From Blown Speakers

Tuesday, August 31, 2021
bring your record player and your raincoats 45s

I'm moving. It's the first time I've done it in close to a decade and a half.

Last time around I hauled most of my CDs here and I had far less records. This time around, the records are gonna be a real pain in the ass to move, but I also decided to get rid of the CDs.

I've always been more of a pack rat than a Marie Kondo disciple, but tossing clothes that don't fit or are long past their prime (anyone need a thrifted dress shirt screen printed by long defunct band post-hardcore band Your Enemies' Friends?) was still a lot easier than getting rid of these fucking CDs.

It's not like I even have any way to play them right now. I'm two desktops past the last one that had a drive and the CD player I got in 2001 finally decided to kick the bucket a few years ago, replaced by a series of Amazon Echoes that can fire up Spotify even when my hands are wrist deep in dish water or when I'm just too lazy to get up off of the couch.

But man, they were still hard to get rid of.

I could remember exactly when I bought some of them. And if I couldn't remember the precise time, there were so many that were acquired following roughly the same sequence of events: saving up what little expendable income I had, taking a couple buses for an hour or more (each way) from Richmond to downtown, and eagerly handing over a wad of cash to Scratch or Zulu or A&B Sound or Virgin Megastore.

I traded in a box full at Red Cat, who were exceptionally generous considering CDs are relatively worthless now, save for a few extremely rare ones (anyone wanna buy Colin Meloy Sings Morrissey?). And it was weird to feel excited to get anything, but at the same time thinking about not only how much money I spent on all those little plastic circles, but how much value they had to me at one time.

And it was nice to just look through them and listen--on Spotify or iTunes--to some records I hadn't thought of in ages.

I posted an Instagram story a week or so ago with the above photo and a mostly joking "anyone need 400 CDs?" And I have to say, I was shocked when my friend David (who you might remember as the proprietor of Zoo Zhop, RIP) sent me a message to say he'd "happily take all of them."

I was pretty happy that they'd be saved from a landfill (or recycling--can you even recycle CDs?), but I was even happier once I drove them over to him and we spent an hour or so throwing some on and talking about bands we remembered and bands we'd forgotten

Having the vast majority of modern music at your fingertips is surely superior in almost every way to having to acquire songs via physical media, but the flip side is that if all I have is my brain thinking of what I might want to listen to, there's so much I forget versus being able comb through a stack of albums.

I think it was maybe an old Chart article, but I've had a quote buried on my Facebook profile that really sums up how fleeting (for that writer) mp3s were. And that's even more pronounced in the streaming era:

“I mourn all the songs deleted from hard drives over the last ten years that would have been tolerated and eventually, perhaps, fallen in love with if they were on cassettes or LPs or CDs”

I'd go on to say that, even if you were in love with those songs already, having them kicking around in physical form means you might fall in love with them again too.

now playing: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! - The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth

posted by Quinn @ 1:15 a.m. Comments:0

Monday, June 07, 2021
i stay polite. it keeps me alive

now playing: Laura Stevenson - State

posted by Quinn @ 9:24 p.m. Comments:0

Tuesday, March 09, 2021
he offers us a ride. i reply, "no, that's alright"

What a beautiful, gut punch of a song.

now playing: Lucy Dacus - Thumbs

posted by Quinn @ 3:16 p.m. Comments:0

Monday, January 04, 2021
after those who mean it. and do it to survive

Here is some music I really enjoyed this year.

Albums:

Phoebe Bridgers - Punisher

Waxahatchee - Saint Cloud

Fiona Apple - Fetch the Bolt Cutters

Freddie Gibbs - Alfredo

Frances Quinlan - Likewise

Songs:

Laura Stevenson - After Those Who Mean It

John K. Samson - Fantasy Baseball At the End of the World

Phoebe Bridgers - Garden Song

Waxahatchee - Ruby Falls

Sun June - Karen O

Boldy James feat. the Alchemist and Benny the Butcher - Scrape the Bowl

Idles - Mr. Motivator

Tobe Nwigwe feat. Royce da 5'9" and Black Thought - Father Figure

Soccer Mommy - Circle the Drain

The Killers - Imploding the Mirage

Shows:

Frances Quinlan and Mary Lattimore @ the Fox

posted by Quinn @ 9:44 p.m. Comments:0

Wednesday, December 30, 2020
good news

I'm sure this will come up a lot as this exercise goes on, but that Bad Channels record really made me nostalgic. I actually played with them (with a different band--we just shared a bill) twice in 2012 and these days I barely pick up my guitar. Also, Brent remains a great friend and around this time last year, I "DJ'd" he and his wife Cindy's 10th anniversary party at the ANZA.

As for the music, it's exactly the type of music I think of when I think of Brent. He actually has a really wide range of things he likes, but these poppy punk songs that straddle the line between modern and classic sound like the amalgamation of what I think his favourite sounds are (minus Motorhead).

Going through all of these records in alphabetical order made me realize I actually don't own Julien Baker's sophomore record, Turn Out the Lights. I was going along thinking that I was still buying all the records I really, really liked in the era of streaming, but that was definitely one of my favourites of 2017 and I never ended up picking it up.

It's been awhile since I sat down with her debut and I honestly couldn't remember how much I'd listened to it when it was released. Turns out, it was a lot, as every song was instantly familiar. And while she's grown a lot as a songwriter in the last 5-years, it's still a strong listen front to back.

now playing: Julien Baker - Ballad of Big Nothing

posted by Quinn @ 1:37 a.m. Comments:0

Tuesday, December 22, 2020
hey meet me in the city

I have to admit that I had the Babe Rainbow EP running at the wrong RPMs, but even (not chopped, but) screwed Cam's weirdo instrumental jams are something I like a lot. It's not the type of thing I'm going to wear out nowadays, but definitely a record that I can see myself going back to more often than some of the harsh noise records that have/are yet to come.

Whenever I think of the Babies first record, I think of New York, because "Meet Me in the City" was on a playlist that I listened to more or less on repeat as I zipped around the 7 boroughs, the first time I was there in 2011. And that song in particular, makes me think of the L train emerging from underneath the East River as it rumbles into Manhattan. Which is a long way of saying, both of these albums made me feel a hit of nostalgia.

Kevin Morby's songwriting's become more refined over the decade since, but back then he could still write a helluva hook and they're all over both of these albums.

now playing: Boldy James feat. the Alchemist and Benny the Butcher - Scrape the Bowl

posted by Quinn @ 12:35 a.m. Comments:0

Thursday, December 17, 2020
in the red

This isn't the type of music I'll ever get sick of. And further to that, 10-months after the last indoor show that I've seen, listening to this pair of B-Lines records, made me long for being crammed into a sweaty venue, where beer cans are flying and beer may or may not be being spit into the air.

As I continue the march into middle age (I'm 39 tomorrow), a typical B-Lines show is the type of thing I figured I'd be less and less inclined to attend, but after being cooped up in the house for months, it'd be a dream to be able to let loose and fire back the same kind of adolescent energy that these songs are firing at you.

now playing: Chubby and the Gang - Chubby and the Gang Rule, Ok?

posted by Quinn @ 11:56 p.m. Comments:0