The wonderful world of vinyl

 The wonderful world of vinyl 

I'm a collector of many things. Not a pack rat or hoarder, but a collector nevertheless. I have a pretty good collection of VHS tapes (mostly horror), 80's movie posters, horror figures, lobby cards, laser discs, and now hopefuly a good start of horror soundtracks, 80's bands, and whatever else I can find on vinyl.

Now I'm not trying to be a hipster. I'll be the first to admit I know little to nothing about music. I love music, mostly 60's and 70's soul, and 80's new wave, but my biggest thing is soundtracks or songs featured in movies. In fact it's a pretty big joke with my friends that 99% of the songs on my Ipod are all songs from movies or themes. What can I say, it's soothing to listen to! My very first record I bought was at a flea market back in 2004 when I saw the Stray Cat's Need For Speed record for sale. Being a pretty big fan of this band I decided to buy it not owning a record player and just getting it to put on display in my room. I believe either that same flea market or sometime shortly after I got another record of 1950's dance songs on vinyl. For nearly 10 years I did nothing with these, they just simply sat and collected dust. While at school, one of my friends had a record player and explained to me that you seriously couldn't beat the sound. Curious, I wondered if it would be worth it since really the only music I truly listened to was horror soundtracks in my car during long road trips. Time passed and finally I began going on a massive search back in 2007 to find the soundtrack to Night Of The Creeps. In my eyes after Fright Night, A Nightmare On Elm Street 4 The Dream Master, and Return Of The Living Dead, Creeps has the greatest 80's soundtrack of all time. Finding only a few songs and being able to download them on my Ipad (Stan Ridgeway in case anyone is wondering is one hell of a performer, his songs The big heat, and Drive she said, are so catchy they will stay in your head for days!) Well, one of the bands that have 4 songs in total featured in the movie was called Intimate Strangers. I believe either Dekker, or somebody on the crew either knew the band or loved their music. After hearing several of their songs online I was floored at how amazing they were. I loved every single song that I heard and I'm sorta stunned this band never took off. The movie My Demon Lover features several of their songs, and I pray for the day some movie producer or director will re-discover this band and put some of their classics in a film. Well, some of the songs were down right impossible to find for download or online. I searched for years for one song that's heard only for ten or so seconds in Night Of The Creeps. (The scene where the girlfriend returns to her dorm and walks to her room while her roommates are drying their hair.) I knew this song was from Intimate Strangers, and it was called Into the Wilderness, but I couldn't find any samples of this song ANYWHERE. It drove me nuts since it sounded like such a good song. Well two years while on ebay I found Intimate Stranger's only album on vinyl and said fuck it and bought it. It killed me to hold this awesome record on my hands and not being able to enjoy it.

Time passed and as I kept collecting laser discs I accidentally bought the awesome Dangerously Close on vinyl, then was gifted the Summer School soundtrack from my friend Melissa. I found one of Rick Springfield's albums at a yard sale, and last HorrorHound got the Christine soundtrack, Friday the 13th the series, and Jaws 3-D as well. I began to notice I had all this vinyl I wanted to listen to but couldn't. Everyone I talked to said you couldn't beat the sound, and nothing was more relaxing than listening to a record while drinking wine and writing, sculpting, or painting. I began to slowly look around for a player, not wanting to spend crazy money, but get something good enough.

Then Waxwork records happened. I didn't discover this site or Death Waltz until the big releases started happening. I'm a huge fan of Day Of the Dead and wanted to slap myself for missing out on the release for it's soundtrack. (I have it on CD and always listen to it whenever I'm driving) Harrison I feel was one of the best composers after Carpenter in the 80's. When I missed out on the Creepshow release I was bullshit. Here were these awesome soundtracks with new stunning artwork and I wasn't ordering any simply because I didn't have a player? Finally I said enough was enough, on july 1st when the Chopping Mall soundtrack was released (with truly the coolest new artwork ever) I jumped on the chance and got it. That same afternoon I went out and got a record player for only 80 bucks that looks like an antique radio from Friday the 13th the series. It also has a cassette player (looks like I have someplace to play my Dangerously Close soundtrack now!), a radio, CD player, and record player. Safe to say I was getting my bang for my buck. Thrilled, I also struck gold when I found the Creepshow soundtrack at a record/movie store I always go to. I got meteor shit green and was truly floored at how awesome the artwork was, and how cool it sounded. I can see lots of writing and painting getting done now listening to this! After being able to play all my records, and the Intimate Strangers one on a loop (when I heard Into The Wilderness I could have cried), I knew why this was such a big thing. This very weekend I snagged the awesome Last House On The Left soundtrack, and agree with everyone that it's the most relaxing feeling in the world listening to a favorite soundtrack and watching that record spin around and around.

I'll update on whatever new soundtracks I'll be hunting for, so stay tuned!