Henry Rollins: The Column! Are You Collector Scum?

Mavclo

Henry is right. Listen to the music, get into it. Find new bands to get into. Go to shows, support local acts. There are a lot of cool bands out there at the moment, seek and devour.

One thing I was thinking about reading this article was the rereleases of Nirvana's Nevermind. How many different formats and ways can this be delivered? It's an obscene money grab.

Swami_Binkinanda

Record Collectors are Pretentious Assholes. On red vinyl, bought at the show, from the chubbiest punk band ever to crawl from Portland. Scratched into the finish grooves on either side-"what are you looking for/you pretentious asshole?"

That's good times right there.

Redheddc

HAHAHAHAAHA PERFECT

Redheddc

HA Love It M8 !!! All my records are scratched and that's because I listened to them until they were dead! All my Cd's are scratched & re burned and all of them are scratched too......Music is for pleasure collecting music on such a visceral level is odd and a bit frightening no?

Jennie Vasquez

I just read this after posting a response to a reply you made to me. Cool opinion about the purpose of music. Those of us old enough to remember records all have albums that are scratched up and worn thin from listening to them. Even though they aren't in prime condition I kind of see used records and cd's as our own special collections that document pretty much our lives. Unique collections don't all have to be items in perfect condition stored in temperature controlled environments. Although if it is someone's cup of tea to collect rare pressings good for them too. All that matters is that the music keep playing.

Redheddc

I am an author. I appreciate Henry's talent. I agree completely with the text in this article and that is all.

Christian Fulghum

For emerging bands, giving your songs away or attempting to sell them on the internet is akin to adding a drop to the digital ocean. Limited edition, beautifully recorded and packaged vinyl singles are akin to original volumes of beat poetry. If you know that what you are making might never see the light of day, why not make it well, and make it available to the small tribe of folks who come to your shows and are genuinely into what you are doing? Plus vinyl sounds better than digital. It will never replace it for reasons of convenience, but I'm not complaining.

Passionate collectors serve another purpose: helping to document movements in art and culture.

Jennie Vasquez

You are absolutely right about collectors documenting things. I would add that collectors are often times the only ones that have preserved items that are now valuable that were once discarded by the masses.

TMOC

There was probably a reason it was discarded by the masses.

Brian

I'm collector scum, and proud of it.

Spencer Allmendinger

Henry, all this does not apply for The Ruts though, right?

Rob

Henry Rollins (and his fans) have mistaken his will for talent.

Redheddc

HAHAHAHAHA thats a good one Rob!

Zarkon

I am really tired of newspapers/websites that publish things by celebrities as if their fame somehow makes their opinion more relevant. This article is neither insightful nor well written. Thanks, LA Weekly.

Life is short. Read as much real writing as you can. Don't waste time with the babble of attention-starved celebrities.

Jennie Vasquez

Zarkon, I respect your opinion as we are all entitled to them and I agree life is short. I see this column differently than you. The paper has chosen to give Henry a column the rest of us can chose to read it or not. Not everybody will like his work. I like the column because it gives me something to read once a week that is different from everything else I read and other stuff I do. I read it for fun and try and comment every week because it's fun for me to write what the article got me thinking about. I'm coming off of a 15 year self induced coma where I was living life on autopilot after a number of personal loses. I spent too many years taking care of some of life's serious issues. Stuff like this column force me to lighten up and just enjoy little things like a weekly column that covers different topics. It's all good and will add that what you consider real writing can be totally different from what I consider real writing. It's all a matter of personal choice. One person's crap is another person's fertilizer.

Redheddc

well your opinion is a bit shite and not terribly well written either

VLV

spending $400 on a Wolf Eyes lathe limited to 2 copies on Ebay, priceless, right Hank?

Jennie Vasquez

The term collector scum seems a little harsh, most aren't scummy, just super passionate. We all know collectors that are as equally obsessed about other things like I know police badge, train, and even fire truck collectors. I even know one girl who collects all her 5k race t-shirts and Smokey Bear stuff. Now there is a weirdo. All collector scum regardless of what they collect speak their own lingo in which their knowledge of their stuff is so detailed I get lost in their language like I did with some of the technical stuff about the music pressing in this article. All collectors will tell you that any collecting you do with a passion is an expensive and time consuming hobby but worth it.

I've never known music collector scum. I have a hard enough time making a commitment to spend 99 cents to download a song, let alone dishing out big bucks for rare pressings. Where do you even go to in order to find out about these pressings? Is there a Pressings Weekly? Are there internet forums with info on international pressings? Perhaps it's all word of mouth among the elite collectors. I became curious about rare pressings after reading this article and discovered that it is a world of its own and there are some limited pressings done that I'm convinced are done to tease loyal fans and keep them on their toes. Who knew? I honestly thought good old fashion pressings didn't happen much anymore and that when there were pressings, they were done in mass production and if they sold out they made a whole bunch more. Boy was I wrong.

I say more power to all collector scum, if you can afford to spend lots of money on a good collection of something, go for it. Sure beats the collections I see in my neck of the woods. I only see large empty beer can collections and in my neighbor's case, a collection of used cigarette butts. I must go now and search the internets for an original pressing of The Smokey Bear Song. There has to be one somewhere out there and if I own it I can go from novice Smokey Bear collector to collector scum.

Redheddc

What a load of bollocks!!!!!

Jennie Vasquez

Cool I just learned a new word. I didn't know what your comment meant and looking it up. I'm assuming you meant rubbish rather than what a load of testicles. Thanks for your opinion and what I write is a bunch of crap because out of all the serious stuff I have to deal with in life, this isn't one of them. It's fun to comment on this column because each week the topics can be so different and I usually learn something. It gives me some time to lighten up and not think about all serious stuff all the time. We all need a break from the real world. I really didn't know a thing about people collecting rare pressings, that was all new to me and now that I know about it I really would like to find an original pressing of The Smokey Bear Song. That would be the most awesome thing for my collection because I serious really do collect Smokey Bear stuff. I found this topic kind of neat as are most collections that people put their heart and soul into.

What would be awesome is to hear your opinion of the article, did you like it? Are you too collector scum? Did you think it was a load of bollocks? The weekly comments are so much more entertaining when people write what they thought of the original article. Henry's occupy movement columns were awesome because people really responded to those and included a number of differing opinions. It makes it a much more interesting read to hear what others are thinking.

Jennie Vasquez

I'm old and from pre twitter days. It takes me more than 140 characters to say anything and yes I realize I am long winded. You can't teach an old dog new tricks.

pringlebells

You'd be more effective if you could make your point in less than 30,000 words.

Scototo

I collect records, but what you're railing against here is 'hoarders of crust' or even 'hoarders of neo crust'

Wanting to own an original pressing of a rare garage 45 or something is far less scummy than getting gripsweats over some record that got pressed last week.