A hobby for the records
Starting with only a few CD’s and an MP3 from his teen years, Diamond Bar High School English teacher Cage Morgan has turned his passion of music into a life-long hobby of record collecting.
As of 2022, his collection consists of well over 1,000 vinyl records, which includes an original pressing of Kate Bush’s “Hounds of Love” and Talking Heads’ “Remain in Light.” He initially started this hobby after the MP3 became mainstream, outdating his library of CDs and forcing the then 19-year old to look elsewhere to stream music.
“I was pretty much only listening to my music out of an iPod,” Morgan said. “Since CDs completely lost their value, I still wanted to support the artists I liked.”
It was then that Morgan discovered vinyl records from his brother, and quickly started curating a collection of records. In order to purchase these records, Morgan took up a DJ job during his time living in Tokyo, Japan.
“I would play records at a place called Beat Cafe in Shibuya, Tokyo,” Morgan said. “It was my introduction to doing DJ gigs, playing old punk music, power pop and garage rock.”
After leaving Japan, Morgan continued to DJ in Los Angeles with his brother for around three years, where he taught English during the day and DJ-ed at night. There, he met many musicians and was constantly asked to DJ between shows.
“I really didn’t do it for the money, it made me feel like it was a utility to continue to collect records with the small amount of money I got from it,” Morgan said.
To this day, the DBHS teacher owns about two Ikea cube shelves worth of vinyls, with his favorite record from his collection being “Souvlaki” by Slowdive. Like many collectors, Morgan’s vast collection of records contain many rarities.
“I have many Japanese pressings of rare New Order albums,” Morgan said. “Joy Division and New Order are the two bands that I have really gone deep into finding rare presses.”
He frequents the record stores Port of Sound in Costa Mesa, as well as LA cult favorites like Mount Analog, Gimme Gimme Records and The Last Bookstore as well as Discogs.com and Amoeba Music in Hollywood, which unfortunately closed last year.
As Morgan moves further into his adulthood, his record collecting has diminished, but he says he still looks forward to purchasing records if the option is given.
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