Radio Free Vinyl

At the start of Summer 2016, my mother's boyfriend of 15 years passed away due to a massive heart attack. It was a pretty big blow for the family, and for some us, it was the first time we had to deal with death of someone that was close to us.

In helping my mother clean out Steve's stuff, we came across a couple of crates that consisted of his old record collection. She offered them to me, and I took them off her hands. I expected that about 95% of it was of no interest to me, but I held out some hope that there may be small handful of records that were worth holding on to.

Back in the early 90's I was listening to more and more emo stuff out of the Hardcore/Punk scene, and along with that came an interest in REM. Hey, don't fucking judge me...even Endpoint and Doghouse Records were sliding into that Indie/College Rock sound at the time, and it seemed like REM was required listening for the socially aware feminist vegan that I was.

By 1996 or so, everything seemed so damn pretentious and uptight. I couldn't take it anymore, and I walked away to follow Ten Yard Fight and Floorpunch to something that seemed more sincere, and something that I could connect with.

I've had no desire to listen to REM for the past 20 years, but seeing their 1983 album, Murmur, in Steve's collection...it not only shocked me to see it in there, but kind of made me want to give it a spin.

I had only listened to Murmur a couple of times previously, and it didn't really move me when I initially heard it. But this time was different. I don't know if it was because I was listening to it on vinyl, or if just happened to fit my mood this time around (maybe that Molly album from earlier this year had something to do with it)...but as soon as Radio Free Europe started playing, I was immediately interested. I mean, I figured that I never needed to hear this band again, and here I was giving the album multiple spins...so no one was more surprised that I was at this change of heart.