Featured Essay: How Playing A DIY Show Got Me Back Into Vinyl Collecting

by Ed Klingenberger

I love vinyl. I collected records as a kid (45s, specifically), switched to CDs as a teenager, then got back into vinyl as an adult. By my last count, I officially have a crapton of records and CDs in my house, give or take a few. But what got me back into vinyl? It’s not easy to say, but I think one specific show really did the trick - and it was a DIY, “DM for address” show to boot.

So, let’s go back seventeen years. It’s the summer of 2008. I was playing drums in a three-piece band called Golf. Picture three guys in their mid-to-late 20s gleefully ripping off The Vandals and you get the idea of what we sounded like. We got booked on a show some friends of ours were putting together, trying to pick up the pieces of a DIY scene which splintered after multiple house shows were shut down by local police. Our friends tried to make this show on the level - they even booked it at a bar! But a few weeks before the show, it got shut down because the bar had an “acoustic license”… which meant they could have a jukebox but not live music. Well, now what do we do? We have a touring band on the bill! We can’t just cancel the show! A few days later, a solution was found - an old beat-up building with a couple rehearsal spaces in it… and the show was to take place on the top floor.

OK, so we got a space, and this time we didn’t put the address on the flyer or the Facebook event page. See? We’re learning! We got to the spot, dragged our gear up like three flights of shallow and rickety steps (which was not fun with a kick drum… and even worse with a hardware bag!), and then eventually the show began! My band kicked things off. We got  through our set, despite the sweltering heat which made both the guitarist and bassist say they felt like they were going to pass out (I didn’t take the guitarist too seriously as he can be kinda dramatic, but when the bassist said something similar I knew it was bad). I don’t remember much from the second band, aside from the fact that I kinda liked them and their drummer needed to borrow some stuff from me.  But the third band? They’re basically why I’m here.

The third band was a two-piece from Texas called Papermoons. First off, I was quite impressed they even made it up to us (I live in the “Toronto is a lot closer than Manhattan” part of New York State). Secondly, I thought they sounded great. Their music wasn’t something I really seek out but it hit me right that day. I just sat back, took it in, and loved every minute. Toward the end of their set, they announced that they had merch for sale, including a CD and a seven-inch record. I couldn’t tell you why, but my brain immediately said “get the seven-inch!” and I happily left the show with a brand new record in my hands.

The next day, I got to experience something for the first time in well over a decade. I took that brand new record and dropped the needle on it for the first time. There’s something truly special about listening to a super clean, brand new record for the first time and I felt it there. From the first notes to the first song that I remembered loving from the night before (“Honesty”, it was called - so good that they put it on the CD as well) to the last measure of the last song, I sat there and absorbed. It wasn’t a long record at all, but it was the best thing in the world. Everything was different now, yet very much the same. Vinyl was back!

From that point forward, everything changed. I now look for records first. The majority of my new album pre-orders are specifically for the vinyl. I hunt record stores looking for the classic albums that have escaped me (I finally, FINALLY, got my hands on a vinyl copy of Television’s Marquee Moon earlier this year!). Super famous or furiously independent, flashy colors or not, I love it all. I think I still prefer the weirder formats - ten-inch records usually pique my interest and seven-inch records will always have a special place in my heart - but there’s something truly special about breaking out new vinyl, no matter the format, and dropping the needle on it for the first time. And what’s even better? Now that it doesn’t seem to be going away any time soon, I can keep the pipe dream of one day pressing my own record alive. I know it’s farfetched, but let this fortysomething musician who was listening to “I Get Around” and “Uncle Albert” on vinyl at six years old have his dream. 

Ed Klingenberger is a musician and educator from Rochester, NY. You can hear him at DistinctKickingMotion.Bandcamp.com and https://www.youtube.com/@EdKlingenberger where he’s releasing a new song every Monday in 2025.