Sound Wave, Sculpture by Jean Shin

i hate hearing that too, henrie. plenty of present-day bands continue to produce music on vinyl. sometimes, *just* on vinyl – no CDs.

well, as far as my personal collections, plenty of bands that fall under the overarching umbrella of music made by “independent record labels.” most of the punk rock records i own were only released on vinyl. some bands in what might be more of the “indie” or “college rock” vein do too. i’ve even read somewhere that elvis costello is releasing something solely on vinyl (did Radiohead do this recently? i can’t remember).

anyways, i’m assuming some bands do it for nostalgia, or genre-”branding” (“7 inches are punk rock”), and others, like Shellac, do / did it because of a strong affinity for analog recording and playing (even though Shellac will throw in an unmarked CD with no case or art into every record they package).

Not to be too technical, but sound waves don’t look like water waves hitting a beach. So the pun kinda fails.

Also, vinyl is most definitely not obsolete. The “waves” of technology just provide more convenient options as far as portability.

Finally, my main beef with this concept being actualized is that it trivializes the music that is on those records. I guess, heck, if any were music people like, I coulda used’em!

Peace.