I bought a Bright Eyes record at the Velvet music shop here in Leiden, last Saturday.
The record is a 45rpm single, with two sides, A and B. The A-side is entitled “motionSickness”, and the B-side is called “Soon you will be leaving your man”. The disc was produced by Blood of the Young Records, based in Minneapolis.
A few things caught my eye:
1) The Minneapolis-based record label
2) The record cover
3) The fact that it was a record
The Minneapolis thing is explained by the fact that I lived in and around Minneapolis for one year, all of 2007. I am forever obsessed with Minneapolis.
The record cover is simple and neat, with orderly bursts of color in each photographed image, which covers the grid-like arrangement.
I mostly bought the record because Olivier set up his record player in our apartment, and has told me that records are the best audio format with which to listen to music. I should find out about this.
I played the Bright Eyes record on the player the same evening that I bought it, but it sounded too fast on the 33 setting and too slow on the 45 setting. Olivier’s friend, Filipo, suggested that it was a 68, so I looked it up just now to confirm or refute that claim. It seems that the record must be a 45, as there is no such standard as the 68. Rather, there is a 78, which is not too popular these days, and knowing that there are only two songs on my record, it must be a 45, the smallest data-holding record in the industry (Source: http://www.history-of-rock.com/record_formats.htm).
Two things might be happening here: 1) the record player is faulty, in which case I would try to repair it or 2) the record is faulty, in which case I would keep it and save as part of my collection or display it.
I cannot return it because it was never listed on my receipt as a purchase, which makes me wonder whether or not I even paid for it in the first place.
Action plan: 1) Buy another 45, and play it on the record player. 2) Re-try the Bright Eyes record on the record player, and try to adjust the rubberband that is unde the rotating plate plate, which may be at fault.
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