Racy (Eddie ‘Cleanhead’ Vinson I Want A Little Girl LP on red wax, disowned by Doncaster Library, wound it’s way into my collection). This initial flirtation takes a dark twist when you fall into the traps of the cold-blooded completist. Subscriptions to Too Pure singles club and Los Campesino’s Heat Rash zine + 7” quarterly only fuelled that. As did the 5 Privilege EP’s of Parenthetical Girls: composed of fantastic music and stunning pencil drawn artwork with each copy individually catalogued in a separate band member’s blood. At this point I was spending more money on records than I was on meeting up with friends (not that I had many).
Nowadays, my records have come to signify something besides just the music I love. The few days I’m home every month, if not spent in the studio are usually whiled away by the record player, by a stack of 7”s, or a select few LPs. I spend a great deal of time on the road, occasionally browsing record shops if there’s a spare hour and a short walk from the venue or the hotel. I rarely buy anything because the effort it takes to transport a growing record collection and returning home with them all safe is quite the upheaval.
So, I’m currently only picking up records that I know I’m only going to be able to find in that shop on that day. This January, I had a panic attack in Amoeba on Sunset when I found a 12” of a track my dad played sax on within 40 seconds of crate digging. It’s the only track he’s ever played on, and even though we’ve got 7” at home, neither of us knew of a 12’. I had to treat it like precious cargo for the next two weeks as we flew round Australia on tour.”
—Eoin Loveless, guitars/vocals
Drenge, NME’s “Best New Band,” released their debut US LP on July 22 via Infectious Music.
Enter to win a copy on vinyl by citing your biggest surprise find whilst rummaging through a record store. (Easy, right?) We’ll choose one lucky winner with a North American mailing address a week from today, August 19.
