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Originally Posted by Bytor Peltor
I live in Beaumont which is close to 100 miles East of Houston. Back in the mid to late 80's, I would tune in radio stations KPFT 90.1 and KTRU 91.7 which broadcast from Houston. DJ and record store owner Chuck Roast had two different radio shows that would alternate between the two stations over the years: Fun House and Xenophile. Chuck introduced me to groups like The Hafler Trio, Nurse With Wound, Current 93, Coil, HNAS and many others. I was in high school at the time and these shows would come on in the middle of the night. I would stay up and record some of the music, but mostly Chuck talking every thirty minutes to an hour telling about the groups, album names and labels. Remember, this was back in the day before the internet and Chuck's talking about the records was the only way for me to get any information about the groups. Adding to all the craziness is the fact that Chuck would play two and three records at one time so it was hard to determine what sounds went with what record.
During this time, I had a good friend who started hitting the Houston dance clubs every weekend: 6400, Axiom, NRG & Numbers. I started tagging along and it wasn't long before we started making two or three trips per month to go record shopping in Houston: Infinite, Record Rack, Sound Exchange and eventually - Vinal Edge. We would hear some killer dance 12" mixes at one of the clubs on Friday / Saturday night and then our goal was to track down the records for our collection. "Rigor Mortis" by A Split Second, "Looking From A Hilltop" by Section 25, "Headhunter" by Front 242 and many many others. OH - lets not forget all the Razormiad's that cost a pretty penny, but were well worth it. Anyway, hitting all these different record stores allowed me to start seeing records from groups that I mentioned above. Sound Exchange would cut a small slit in the cellophane around the record and would write some "album / group info" on the back of a business card and slip it in against the record so you could know what you were purchasing. Sound Exchange also had some first rate workers who I will forever be indebted to: thank you Kirk and Bliss Blood. My first noise purchase was The Nightmare Culture record which was a split release of Coil (who called themselves Sickness Of Snakes for this one release) and Current 93, "Dog's Blood Rising" by Current 93, "Tired Eyes Slowly Burning" by The Tear Garden and one of the Manifestation Various Artist CD's that highlighted several of the local avant-noise groups that were from the Houston area. It wasn't long before we made the treck out North to Vinal Edge and this is where I met Chuck for the first time and he has helped guide my music buying ever since.
I have over 2000 CD's, 500 albums and too many 12" records. Over the past eight years, my music buying as come to a screeching halt due to the fact that I'm married with children and kids cost money. OH - I still buy music, but I very rarely ever take a chance on something like I did way back in the day. You know......I don't have a clue as to who this group is, but they are on this label and so & so is on this label so I will take a chance on it. I also stopped my quest of trying to purchase each release my some of my favorite labels just so I could say I had the entire catalog, even though I may not like artist or music.
I have three giant CD towers that I got from Ikea over the years. I also have close to ten of those Ikea CD boxes that are all full. I keep my records in bins and make sure nothing ever sits on top of them. Most of my music collection is alphabetical, but some of it is by catalog number. I keep all my jazz in one place, noise in another and the main stream: Beatles, Dylan, Rush, Genesis in another. I also have two handmade wood crates that store my 7" records. I've purchased too many 7" records over the years, but 7" records are so much fun. Stereolab tour singles totally rock!!!
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