Yesterday I began the daunting task of reducing my two file cabinet record (CD) collection to one cabinet. Ever since that first purchase, INXS Kick, my CD collection has been my most prized possession. As I went through each genre, I remembered where I bought them and what I was studying musically. Most of my purchases since 2000 have been about studying music along with loving the many different genres.
I probably should have called the show Hoarder's to come film me because it was an emotional process. It was hard discarding some of the art work in the cheap plastic cases but I eventually mustered enough courage to dump it out. I managed to save the liner notes and the CD in each little pouch which will be nice to have in the future. There's still something about the physical presence of liner notes and being able to flip through a collection. Though Spotify is great way to discover music, you lose that chance conversation in the record shop to discover a new artist. There was no better feeling than coming home with the new CD when it was new technology. First I'd rip through the cardboard cartridge and then wrestle with the damn sticky thing that almost never came completely off.
The beginning of my CD collection was mostly New Wave since that was what I was into at the time. I was in high school and tapes were fading and the Bon Jovi people were wearing their concert T shirts with the 3/4 sleeves and smoking in their Camaro's and Living on their Prayers. Cassettes in those days were still great. Most of my cassettes in those days were Prince, Morris Day, Run DMC, and random artist like Kyper. The best part of this era was the mix tape of course. The mixed disc never reached the status of the mix tape.
My New Wave consumption continued on into college but quickly became a consumer of Classical music when I began to play the piano. Going through my Classical collection, each album brought back memories of when I first fell in love with playing music. Alone in the piano lab late nights in Starkville, Ms. was one of my favorite things to do. My piano professor was Dr. Duncan McMillan and he was leading me on path of musical discovery.
During this time I began to buy some U2 records and grunge was starting to happen and began playing the guitar too.
This picture kind of started it all for me recording original music. I had made a painting inspired by it and it was on the wall of my East Village apartment when Donovan Guidry first moved to town. He was the only person that would hear me sing and was the first person to suggest exploring my own sound. We started our own label Newlafaya because of these brainstorming sessions. This is why these physical objects are hard to get rid of. They have deep rooted meaning.
In 1998, I moved over to Williamsburg, Brooklyn to begin recording my first record "So Long". I made weekly trips to Earwax record shop and was discovering Dub, Indie Rock, and lots of world music. All these things were going into the kinds of music we were making. At the time trip hop was really a great sound and I was devouring it all.
This was a huge step for me to toss these. I never liked the plastic cases anyway. They almost always broke when opening. It was funny to see what CD jackets I wanted to save. The Sigur Ros record packaging was impossible to throw away along with a few beautiful Dub compilations. It's interesting to go through my vinyl collection. There's no way you'd throw away that packaging. It's so simple and beautiful.
Oh well, here we go into the unknown future of the Album. Hope we all survive in these disposable times.
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