Disclaimer- this has nothing to do with insurance. It’s an insight to my nostalgic mind.
I used to have a problem. I used to go to the record store every Tuesday, the day that new music comes out, and buy at least one CD. I loved the discovery. I loved being the one who heard the song first. Who discovered the band before the masses, and then would dump them as soon as their song went on regular rotation on the radio. I would love finding songs that everyone loved, but would never know about if it weren’t for me. “What? You never heard of the band “Summercamp”? Never heard of “Fretblanket”? “The Doughboys?” So I’d go to the record store every Tuesday and peruse, looking for my next anthem.
There were the weeks when a band you loved would release music and those days were like Holidays to me. I would plan my day around making sure I got to the record store, and had ample time to listen to the music right after.
I am not an audiophile. I care much less about how the music sounds than the content of the music. I was about 12 years old when the CD came out, and was a Freshman in college when they went mainstream. So in high school it was cassettes, and then in about 1992 through 2004 it was CD’s.
The mixtape was one of my favorite forms of art. I made the best mixtapes. You know, the ones that hit you like an sledge right out of the gate, and then the next song is even more fierce? Then you would have to dial it down by song 4 just to catch your breath and it would always end with this beautiful ballad that I thought was super deep and poetic.
The first band I was every a true fan of was Judas Priest. This was because I have an older brother who I looked up to and one day he was like, “Check this out, it’s called “Hell Bent for Leather””. I was about 12 and had no job, and no money and nothing else to listen to, so Judas Priest it is! I am still a fan to this day. They were my first concert and their opus is the 1991 album “Painkiller”.
The first cassette I every bought was John Cougar, American Fool. This of course is before he was John Mellencamp, and even before that, John Cougar Mellencamp. That album still holds up to this day and we listen to it all the time.
The first record store I ever loved was on the campus of Western Michigan University, called the Discount Den. It was the greatest store in the history of the world. You could buy music, a 44 oz mountain dew, a case of keystone, a toothbrush, ramen noodles, school supplies, liquor, novelty T-shirts (like a university of Michigan Tshirt except for saying “Go Blue”, it said “Go Blow”) and get your film developed. I would go to this store literally every day.
The first CD I bought, I bought at the Discount Den and it was even before I had a CD player. It was from a band that I had never heard one note of. I was visiting my brother in college and his good friend seemed to always be one step ahead of what was coming musically. He told me, “Go and buy this album. No one knows about them…..yet.” The band is called “The Smashing Pumpkins”. The Album, “Gish”. So I did. My roommates in college had a CD player in case you were wondering how I was going to play it. He was right, it was a tremendous album and they became one of the biggest bands of the ’90’s.
For a brief time in the ’90’s record stores would have midnight openings so that you could be the first to get a new album. So at 12:01am Tuesday morning, the Den would open for an hour or so, and you could get the music. Now this was only for BIG releases. I remember going for Guns and Roses, Use your Illusions 1 & 2. So you are going home at 1am with about 155 minutes of new music to listen to. Brilliant.
After college I moved to Western New York and instantly found the record store there. I would go there on Tuesdays and see what came out. I would go through their used CD bins and pick up albums that I needed, or thought the $4.99 price was worth the risk based on the cover art of the CD.
Now, eventually, listening stations came out and that was a great move by the record stores. They would highlight bands and put in 10 CD’s in a 10 disc changer and you could control what you wanted to listen to. So you could sit there and listen to the songs before buying them. I bought SO much music this way. One of my all time favorite bands, I discovered this way. They were the Refreshements then, but have evolved into Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers. I was in a record store and cued them up on a listening station and 20 years later, I have all of their music and seen him 6 times in concert.
The other thing I remember is how a newly opened CD smelled. It has it’s own scent. It’s kind of sweet, yet industrial, but unmistakeable. Like new car smell.
I moved to Washington state and lived in Pullman for 3 years after that, and had to cross a state line to go to a record store. There was one in Moscow ID about 9 miles away if I wanted to get my fix. Then I moved down to Boise and found the Record Exchange and it is beautiful. CD’s everywhere and at least 6 listening stations.
While it is so easy to stream or buy music though iTunes, the bands that I consider “mine”, I will still go and buy their CD. I feel I owe it to them for some reason, and I like to have something to look at, something to hold. I still like to read lyrics from the liner because sometimes you just want to know, what was it that Dave Grohl just screamed? New CD’s still have that smell and it brings me right back to the Discount Den.
I hope there are record stores around forever. I hope to bring my kids to one soon and show them how it used to be. It is something I am not willing to give up on. Like Penny Lane says in the movie Almost Famous, “Whenever I am lonely, I just go down the the record store, and visit my friends”.
