The CD Racks

After locating one of the two copies of Damien Jurado's Saint Bartlett at Amoeba today, something drew me to the CD aisles. I occasionally make brief runs through the endless CD aisles to try and find the long sought-after EP (Son Volt's Switchback), but it's been years since I ended doing what I was doing today: just looking for CDs.

Many of my friends have ripped their entire CD collections, tossed it all on a backup and done away with the CDs. Whenever I'd hear this I'd think, "I guess I'm moving towards digital but I don't see myself going this route." And thank god I didn't. Because I'm actually reversing course. I know I've discussed this before, but my desire for physical is now back in full force. It's been years since I've even looked in the iTunes store and I'm now starting to consider bidding farewell to eMusic. I don't want my new releases in digital only. As an example, I recently picked up The New Pornographers' Together via eMusic and boy was the vinyl eye-ing me today.

Maybe it was my recent hard-drive crash that tossed me completely into the past. I had most of my stuff backed up, but the experience just left a bad taste in my mouth. This isn't how music's supposed to be experienced. When Apple tossed me a new drive, I loaded about 1/4 of my digital collection back into iTunes and left the rest on the external. Is this all because I'm a purist? Well, yeah, kinda, but it's also because not only do I appreciate the better sound, artwork and such, but I think my favorite artists deserve full payment (Oh my lord, now I'm moving against illegal downloading (Well, I've always kinda been against it, in some fashion, although I don't find it "wrong" for people to be grabbing stuff via torrent sites. I think it's sort of an ethical thing, kinda.))

This post has been a bit of a mess, but I'm just happy to be back to listening to music as I think it's meant to be heard: via a physical product. Now I've gotta turn over Saint Bartlett.

Comments

  1. MannionMay 26, 2010 at 8:04 PM

    The random CD pull is one of the best gambles out there.

    Next time you have a long car ride walk to your CD rack, close your eyes and pull 10 random discs. Pull the CD's out of the covers (With your eyes still closed) and put them in your car. Surprise yourself and limit your listening to those CD's alone. You would be amazed at what you pull and how asinine your tastes once were. Conversely, how psyched are you if you pulled Bruce or Son Volt or some other random band you post about that I have never heard of?

    I look forward to a future post to see what you pulled and what you were thinking when you purchased?

    ReplyDelete

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