“My first experience with vinyl was a dusty stack of 30 or so records my Mom kept in the closet.This small collection felt like a time capsule of her tastes in the 1960s.”
“It included a lot of Nudie Suit Country like Porter Wagner, Buck Owens, and George Jones. There were the random popular records like Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass or Ray Charles. And it also had the occasional soundtrack like the Paul Newman and Robert Redford movie, The Sting. I’d pull the dusty sleeves out occasionally, put the records on the turntable and pour over the album sleeves. I’d read every word of the liner notes and burn the cover images into my brain as the music played. It was an experience.
Four years ago, I was yearning for that experience again. I love having any music I want to listen to at my finger tips. Being able to carry as much music as I’d like to listen to and all on shuffle had me feeling disconnected from that experience I had with records. My son was 3 years old at the time and I saw his connection with albums being more about thumbnails and individual songs rather than albums. Because of that I started taking trips to Bay Area record stores so he and I could dig through crates of records.
My collection has grown dramatically in those 4 years and for me it’s about so much more than just the music. Collecting vinyl is about the hunt for things like that rare Jack White 7-inch or a first pressing of The Clash album that I named my daughter after.
It’s about the tangibility of the album cover and the artists selection of colored vinyl or the liner notes you’d never see when you buy the MP3s. It’s about choosing which side of the album to listen to first and more importantly about listening to an album in context rather than on shuffle. It’s about filling my house with an experience that makes the music bigger than a .99 cent file.”
—Mike Cobra
Happy Fangs’ debut self-titled EP is available now.
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PHOTO: JEN CASH-CALIBREE
