It blows my mind to think how disconnected people are from their actual physical music today. People are just so set on getting the music they want as quick as possible with little to no hassle. Right now if I wanted to I could go onto the Itunes store and download any record from the tons of records they have and be listening to it in the next ten minutes, but that just seems wrong to me. People are missing out on so much from not going out into record stores and buying music. There is the satisfaction of finding that one record, or even the personal interactions or friendships that occur from record shopping. Sure the Itunes store or last fm or Pandora can do some sort of mathematical calculation based on beats per minute or artists selected that can recommend you other music you might like, but if you only search and find your music online you are missing out on a lot. Also, online stores like the apple store are able to take all your information on what you like or dislike and sell them to companies where they can use that information to advertise to you. The right to privacy is completely gone when you enter into those kind of online arenas. To me nothing is better than going out and buying records, hence the reason I just did. I just got back from my weekly stomping ground Amoeba Records and came back with quite a few goodies. The one I’m most happy with is the Small Brown Bike/ Casket Lottery Split record. These two band rule and I suggest anyone who hasn’t heard them to go and pick up this record, it is flawless. Here’s a video of one of the songs from the split that the bands wrote and perform together.

Enjoy!

Record Store Neutrality

My life has been pretty hectic as of late: I just moved across the city, I have homework on top of homework, work all the time, and too many musical projects to name. So, when Sunday afternoon rolled around I couldn’t think of a better to relieve some stress than by buying tons of records. Ready to explore some of my new neighborhood I headed off on foot to see what I could find. Located on the cusp of lower Haight I stumbled upon Recycled Records, a store carrying tons of vinyl, old posters, and some of our digital friends, the compact disc. The place had a cool vibe and looked like there was a good selection of different kinds of music; boy was I wrong. Recycled Records had a pretty slim selection of anything but oldies and more oldies. Don’t get me wrong, I love the classics, but if a store is going to tout the name Recycled Records they shouldn’t be so specific in their choosing of what to recycle. It’s as if these snobby record nerds are the companies, and government officials who want to change the “neutrality” of the internet by allowing certain websites or companies quicker and faster access on the internet if they pay more to the service provider. This way the availability of the content on the internet can become skewed and information that was once as easily available as all other information is not so anymore. Net neutrality is very important, and so is record store neutrality! Down with elitist record store nerds!!!

Viva Leeway!