About

I wish to welcome you all to this blog.

I would like to say at the outset that this is not a music review site but rather a site made up of “comments” and “observations” on LPs.
 
This blog started out as small irregular emails with friends who liked music. The numbers on that email list grew to the point where it became  reasonable to create a blog for the same.
 
This was my standard blurb about these "comments". …..
 
This music observation email thing started simply because I have a very (very, very) large pile of op shop records. You will hear me referring to the "pile" at times. In the past I would make time to listen to LPs I had bought to see whether I liked them or not or whether I wanted to keep them or not. With all the modern day distractions (computers, cable TV) and traditional distractions (family, kids, work) I found my pile of records growing larger, with me hardly listening to new purchases.  For instance, I have "new" purchases that have been sitting in the pile for 5 years or more.
 
To combat the growing pile of records I started a "what did I find in the op shop" email with friends which evolved into a regular email. Those early emails were quite short and unstructured (you will see tme as early enties on this blog). With time though I eventually settled on a format that allowed me to make comments on LPs without concerns in relation to formatting and presentation.

Ultimately, these written observations about records encourage me to listen to things in the "pile".
 
The writing itself is easy as the turntable sits behind me at my computer, so I can make notes on LPs whilst I’m doing whatever other work on the computer. That’s why I don’t want to call these posts "reviews" but rather “comments” or "observations" …. I put some, but not a lot of, thought into them. Accordingly, that’s why the "observations" are a little "bitty" or "disjointed" because I am making them contemporaneously in between whatever other work I am doing on the computer. Of course I bounce backwards and forwards filling in details in relation to what I hear which sometimes makes the observations even more "bitty". Worse still, I don’t really, properly, proof read. Otherwise this whole exercise would become laborious and that’s not what it is designed for. The artists background and whatever clips or "sound" I can find are just there to (hopefully) add to the readers interest. I don’t usually refer to any of the books etc I have as the whole purpose of this is to just make quick(ish) "observations" in relation to the music. Generally I employ a sort of stream of consciousness with some credited extracts to hold everything together.
 
So, when I have home "downtime" periods where I am not in the mood to read and don’t have the time to watch a film or something or when I’m on the computer reading and answering emails, listing stuff on eBay or in our shop franklycollectible.com I usually take a moment and put on an LP and do a music observation (… a "mobservation" .. will that catch on? … nup I don’t think so…). I like this as I am making best use of my time.
 
Does doing something else affect my music listening? No, I can do two things at once. I can also notice when I have been so distracted that I haven’t just "listened" to what I am listening to …if you know what I mean.
 
The other aspect of emails is I know my audience (I suspect that most of the readers on this blog will be my friends who have similar interests to me). I generally know what they like and what they don’t like ….and I don’t give a shit because I know I cant offend them … cause they (my friends) are all pricks, which I say with affection. If I could offend someone over something as trivial as musical taste then I’m pretty sure they probably would not have been friends in the first place.  So if there are any readers to this blog who don’t know me you may find that some of the language is colourful, some of the statements are designed to “bait”, some of the comments are inflammatory and there is more than enough “in jokes”.
 
The "stream of consciousness” commenting also means there are any number of comments that seemingly have nothing to do with the music. Those comments really refect who I am.

Who I am is not what this blog is about but if you don’t know me and you read enough posts you can pretty much figure out where I lean and what I favour and dislike in music and even outside of music.
 
I will give up this much about me though:

•Gender: Male
•Age: Generation X ( I hate the generation references as I know I had very little in common with some of my generation but …)
•Country: Australia
•Ancestry: Croatian
•Normal Occupation: Lawyer
 
In relation to the “commenting” on music specifically I would like to say this is not my occupation, or even my greatest passion. But I am an enthusiastic music listener and have been for many years. Also, importantly, I’m not a "musician" and have limited musical ability but I have shelled out a lot of money on music and on seeing and supporting local, interstate and overseas acts both indie and to a limited extent mainstream. So I have an opinion based on some knowledge and experience. Most importantly, I normally need no justification from others for what I like and I don’t need justification here either…so blah.
 
It’s just my opinion so if something I think is crap changed your life don’t lose any sleep over it. It’s just an opinion.
 
The records here come from all styles/genres of music and I’m willing to give everything a go though clearly I’m prejudiced in my music tastes. However, one of my greatest joys is having my tastes challenged and I find I can do this by listening to new music.
 
This “new music” of course can be 50 years old … if I haven’t heard it before it’s "new" to me isn’t it ?
 
If I was to call myself anything I would call myself a “music archaeologist”.
 
This blog is a good way for me to stay in touch with my friends but ultimately I hope that it will encourage people to listen to “new music” (even if I think it is crap) rather that feeding on whatever the music industry is trying to push.
 
Why this long spiel ? This is my statement of intent in case someone ever asks again and it’s probably OCD … but this is the kind of crap I do every day at "work work" also.
 
Email criticism and opinion is welcomed though I ask that you direct criticism to other people on the list and not me….harrrr.
 
And remember ….. support the album format….
 
and support your second hand internet store …
 
http://www.franklycollectible.com/
 
 
Franko