Here's a crazy Idea!

Thanks to everyone who's been in correspondence with me and who have been reading the blog and posting comments–I'm loving every bit of it, so please, keep them coming! I have so many pictures to post, and so many hours of interview tapes to review, and so many things to comment on based on some great, constructive feedback, so please be patient with me. I'll try to address all these concerns in the span of 2 months, like community, political statements, recycling, form, more reasons for doing it and of course great stories. I have three people to do follow-up interviews with tomorrow before I leave Friday morning; work is already piling itself on me. Yikes.

Tonight: screw the 7" talk. Crazy ideas are the focus of tonight's discussion…so please read on dear readers. I finally made it over to Bop Street Records in Ballard of Seattle. Everyone has been talking about it; Chris, a friend's cousin who was gracious enough to lend me a bike for a few days mentioned it (Thanks a ton, Chris!), not to forget just about everyone else I meet and talk to about this project. I spent 3 and a half hours looking through and photographing records from 6 two-foot long boxes of 45s from the 80s through today. Oh dear is right. Bop Street, as I found out later the evening, is one of the largest collections of records in North America! It was like a record archive, boasting more than half a million pieces. The down stairs is stacked floor to ceiling with 33s, 78s and ancient 18" records. It was truly impressive to see that much volume in one place.

Contrasting the hip record shops in Seattle that have been around for a decade or so, Bop Street has been around for over 30 years, and didn't have quite the selection of cutting-edge handmade stuff as the newer stores. However, it had a formidable collection of work from the 80s and 90s, much of it from the Seattle area in fact. According to the shopkeeper, Bop gets most of its merchandise from collectors who want to off all their records in one go. The shop gives the seller a lump sum, sells the gems to make back its money and archives the rest–typical large-collection-record-store procedure, as far as I can tell. It's not surprising then that the collection of 45s consisted of throw-aways from collectors around the area and stuff that never sold in the store. I ended up picking up the choicest ones from the 6 boxes–those that were quintessential of a year or form, those that were truly one-of-a-kind, and those that were graphically stunning. I'm also thinking about an alternate title for 'handmade record covers', the choice to do so inspired by the shopkeeper saying, "oh, like homemade covers?" and changing 'handmade' to 'homemade'. This is also partly in response to Phil from Anacortes putting commercial production in a new perspective for me in that such processes too involve the human hand–people are just working with bigger and more technical tools. Plus, 'homemade' suggests the difference between bringing a store-bought blueberry pie to a party versus one fresh from your own hands and oven.

I must back up here a bit to explain a few of my issues I've been experiencing along the way before revealing the big crazy idea . First, those who have read the last two postings are aware of the difficulties and complexities in gathering and analyzing data in this volume–I'm taking hundreds of photos and even picking up a few records to keep. There's also the issue of realizing that this project can go in multiple directions and I only have so many hours in the day to research the record labels, artists, etc. Second, some people have been asking me about the content of the pieces, both musical and visual. I don't have access to a record player all the time, and taking notes on the visual content is quite time consuming. It's hard enough just talking about origins and form, not to mention trying to gather stories at the same time. Plus, lyrical commentary is not really my bag, so to speak. Third, I can only pack so much stuff with me: Vinyl is heavy! Finally, people have been asking, and I have been thinking about the cumulative project: what I'm I going to do with all this documentation in a way that somehow jives with the nature of the things I'm researching? I have the kernel of an solution to all of my problems. Get this:

I'm starting "The Homemade Album Art Historical Preservation Society." Here's how it works: Give me your mailing address, (you can email it to me at jamesshaff (at symbol) gmail (dot) com if you enjoy your privacy) and I will send you a record I've picked up while I'm on the road with a addressed and stamped envelope to my hired archivist back in Minneapolis. Included with the record will be a xeroxed sheet of paper that will have the following printed on it:

Band:
Record title:
Label and address:
Materials:

which will be filled out by yours truly, followed by a statement explaining its significance and then a statement encouraging the correspondents to listen to the album and write comments on the lyrics, artwork, and any other thoughts or pertinent info on the band, label or regional history. Then the recipient will send the album to my archivist, and when I get back, I will send you a hand screenprinted 45rpm copy of my own band!

Hopefully, "The Homemade Album Art Historical Preservation Society" will do a number of things: 1) Lighten my load on the road so I can be more flexible about traveling and visit more record stores and talk to more people; 2) Allow for more records to be documented in-depth (and listened to!); 3) Involve more people in the research and project–I believe strongly that a diversity of thought will result in greater insight–already so many people have been so helpful, and I'd like to extend an invitation to really get into it if they choose to; 4) Have more fun! Looking through the collections at Bop was so fascinating because I felt like an urban historian or detective, uncovering some great mystery.

Finally, this may be an opportunity to begin work on some sort of project outcome that, like I said, jives with the nature of the research. I'd like it to touch on a few themes that have been showing up lately in more contemporary homemade pieces: community, craft and reusing/anti-consumerism. I'll briefly describe these, with the intent of expanding upon them more in the near future. What gives many of these covers their social currency is their gift-like qualities and their use of known networks of people in their production. The "Homemade Album Art Historical Preservation Society" will attempt to do just this. Next, many bands are realizing that craft is an important element in getting people to participate at shows and to sell albums. The craft and dedication of this lies in careful consideration of as many pieces as possible. Finally, taking from the idea that there is so much throw-away stuff in this world, we will be reusing old albums that would otherwise be thrown away or lost in the archives of some record store as historical documents. This may not be the final form of the project, but it is at least a start at something; an experiment. Again, I'll be going much more in-depth on these themes in the near future and will attempt to relate them to conversations and physical examples as much as possible.

To those I have addresses for, expect a surprise album in the mail soon, as you'll be the first guinea pigs in the project! As it turns out, I have more albums than addresses, so please let me know if you'd like one. (Be sure to tell me what kind of listening device you have access to so I can send you something compatible.)

cheers!
James

P.S. if you know anyone/anything in the Bay Area who/that would be helpful to this research, let me know and I will be very grateful indeed.