THE
SPOKEN WORD
AARDVARK

To wit: Bought Phish’s “HOIST” on CD at a Library book sale back in New York (pre-2002) for a dollar. I knew NOTHING about them, but I had seen the name (I knew they existed, but that was about it). Today, they are one of my favorite bands.

Frank Zappa albums are becoming as rare as hen’s teeth. Every now and then you’ll come across a Ryko CD pressing of an FZ album – and they’re pretty well done. I’ll pick those up when I find them.

As for records and tapes – it’s mainly jazz and blues when I find them.

I have a ton of music, but records are the most accessible for me – they have them at thrift shops, record stores, and hipster emporiums. I’ll get new digital file music, but only if it’s to listen in my car or when DJing.

As for the Thunderstorm CD – I own a few. I go to sleep listening to them; I find them very soothing. I did buy one (at a Goodwill) that had very low-level spoken words residing under the claps of thunder and pealing rain (not subliminal, but definitely in the background). That one got donated after the first listen. I don’t need someone telling me to relax while I’m trying to relax. My brain kept telling this idiot to shut up – I was listening to the storm!

A YDKF episode on records would be great (but I get it’s not really your area of interest).

At this point now, I haven’t purchased or even listened to a CD in 5 years (maybe more).

I subscribe to streaming music, Slacker is my poison, but the one line here really resonated with me: I don’t have a single memory attached to any of the mp3s I’ve downloaded.

I’ve managed two different record stores, and haunted many others, and I can almost remember where or when I got each and every album I own. But as I’ve gotten older and become quite content with being a passive music listener, the memories of listening the physical media can never be replaced.