Record Store Day 2015: The Top Five Reasons I Still Love Listening To Records

Another Record Store Day is upon us, and all the record stores in the area have a ton of stuff planned to entertain you on Saturday, April 18.

But did you know vinyl is making a come back? Many current bands are releasing special editions on thicker, high grade vinyl. And younger people are gravitating toward records once again.

Here's five reasons why vinyl is still my preferred mode of listening to music.

Saturday's festivities will include live music all day at The Corner Record Shop, 3562 Chicago Dr SW Grandville. DangerVille and the beautifully named Overly Polite Tornadoes are among the local bands who will take the stage.

Vertigo Music, 129 S. Division Ave, Downtown Grand Rapids, promises bands and refreshments and "huge stockpiles of killer used vinyl". Staff there recently told me that current musicians releasing new music on vinyl, thanks to boutique sales of old school amps and turntables has been a boon to business. Look for new stuff there from Michigan's Sufjan Stevens and Seattle's Death Cab For Cutie.

Dodd's Record Store, 20 S. Division, Downtown Grand Rapids, has nothing planned that I know of, but is worth a stop just to talk with Reverend Charles Dodd who has a vast treasury of Grand Rapids music memories stored in his head and elsewhere.

The Top Five Reasons I Still Love Listening To Records

1. The Warm Sound: There's something beautiful about listening to records on vinyl through your headphones that you can't get off digital copies. Yes, digital is convenient and portable, but I've yet to hear the alarm clocks on Pink Floyd's 'Dark Side of the Moon' sound as crisp and as clear as they do on the album. Here's the technical reason why records sound better than digital, since I'm finding it hard to tell you in emotional terms.

2. The Album Art: I have bought albums based solely on their cover art. I figured if the art was good, the music had to follow. Besides, you don't hear of any big name artists designing the graphics for modern bands, do you? Back in the day, Warhol and Fantin-LaTour were known to dabble in album covers.

See what I mean?

3. The Liner Notes: Musicians used to put notes and stories about the recording of the album in with the lyrics. Bob Dylan's liner notes used to read like short stories and brought you in closer to the music.  Author Pete Hamill wrote the notes for 'Blood On the Tracks', and it's one of the best examples of what I'm talking about.

"Totalitarian art tells us what to feel. Dylan's art feels, and invites us to join him."

4. The Group Experience: I guess you could listen to digital music in groups and share the experience, but I just don't see it happening that much anymore. Most digital music seems to be absorbed in a very personal manner via headphones. I can remember sharing my new albums by inviting friends over, and then sitting around my dad's stereo and talking about it. Usually it was a comedy album by Cheech and Chong or Richard Pryor. We would then swap lines from the album for weeks at school. Good times.

5. The Record Store: While I mostly was exposed to new music via FM rock stations, there were worker at the local record stores I would visit who would share new music with me, particularly bands who weren't getting airplay like Joy Division or The Ramones. The experience of hanging out at the record store, talking about music with the staff and friends is one of my fondest memories.

And , of course, the record store snobs were always entertaining.