today’s been one of those days where i listen exclusively to music i enjoyed from 2000-2001, a formative time in my musical life. prior to that point, my musical tastes were… well, shitty. i don’t know, the whole thing makes me reflective about the past and different times. it’s a good feeling.

i’ve had some mixed feelings about new music lately. my three most recent cd purchases didn’t end up so hot. i hadn’t heard any of my purchases, but they were all new cds from bands i loved. two out of three were disappointing and the third cd that i liked was a 5-song EP. not so good!

however, the last few records i’ve DOWNLOADED for free i’ve enjoyed thoroughly. go figure, i try to help out the music industry and i get it backwards.

one new development in my music buying world is the introduction of VINYL to my musical universe. i’ve never really been a collector of vinyl. i can certainly appreciate the benefits of it - the amazing sound and the beautiful artwork.

i have about 10-15 albums i’ve accumulated on vinyl over the years, but i’ve never actually paid for any of it. i acquired them during my years working at universal music. i have some vinyl from ryan adams, thursday, rival schools, johnny cash. mostly over the years i’ve put them in those cool album artwork picture frames and that’s been the end of it.

i knew eventually someday i’d spend the money to get a solid record player and a solid sound system and it would be cool to have some vinyl.

well, very recently, polyvinyl records announced the re-release of three of ida’s first albums - “i know about you”, “tales of brave ida”, and “ten small paces” - which are all albums that i love. the re-release was vinyl only and i don’t even have these albums on CD, so i thought.. why not now? the price was very reasonable, so i placed a pre-order.

ida is one of my all-time favorite bands. the kind of band that i’ve listened to for years and will continue to listen to for years to come.

so coming relatively soon, i will now officially be entering a new realm as a music consumer. we have a nice record player downstairs that the roommates have been playing old LPs on. i’m excited to join them with my new ida records.

my next vinyl purchase is already on the horizon. aereogramme (another of my all-time favorite bands) is releasing their entire discography in a vinyl boxset with crazy new artwork and liner notes and plenty of other goodies. it’s too cool to pass up, so i’ll probably be getting that as well. i just hope it’s reasonably priced so i don’t break the bank.

the hope is that someday far into the future, i will pull an old record player out of a hidden away box and play the music for my children or grandchildren while they try and wrap their heads around something as confusing as music that isn’t in downloadable digital form.