Page 12 February 2009

ENTERTAINMENT

2008 vinyl sales double

By Whitney Bysterveldt

Panther Post

The release of Nielson Co. music sales numbers for 2008 marked a trend in the return of media that mainly your parents got the pleasure of indulging in: vinyl. Fortunately for myself, my parents were not wise to the wonders of technology back in the late 80s and early 90s. Instead of upgrading to the constant rewinding and fast-forward- ing marvel of modernity cassette play- ers brought to the masses, they stuck to the old MGA turntables.

Although their collection of records was pretty pitiful in comparison to the reserves some nostalgic music buffs boast today it still held some gems. I still recall dancing around in the liv- ing room to the sounds of Eric Clap- ton, Tom Petty, Fleetwood Mac, Bruce Springsteen and for some strange rea- son Meatloaf (who knew my mom was into Meatloaf?). Those records were never put away into the corner of a basement or attic like many others when the creative destruction process of technology reared its ugly head. In- stead I got the pleasure of inheriting that collection and adding to it over the years. I’m one of the many contrib- uting to the twofold increase in vinyl sales for Canada last year and encour- aging you to be part of that swelling figure.

There’s something about the raw and authentic sound from vinyl that seems to have been lost in the polish and over-enhanced digitalization of modern music. The experience of us- ing a record player itself adds to it. Some may consider it to be a tedious task, constantly flipping from A side to B side or assiduously positioning the needle to hear a specific track. I don’t see it that way and Nudie, lead singer of Nudie and the Turks and Back Alley Music part timer, doesn’t either.

“The process of pulling it out flipping it admiring the artwork, liner notes, looking at it, it’s more aesthetically

pleasing,” he boasts.

As vinyl sales seem to skyrocket, Nudie could be right.

The record player epitomizes what the recording of music is all about: listening to it. People who grew up with record players really listened to the music. They didn’t constantly skip songs, listen to scattered playlists on random or download a few singles from radio rotation. It was all about the album, what songs made it to the A side and which ones were delegated to B. The sequence of songs on the album had much more relevance and were telling of the artist’s own taste about their own art (or in some cases their record label). The process of us- ing a record player forces the user to actively listen and pay attention to the record rather than subject the music to

being mere background noise. So for ||

those of you who are true music lovers go to your local music retailers or the flea market, scour your parents’ base- ment and attic. You don’t have to com- pletely disregard the likes of iTunes and iPods but sometimes it’s best to just dance around in your living room to the scratchy sounds of needle on vi- nyl.

PANTHER POST

Wintersleep lights up The Wave

Wintersleep lead singer Paul Murphy sings and plays guitar at a big show at The Wave on January 21. Bysterveldt photo