On Friday the 8th of April I was reminded, not for the first time in recent weeks that I am indeed getting old(er).
Via a friend in the biz as we cool trendy people say, I was given an advance copy of the Foo Fighters record about a week before it's release on a very official looking USB thingy. It had the band logo on it and everything!
So I rushed home, turned the lights out and blasted at a very rude volume all the way thru.
It was great and I have since then listened thru it about 20 times all the way.
That first listen though.. it was missing something.
Follow me on a short jaunt down memory lane..
In late October 2002, a very weird looking excitable young lad wandered down a street in the old part of Stockholm with equally excited, but and times very clumsy steps.
He is deep thought and even deeper into whatever happens to be playing on portable cd player (yes, these actually existed kids! Try google if you want to learn more) at the time.
If a nuclear bomb were to go off right next to him he wouldn't notice unless his batteries happen to run out at the same time.
He arrives at his destination at last! Getting more excited by the second he reaches the counter.
The man behind the counter knows what he is there for since the boy had phoned in earlier to see if they indeed had what he wanted.
About a minute later he is on his way to the subway holding one of the first copies of the then new Foo Fighters record
One By One. The temptation to just throw the thing into his cd player is horrible but he resists! He in fact, even after arriving home waits about an hour before even hearing a single note.
This is to make sure he can be left undisturbed during this very very important event.
Finally it is time.. the record is in the player, the very ugly looking headphones with very good sound quality are on... and he's off! An hour or so of pure magic comes and passes.
The young lad walks around the rest of the evening with a big smile on his face. He has just visited a very special parallel universe that he knows he will visit many times in the future.
And I still of course. Great album that I became the soundtrack to an winter filled with some of my most fond memories.
Now, doesn't that experience sound alot more fun than getting the damn thing on a fucking memory stick?
Ok, I'll admit I poetried up the story a bit for effect but I still think there is something special about doing it this way.
It has become hard to do so.. or at least harder than it used to be. Small indie record shops starting dropping like flies a few years back.
Alot has to do with the current trend in how people choose to acquire their music these days.
What a REAL record shop looks like. 
What they look like these days...
The store I bought
One by One has since then disappeared along with about 5-6 other places I used to hang out.
You like the movie
High Fidelity right? Of course you do.. who doesn't?
Well thanks to various websites, programs and a need people have to not pay for anything these days, I'm pretty sure Rob, Dick and Barry are all out of jobs these days.
It sucks. Plain and simple. One could reduce all of this to "they don't make em like they used to"kind of ranting which can be silly, but I truly feel almost every true music lover will agree there is something magic about a proper, old fashioned record shop.
So what is the Gospel According To Beard tonight? GET OFF YOUR ASSES, TURN OFF YOUR FUCKING COMPUTER AND GO BUY A FUCKING REAL RECORD AT A REAL RECORD SHOP!
I'm off to watch
High Fidelity and cry for a bit.
Thank you and goodnight.
