Austin Record Convention


For those who do not yet know......  the next Austin Record Convention starts Friday September 29th and lasts though Sunday October 1st. As I have been for about the last 30 years I will be there trying to match up music to mostly total strangers. Am spending about 6 weeks looking through my 100000 LPs to see what may capture someones fancy. Part of this process is checking interesting items for condition, at the moment I am listening to an odd disc by Rob Meurer called Synth for Christmas. For those in the area with the desire, a relatively recent feature at the show is a search by text option. Rather than wander for hours, if you are not a fan of wandering, you can go to Convention central and send out info on the specific items you are searching for and then that text will be relayed to the dealers that have signed up to receive it and hopefully someone has it and will get in touch. It is one of the worlds oldest and biggest record shows and for those that still purchase music in a physical medium, it will not disappoint.
trytone
I went to the last one and thought it much better than one I attended a couple years before--higher quality wares in general. I will probably attend this one as well. I didn't buy much at the last show several months ago - partly because I am really just filling in certain blanks in the early post psych era, many of them now rare and costly. There were a couple dealers who had such stuff, but it was astronomically priced--I guess the notion was that one should negotiate. But, it was a good show. I do think the last WMFU show I attended in Brooklyn had a far deeper selection of esoteric records, at a price, of course. Maybe just my New York bias showing- but I'm very happy to be living in Austin now, and it is great to have the used record stores here. A lot of the jazz here seems cheap; not super priced stuff, just Pablo, ECM, etc. which seem to be overlooked in favor of classic rock. I'd really like to go to Utrecht, but I think that would be a costly junket (not so much the travel, but a lot of the stuff I buy is from the UK, Germany, etc., and is more readily available there). 
If you come across a UK pressing of Cressida Asylum in a high state of play (original, not a reissue) let me know. :)

Less and less good sounding old original records and more re issues and more new digital master vinyls. :-(


Matt M
For those in attendance, post thoughts and impressions to the rest of us.
At one time, this was the premier Record Show.