players are a bit of a hassle. Quite a few boutique records don’ t come with the digital, which is kind of a drag, but it also makes listening to them e ven more of a special experience.
Of course“ DJ” is a popular term when y ou think of r ecords, and tha t is a par t of it: techno beats, beat matching, scratching, keeping a dance floor going( living room?), but nowadays all genres of music are being released on vinyl, broadening up the field, and good for just dropping tracks.
Okay, now the question is: where can you get some? Of course this depends on where you live. Many a Smithers DJ has been known to bring a stack of records home on every trip south. In Vancouver, you can take the sky train straight fr om the airport to two record shops that are within a block of each other: Beatstreet Records and Vinyl Records. Both have a great selection of new and used, and each has a unique vibe. Calgary boasts Canada’ s largest used record store down in Inglewood. It’ s called Recordland, a great shop with pr etty much anything you can think of. There’ s also Sloth Records downtown on 17th tha t has the best selection of r eggae and dub, probably in Canada, along with all those new hits the cool kids like so much.
If you live in Smither s or other small towns, you’ re pretty much limited to the thr ift stores, and to your Dad’ s old collection, both of which surprisingly have some gems. Then of course there’ s the Internet. I like to buy most of my online purchases right from the record labels instead of the Inter net version of big bo x stores, but there are also a lot of online r ecord stores with reasonable shipping and great selections.
But by far the best place to get a record is from the artist at a local show, or through their website. This way all the money goes right to them, and helps put gas in the van to get them to the next gig.
There you have it. Now you know records are not just a f ad( they outsell CDs), you know some pros and cons about them, you found out a little bit on ho w they work, and you’ re on track to pick some up to start your own collection.( FYI, most record stores also sell used and ne w turntables.) So get out ther e and start digging through some crates, find a few old favorites and some new gems, and take them home for an e vening of listening one side at a time... the way music was meant to be heard. [ sic ]
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