Q&A Remix With Logan Archer Mounts

The Q&A Remix is a frequent column on IHTOV in which people from all walks of life answer a set of pre-written questions about their vinyl collection. Today we welcome musician and writer Logan Archer Mounts, and his cat

Have you ever bought a record just for the artwork?

Fred Neil - Fred Neil (1966 Capitol)

I follow a lot of record collectors who are into underground folk and psych rock, some of the more popular titles which can fetch thousands for original pressings. This one isn’t quite that rare, but it’s definitely not common. Oddly enough I grabbed this for a dollar from a collector-centric small shop by my old apartment in Chicago. The stark monochrome of the album cover gave me a good feeling like I found something special, and I was right.

What is your most memorable vinyl buying experience?

Clutch - The Obelisk (2020 Weathermaker)

I am a huge champion of Record Store Day and have participated to some degree every year since 2010. During the first leg of the pandemic, they restructured their premise into “drop” days, to lessen the amount of patrons lining up all at once. The third drop landed on my 25th birthday, which was special enough, made more so by the fact that one of my favorite bands Clutch was releasing a massive boxed set of most of their discography. Even with how financially chaotic that year was, I somehow had the funds to afford it, and lucked out getting the only copy my store received.

What’s the first area you head for in a record store?

New Arrivals, Clearance, or if it’s manageable enough within a certain timeframe, Dollar Bin. I’m always on the hunt for things I can’t just order online when I go to a brick and mortar shop.

What’s the most treasured album in your collection and why?

Iron Maiden - Iron Maiden (1980 Harvest) & Killers (1981 Harvest)

These albums aren’t among my favorite or most-listened to of all time, nor is Iron Maiden among my favorite or most-listened to bands. But I have a strong affinity for the Paul Di’Anno (RIP) years more than any other era of the band, and I got very lucky finding nice original US pressings of both albums, about four years apart, for $12 each. One in my hometown of Wilmette, IL, and one in Milwaukee. The original Derek Riggs artwork looks fantastic still, and they sound great. I would have an extremely difficult time replacing them if I ever had to.

What one record in your collection would you be most eager to share with new friends?

40 Watt Sun - Little Weight (2022 Svart)

Some recent bias here but it’s well deserved. 40 Watt Sun is the beautiful slowcore project by Patrick Walker, formerly of legendary UK doom metallers Warning. The project has four albums now, this being the third, and the deluxe vinyl pressing I have sounds incredible. Additionally, I truly believe there is no music that sounds quite like it. It is one of the most emotionally wrenching catalogues of music I’ve ever heard but I can’t ever turn away when it’s on.

Are you a completionist when it comes to artists? Which artist do you have the most records from?

Unfortunately, many, but I have about 150 pieces of R.E.M. physical media catalogues in my collection. I have a personal “big four” of classic rock that I have a ton of albums from: KISS, R.E.M, Neil Young, and Frank Zappa. Only a portion of my large collections of all those artists have to do with the fact that they all released a lot of material, canon albums and archival material alike.

What is/are your white whale records, something you have your eye on but haven’t been able to find?

Danzig - Danzig (1988 Def American)

For years it was an original pressing of New Order - Substance, but I finally crossed that off in 2023 (of course, just before the reissue was announced). Now my number one is the self-titled debut by Danzig. I think he has the greatest three album run in the history of music with his Danzig I-III series. Those plus Danzig 4p have been needing official reissues for decades that seem to never come. Cleopatra Records finally started cranking out vinyl pressings of the later albums, which are all well and good, but the best stuff is on the first three. I settled for a bootleg of Danzig III: How The Gods Kill in 2024, and I’m happy about it, but I would love to get my hands on an original or the official 2000s picture disc version.

What is your greatest “score;” could be on value or just rarity or something you were looking for the longest?

Mötley Crüe - Dr. Feelgood (1989 Elektra)

This is really a testament to what record buying was like pre-COVID. This would have been around the early 2010s when I was still in high school. I walked into my favorite record store, Reckless Records in Chicago, whose Lakeview location was then in its second storefront on Broadway street. I walked right to the clearance bin and found a giant stack of classic alternative and hard rock records for 50¢ a piece, well-loved but not unplayable. I still have a few records from that haul, like the debut albums from R.E.M. and Violent Femmes, and sadly no longer have the first B-52’s album or Dead Kennedys’ Frankenchrist. One of those was a first press of Dr. Feelgood, the inner sleeve completely torn in half and the vinyl scuffed a bit but plays without skips. Condition unconsidered, it’s one of the rarest original pressings in my collection.

Do you have a favorite live record?

Peter Gabriel - Plays Live (1983 Geffen)

My other two favorite live albums are Half-Life by the progressive funk-metal band 3, never released on vinyl and the document of Joy Division’s final concert entitled Still, not easy to come by on vinyl. This double-album reflecting the first four, self-titled Peter Gabriel records is a wonderful, rhythmic art-rock performance that shows Peter in this special era, established post-Genesis and before he would become a massive pop star. The highlight is the track ‘I Go Swimming,’ which never made it to any Gabriel studio album.

Who/what got you hooked on records?

My parents met as DJs in the 80s, they both had huge record collections, most of which were destroyed in our many basement floods growing up. But I was able to salvage a select few from each of them (that Peter Gabriel live album being one of them). We had an independent record store just down the street where I bought some of my very first records, including Another Side Of Bob Dylan and Violent Femmes’ The Blind Leading The Naked, the latter of which I still own to this day.

What are your first memories of listening to records?

Listening to those initial purchases from my local store, Hip Cat Records, on a little vinyl/CD/radio combo system I think we got from Target or something. It’s easy to take those early days for granted, when you only own a few albums and listen to those same ones all the time.

What’s your favorite record to listen to on headphones?

My Morning Jacket - It Still Moves (2003 Badman / 2016 ATO)

Admittedly, the vinyl x headphones experience is not one I am intimately familiar with, but something I’m getting into just recently. My dad always stayed up late growing up, so I never had to worry about turning the volume down or listening to my stereo through headphones instead of the speakers. My partner now goes to bed early for an early morning work call, so I can’t be cranking death metal all night long (we live in a large apartment complex so I couldn’t be doing so anyway). I have a special affinity for It Still Moves, soundtracking a lonely night in my car while I avoided an awful afterparty of a show I played in Normal, Illinois. I have the fantastic deluxe vinyl version with two discs of supplemental material that is perfect for a quiet, late night headphone listen.

Tell us a little about your favorite record store

The aforementioned Reckless Records, specifically the Lakeview location in Chicago. The other two shops are great and I’ve spent plenty of time at all three of them, but I grew up building my collection on the weekends, taking the El Train into the city to Belmont station, and walking down to the Broadway intersection to Reckless. I don’t get down there so much anymore, and now it’s moved almost directly underneath the train station at Belmont, but whenever I walk in it still feels like home.

What’s the weirdest record you own?

The Rock-Afire Explosion - Gee, Our 1st Album (1982 Creative)

I am absolutely the type of collector who revels in the esoteric. I have a handful of conversation pieces in my collection, this being one of my favorites. I would be lying if I said I was alive during the Showbiz Pizza era (I grew up a Chuck-E-Cheese kid), but I became interested in the restaurant’s Rock-Afire Explosion animatronic band via a video from the This Exists channel on YouTube. I had no idea they had an album until I pulled it from a Goodwill bin, and I’m glad I did since it’s fairly desirable (although my copy is missing the lyric insert). They take on The Doors, Billy Joel, The Beatles, and more in the creepy sideshow way you know and love.

How has your record collection and appreciation for vinyl evolved over the years, and what has influenced your tastes?

I have learned to accept that vinyl is my biggest passion in life. Music as a whole, truly, but the vinyl aspect has anchored me fully. My obsession increased tenfold during the COVID years, when I had nothing to do but listen to my collection. I literally spent more than a handful of days listening to vinyl for eight hours straight. Wake up, turn the stereo on, eat breakfast, go throughout my day, flipping sides over until it was time to go to bed. It sort of took away my creative muse for songwriting as I became more of an intent listener than ever before, choosing consumption over creation. I’m proud to be part of the YouTube Vinyl Community, where I have a circle of like minded individuals that share my love of physical media, and we are always recommending things to each other. But ultimately I am the controller of my tastes.

What’s the last record you played?

Mouth Of The Architect - The Violence Beneath (2010 / 2021 Translation Loss)

I’m listening to this one as I type this out. I found it hard to get into this band when I was younger and first getting into metal, but I was enamored with their sludge metal rendition of ‘In Your Eyes’ by Peter Gabriel. Listening now with fresh ears, what this band is doing throughout this EP is exactly in my lane.

Logan Archer Mounts has been composing and writing about music for almost 20 years. His various musical projects span over 100 releases, and is much a fan as he is creator with a nearly 4000 piece physical media collection. Mounts has written for numerous independent music publications, including Punk Globe Magazine, Yr Album’s A Sucker, and currently Swim Into The Sound. You can find him nerding out on all things music on his YouTube channel Broke On Records every Monday.

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