“Listening to vinyl records, to me, is like participating in a Japanese tea ceremony. Sure you can get the same tea in a little steep-able bag, but it’s the endless bowing, the whisking of tea, the proffering of bowls, and the tiny sips that make the tea taste so much better in the end.”
“Taking that extra moment to place a record on the turntable and push the start button makes your ears listen closer and your heart open wider to receive the melodies within. I don’t buy the idea that analog recordings sound better, but I do think we can ‘feel’ that they sound better simply because we have paused a moment in the endless stream of the day to LISTEN. That being said I am amazed that vinyl records survived. There was a time in the late nineties when many a young kid would come to our merch table and ask if those big square things were calendars! Those were dark times.
We recently had time to stop into Vintage Vinyl, a wonderful and vast record store in St. Louis. It was so much fun to flip through the bins. A far different experience than clicking through web pages. I love those bins that just have an alphabet letter. Who knows what you’ll find in the ‘Z’ bin or the ‘E.’ Something you haven’t thought of or heard of or were recommended to look at based on the algorithm of your past purchases. How much we lose when we turn a tactile experience into a virtual one. Don’t let your hands get chopped off completely! Use them to explore the world.
That being said, I also highly regret all those insane college parties where everyone was on LSD and slam dancing to our country records. We went through a lot of Hank Williams LPs. The Louvin Brother’s Tragic Songs of Life was jumped and scratched within minutes of starting to play. That wasn’t even the drugs talking. We were just so excited to hear those harmonies we started jumping up and down. Only The Butthole Surfer’s LP, Locust Abortion Technician survived those dark and wonderful years. It’s pretty scratched, but the scratches seem to be in the right places.”
—Rennie
“When you put that vinyl on the table, you are committing to listening to about 22 minutes of music; a substantial yet reasonably digestible chunk of music. There is no shuffling, you are at the mercy of the song order the artist chose.”
“The temporal aspect of vinyl is lost with digital music and it’s never-ending stream of shuffled music. Once you start listening to a record, you feel compelled to finish it. There is a certain implied mortality and fragility to records. If you start them, you should finish them.
The physical limitations of vinyl also dictate artistic decisions. 22 minutes per side is the optimal length. Anything longer begins to distort or loose volume because of the reduced size of the grooves. In addition, the tonal quality of the music changes depending on the closeness to the center of the disc. The top and bottom naturally roll off a bit and a soft distortion comes into play. For these reasons, artist used to sequence records with these factors in mind. Put a mellow or sparse song at the end of the sides. The second single of the record usually was placed at the start of the side B, (commonly called “the sweet spot.”)
I agree with Rennie; vinyl doesn’t sound better, but it sure sounds different. The bass is nice and tight, not flabby. Treble is controlled and not as brittle. But the best thing vinyl has to offer is more about experience. It’s a deliberate experience listening to a record. When you pull that big sheet of round, black plastic out of its sleeve, it has a distinctive smell. You must carefully remove the record and place it on a spinning wheel! You clean the record—more paraphernalia! Then you hit the start button and wait for that first beautiful bassy “thunk.”
In about 22 minutes you have a choice: Turn it over? Listen to another record? Do nothing?”
—Brett
The Handsome Family’s brand new release Wilderness arrives in stores today, 5/14, via Carrot Top Records.
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The Handsome Family Tour Dates:
June 20 Cambridge, MA, Club Passim
June 21 Fall River, MA, Narrows Center for the Arts
June 22 New Haven, CT, Café Nine
June 23 Hudson, NY, Club Helsinki
June 27 New York, NY, The Slipper Room
June 28 Philadelphia, PA, World Café Live
June 29 Brooklyn, NY, The Knitting Factory
July 22 Chicago, IL, Pritzker Pavilion Millennium Park
July 24 St. Louis, MO, Off Broadway with Danny Barnes
July 25 Bloomington, IN, The Bishop with Danny Barnes
July 26 Louisville, KY, Headliners with Cathy Irwin and Danny Barnes
July 27 Athens, OH, The Union with Danny Barnes
July 28 Ann Arbor, The Ark with Danny Barnes
