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Record Collector Of The Month: March 2021

Written By Michele - March 24 2021

Tell us a little bit about yourself: I’m Joseph. I’m in my mid to late 30’s and live in NYC (Astoria, Queens). My collection is a little over 1,000 records, 150 CD’s (down from almost 5,000 before a necessary purge for space) and 15 lonely cassettes. I started collecting mainly early-mid 00’s emo, pop-punk & hardcore, but have moved to “anything I may want to listen to” with e complete collections of Matt & Kim, Murder by Death, The Juliana Theory (I’m actually real deep on this, and only hunting Promotional CD’s/cassettes), Thick and The Explosion. Almost complete is Cold War Kids and Minus the Bear. Other than vinyl, I’m a huge Disney World fan, being an Annual Passholder despite living in NYC. I can be found on the internet under the name momentumlost on almost any platform.

First album: The Thursday Thrice Split 7”. I picked it up at HMV on a spring break trip to Montreal in 2003 while a friend of mine and I were enjoying the local libations a bit too much. When I got home I wound up buying a record player just to play it.

Favorite album: Thrice - The Artist in the Ambulance. This is a formative album for me, coming out when I was in college and I had to have worn out at least 3 cd’s of it back in the day.

Favorite Enjoy The Ride or Enjoy The Toons release: I missed out on a bunch of the OG ones but managed to pick up a copy of the self titled Good Charlotte album you guys did. Beyond that I’d kill for the Something Corporate albums and The Young & The Hopeless. As for what I own, My favorite Is Romance in the Digital Age. The movie was great and the soundtrack is amazing. I also have a test pressing of Fairweather - Lusitania I love since it’s a top 20 album of all time for me. My Fiance and I have been picking up the Nicktoons soundtracks you guys have been putting out as well and those are a ton of fun!

Favorite album artwork: This is a 3 way tie for me:

Fall Out Boy - Take This to Your Grave (1st pressing) as I love how it was just a photoshoot in Pete’s childhood bedroom.

Oasis - Be Here Now is just so grand in it’s excess and of course Noel Gallagher would reuse the riff for Wonderwall on the first song and bury it under 7 more guitar tracks and show off by putting a Rolls Royce in a swimming pool.

The Dust Brothers - Fight Club (Mondo pressing). I’m such a sucker for packaging and this album is some of the most inventive. Having to tear the cover open to get to the records inside is also crazy and goes against everything I do to keep my records looking great, but fits the vibe from the movie perfectly.

What are your favorite local record shops to support? Limited to One in Manhattan is my go to spot with Generation Records on Thompson St being a close number 2. A special shout out to Hifi Records here in Astoria for having a great selection and being within a 10 minute walk from my doorstep.

What have you been listening to more frequently lately? Britpop. Summer 2019 I fell down an hole of listening to Oasis all day everyday and the furthest I’ve climbed out of it is other Britpop bands. The most common ones being Sleeper, Blur, The Verve, Travis, Supergrass and of course, Oasis and both brothers solo work. It’s gotten to the point I’ve started collecting Oasis bootlegs on vinyl just for some fresh stuff. It’s basically 1996 in my speakers most of the time.

Any specific albums you wish you had on vinyl? The big 3 are 3 that I sold over the years and regret giving up: Finch - What it is to Burn, The Movielife - 40 Hour Train (1st pressing on marbled green) and Coheed & Cambria - 2nd Stage Turbine Blade. I’m also kicking myself for not picking up the first Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds album or Blur’s 13 at the beginning of the pandemic as both went between pressings and the prices are insane right now. Thankfully both are backorder titles that their respective major labels will restock (it just might suck to import them from the UK when they do come back)

What was the best album(s) you've discovered this year (it can be anything, doesn't have to be a new release): The Verve - Urban Hymns. While I knew Urban Hymns from the single “Bittersweet Symphony”, the album is damn near perfect from beginning to end. Jaded Hearts Club - You’ve Always Been Here. This is a supergroup with members of Muse, Blur, Jet, The Last Shadow Puppets & The Zutons. All rock & roll covers and each one slays. “Reach Out and I’ll Be There” in particular hits hard.

What upcoming releases are you most excited about? For New Music it would have to be Death from Above 1979 - Is 4 Lovers. As far as a vinyl issue of an older album, I’m stoked on the Her soundtrack (Arcade Fire & Owen Pallett) finally getting pressed. Liam Gallagher keeps teasing new songs he’s working on, so I’m pretty stoked on that too.

Who is a band or artist that you think are underrated that we should give a listen to? Thick. They are a pop-punk band from Brooklyn and kill it. Over several EP’s and their full length (5 Years Behind, on Epitaph) they haven’t written a single bad song. Their Mansplain video is perfect. My personal favorite song is Green Eyes from their self titled EP.

Scenario time! If you could create a vinyl variant for any album (already pressed or never been pressed before), what would it look like? Feel free to get creative with this one, its always awesome to hear what different features everyone likes! Zolof the Rock and Roll Destroyer - Jalopy Go Far. I LOVE this band and it sucks none of their work ever made it to vinyl. A colorful copy of this with a nice 2 color pressing in Blue/Orange to match the art would be amazing. I’m a sucker for the inside/outside look that a bunch of late 00’s records had (similar to the “galaxy” pressings that seem to be getting popular these days, but where the A side and Bside colors are reversed. Portugal the Man - Church Mouth on Suburban Home has this, as does the Black Red pressing of All-American Rejects Move On). With a nice chipboard cover, it would be a snap buy for me.