True Patriot Love - From Skate Punk to Hair Metal： A Deep Dive into Vinyl Obsession with Phil Guerrero

00:00:00.700 If you're like me, you take joy in flipping through your old vinyl.

00:00:04.000 I think the first thing that I got in the way of vinyl was...

00:00:09.000 ...back in black.

00:00:12.000 No, it was, for those about to rock ACDC, my dad brought it home.

00:00:15.680 I put it on. I couldn't believe how cool I was.

00:00:18.600 And that sent me down a spiraling rabbit hole of radio

00:00:23.980 and associations with jokesters like Phil Guerrero right here.

00:00:30.320 Joining us in studio today to talk about vinyl and the love of records.

00:00:35.400 Here we go.

00:00:37.380 Let's do it.

00:00:44.400 This is always a good one, isn't it?

00:00:47.980 Okay, here we go.

00:00:49.160 That's just laughs.

00:00:50.780 You know something, Phil?

00:00:51.800 Phil, I'm glad that you could join me today for this very serious conversation about vinyl.

00:00:57.920 Actually, I think I would like to leave these on.

00:01:00.420 You know, those are the Yoko Ono sunglasses.

00:01:03.040 They are?

00:01:03.680 Yeah, those sunglasses broke up the Beatles.

00:01:06.740 I don't think it was the sunglasses, to be honest with you.

00:01:09.600 It might have been the yodeling.

00:01:11.500 All right, joining me today, Phil Guerrero.

00:01:13.520 Thanks so much, buddy.

00:01:14.180 I really appreciate this.

00:01:15.260 And look, you might know him if you grew up on YTV.

00:01:18.420 You might know him if you were in the fashion industry.

00:01:23.620 You may be.

00:01:24.200 And also, if you are working at a vinyl store in Toronto, L.A., or anywhere in between,

00:01:30.980 you might have had him flipping through the vinyl in your store.

00:01:34.040 Because I think you're the guy I know that has the most vinyl. 0.99

00:01:37.720 Well, no, I have one of those stupid IKEA 5x5 things full and more. 0.97

00:01:45.340 I literally ran out of room. 0.99

00:01:47.680 You know what I'm collecting now?

00:01:48.740 CDs, but we'll talk about that some other day.

00:01:50.640 I do want to talk about that because one of the things I thought about was cassettes

00:01:54.280 and why they didn't, maybe it's degradation, but we can talk about that.

00:01:58.440 When did you start collecting records?

00:02:00.040 When did you fall in love with them?

00:02:01.240 Is it the music that you love on the records or the collecting itself?

00:02:04.880 I always had records when I was a kid.

00:02:07.720 I still, you know, I didn't, I sold them all when CDs, like I don't even want to talk about it.

00:02:12.500 And that collection was like all like early, like it was stuff that when I was going through

00:02:18.100 my little periods, like I had a goth period, so I had all like The Cure and Suzy and the Banshees

00:02:23.880 and ministry, like early, like Twitch ministry, that album.

00:02:29.260 Right, right, right. 0.96

00:02:29.880 You know, yeah, like Frankie Goes to Holland, all that crap. 0.96

00:02:34.140 I had that. 0.90

00:02:35.040 And then I started like collecting, what did I become?

00:02:37.820 Oh, then I was skateboarding.

00:02:40.000 So it was like the Circle Jerks and Gangrene and Suicidal Tendencies and the Misfits and 0.99

00:02:46.340 all this like sort of L.A. punk stuff.

00:02:48.980 Board rock, yeah.

00:02:49.680 Yeah, yeah.

00:02:50.840 And then after that, I became like a heavy metal freak, like a hair metal.

00:02:56.380 So I had all that and that was all collecting records.

00:02:59.460 Sold them all, trying to get them all back.

00:03:02.140 But that's what you do, right?

00:03:03.540 But I have an extensive vinyl collection.

00:03:05.540 But in the 2000s, I started collecting again.

00:03:07.980 How many do you think you have in total?

00:03:09.660 I don't know.

00:03:10.660 Five, I don't know, like a few thousand.

00:03:13.280 Wow.

00:03:14.080 That's a pretty serious collection.

00:03:16.000 Yeah, in sections.

00:03:17.540 But honestly, stocked because I kind of ran out of room.

00:03:20.700 But it was a lot of fun when I first started where you could find like, I was going to

00:03:24.860 Value Village and I'd get a stack like this and it would be like Billy Idol and David Bowie

00:03:30.760 and the Scorpions and Iron Maiden and Bob Dylan, like, but not anymore.

00:03:38.020 Forget it.

00:03:38.880 It's just.

00:03:39.340 Those thrift shops now, like people are waiting for stuff to come out.

00:03:44.480 Like it's, those days are over.

00:03:45.860 That was a lot of fun and it slowly didn't, it wasn't like that anymore.

00:03:51.320 I remember going.

00:03:51.920 And that was the fun part for me.

00:03:52.980 Not, not going to the record store and buying that Metallica record, but trying to score it.

00:03:57.960 Actually trying to find it.

00:03:58.900 And I remember going and, and, you know, vinyl and plastic and imports was a big thing.

00:04:04.420 And colored vinyl was another thing that was sort of attractive.

00:04:08.060 And EPs.

00:04:08.720 And bootlegs.

00:04:09.580 Remember bootlegs?

00:04:10.600 Like they're up on the wall and they were like a hundred dollars and you couldn't afford

00:04:14.540 them.

00:04:14.880 But there were some bootleg live Led Zeppelin concert from, you know, Quebec or something.

00:04:21.300 It'd be some crazy.

00:04:22.540 One of the ones that was going around that was a huge collector I remember was Kiss live

00:04:26.140 at the Budokan, I think, or somebody, some, some band live at the Budokan.

00:04:29.940 And it was, it was like sought after.

00:04:32.280 There was maybe 70 or 80 of them in the world or something like that.

00:04:35.460 Yeah, it was like that, wasn't it?

00:04:36.000 I was like, wow.

00:04:36.940 And it was such a big deal.

00:04:37.920 And then, I don't know if you had this experience, but I had relatives and friends with relatives

00:04:42.720 from like the UK and Italy and things like that.

00:04:46.920 And they would come back at the end of the summer and you'd be like, whoa, where did you

00:04:50.480 get this band?

00:04:51.680 You know, introduced, I was introduced by Susie, to Susie and the Banshees, for example, by

00:04:56.460 a buddy of mine in high school.

00:04:57.500 And I was like, and it took me down that road, that sort of new wave, alternative road.

00:05:05.160 But then, and then you're either, you're listening to 102.1, right?

00:05:09.820 Or you're going to the record store to hear what they're spinning to figure out what, where

00:05:14.720 you're, what the new thing is or whatever.

00:05:17.180 Did you ever record the radio just to figure out what songs you wanted to get?

00:05:20.640 Oh yeah, those 1050 chump charts. 0.96

00:05:22.240 Yeah.

00:05:22.480 I used to sit there all morning and pause, record, pause, record, you know.

00:05:26.780 1050 chump was one of the kind of OG charting, charting radio stations.

00:05:32.980 And you get that chart in the newspaper.

00:05:34.160 Yeah.

00:05:34.560 Right?

00:05:34.940 And I would follow and I would record what I wanted to record as they counted down a number

00:05:40.240 one.

00:05:40.720 You know what I think?

00:05:41.360 That chart, now that I think about it, probably sold a lot of records at Sam the Record Man

00:05:45.480 and Records on Wheels.

00:05:47.000 And who else was out there at the time?

00:05:48.460 Oh, there was, yeah, Records on Wheels was my big one.

00:05:51.520 I used to go there on Carlton.

00:05:53.080 Yeah.

00:05:53.520 Yeah.

00:05:53.980 That's where there was a guy named Brian.

00:05:56.340 And I think right now he's at Rotate This.

00:06:00.120 Oh, really?

00:06:00.700 And he was like this mean kind of skinhead guy.

00:06:03.360 But I loved whatever he was playing.

00:06:05.740 And I would buy whatever, if I walked in and he was spinning, I'd be like, what's that?

00:06:10.920 And he'd be, it was just like high fidelity, just like flip up the record.

00:06:15.380 And I remember, I'll tell you the day I flipped from like skate rock, like punk, you know, gangrene

00:06:22.100 and suicidal tendencies to metal was the day I came in and I heard like the fastest punk

00:06:28.400 song I'd ever heard.

00:06:29.400 What was it?

00:06:29.780 It was Whiplash by Metallica.

00:06:32.740 Oh, no way.

00:06:33.680 Yeah.

00:06:34.080 I was like, who is this?

00:06:35.700 And he showed me the record.

00:06:37.120 I was like, Metallica?

00:06:38.740 It's funny.

00:06:39.020 Like I'm a skate punk.

00:06:40.220 And I flipped it.

00:06:41.520 They looked like four scarves, you know, like people from Scarborough in Toronto, which were

00:06:47.240 rock guys.

00:06:47.960 Yeah.

00:06:48.260 You know, with the long hair and the mullets. 0.78

00:06:50.180 And scarves.

00:06:50.820 Yeah.

00:06:51.340 Like I was like, they look like scarves.

00:06:55.300 It's so funny though.

00:06:56.400 And that's when I start growing my hair and playing the guitar.

00:06:59.780 Anybody who made that link between alternative and metal did it, I think, on the back of

00:07:06.100 Metallica.

00:07:07.260 Yeah. 0.99

00:07:07.840 I thought it was a punk band and it was just the most amazing shit I'd ever heard. 0.97

00:07:12.040 And that's what got me to Metallica. 0.98

00:07:13.960 But then I went a different way.

00:07:15.900 I picked up a guitar and then I started moving towards hair metal.

00:07:19.080 So I became one of those guys.

00:07:22.320 Hi, Dokken.

00:07:23.140 Nice to meet you.

00:07:23.900 Yeah.

00:07:24.460 I was trans before it was cool, dude. 0.80

00:07:27.300 You know what?

00:07:27.800 It was even cool then.

00:07:28.600 Don't kid yourself.

00:07:29.080 Yeah.

00:07:29.440 Like I always had the long hair.

00:07:31.140 I loved it.

00:07:31.700 It was great.

00:07:33.040 It was an era when albums.

00:07:35.500 Okay.

00:07:35.780 So we grew up.

00:07:36.560 It was really important when we were kids.

00:07:38.340 You got the new record.

00:07:39.800 I mean, I remember people showing up at school.

00:07:42.780 Like, there's no place to play your record.

00:07:44.640 Why are you bringing that to school?

00:07:45.680 But it was a mark of how cool you were.

00:07:50.000 You know, if you showed up with the new ACDC.

00:07:52.420 I felt, like I said in the intro, I was the coolest guy on earth because I had, for those

00:07:56.460 about to rock with the cannon and it opened up and, you know, I could only listen to it.

00:08:01.320 Album art was a big thing when I was growing up.

00:08:03.300 Yeah.

00:08:03.560 My dad, I realize now my father had these great albums.

00:08:06.660 I didn't know what they were at the time.

00:08:08.580 Like, you know, Led Zeppelin IV.

00:08:10.400 I was just a kid.

00:08:11.260 What's this?

00:08:11.800 It's like an old man. 0.83

00:08:12.860 It looked boring.

00:08:13.640 I didn't know what it was.

00:08:14.520 Yeah, kind of boring, right?

00:08:14.960 Right?

00:08:15.420 Yeah.

00:08:15.760 And I remember a Pink Floyd album where the guy's on fire, you know?

00:08:21.160 But I really remember the ELO albums because they looked like comic books to me.

00:08:25.420 It was a spaceship and you'd open it up and you'd see all these, you know, like stuff

00:08:30.360 for kids back then was so few and far between.

00:08:33.560 You know, there wasn't Batman all over the place.

00:08:35.460 It was just like, you know, when did you get to see Batman?

00:08:39.020 If you went to a toy store or it was just not on TV all the time or anything.

00:08:44.240 So anything.

00:08:45.580 So like an ELO album would be like Spaceships.

00:08:48.000 Wow.

00:08:48.540 They get me.

00:08:49.880 ELO and the other one was Boston with the Spaceship on it.

00:08:53.380 Boston had Spaceships.

00:08:53.700 And who else had a Spaceship?

00:08:57.240 Oh, Starship, Jefferson Starship.

00:09:00.040 Jefferson Starship.

00:09:00.720 But those ELO albums were these elaborate, you know, you flipped them open and there

00:09:05.760 was like a world you looked at where it was like space and like...

00:09:09.160 Now you look back and you think, yeah, you know, my dad might have been using acid.

00:09:12.420 I'm not entirely sure.

00:09:14.400 But album art was a big deal.

00:09:15.780 Album art was a huge thing.

00:09:16.940 What's the best album art you think you've ever seen?

00:09:19.940 Um, I'll tell you this.

00:09:22.400 I've, I've, as I, as I got more, as I've, as I'm older, I've gotten into art, art and

00:09:28.140 certain artists like, uh, I forgot his name.

00:09:31.100 He did like, uh, Judas Priest albums, like Screaming for Vengeance.

00:09:37.880 And it was, it's a certain kind of art.

00:09:39.600 I love, I love, I love that stuff.

00:09:42.100 You know, Patrick Nagel, like that Rio album cover is Patrick Nagel.

00:09:47.280 Some of it's pure design now.

00:09:49.520 Like I notice, uh, Tool is very intricate with their artwork and...

00:09:54.360 Yeah.

00:09:55.100 You know, uh, it's almost like, it's almost like design artwork, uh, repetitive design

00:10:00.960 and fractals and stuff like that.

00:10:02.820 Um, and then of course, this year I chased around for my stepson, uh, just a single album

00:10:10.180 that was just green.

00:10:11.660 Um, a green album.

00:10:14.960 It was just green and it was, uh, oh man, I'm good.

00:10:18.580 I feel so bad now.

00:10:19.760 I can't remember the artist.

00:10:21.220 It was, uh, it'll come to me.

00:10:24.680 Nick, who had a fully green album this year?

00:10:27.940 I'll check it out.

00:10:28.780 This year?

00:10:29.460 Oh my God.

00:10:30.160 Let's say last year.

00:10:31.240 But getting it was next to impossible because the vinyl version of this record was so popular.

00:10:37.600 It took us over a year to find it and then it took eight weeks for it to deliver.

00:10:42.220 Uh, there's stuff you can't get anymore.

00:10:43.960 It goes out of print.

00:10:44.860 Like I was going to ask you that.

00:10:46.280 Is there anybody out there?

00:10:47.700 I still don't have that, that came and gone.

00:10:50.100 And then it was record store day and that came and gone.

00:10:52.380 Like there's stuff and, but it always comes back.

00:10:55.240 Like I paid, you know, the most I paid for an album was, um, it was like,

00:11:00.580 when I was out in Europe, I got engaged.

00:11:05.380 So it was sort of my groom's gift.

00:11:06.900 I paid a hundred euros for, for an Aussie album.

00:11:09.960 That's pretty serious money.

00:11:10.920 No rest for the wicked.

00:11:11.940 Yeah.

00:11:12.180 That was a lot.

00:11:13.020 Yeah.

00:11:13.340 And at the time, this was, I don't know, a few years ago, five years ago.

00:11:16.980 At the time, the only pressing, vinyl pressing was this European pressing of it.

00:11:21.500 I got it there.

00:11:22.720 And then they, of course, re-release it.

00:11:25.280 Yeah.

00:11:25.380 That's what always happens.

00:11:26.340 Does that, okay.

00:11:26.760 So does that earlier version keep a better value than the new re-release?

00:11:31.400 Yeah.

00:11:31.560 It's still as rare as, yeah, it still retains its value.

00:11:35.000 I think it probably shoots it up when they start throwing other comparables.

00:11:39.220 Do you know what I mean?

00:11:40.100 Yeah.

00:11:40.640 Uh, I don't know.

00:11:41.720 I've got the white album.

00:11:42.760 I'm kind of off with records.

00:11:44.000 Like, I don't know.

00:11:44.860 No, I still buy them though.

00:11:46.180 I've got the white album.

00:11:47.360 Is that worth anything?

00:11:49.060 Depends which version.

00:11:50.320 Yeah, exactly.

00:11:50.820 Have you ever joined Discogs?

00:11:51.780 Like, it's crazy.

00:11:52.780 There's like a million versions of the white album.

00:11:54.980 There's stuff on Apple.

00:11:56.160 There's stuff on whatever.

00:11:58.680 Label and, you know what I mean?

00:12:00.040 I kind of, for my birthday, I was like, I'm rich!

00:12:02.120 Yeah, but apparently there's 18 releases of it and, uh, in every country.

00:12:06.600 There's one Beatles album, too.

00:12:07.780 I forgot what it was called, but it was, the original cover was them like at a butcher shop

00:12:13.320 and there's like blood everywhere.

00:12:15.000 I don't even know that one.

00:12:15.660 And then they, the record company didn't want to release it, so they put like a sticker

00:12:19.620 over it.

00:12:21.600 That's how they dealt with it at first.

00:12:23.440 Right.

00:12:23.940 And then, and they sold those.

00:12:26.020 If you could find one of those where, like, it's behind the sticker kind of thing.

00:12:29.340 I've heard this, yeah.

00:12:30.260 There's stuff like that out there.

00:12:31.620 That was the white album, I think, wasn't it?

00:12:33.640 No, it was something else.

00:12:35.460 Because they did, they did sticker over something.

00:12:37.540 I remember that with the white album.

00:12:38.680 There's a relabel on it or there's a, uh, but that, okay.

00:12:41.980 There's crazy stuff going on with vinyl.

00:12:43.400 Misprints, uh, label misprints, uh, limited editions and stuff.

00:12:48.440 Is this a big collector's world still, do you think?

00:12:50.940 It's just, it's a nerds, it's a nerds collector thing.

00:12:54.060 Yeah.

00:12:54.520 For sure.

00:12:55.120 You could go so deep, like.

00:12:56.960 I know I scored at Value Village, uh, and Neil Young's first album.

00:13:02.920 The, the version that he, he canceled, re-recorded and then released because he didn't like the

00:13:09.920 first recording of it.

00:13:11.040 I have one of those.

00:13:12.460 Wow.

00:13:13.500 Yeah.

00:13:14.140 That's pretty incredible that rock and roll had to do that.

00:13:16.260 They had to actually go back.

00:13:17.640 Now we can change a file.

00:13:19.620 Yeah.

00:13:20.020 You mentioned that you're, uh, going towards CDs.

00:13:23.040 I gotta wonder, I had, I really believe just because of how stackable and cool they were.

00:13:29.160 Hey, by the way, Nick, did we find out what that record was?

00:13:31.140 Um, the green album.

00:13:33.520 I did not, unless you're talking about the Weezer album from the early nineties.

00:13:37.240 Nah, it'll come to me.

00:13:38.160 It's a female artist. 0.83

00:13:39.160 Or a band named Orbital.

00:13:40.360 No.

00:13:40.880 No.

00:13:41.360 No.

00:13:42.060 Um, I did, I did want to bring up that, there was that Beatles album, maybe you were mentioning

00:13:45.440 the one with the, with the dolls and the blood.

00:13:48.340 Yeah, that's what you're talking about.

00:13:48.860 Do you remember that, uh, that album cover?

00:13:50.420 Is it that one?

00:13:51.120 Yeah.

00:13:51.420 With the, like, it's like a butcher shop.

00:13:53.100 There's like blood everywhere.

00:13:54.880 And then they, they didn't, they released it.

00:13:57.600 And then they were like, we get something happened.

00:14:00.080 And they called the, we shouldn't do this.

00:14:01.920 It has, uh, the, uh, the butchers on that.

00:14:04.660 Or what do they call a butcher in England?

00:14:06.180 There's a name for it.

00:14:06.960 But anyway, the butcher, I believe.

00:14:08.880 Uh, I thought for sure cassettes were going to be the cool thing forever.

00:14:15.880 Why don't, from a collector standpoint, do they have any value?

00:14:19.000 Nobody seems to want them.

00:14:19.980 People collect them.

00:14:20.480 Um, there's stuff that's worth money.

00:14:22.620 I don't like cassettes.

00:14:24.440 Well, see, I, I got into vintage stereos.

00:14:27.540 That's why when you're asking about CDs, you know what I mean? 0.99

00:14:30.960 I, my stereo at home is a stupid, like, vintage. 0.97

00:14:36.040 I have two monoblocks, like, that are 300 watts each. 0.98

00:14:41.120 So I have 300 watts going into one speaker, 300 watts going into the other speaker.

00:14:47.680 Wow.

00:14:47.960 Separate amps, you know.

00:14:49.800 Um, I've listened to music on your stereo.

00:14:52.440 Two reel-to-reels, like a big, Fostex 10-inch reel-to-reel.

00:14:57.560 And what do you use that for?

00:14:58.260 Two reel-to-reels.

00:14:59.100 Is, is there stuff that you can-

00:15:00.200 To make mixtapes.

00:15:00.700 Just to make a mixtape, right?

00:15:01.780 Yeah, just to make it.

00:15:02.540 If you play around with stuff, like, you know, to get that sound.

00:15:05.780 Not every record sounds great, you know?

00:15:07.540 I kind of stick to, if the music was recorded in the, like, digital age, then get the CD.

00:15:13.360 Right.

00:15:13.860 You know what I mean?

00:15:14.760 Like, I have a Chemical Brothers vinyl record, and it doesn't sound right to me.

00:15:20.360 For a little while when you would get the CD, or actually more to the point with MP3s, there seemed to be a loss of fullness in the sound in early days.

00:15:29.840 I think that they've kind of caught up with that now.

00:15:32.160 It's all kind of here and there, you know?

00:15:34.280 The reason why I'm collecting CDs again is I discovered digital audio converters, like vintage ones.

00:15:42.340 Okay.

00:15:42.900 You know, so certain high-end Denon CD players from early days.

00:15:48.760 Right.

00:15:49.560 The kind we would have used in the radio stations.

00:15:52.380 Kind of, like some elite home players, some things.

00:15:55.880 Like, it really depends on the DAC, the digital audio converter.

00:16:00.340 Some are made by, like, a company called Wolfson or Burr-Brown, and those are these, like, sought-after digital audio converters.

00:16:10.300 Some of the first-generation iPods, those big white ones, have Wolfson DACs in them, and those are sought-after.

00:16:17.420 Because what they're doing is they're taking that digital music, like the ones and zeros, turning it into analog.

00:16:22.920 But certain ones will make it, give it that sweet sound.

00:16:28.420 That more full.

00:16:29.400 Yeah, like, I don't know what you want to call it.

00:16:31.680 Like, you know.

00:16:33.000 That's a great thing.

00:16:34.040 What would we call it?

00:16:34.920 Let's give it a name.

00:16:35.660 It's like.

00:16:36.360 I do like sweet.

00:16:37.580 It's turning ones and zeros into this.

00:16:41.400 A sound.

00:16:42.020 It actually warms it up somehow.

00:16:44.280 Yeah, and what you're hearing on vinyl is an actual needle doing that, right?

00:16:48.360 Like, you're listening to that, a needle actually follows that, and I know that with tape, analog tape, the reason why you get a sweet sound from tape is the amount of particles being moved, right?

00:17:05.280 So that's why tape sounds better when it's faster, right?

00:17:09.200 Right.

00:17:09.640 And same with video, right?

00:17:12.260 The particles are moved.

00:17:14.980 The faster they move, the better it sounds.

00:17:16.700 The better it sounds.

00:17:17.360 That's why 45, like, singles, like 12-inch singles sound better than that track on an album.

00:17:24.100 I swear to God, I did not know that.

00:17:25.620 Yeah.

00:17:26.360 That's amazing.

00:17:27.160 I did not know that. 1.00

00:17:28.300 So stupid vintage audio crap that I learned over COVID. 0.99

00:17:32.780 To make your record sound the best, you had to put it out on a 45 as a single, ideally, not just for pricing. 1.00

00:17:38.800 You'll hear it.

00:17:40.060 You'll, you know, play those extended versions of, like, a 12-inch single on, that's 45 RPM.

00:17:47.260 Is, uh...

00:17:48.000 Same with tape, right?

00:17:49.320 Like, on my reel-to-reels, I'll have, um, what's, uh, 15 FPS or 7, you know?

00:17:57.160 You can put more.

00:17:58.120 Remember the cassettes?

00:17:59.600 You can put more, but it sounded better when you put less, right?

00:18:03.700 I forgot about that.

00:18:04.520 That's right.

00:18:05.020 You can switch it.

00:18:05.740 It was a switch on my, uh, on my dubbing machine, and you could...

00:18:09.360 Yeah, yeah.

00:18:09.840 No problem.

00:18:10.660 We can get three hours on here, but...

00:18:12.480 Yeah.

00:18:13.140 So DACs, what DACs do, they simulate that, and some are better, do the job better than others.

00:18:19.580 There's some that are sought out.

00:18:21.060 Is technology in turntables, uh, new now?

00:18:25.100 Like, if you want to...

00:18:26.160 The only thing I think they really changed was to add, like, USBs.

00:18:29.840 And stuff like that.

00:18:30.740 But the quality, the way that it...

00:18:33.120 I mean, God, I've gone through...

00:18:35.020 I have a couple of, uh, turntables.

00:18:36.820 It's not, like, super high-end.

00:18:38.580 My turntable's from Scotland.

00:18:40.820 Oh, right.

00:18:41.600 It's a company called Ariston.

00:18:42.460 Yeah, you know?

00:18:43.520 Like, the good ones come from, like, England.

00:18:46.040 Like, in terms of, like, vintage ones.

00:18:48.160 Yeah.

00:18:48.360 You know?

00:18:49.340 There's a lot of...

00:18:49.980 I noticed that, uh...

00:18:51.300 Okay.

00:18:51.900 It's the hipster thing now to have a turntable. 0.93

00:18:54.440 And there's a lot of garbage, actually, out on the market. 0.99

00:18:56.520 There's a lot of garbage. 0.99

00:18:57.420 Yeah. 0.98

00:18:57.680 And they're just trying to sell these kind of turnkey kind of systems.

00:19:01.260 But I'll tell you, if you get into finished stuff, anything Japanese is great and old.

00:19:08.980 And those are the ones that will have FONO inputs, right?

00:19:11.320 With the preamp already built into the amp.

00:19:14.340 That's the other thing, right?

00:19:15.520 It's a very low signal out of a turntable.

00:19:18.360 So you need either a preamp in the turntable.

00:19:20.740 Sometimes these new ones, they come with preamps in the turntable.

00:19:25.000 Or, you know, with the ground in the right-left.

00:19:27.780 Or it's in the old amp or the new amp.

00:19:31.280 Or you have a separate preamp for your turntable.

00:19:36.060 Which, some of them, they make as a separate thing.

00:19:38.340 Stand-alone with a tube, you know, that feeds the low signal in from the turntable.

00:19:44.760 Converts it to analog, goes into your amp.

00:19:48.220 It gets crazy.

00:19:49.260 As you describe it to me now, it seems like, wow, we really are lucky to have MP3s and Spotify and a few of these things.

00:19:55.960 Sort of, you know.

00:19:56.760 But the collector end of it.

00:19:57.340 It takes a lot of the work out of, you know.

00:20:00.300 For me, vinyl really was about the bus ride down to the record store.

00:20:05.780 Like, the quest.

00:20:06.800 Yeah.

00:20:07.240 To get that and discover new music.

00:20:09.380 Because you went there and they're playing something.

00:20:12.180 And you're like, what's that?

00:20:13.180 I sought that out on a couple of levels.

00:20:15.340 That's gone.

00:20:16.360 Yeah.

00:20:16.700 I remember that bus ride downtown and thinking, okay, I'm going to go to the Silver Snail and I'm going to go to Sam the Record Man.

00:20:24.960 Oh, God.

00:20:25.660 That was a glorious day for me.

00:20:27.760 And you would get off at Bloor and just walk down to Dundas.

00:20:31.460 Yeah.

00:20:31.720 And you would hit a million record stores.

00:20:34.260 I remember.

00:20:35.080 There were like two up by Bloor, you know, where the boxing gym was.

00:20:38.960 Oh, yeah.

00:20:39.460 You'd go upstairs.

00:20:40.480 There was a vinyl museum.

00:20:41.820 The vinyl museum was another one.

00:20:42.040 And then there was another vinyl museum down by Dundas.

00:20:45.000 There was Star Sound.

00:20:47.820 There was Records on Wheels.

00:20:49.180 There was Cheapies.

00:20:50.540 Oh, yeah.

00:20:50.900 Cheapies.

00:20:51.320 There was Music World.

00:20:52.860 There was Sam's.

00:20:54.440 And then there was, right?

00:20:55.900 Like, you remember A&A.

00:20:57.180 Like, you remember all that?

00:20:58.460 Like, there were a million places to go.

00:21:00.100 Literally, by the way, as best I can remember, you just gave us the actual.

00:21:04.700 The map.

00:21:05.460 The map of that street for the records.

00:21:07.320 Yeah.

00:21:07.880 Jim Dunn's vinyl museum.

00:21:09.820 And then you go to, you know, Star Sound.

00:21:10.580 What's the first record that you remember buying with your own money?

00:21:13.280 With my own money, Devo, Freedom of Choice.

00:21:16.320 Wow.

00:21:17.300 For Whippet.

00:21:17.980 For Whippet.

00:21:19.200 Yeah.

00:21:19.420 I brought those guys on stage when I was on radio. 0.96

00:21:21.400 What a bunch of maniacs backstage. 0.99

00:21:24.440 Do you think that they'd be better behaved? 0.93

00:21:26.500 Really?

00:21:26.980 Those guys?

00:21:27.420 It was incredible.

00:21:28.680 They're very intelligent cats.

00:21:30.100 Yeah, yeah.

00:21:30.760 That was for certain.

00:21:32.460 But they were certainly into the rock star lifestyle, as I recall.

00:21:36.580 Really?

00:21:37.180 Yeah.

00:21:37.560 Yeah, it was very interesting.

00:21:39.040 I see interviews with them, and they're just really smart, intelligent, artful dudes.

00:21:43.840 They are, for sure.

00:21:44.800 You know, like, went to college for art.

00:21:46.720 The interesting thing about those guys, they went through that whole Kent State University craziness.

00:21:51.760 They were at the school, you know, when that was going on.

00:21:56.520 The era.

00:21:56.880 So that's where all that crazy. 0.98

00:21:58.480 Like, they were into Dadaism and, you know, like, post-war sort of art movement shit. 0.95

00:22:05.120 Is there one piece of vinyl you listen to more than anything? 0.97

00:22:08.100 God, I'll tell you, since the wife's been working at home, that stereo hasn't even turned on. 1.00

00:22:13.860 Like, and now I buy records.

00:22:15.440 COVID, what have you done?

00:22:16.580 They're open, like, they sit there unopened.

00:22:18.920 Yeah.

00:22:19.520 I hardly have the time to just sit there and power up the amps.

00:22:23.680 Like, if people come over, I'm like, yeah.

00:22:26.140 But it's weird.

00:22:27.140 Like, music, yeah, it's all kind of here, just because I'm listening in the car or I'm listening.

00:22:32.020 Yeah.

00:22:32.220 It's a real thing.

00:22:33.080 It's a real thing to, like, music.

00:22:35.880 It takes some time.

00:22:36.800 It's almost like you should put time aside, like, once a month and just sit down.

00:22:41.480 Like, that was a huge hobby for me, dude.

00:22:43.880 Like, the vinyl collecting and then the stereos.

00:22:47.860 And then I kind of, my personalities, I move from one thing to another.

00:22:52.220 Like, I was re-gripping golf clubs a few weeks ago.

00:22:56.400 Now my band's playing again, so I'm playing, picked up the guitar again.

00:22:59.960 Did you have to re-grip the guitar?

00:23:01.540 No.

00:23:02.340 But I have, I did, over COVID, learn how to re-fret guitars.

00:23:06.960 Oh, no way.

00:23:08.020 You know, put the frets in.

00:23:09.480 What?

00:23:09.620 File them and you level them and all that.

00:23:12.840 I learned how to work on guitars.

00:23:14.520 Oh, that's good.

00:23:15.080 I have a couple of.

00:23:15.800 I bought tools.

00:23:16.400 I bought drill press, an arbor press.

00:23:18.980 I got a neck need straightened out and a guitar to clean up.

00:23:21.780 I'll send it your way.

00:23:22.620 Is it twisted or is it just, like, bowed?

00:23:25.820 I'm not sure if it's twisted or it's my playing.

00:23:27.820 Is the action high?

00:23:28.940 What's the thing?

00:23:29.740 Listen to this guy now.

00:23:32.100 Like, it's hard to play?

00:23:33.420 Action's high?

00:23:34.260 Like, what is it?

00:23:34.960 It's hard to play because of my skill level.

00:23:36.920 The action's a little high.

00:23:38.580 It might be a little bowed.

00:23:39.580 I could do a setup, but you've got to put the hours in and the pain.

00:23:43.820 Listen, if you set it up, I'll put the hours in.

00:23:46.320 I have arthritis now.

00:23:47.640 Oh, my God.

00:23:48.340 It's so hard to play.

00:23:49.600 But, yeah, I jump from one hobby to another.

00:23:51.620 Is your band playing gigs coming up?

00:23:54.160 I promise you I will keep you posted.

00:24:01.300 That band, we haven't played in a long time.

00:24:03.940 Well, let's get you guys back on tour.

00:24:07.160 Yeah, one day.

00:24:08.400 Cut a piece of vinyl.

00:24:09.720 Yeah, you want to see a 50-something-year-old jumping around on stage.

00:24:14.540 Let's talk about these bands that are on.

00:24:16.460 All I see on my Facebook is just all these bands that, oh, what happened to the singers?

00:24:25.960 I know.

00:24:26.480 Listen, like Phil Collins, oh, it makes me so sad.

00:24:29.660 Well, I'm talking about, like, Vince Neil.

00:24:31.280 Oh, Vince Neil.

00:24:32.120 Oh, yeah.

00:24:33.000 That's a tough one to watch.

00:24:34.700 We're all going to hit the wall.

00:24:36.200 Let's remember the talent.

00:24:37.360 Keep our eyes on the new talent if we need to see something beautiful.

00:24:40.980 You know?

00:24:41.160 If you can make the money, I guess.

00:24:42.860 It blows my mind.

00:24:44.140 The Stones.

00:24:44.400 I wish I'd seen in 84.

00:24:47.060 I feel like, you know, some bands, like, if you didn't see them when you should have seen

00:24:50.580 them, it's just...

00:24:51.240 I saw Paul Weller last year.

00:24:54.340 Oh, but Paul Weller is timeless.

00:24:56.460 He...

00:24:56.860 Because of that kind of music.

00:24:58.660 And he just sounds better than he's ever sounded.

00:25:01.060 You should hear Style Council records on a good stereo.

00:25:04.700 That's where I began.

00:25:05.200 That stuff sounds amazing.

00:25:06.760 My favorite shop.

00:25:07.060 I'll tell you, Simply Red sounds amazing.

00:25:09.620 But you put on... 1.00

00:25:11.060 Certain records sound like shit. 1.00

00:25:13.380 What's a record that doesn't sound good? 1.00

00:25:19.720 Fleetwood Mac, Rumors.

00:25:21.960 No way.

00:25:22.680 Yeah.

00:25:23.140 Doesn't sound that great.

00:25:24.120 I've heard this about some of the ABBA albums.

00:25:27.000 Some stuff, like, some punk albums are just the worst recordings.

00:25:30.700 Early Smith's albums are abominable.

00:25:32.800 Early R.E.M.

00:25:33.280 Some are bad.

00:25:34.120 Yeah, some are bad recordings.

00:25:36.100 But then you take something like...

00:25:36.420 Great songs.

00:25:37.020 Yeah, you take something like Phil Collins, right?

00:25:40.520 Any of those albums.

00:25:41.760 They're unbelievable on the stereo.

00:25:45.100 Like, you know, what did they call those drums?

00:25:47.180 Those drums had a certain sound in the 80s.

00:25:50.020 I think they called them...

00:25:51.220 I forgot what they called them.

00:25:52.840 But that, like, everybody used that.

00:25:56.280 The synth drums?

00:25:57.400 The electric drums?

00:25:58.620 Yeah.

00:25:59.280 Gated.

00:26:00.040 Gated.

00:26:00.460 Gated drums.

00:26:01.440 So that was a sound in the 80s they discovered, and everything had gated drums.

00:26:07.220 Yeah.

00:26:07.540 So you didn't hear the initial hits?

00:26:09.840 They were just so big.

00:26:11.000 They were just, like, so in your face, the drums.

00:26:13.660 You know?

00:26:14.200 So true.

00:26:14.720 The gated drum sound.

00:26:16.820 And all those, like, high-produced albums are just incredible.

00:26:20.140 Like, yes.

00:26:21.440 Have you heard, you know, that album?

00:26:23.460 You know, Owner of a Lonely Heart.

00:26:24.860 Oh, God, yeah.

00:26:25.740 That kind of stuff.

00:26:27.100 You said Frankie Goes to Hollywood.

00:26:28.780 That was such a beautiful sounding album.

00:26:30.560 Yeah.

00:26:31.160 That, that, and Pet Shop Boys.

00:26:33.100 Yeah.

00:26:33.680 Uh, was that Shep Pettibone?

00:26:36.120 Shep Pettibone, yeah.

00:26:37.000 Yeah.

00:26:37.460 Yeah.

00:26:37.820 Like, his sound, like,

00:26:38.900 Gah! 1.00

00:26:39.800 Blah, blah!

00:26:40.580 Like, that kind of, you know?

00:26:42.560 In your face, like... 0.55

00:26:42.820 Or was it Shep Pettibone?

00:26:43.980 I can't remember, but...

00:26:45.600 That Owner of a Lonely Heart producer had a certain amazing way of recording.

00:26:50.580 It's always interesting to me to hear what producers did with analog production, and now

00:26:56.100 you see so many studios trying to incorporate analog production back into their studios and

00:27:01.740 into their process just to get a sound that's not replicated digitally properly.

00:27:06.320 I don't know if you saw that documentary with Dave Grohl.

00:27:09.820 He bought this, this, this board that came from, um, a sound studio in Van Nuys, was it

00:27:16.840 Van Nuys, California?

00:27:18.260 Legendary sound studio, so, like, um, yeah, like, Fleetwood Mac recorded there, um, James

00:27:26.000 Brown, uh, not James Brown, um, anyways, like, all these famous albums were recorded there

00:27:31.900 at, I forgot the name of the sound studio, but he bought that board, and, um, yeah, it

00:27:37.100 was a famous analog board.

00:27:39.060 I forget the name of the doc, and I forget the name of the...

00:27:41.080 In Toronto, is the, uh, is the, the board, I think, that the album we discussed earlier,

00:27:49.160 the White Album, was recorded on, and was brought here from Abbey Road, yeah, it's analog.

00:27:53.260 Like, old school engineering of tubes and...

00:27:56.080 It's fantastic, you know, and sound waves and shit like that.

00:28:00.200 Yeah, it's pretty, that's, and that's what you're talking about, trying to get that analog 0.91

00:28:04.000 thing going on.

00:28:05.840 Um, Phil Guerrero, I love to talk to you about anything, but talking about albums, uh, because

00:28:11.200 I've seen your collection, it, it actually has meaning, and, uh, that you're still so

00:28:16.040 in love with music, it's very cool.

00:28:17.340 So, man, thanks so much for talking to us.

00:28:18.600 Oh, yeah.

00:28:18.660 Next time, let's talk fashion.

00:28:19.720 What do you say?

00:28:20.400 Yeah, let's do it.

00:28:21.140 Oh, yeah.

00:28:26.820 Oh, yeah.

00:28:27.640 Oh, yeah.

00:28:29.280 Oh, yeah.

00:28:29.660 Oh, yeah.

00:28:31.720 Oh, yeah.

00:28:32.040 Oh, yeah.

00:28:32.580 Oh, yeah.

00:28:33.240 Mm, yeah.

00:28:34.500 Oh, yeah.

00:28:35.440 Oh, yeah.

00:28:36.740 Oh, yeah.

00:28:37.520 Oh, yeah.

00:28:38.620 Uh, yeah.

00:28:40.580 Oh, yeah.

00:28:42.020 Oh, yeah.

00:28:42.700 Oh, yeah.

00:28:43.080 Oh, yeah.

00:28:47.360 Oh, yeah.

00:28:49.160 Oh, yeah.

00:28:50.160 Oh.

True Patriot Love - October 05, 2025

From Skate Punk to Hair Metal： A Deep Dive into Vinyl Obsession with Phil Guerrero

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