The Faint, The TVD First Date

“As a kid I used to walk across the alfalfa field behind our house to shop for records at the grocery store.”

“It was a pretty special day when I actually had enough money to buy one (usually I just bought candy). It was the early 1980s so of course I carried a Walkman around listening to tapes from my penny tape club membership. Those clubs must’ve been a scam of some sort but they definitely lost money on my membership.

Anyways, vinyl was what I really wanted. I inherited about twenty old 45s and a Raggedy Ann and Andy suitcase record player. At age two I incurred a pretty bad injury while playing records. My feet slipped on record sleeves while I was dancing around, sending my legs in a violent version of the splits. I ended up in a full length cast for a year. My favorite 45s were audiobooks at first but that was just until I found The Beatles “Revolution.” That’s got to be the first record I fell in love with and probably the one playing when I broke my legs.

It really wasn’t until about 8th grade (1988) when I discovered the more underground punk and alternative bands like The Cure, Violent Femmes, The Smiths etc. Trading tapes of this kind of stuff led me to the cool record stores downtown.

When I walked into this wonderland for the first time I was completely overwhelmed by the vast racks of vinyl. I barely recognized any of the artists so I just picked a couple based on the artwork and titles. Actually, I still really love my Alien Sex Fiend Here Cum Germs record. I’m not sure which came first, chicken or egg, but I was attracted to the freaky stuff.

Another record I remember buying at Drastic Plastic that day was the Butthole Surfers Pyschic… Powerless… Another Man’s Sac. Although I had some records already, these strange records were the ones that really introduced me to the underground and started my collection frenzy.”
—Todd Fink