.february vinyl haul

A great haul! Stoked for these!

Lately I haven't purchased anything from Vinyl Me Please. All of the bands I've seen in concert I've been picking up their albums. When A comes to visit we usually hit up some of my favorite record stores. This time we had a mission to search for some 7" albums. A has never been to Haddonfield Record Exchange. They usually have a decent array of 7" albums. I scored New Kids on the Block and Debbie Gibson last time. What I found this time was amazing. One of the earliest albums my parents bought me was at age 3: Duran Duran - Wild Boys. For that album to be displayed in the front of the bin was just practically calling out to me. I snatched it up. I also found Madonna - True Blue (the vinyl is actually blue!), Wang Chung - Everybody Have Fun Tonight (I owned this at age 5), Blondie - The Tide is High, Run DMC - Walk This Way, and the iconic "Two of Hearts" by Stacey Q. At the register they usually have some neat vintage pins. I picked up Thompson Twins, Janis Joplin, Eurythmics, and Duran Duran. $1.50 each.

Our second stop was Innergroove. Last time my major scores were Hole, Nirvana, and Smashing Pumpkins 7" albums. Ironically I found another Blondie 7" "Rapture" which compliments the one I previously bought. Searching through my favorite section of "Just In!" records I snatched B-52's "Cosmic Thing," Oingo Boingo's "Dead Man's Party" for $20 (cheapest I've seen was $30), and Prince's "1999" for $10. Yaaasss!!!

My new goal is to buy a cork board from Target and arrange my pins in a better fashion. No joke I have at least 150+ pins at this point. I rotate them all as much as I can.   

.hey there hi there

Thanks to Amy and Laura for inspiration, I give you, "Girl + Records." This is basically a side-blog attributed to my love of record shopping and finds. While talking in line before going into a Sleater-Kinney concert, we said we want to bring attention to the awesome females who do collect albums and squash the rumors it's simply a guy thing. I have been collecting records on and off but it's become more of a permanent thing in my 20s.

At the young age of 3 I had one of the infamous Fisher Price record players (see above). Some of my record collection contained the likes of Disney, Sesame Street, and The Chipmunks (The Chipmunks Sing the Blues was my favorite album. Find that for me and you will win my heart forever!) Aside from those I remember owning these three in particular....

Duran Duran's "Wild Boys." I was completely into this band. I remember watching the music video for this song and Rio. Plus they aren't so bad to look at. Today I am still a fan and ironically seeing them this summer in concert.

Madonna's "Lucky Star." On the other side was "Like a Virgin." I had to be five years old but something in me sensed this song was kind of inappropriate and I usually flipped over to "Lucky Star." For some weird reason I would always equate this song with Rainbow Brite.

The one album I remember clearly owning and loving was Cyndi Lauper's "She's So Unusual." I liked it so much because it was different from anything else I've listened to. Her voice at times was like a cartoon character but then her pitch would just increase and she'd nail those notes. 

Around the age of 9 or 10 my parents sold my albums and cassette tapes became a thing. I had this horrid white Sony boombox that would completely annihilate my cassettes leaving me in tears or cursing as I spun the wheels using a pencil to push everything back inside. However, in my 20s I saw a thing of beauty....

I'm not kidding I saved up a month's worth of paychecks at Old Navy to purchase this $249 system of double tape decks, 3 CD changer, and a turntable on the top. Since albums were not in major comeback mode, my collection was limited to yard sales and flea markets. However, as time went by I ditched this monstrosity and went for something smaller. Now everywhere I look little independent record stores are turning up in many places. Barnes and Noble even sells albums. It's great. In my mid-30s I own almost 200 albums. A lot of them were purchased in 2015 which will be my next post. So cheers to all of you who collect albums! Feel free to share your stories below in the comments.