Used Records & Tapes
"We’re always going to need record stores and all that goes with them. And we’ll always need zines and bookstores too. This zine is a marriage of all of those things."
From the introduction to Used Records & Tapes #1
It wasn’t all that long ago that vinyl was declared a dying format, dead even. Compact discs were the future, the record industry said. This justified a jacked-up price for shiny plastic discs that allegedly sounded better and lasted forever. Except they didn’t on both counts. It wasn’t a hard choice for me. Vinyl records were cooler and CDs cost too much anyway.
Something was lost in the rush to make CDs the dominant format, but record companies didn’t miss a dime. Consumers were gouged, but hey, that’s just entertainment. Anyway, music is a luxury, not a necessity, right? Paying too much for music is not real suffering. It is insulting though. Now we’ve flipped the record. Vinyl is back. CDs are wack.
It wasn’t all that long ago that record stores were declared a dying retail format. Dead even. That didn’t happen either and the rebirth of vinyl has a lot to do with that. Music geeks demand vinyl and we want to buy them in record stores. We have spoken. Thanks for listening.
It wasn’t that long ago that cassette tapes were declared a dying format. That’s pretty much true, although there are a few diehard labels out there committed to releasing them. I was one of those diehards and released a limited run of 100 cassettes on my one-release-only label Cassette Pet. I think I have about 87 copies of The Rise and Fall of Soft Targets left if anyone is interested.
It wasn’t that long ago that print was declared a dying format too. Books, magazines, newspapers, and by the same token, bookstores, a thing of the past. But that didn’t really happen either. Not entirely.
Reports of all these deaths have been greatly exaggerated. That brings us to what you are holding in your hands right now. A printed zine about records and tapes: Used Records & Tapes #1. It’s not a buying guide. The records included here aren’t rare. They were purchased used at some point in the last few years. There’s no rhyme or reason to why these particular releases were chosen other than they somehow made themselves available.
We’re always going to need record stores and all that goes with them: browsing the racks, mining for gold, finding it—even selling big and small chunks of our record collections to make ends meet. And we’ll always need zines and bookstores too. This is a marriage of all of those things.
Anyway, here are some reviews Mike Dixon and I wrote about some used records and tapes we found at our favorite used record stores. There are records waiting out there for you too.—Chris Auman, Used Records & Tapes #1
Used Records & Tapes #1
Two artists/writers (and music nerds) Mike Dixon and Chris Auman, put their heads together to create this funny, nostalgic look at records of decade's past. Part illustrated review zine, part perzine, Used Records and Tapes put the fun back in what is often a very boring and pretentious genre.
Reviewed this issue:
A Flock of Seagulls, Asia, The Cars, Falco, Jay Ferguson, James Gang, Guns N Roses, Martha & the Muffins, Men at Work, Thelonious Monster, Mötley Crüe, The Joe Perry Project, The Police, Ramones, Thompson Twins, The Unforgiven, and Yes
Excerpts:
A Flock of Seagulls
"Haircuts aside, A Flock of Seagulls is an underrated band. Wait, hold on a minute, I know what you're thinking (or shouting loudly): "Are you out of your ever-loving mind?" Perhaps, but please hear me out. Haircuts and pop culture references aside, what do you really know about A Flock of Seagulls? Let's review. You may remember the relentless heavy rotation of the "I Ran" video in MTV's infancy when the budding network didn't have a whole hell of a lot of videos to choose from. You are no doubt familiar with the ad-lib made by Samuel L. Jackson in Pulp Fiction: "You, Flock of Seagulls, you know why we're here?" You may have even seen the Bands Reunited episode on VH1 in 2004 which sought to reassemble the original flock. But haircuts, pop culture references, and VH1 TV shows aside, what do you really know about A Flock of Seagulls? I mean really know about them?"
The Cars
"Santa dropped some good vinyl on me one Xmas way back in the day (I imagine the albums were purchased at the downtown Ben Franklin, but that’s mere speculation.) At the time, I hadn’t really progressed much past a Queen fixation. It was pretty much all Queen all the time, actually. So, in what was possibly 1984 or 1985, I got a handful of records which would help get my teenaged brain branching out into different directions. One of the albums I received was The Cars self-titled debut album, ironically enough, produced by Roy Thomas Baker who put the sheen on many a Queen platter."
Reviews of UR&T #1:
"You know when you go to a dude’s place for the first time and he just wants to tell you about every record he has, which is somehow every rock’n’roll record you didn’t want to hear, in turn, and how it was a sweet deal? This is kind of like that, except you can choose to shut it if you don’t want to hear about his complicated relationship with Aerosmith, and there’s no mattress on the floor. Of course, we all think we’re not the dude in question, and we all have been at some point or another, for better or for worse. Better to celebrate the sweet deals and hot wax together than not at all." —Jimmy Cooper, Razorcake
"Reports of the deaths of all sorts of things are greatly exaggerated: vinyl, tapes, CDs record stores, print. Chris and Mike write about some gems they picked up in any number of these formats: Asia, Flock of Seagulls, The Thompson Twins. Part music zine, part perzine, 100% fun.
—Liz Mason, Quimby's
Used Records & Tapes #2
Mike Dixon and Chris Auman enlist the help of fellow zinesters & music nerds to create a new issue of this funny, nostalgic look at records of decades past. This issue features contributions from Liz Mason (Caboose zine), Billy McCall (Proof