Spring Break
The Daily OrangeGet offline and save your local record store, one album at a time
By Nathan Mattise
Posted: 3/31/08, 11:37 PM EST Section: Feature
College is the time to get the name of a CD you won't hear on the radio anytime soon and feel the need to own it immediately. None of this circle of melodic life exists without the local record store.
"You're in college not to learn the same old stuff, you want to learn new things so you don't just listen to the radio anymore," Watson said. "You want new bands and new music. Major record stores carry stuff just from the major distributors. They won't have indie things we carry - the psychadelic jazz, the local acts. And if you can't find it here, we can special order things. You can't do that at Best Buy or FYE."
In pre-iTunes days, all of this meant heading down to charming hole-in-the-walls like Syracuse's own Sound Garden. You'd have to physically enter the store lined with posters, interact with the musical librarian behind the cash register and inevitably end up buying three CDs more than you intended. Here at Syracuse, this experience still exists. Our fellow college students nationwide aren't as fortunate.
Back home, without a local record store, the first three CDs I ever owned were (in no particular order): "What's The Story Morning Glory," by Oasis; "Saturday Night Fever," a soundtrack mainly featuring The Bee Gees; and "Bad Hair Day," by Weird Al.
Here in Syracuse with access to engage my basic musical right to listen, the last three CDs I bought were by Nas, The National and Phil Collins. If that doesn't prove my point nothing will.
So it's time for the local music scenes to bond together. Avoid the temptations of LimeWire. Promise yourself to invest in a new release once a month. Acquire albums of every band you see live. Take the "Pay it Forward" mentality and introduce one new music enthusiast to the local record store then encourage them to do the same. Put your headphones down and do something.
Remember, the next time a Dell commercial comes on and you sense your toes tapping, avoid iTunes or the Hype Machine. Buy that Flaming Lips album locally. Your college music experience may depend on it. You know the alternative; nobody wants to be stuck with the radio. My friend Leslie says they play that Hannah Montana tune all the time.
Nathan Mattise is a weekly pop-culture columnist for The Daily Orange. His columns appear on Tuesdays. His floor music snob freshman year was named Christopher, and he'd appreciate a Beulah shout out here. Mattise can be reached at nzmattis@syr.edu.
"You're in college not to learn the same old stuff, you want to learn new things so you don't just listen to the radio anymore," Watson said. "You want new bands and new music. Major record stores carry stuff just from the major distributors. They won't have indie things we carry - the psychadelic jazz, the local acts. And if you can't find it here, we can special order things. You can't do that at Best Buy or FYE."
In pre-iTunes days, all of this meant heading down to charming hole-in-the-walls like Syracuse's own Sound Garden. You'd have to physically enter the store lined with posters, interact with the musical librarian behind the cash register and inevitably end up buying three CDs more than you intended. Here at Syracuse, this experience still exists. Our fellow college students nationwide aren't as fortunate.
Back home, without a local record store, the first three CDs I ever owned were (in no particular order): "What's The Story Morning Glory," by Oasis; "Saturday Night Fever," a soundtrack mainly featuring The Bee Gees; and "Bad Hair Day," by Weird Al.
Here in Syracuse with access to engage my basic musical right to listen, the last three CDs I bought were by Nas, The National and Phil Collins. If that doesn't prove my point nothing will.
So it's time for the local music scenes to bond together. Avoid the temptations of LimeWire. Promise yourself to invest in a new release once a month. Acquire albums of every band you see live. Take the "Pay it Forward" mentality and introduce one new music enthusiast to the local record store then encourage them to do the same. Put your headphones down and do something.
Remember, the next time a Dell commercial comes on and you sense your toes tapping, avoid iTunes or the Hype Machine. Buy that Flaming Lips album locally. Your college music experience may depend on it. You know the alternative; nobody wants to be stuck with the radio. My friend Leslie says they play that Hannah Montana tune all the time.
Nathan Mattise is a weekly pop-culture columnist for The Daily Orange. His columns appear on Tuesdays. His floor music snob freshman year was named Christopher, and he'd appreciate a Beulah shout out here. Mattise can be reached at nzmattis@syr.edu.
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