the most pretentious thing i do

showing that I know what a record is

I grow a beard, I have been known to wear skinny jeans, I enjoy indie music that no one else has heard of, and I listen to jazz.  Despite this list of pretentious things that could drive most people to judge me severely, the most pretentious thing I do is buying and listening to vinyl records.

Listening to records is not inherently pretentious (unless you’re under thirty five years of age) however there is a contingent of people who believe that those under thirty five listening to records are pretentious.  There has never been a need for my generation to buy a vinyl LP.  With the advent of CD’s and now MP3’s all the music we could ever want is right at our fingertips, more accessible and portable than ever before.

In my early teens I had a brief obsession with vinyl.  I didn’t have a record player in my room so if I wanted to listen to them I would have to bother the entire family.  They weren’t exactly thrilled by the musical stylings of Big Black, the Lemonheads, Bikini Kill, or the Melvins.  I rarely listened to them and they were bought mostly because I liked the idea of owning records.

It had been years since I bought a record but last November I inherited an Audio Technica turntable and decided that I wanted to start listening to LP’s again.  I raided my parents collection and began scouring used record and bookstores for my favorite classic albums; Lou Reed, Bill Withers, Stevie Wonder, Charles Mingus, and Patti Smith.

The prime time for used record buying was about ten to fifteen years ago.  The nostalgia of the vinyl era had not yet kicked in and the baby boomers were busily selling off their record collection and replacing them with CD’s.  Now that they come back en vogue, good used records are hard to find.  You need to rely on luck and good timing to snatch up a well priced classic.

Part of the fund of record collecting is in the hunt for your favorites.  Many have been reissued and range in price from $12 to $40.  This is a spread that makes most baby boomers cringe.

I didn’t start buying records because of their supposed higher sound quality.  I didn’t start because it’s what the hipsters are doing (Though I will not deny that when you spin a record on a turn table you do feel a little more cool).  I started because listening to a vinyl LP is a far different experience from what we have now.

Two sides, a brief intermission as you flip the record, no playlists, just one album all the way through.  I began to hear songs in ways I never had before, like each one was a  piece to a puzzle that I only begin to see when the the needle lifts and the arm retracts.

Where this really becomes pretentious on my part is that I also buy new LP’s by my favorite indie bands; LAKE, Chain and the Gang, Christmas, Thao & Mirah.  There is no logical reason for buying these, although often you will get a code for downloading the MP3’s with the record.  I get the same listening experience from these as I do the classics.  I found that I appreciate them as an actual song enjoyed by itself not just as something to occupy myself while doing other things.

Vinyl has a special quality to it, a testament to a time of well built goods.  It proves that sometimes they get it right the first time.  No one is clamoring to get a hold of videotapes because of their superior quality to Blu-Ray, and most people would prefer to drive a Ford Focus over a Model-T.  Vinyl stands the true test of time as the pinnacle of music quality.

Those who don’t understand what makes vinyl special just see pretentious people who refuse to change with the time or want only to go against the grain.  They look at us the way some see handlebar mustaches, bow ties, and typewriters.  They are the devices of those who prefer to live ironically, this was cemented when Urban Outfitters began selling turn tables and only hipster records.

My new found love for records is neither ironic or novelty, I honestly enjoy buying and listening to them.  I’m not anti MP3 or technology, I just prefer the vinyl record.  It’s such simple technology that also happens to be the best.  This still makes the entire act of buying and listening pretentious, but honestly I don’t give a shit.

By the way if you come across a copy of Lou Reed’s Transformer, let me know.

posted by: brian snider