3QQ: Danielle Lovier on Vinyl

The lead singer of energetic Philly band Grocer answers three questions about records.

Aug 01, 2024

Welcome to Three Quora Questions, our series of interviews in which a guest expert joins me to field strange and interesting questions posed on Quora.com (the internet’s oddest knowledge repository).

Today, we’re joined by Danielle Lovier, who sings and plays bass in the Philly noise rock band Grocer. Earlier this year, they released their third LP, Bless Me, which also marked the fifth full-length album that Danielle has worked on with her partner and bandmate, Nick. Given her prolific experience making and purchasing records, I asked Danielle with three questions about vinyl chosen from the Quora archives.

What are your favorite vinyl records you own?

DANIELLE: Probably House of Sugar by Alex G. Astrid Gilberto's Shadow of Your Smile. I'm going to go look at my records.

Nick always tells people that I love Coldplay's Viva La Vida, because I used to like that in college or whatever. It's so annoying. He told everyone I loved Coldplay and then bought me the vinyl, which I did not want.

Let's say, um, D'Angelo, Black Messiah.

Why do people still love vinyl records? What is the value behind them? Why do people spend money on them?

DANIELLE: I think the value of them is that you can physically own a copy of the music instead of just having the ability to stream it. There's something about being able to physically hold it in your hands.

I also think that it does sound different. The quality has a softness to it that people really like. And I mean, I think that people like to have things in their house to collect. So, bragging rights.

Recycling: What are some uses for old vinyl records?

DANIELLE: If I knew the answer to that I would not have boxes of old records at my house! I have hundreds of unsold records from a band that doesn't exist anymore, that no one will ever buy.

I thought about trying to make them into candy bowls, like heat them upward. I've tried to talk Nick into making them into pickguards to go on instruments. I don't want to throw them in the dump, but truly they're garbage! They're so unrecyclable.

If your Chortle readers have any ideas, I will ship to them and they can figure out how to recycle this shit.