Howth’s new LP Newkirk hit store shelves yesterday, 5/1 via Mecca Lecca Recording Co.
“I’ve never paid so much attention to the music of music.”
“I started listening to records six months ago when I moved in with Jesse Newkirk of Steel Phantoms, who owns a record player, and Chris Mulligan of Shark?, whose parents’ records have made up a majority of our apartment’s collection. I love sitting on the couch with these two listening to records and pointing out the different sounds we hear.
There are hand drums on “My Little Town!” I came home from work yesterday, put on Still Crazy After All These Years, my favorite Paul Simon (or any artist, really) album, an album I’ve listened to hundreds of times in my headphones walking around my own little town of Prior Lake, Minnesota. There they were: hand drums! Never heard that before!
Now, I don’t really know if it’s the better sound quality of vinyl or that I’ve been more focused in my listening habits, but I’m definitely becoming a better listener because of records.
And I think that’s making me a better musician.
There’s nothing better than pilfering the $1 records at Princeton Record Exchange in New Jersey with Blake, Neil, Aviva, or Miles from Howth. It is amazing to be on your knees leafing through record after record, look to your left, and see any of these four talented musicians doing the same. And then giving Blake shit for passing up Still Crazy After All These Years because it’s $3. Well, he can borrow my copy someday. And I still owe him a new copy of Sharon Van Etton’s Tramp. Don’t ask why.
When I lived in St. Paul, in my pre-vinyl days, I used to go to Cheapo just to look at all the crazy record covers. I still buy records based on how ridiculous the covers are. I highly recommend everyone buy a copy of Barbra Streisand’s Wet to at least hang on your wall if not listen to. It is the funniest thing to wake up to every morning.
So records are where it’s at. They’re cheaper (used, anyway), you’re not stealing music, and they’re one of a kind. If you get drunk and pee all over your best friend’s record, you can’t just download a new one. I like that. That it’s an artifact. And even though new records can be more expensive, if you treat them like a fine wine you can savor more than the stuff that comes in a box, it’s totally worth it.
Age of Adz sounds fucking amazing on vinyl.”
—Carl Creighton
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