Reddit reviews Touchable Sound: A Collection of 7-inch Records from the USA

You're coming into record collecting at a time when vinyl records are a much more specialized field than they were when some of us were first getting into records. 7" singles have always appealed to me more than LPs. Here are a few reasons why:

• When I was buying punk records in the early 1990s, a lot of it was 7" record based. Bands came together and broke up so quickly that they didn't always have enough time together to record an album's worth of songs. For more established bands like Rocket From The Crypt or Man... or Astro-Man? it was more about building hype between major releases so when they went on tour they wouldn't be playing for empty clubs.
  
  
• They were cheap. This doesn't seem to always be the case these days, but back when they sold for $4 a pop you could walk out of a record store with singles from four different bands for the same price as one full-length.
  
  
• They are cheaper to produce, so more obscure bands could afford to put them out. Some of these bands went on to make shitloads of cash and others were never heard from again, but they could afford to be a little more irresponsible with what they were releasing on 7" and as a result there was some fucking killer stuff released.
  
  
• It is waaaaay fun to browse a 7" record section at a record store. And since they were all so inexpensive you could afford to take a chance on something based off of art work or a band's name without making any serious investment. If your record buying experience is mostly online then it makes perfect sense that single shopping doesn't seem like much fun.
  
  
• Bands and labels were almost criminally irresponsible with the amount of time and effort they were putting into 7" art in the '90s. The DIY spirt was in full force and the resulting records were like little artistic masterpieces. They were also fun and easy to collect and trade. This is still the case if your local record shop is any good. If you're interested in seeing how over the top 7" record design was for a while there, there was a fantastic book put out a few years back by a company called Soundscreen Design
  
  
• What's the appeal in collecting? Either you get it or you don't. If you want to see the level of my personal 7" collecting mania check out my online visual archive of Man... or Astro-Man? singles.

Is this the book it was bundled with? That looks like something that could be turned into an awesome coffee table book.

Touchable sound http://www.amazon.com/Touchable-Sound-Brian-Roettinger/dp/0984302824