#333 with Juan Espinosa

Summary: I've recently come across a couple of interesting web articles featuring two high profile record collectors. One was of a Brazilian fellow who is the proud owner of a collection of more than five million LPs. The other was of a Pittsburgh man with a mere three million records. The Brazilian gentleman is a millionaire who began collecting in his teens only to amass a collection that he is now in the process of converting into a public library. The Philly dude owned a record store for several years and quickly built his record empire by insisting on ordering a personal copy of every single release that came through his store. He is currently looking for a buyer for the reasonable asking price of a dollar a record. Yup: three million big ones. The United States library of congress passed on it, citing “budget cuts” because, you know, the U.S. government can't profit off vinyl recordings the way they can with weapons manufacturing or public healthcare. After reading the articles, two thoughts immediately came to mind. The first being that I will never in my life have the money to purchase, let alone house, a million records. The second was: how much fucking art can you take? Let's not kid ourselves. There is already an unbelievably large surplus of garbage records floating around in the used records section of any respectable record store, thrift shop, garage sale, what-have-you. I can't help but imagine that a good number of them are part of these “prized” collections. I'm not going to tell you or anyone how to collect. I am guilty of being as picky, superficial, and skeptical as any other shameless, pretentious record collecting asshole. My only suggestion is that if you fancy yourself a record collector, please consider what these globs of oil mean to you. Are they there for show or for listening pleasure? Do they represent your love of good music or a talking point? If anything, I hope we can all agree that record collecting can be as fun as it can be an unhealthy obsession. Let me tell you, though, fun is a lot more fun. –Juan Espinosa To download the file to your computer, right click the link below and select "save target as..." It's a hefty file, so it may take some time to download to your computer. To play the file without downloading (it depends on your computer's configuration for playing music files), just click it. Your media player should recognize what to do with an mp3. (If it doesn't, you're on your own.) RAZORCAKE PODCAST #333 If you have any problems or helpful suggestions you can contact us through the website here. In the subject put “Podcast.” Hope you enjoy listening. Tracklisting: Yacht Club, “Tropicana” Tropicana 7” (Burger) --- Hank Wood And The Hammerheads, “The Ghost” Stay Home! LP (Toxic State) Condominium, “Thug” Thug 7” (Self-released) Una Bestia Incontrolable, “La Primera Foguera” Observant Com el Món es Destrueix 12” EP (La Vida En Un Mus) --- Earth Girls, “Unavailable” Wrong Side of History 7” EP (Grave Mistake) Steve Adamyk Band, “MRI” Dial Tone LP (Dirtnap) Arctic Flowers, “Anamnesis” Weaver LP (Deranged) Catholic Spit, “I'm Your god Now” A Pact with the Devil 12” EP (Crapoulet / Symphony Of Destruction) --- Who Killed Spikey Jacket?, “Spike Your Hair with Beer” Beer Storm Trooper7” (Headcount) Cülo, “Adult Life Is No Fun” My Life Sucks and I Could Care Less LP (Deranged) Civilized, “Wallflower” Dust and Blood7” EP (Youth Attack) Kontaminat, “Why I Grew Up Loving Israel” Self-titled 7” EP (Lengua Armada) --- Flesh World, “A Wet Line in the Grass” “A Wet Line in the Grass” b/w “Not a Soul” 7” (Iron Lung)