“It’s 2018, a fascinating moment for music, a moment which I find shockingly easy to discover new music I like, to create playlists of favorite songs, not to mention it’s cheap af. Other than losing my dongle daily or Siri misunderstanding my song request, it’s amazing how effortless it is to listen to “Pink and White” by Frank Ocean several times a day whenever I want.”
“That’s why I think the renaissance of vinyl is important. Convenience is wonderful, but vinyl is powerful. It helps me connect to music uniquely. Vinyl is a multimedia art form. The cover artwork, the guts, the colors and designs, the weight of the record. If I’m purchasing a vinyl record, it means I’m intrigued by a more complete sonic and visual story the artist is trying to tell at that moment in their life. In a world rapidly teetering toward serving-size consumption of so many things, music at the top of that totem, I think vinyl is keeping music listeners like me more connected and engaged with music and with the musicians making it.
My vinyl collection is all over the place. My grandmother gave me her collection, consisting of Sinatra, Herb Alpert, The Four Freshmen and the like. I’ve since ballooned my collection with artists that inspire me, make me want to dance or clean the house. My favorites over the last couple years have been Crosby Stills and Nash, Simon & Garfunkel, Vestiges and Claws by Jose Gonzales, Fields by Junip, The Waterfall by My Morning Jacket, Clouds by Joni Mitchell, Burst Apart by The Antlers, Sufjan Stevens (the state albums), a Hall & Oates greatest hits, as well as a lot of my friends’ records like Land of Blood and Sunshine and JE Sunde.
I’ve admittedly struggled with my listening relationship to music over the last few years. The slow disconnection from physical formats into the digital consumption of music left me feeling lost and overwhelmed. The unlimited aspects of cheap downloadable music severed the connectedness I personally felt when I used to hear the buzz of a CD sliding into my car stereo in high school, the relationship I made to an entire album of music, mowing the lawn to Blink-182’s Cheshire Cat on my Discman or road tripping listening to Bright Eyes album after album.
I’ve recently begun to slick back the few grey hairs creeping into my hair-line and embrace the Spotify/Apple Music paradigm for the sake of expanding my horizons. But there will never be anything quite like dusting off a record and listening to it crackle as I make myself dinner.”
—Ryan Stier
Extravision’s full-length release, Waking Up is in stores now—on vinyl.
Extravision Facebook | Twitter | Bandcamp
PHOTO: ANNA LARINA
