Joe Guilfoy lives in Whitman, MA with his wife and dog. He works for the local electric company in substation maintenance, and he's also the bassist in the bands Medjugorje and Branch Davidian. If that weren't already enough for him to chew on, Joe is also the guy behind Suburbistan Records. I'm tired from just typing that!
In addition to all of that, Joe is also now part of the Record Collector club.
How long have you been collecting records?
I've been collecting records for about three or four years. My best friend, Nick, has been collecting for a long time and kept trying to get me into it. I started getting into it slowly and then I'd say in the past year and a half I've gotten the bulk of my collection.
Where/how do you usually find your records these days?
A lot of my purchases offline just because I work a lot, so Discogs and eBay for online through pre-orders or distros like Stateline Records or State of Mind Records. Mars Records in Plymouth is my go to brick and mortar. Tim who owns the shop is always a pleasure to talk to, a wealth of knowledge and only stocks the best. I've also recently made my first of many trips to Purchase St Records in New Bedford, Rodger has a great shop and was very welcoming to a first timer, looking forward to my next trip. When I have the time to go up to the city I go to Armageddon Records in Cambridge.
I also was lucky enough to get two collections that added some great titles to my collection. One was my friend's uncle who had a lot of classic records from the '70s and '80s. The other was my friend Sean's collection from when he worked at a local college in the '90s, so I got a lot of cool promo stuff from him.
What is the most you paid for a single record, where/how did you obtain it, and what was it?
I am pretty cheap when it comes to buying records. I believe the most I spent is $45 on my Ramones' Pleasant Dreams first press. It's my favorite record from them, and I also realized I probably over paid for it afterward, but winning the bid on it was more satisfying.
If you to pick one record label you feel had/has the best track record of quality releases, who would that be and what are some key titles you love?
I don't think I can pick one because there are so many good ones. Gun to my head, it would have to be Relapse Records. They just put out so many great bands and they do a great job with any reissue they do. But I would also have a hard time not naming Rucktion Records from the UK who just continue putting out solid hardcore releases, Bridge Nine Records who just have put so many classic records, and Fast Break! Records who I have not heard one bad release from. There are other amazing record labels but those come to mind first.
Of everything in your current collection, what is your most prized record and why?
I don't really have one prized record because of the record itself. A lot of the records I have may be more important to me one day to the next depending on the mood I'm in. But recently it would have to be my copy of Sheer Terror's Love Songs for the Unloved. That band is just the perfect hardcore band, in my opinion. Paul Bearer is one of the greatest frontmen of any genre, from lyrics to stage banter, he is unmatched.
Is there anything that frustrates you about the current record collecting scene?
Collecting records is pretty new to me, so a lot of the price stuff doesn't really bother me because I don't remember it not being there. If it was anything probably the fact that a lot of people only consider you a collector if you own every variant or bootleg or whatever. The point is cool, I guess, but I like way too many records and am way to cheap to try and get everything.
On the flip side, the cool thing is how the Internet gives a platform for it. I see a lot of people complain about before the Internet and all that but I wouldn't know about most of this stuff with out it. Watching people like Brandon and Jason Hook talk about their collections and have both as well as others showed me a lot of cool records I wouldn't have known about otherwise.
Which records are still on your want list that you've had a tough time tracking down through the years?
Currently, the only record I'm really wanting to get is Sheer Terror's Just Can't Hate Enough, any variation of the first pressing, doesn't matter. Recently, I've been debating with going with the represses I keep seeing pop up on Discogs but something about the placement of the live tracks in between songs on side A and B won't let me. Other than that it's just adding to my collection. I'm not picky about first presses, test presses, and specific variants they're cool but any quality repress is just as good to me.
***
Follow Joe's personal page on Instagram, as well as the one for Suburbistan Records.
Tagged: record collector
