Classic Plastic by Cooper St. James

COLUMN: CLASSIC PLASTIC

AUTHOR: COOPER ST. JAMES host of WLUW’s Random Acts of Radio

DATE: MAY 2010

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking…so dig deep, the season has begun for some good old fashion album collecting! Having just spun another successful National Record Store Day (April 17th^th) and with retail monitoring services announcing a 30% increase in vinyl albums sales over the last 5 years…its obvious that these round 12 inched plastic things are here to stay….or rather rolling and rocking their way on back, baby!

My 7 year old nephew calls them…giant CDs

For you collectors, I suggest a few tips in getting your best bang for your buck making every penny spent a sound investment. Collect to please yourself and nobody else...stay thirsty my friend. What we will do over the next few months in this new column dedicated to sweet vinyl is chat about albums…very simply the hobby, the culture, the music, the art and all things side A to side B. So let us call this monthly column CLASSIC PLASTIC from here on in!

In the future I will recount the hours spent knee deep in vinyl and what can be done to distinguish the good from the bad and the ugly. (Very little is bad by the way) I don’t wanna come across as “sensitive pony tail guy” but with the average used record price of 4 dollars ….how can you go wrong? Just start and start with your ears, eyes and heart…building a collection starts with one single album….indeed that journey of a thousand miles starts with a single foot step…oh damn.

Future sides of this column will discuss collecting by the artist (ala family tree), collecting by labels, collecting certain periods or genres and most definitely we will discuss collecting by what I really dig….artwork. Let me tip my hand right here and now, my biggest pet peeve, and a mistake that I surely have made….

Don’t judge an album by its cover!!

….remember this maxim dear Johnny collector…for as you know not 1 but 2 of last century’s greatest albums have been plain covered…NO ART…zero graphics to judge. Can you name them? That’s right… Spinal Tap’s Black Album (that’s the one about the glove)….and I think the Beatles did an album that was white or something like that. It also goes with out saying that album art will be a huge currency for debate in future columns…we can get down for years just on that alone.

So Classic Plastic is a column to discuss just that… the world of album collecting, listening to our precious albums, the culture, tips, music all abound and mostly just random stuff about ALL THINGS FLAT AND PLASTIC! Yes, those things that transform vibrated sound waves from plastic to memories, that were packaged in their Sundays best, many of which were over produced, and some your mother tossed out when you moved away to college...can now be found at your neighborhood record store for 4 bucks….and you love them, don’t you? Cha cha cha.