“Though listening to vinyl was a regular occurrence in my household while I was growing up, it wasn’t until my 19th year that it was forever cemented in my mind as the ultimate music format.”
“It was April and the Canadian winter had finally completely released its stranglehold on the southern Ontario landscape and I was hot off the heels of my first year university exams. With my stresses evaporating just as the snow had weeks before, I received word of a truly spectacular thing— my parents were leaving the house to me (and my friends) for the entire week.
I remember the first moments after they stepped out the front door as if they happened yesterday. I immediately opened every window in the house, pulled a 24-pack of strong Canadian beer from the fridge and hauled milk carton, upon milk carton filled with my father’s vinyl out of the basement.
With the sweet smells of spring filling the air, we did as any group of nineteen-year-old kids would be expected to, we partied. We listened to record after record, covering all the bases: Beatles, Stones, The Band, Bob, Neil, Elvis, Elvis— it was like the 20th Century Masters of house parties. My personal favorite that graced the turntable had to be a copy of Booker T and the MG”s covering Abbey Road from front to back.
Sandman Viper Command – The Metal I’ve Spent
The whole vinyl experience culminated early on with an unsuspecting female friend of ours running out of the room crying and screaming with Pink Floyd’s “Echoes” blaring the background, but to blame that entirely on the music wouldn’t be exactly fair.
Needless to say the week was a very important one in my musical life. The format of vinyl had impacted me in a way nothing else had. The dust, art, tangibility of it was forever etched upon my brain. Somehow, through all the records and partying we even managed to start a band.
Sandman Viper Command – Rough Love
Eventually we chose a silly name for it and Sandman Viper Command was born.”
—Rob Janson
