Well, first of all, thanks to all of you who have made this past week one of our best this year. I can’t say I am happy to see the tail end of the summer, but I am glad to see people back from holidays and the place buzzing again.
People still love vinyl, and it is clear that it is far from being a dance music phenomenon-last week’s new stock was mostly, in the words of our great Lord Rat “Arty, Indie, Classic, Groovy and darkly Metallic Rock”, and our customers made a pagan feast of it!!
Now I never really fancied myself as a record collector, I would rather see myself as mildly addicted to music… a bit of a geek possibly but a collector, no way. As far as I was concerned, a record was always meant to be played (to myself or to a crowd, depending), not shelved in some kind of precious, order no one else can figure. The truth is that this job has radically changed my views on this subject and I am now in the obligation to admit it to myself : I have ceased to purchase records that are scratched or worn out, and that is the definite sign that I am now a snob.
Comes in a book that was given to me by a friend : Brett Milano’s “vinyl Junkies”.
The book is nicely written and all that, but it is the chapter on the psychological side of collecting that really got my attention :
“The line between a serious music fan and a collector is thin but definite. It’s clear that if someone keeps buying vinyl in the 21st century, he or she is on the road to collecting-but if you start being more worried about preserving them, then it is now time to accept you might be a true collector.”
Now I know that often, collectors of all kinds are generally seen with anal and possibly socially retarded, but I am relieved to have found in this book a totally reassuring analogy that has restored my faith in myself. Check this one out from a rather unique elaboration by the psychologist Werner Muensterberger :
“There are, to be sure, all sorts of collectors and facets of collecting. While one would not normally think of the infamous Spanish nobleman Don Juan Tenorio as a collector, did he not in fact, ‘collect’ the chaste young maidens he seduced one after the other?”
“In other words, to treat collecting as a safe outlet for promiscuity, to follow crushes and make conquests! And you don’t have to unload the old passions when you move on, you can just file them in the basement and possibly rekindle the old affair someday…”
I just LOVE that !!!! I LOVE it!
Right, to the records coming out this Saturday now : this is in the direct continuity of last week, with the added spice of an incredible collection of 90’s indie (to name some labels : Creation, Guernica, 4AD, Hut, Heavenly, Dedicated, Sub Pop, K recordings, Mute……to name bands : Nick cave and Birthday Party, Pj Harvey, Beck, Cocteau twins, Pixies, Nirvana , Mazzy Star, Radiohead and a lot more obscure for you connoisseurs! ).
This collection is basically as good as new… if the guy who sold it to us ever played these records, then he must have been wearing gloves.
There’s a great bunch of classic elctronica including Squarepusher and Aphex Twin, a lot more Classic Rock and Metal, and some absolute gems such as original copy of Scott 2, the red (or is it pink?) cover Neu lp…. (must have a name but I can’t find it..), a great amount of top notch rare groove collections from the likes of Blue note and Capitol and of course, still plenty of reggae and soul goodies, lp’s from the likes of Mary Hopkin, Atomic rooster, East of Eden, Robert Calvert, Utopia, Eath and Fire and so much more !!!
So I am looking forward to see you down next week and maybe some of you can post comments to let us know what sort of method you have to file your amazing collection…
All the best.
Ok so this has to stop… and it has to stop NOW!
Let me explain : I have ALREADY read and seen “High Fidelity” thank you. And yes there are some similarities between the shop depicted in the film and Rat Records… after all, both sell music
and we do have a certain amount of loonies walking in and a few good looking ladies who might or might not be musicians and I’d go as far as admitting that we’re all a bit nerdy in our own perfectly nice ways..apart from Tom who is just going bald-and that is tough enough indeed…but this is where it ends.
Neither the film or the book are actually about music or a record shop, they are about a man losing the plot during a bad phase of mid life crisis after he gets dumped and starts making a top 5 of the worse breakups in his life and goes looking for them…. I mean, Tom and Dom are happily married for long enough they might even claim to understand women, and Matthew is in a potentially fatal relationship (only joking Matt) and I….. well…I am working here because music is my first love and as those who can bare the sound of Scott Walker’s crooning will attest, “first love never ever dies”. But I am French and as such I have of course never ever been dumped, and my “mid life crisis” started when I was 12 years old and never really ended since. And of course, WE at Rat Records, are actually nice to you, our lovely customers and our shop is mostly buzzing which is thanks to you all (this past Saturday was great!)
Right, so this has hopefully boosted my chances of never being offered yet another copy of the book or the DVD. Thank you.
Now to the records in our rack this coming Saturday : our drawers are litterally bursting full of vinyl, so get ready for a treat! We have enough stock for a good 3 weeks worth of goodies, including classic originals by Fela Kuti, Pink Floyd, Beatles, Creedence, Velvet Underground, Soft Machine, Kevin Ayers, Sly Stone, Beefheart, Parliament and Bootsy, Herbie Hancock, Curtis “pusherman” Mayfield…the list goes on, I will spare you my endless list of obscurities this time around, but you gotta believe there’s a lot for those of you who are on an eternal mission, looking for that elusive 60’s rarity that you can’t afford from E Bay but Tom has gracefully priced under a tenner (best bargain of last week : Joe Thomas “The Ebony Godfather” at £7.00…. I nearly had a heart attack!).
There are some compilations from the great Jazz giants Blue note and Impulse, some frankly twisted experimental bits (anyone tried an record called “music with 58 musicians vol 1 ?), some really good bits of 60’s and 70’s folk rock, a lot of Dance, Disco, Soul and Hip Hop 12’s, a few good little boxets of Drum and Bass and classic Techno and a charming little collection of Metal.
Seriously, the guys who made it on Saturday were well impressed and I expect more of the same grins at the counter this coming week end.
All the best my pretties!!!