“Vinyl has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. My Mom is an extreme lover of music and it’s hard to think of my childhood without hearing the incredible music that was virtually always present throughout.”
“It was as if a record was always spinning and I can vividly remember staring at the way the needle would glide through the record’s grooves and in awe of how just that simple motion would produce these incredible sounds. It was all Motown, Stax, The Stones, MJ, Aretha, and other various soul and blues artists.
I can visualize her entire collection, all stacked neatly inside these custom wooden record shelves. There was something so majestic and larger than life about the album covers and the artists who graced them. I can remember just being mesmerized by the Thriller album. Michael just looked so cool and there was that tiger.
I’m sure a lot had to do with being kid and being overly impressionable, but at the same time, I just can’t see a small square picture lodged on an iTune’s app having the same effect. It was all right there and hit me like a thunderbolt. You could hold it, see it, feel it, and connect all the dots.
I also didn’t realize how special it was that my Mom was still spinning records while the rest of humanity had more or less converted to CDs. I naturally started buying CDs as well and it wasn’t until I inherited my Aunt’s incredible record collection that I truly understood the magic of vinyl and why it had effected me so strongly as a kid.
I dug my Mom’s record player out of her garage, went home, smoked a little grass, placed the needle on Dylan’s Bringing It All Back Home, and drifted off into this almost out-of-body place. It’s impossible to explain why or how vinyl has had this magical effect on me, but it just has. Not everything needs to be explained, as somethings are just special and the action of a needle spinning through grooves on a wax cylinder is just that.
Sometimes they get it right the first time and I believe that to be true with records. As a lover of the album and the entire artistic package that accompanies it, vinyl is far and away the best way to experience it in all of its glory. As the digital revolution continues it’s mass takeover, it’s no wonder that kids are turning to vinyl in search of that timeless connection.”
—Ben Rothbard
The Palms’ self-titled debut EP is in stores now.
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