“There is something romantic in obsessing over the obsolete. Giving new meaning to the ancient, disused, and forgotten.”
“There is little practical reason why we should still be listening to vinyl an entire century after its invention, but the LP is still here, having resisted wave after wave of technologies created specifically to bury it. There are much more convenient and efficient ways to deliver music, and you can now digitally possess pretty much any piece of recorded music in existence for free and in seconds. But maybe that’s not the point. By giving us everything we say we wanted, something is devalued. And maybe that’s why we keep coming back to vinyl. Back to these artifacts of the 20th century.
I’ve always collected records, but somehow it means more now. It goes beyond the nostalgia of listening to my Mom’s Monkees’ LPs as I built forts and fought imaginary wars when I was 6, or trying to make sense of the Axis: Bold as Love cover art that used to freak me out. Now, the simple act of putting needle to wax is a small “Fuck You” to the glowing screens that dominate our lives. The antithesis to all the shuffles and the million numbing clicks to the next. A listening experience freed from the drudgery of digital distraction.
Vinyl occupies space and inhabits the moment with you. There is a quaint physicality to it that may seem old-fashioned, but is wholly satisfying. From opening the gatefold and examining the artwork to watching the record go round and round as the stylus unlocks the magic frozen in the grooves. It is something you can see. Something you can experience. It is not on loan from some cloud, or stored on some hard drive that will be corrupted or thrown away. It is yours and it seems like forever.
As a musician, there is nothing quite like having your music pressed to vinyl. It is the end point, where your idea feels truly actualized. Where something ethereal like a song or a performance is captured and given permanence. Trying to convey the full experience with words seems a bit inadequate. All you have to do is put on a copy of Black Sabbath Vol. 4 or Disintegration and crank up your stereo and the self-evidence is striking.”
—Adam
Pink Frost’s “Traitors” EP was recorded this summer at Steve Albini’s legendary studio Electrical Audio in Chicago, and it arrives in stores on September 16th.
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PHOTO: DREW REYNOLDS
