There’s no such thing as a guilty pleasure when it comes to collecting records. You own it because you want to, whether it be Supertramp’s “Breakfast in America” or Jodie Foster’s Army’s “Valley of the Yakes.” There should be no shame in owning Nolan Thomas’ “Yo Little Brother” (look it up and thank me later) despite ownership likely raising an eyebrow by the dude who owns that aforementioned J.F.A. record.
If you go
WHAT: Record Sale and Swap from the Four Corners Vinyl Record Club.
WHEN: 9 a.m. Saturday.
WHERE: La Plata County Fairgrounds, 2500 Main Ave.
MORE INFORMATION: Email animasman@hotmail.com.
LPs will be on full display Saturday when the Four Corners Vinyl Record Club hosts its annual record show at the La Plata County Fairgrounds. It’s a gathering of hundreds of vinyl record enthusiasts, a celebration of all things LP and a chance for you to kick off those guilty pleasures, find some early ’80s hardcore or that Zappa bootleg.
“It’s everything related to vinyl records,” said Phil Gallacher, who runs the record club and organizes the event, taking over the duties from Robert Stapleton, who owned the now closed, Main Avenue record store Southwest Sound. “I was on the younger end of some of these guys that have been record collecting all their lives, and I was a good bridge from some of the older generation guys that have been doing it since I was a kid. I’ve been going to record shows since I was a kid and remember the good things that I bought back in the ’80s and ’90s. So it was a natural thing for me to take it over.”
Owning records is owning art. Look at the cover of King Crimson’s “In The Court of the Crimson King” or any Yes album and you’re holding a solid piece of pop culture with frameable visuals in addition to the audio; there’s also the nostalgia factor.
“You can look at the pictures and read the lyrics and look at the artwork and just hold it in your hands. And I think the younger generation now coming up, parents are moving on and have really turned them on to the enjoyment of the hobby, plus the quality sound of course that goes without saying, and the neat stereo equipment, the sound of the needle hitting the record,” said Gallacher who talks of records with giddy enthusiasm. “So there’s a lot to be said for the world that we’re in today and why people love music and on vinyl record formats specifically.”
Maybe you’ll find an obscure Townes Van Zandt LP, or a first pressing punk record from the Dischord Label with the original price of $4.00 stamped on the hand-glued jacket (if you find either buy them), or perhaps that new Neko Case LP that dropped this year.
“There’s vendors of all shapes and sizes, and really anything that’s playable can be sellable. And it’s all different genres, but there’s a few vendors that sell just specifically high-end stuff. You know, when your record player costs as much as your car does, then you want to play a really high-quality record on it. And so there will be some really high-quality pressing stuff that can be hundreds of dollars,” Gallacher said. “There can be just really oddball rarities that go, it’s not your average record, but there are definitely some of those in there for sure.”
It’s a unique culture. These are people who have bucked the trend of the single, favoring owning and listening to a full record over buying one song at a time via their phone. They are the music lovers you see regularly in Durango’s now two record stores, people who never ditched their turntables.
“There’s nothing like getting a bunch of people shoulder to shoulder to, you know, pour over boxes of records,” Gallacher said. “You just never know what you’re going to find.”
Bryant Liggett is a freelance writer and KDUR station manager. Reach him at liggett_b@fortlewis.edu.
