This week’s program features new music on the old medium
By DJ Modrey Hepburn
There comes a time in every vinyl collector’s life when they realize that they’ve acquired the things they want, and they have to ask themselves a very important question; where do I go from here?
Before I collected records, I knew very little about them. I knew that my parents had some, that I generally wasn’t allowed to touch them, that record players have some weird needle magic that causes music to happen, and that there were few sounds in this world more soothing to me than the thump, pop-pop, and scratch of a needle being placed in a record’s grooves.
What they don’t tell you about collecting vinyl is how much of an obsession it becomes, how all of a sudden you’re one of those “High Fidelity” people that turn their nose at anything but first presses, how all of a sudden you realize that mp3s and CDs sound so tinny in comparison. Vinyl is a drug, a highly addictive one that is nearly impossible to quit. And, like any addictive substance, once you’ve hit a certain point you need more, you need something bigger, something new.
This brings us to the topic of this week’s Vintage Vinyl program, in which we examine new vinyl. In a world of data and information technology, music is generally relegated to the likes of iTunes, Spotify, Pandora, iPods, mp3 players, iPhones.. the list goes on. What some artists are continuing, however, is the tradition of vinyl. For a purist like myself, whose record collection spans four decades, the draw of new vinyl is extremely tantalizing. Let’s face it, it’s teaching an old dog a new trick, and what better way to experience new music than through an old medium?
For this week’s program, Vintage Vinyl becomes Not-So-Vintage-Vinyl with the help of Monday noon-2 rotation DJ, Kyle Stringer. Kyle has one of the better collections of new vinyl of anyone I know, and we will be juxtaposing old vinyl with the new. It’s a sort of father/daughter dance of records, if you will. Tune in Wednesday night to experience firsthand where a vinyl addiction starts, and how it continues.
Vintage Vinyl airs every Wednesday from 8-10 p.m.