Drop Nineteens
Delaware

By chance, while browsing bakeca.it, I found someone living in Maser (about 30km from my house) who was selling a series of alternative rock records from the early '90s. I send an email and get the excel file with the vinyls he owns that he wants to sell. There was plenty of pricing and quality information for the external, internal cover, and the record. There must have been about a hundred records: pass, pass, pass, pass, too expensive, pass, damaged, pass, pass, oh my god, read more carefully, it's Delaware by Drop Nineteens. I knew the price of the original USA release by Hut was about 60€, plus it was quite hard to find here in Italy, this gentleman was offering it to me for 45€, not bad as a price; I told him right away that I wanted it. After a couple of chats via email, I take a closer look at his name: (purely invented) Denis. But I had already heard of this Denis. You should know that in Montebelluna (15 km from my house) is my trusted record store. Because I believe every music lover should have a trusted store, a place where you can spend 3-4 hours listening to vinyl, talking about the latest album from the most pointless band on the globe, or discussing the failed album of the most famous band on the globe, in short, an environment that feels like home. Eventually, you start to know the record store regulars who, like me (or you), populate the local fauna and I remembered that among them there was a certain Denis. I point out this detail by email and he too (how could I doubt it?) remembered a certain (purely invented) Gianluca; I had a discount handed to me on a silver platter. In the next email, the good Denis pulls out all the stops to seal the deal and lowers the price down to a fantastic 35€; I press the button, confetti fall, coat on and passing under the foosball table, it's done!

I tell him he didn't have to lower the price (I lie), that it was already a great price for this record (I LIE!!!), that precisely because we know each other it's only right that I pay like everyone else (I LIE), that it's a very rare piece and that good conditions are not found everywhere (I L I E). I stop myself before making him tear up and retract or not sell the record at all, probably with that he lost his virginity on that sultry August night in 1993 — I insist no longer and the price remains as it is. We decide to meet the following Saturday in the piazza of the cathedral of Montebelluna, I confirm everything and we leap to Friday, the day before the exchange.

Friday the sun is shining and I decide to go to my trusted store, I struggle to find parking, enter, and greet cockily, there's good old (purely invented) Carlo and wouldn't you know it, Denis; oh well, I pretend nothing and check out the new arrivals. I don't know about you, but I now know the store so well that I could locate the unsold and unsellable Be Your Own Pet record myself, or the latest reissue of David Bowie's Hunky Dory, or even the deluxe version of Mondovisione by Ligabue, uh no, maybe not that one. After a couple of chats, I decide to go home, but then good Carlo comes out with: <>. My heart skips a beat, I want Siamese Dream, but it costs an arm and a leg or maybe two, I ask about other records but Carlo stays silent, Denis seems interested too, so I discard the hypothesis that the records are his, I go home downcast, but knowing that the next day I would have Delaware by Drop Nineteens in my hands.

Saturday, 3 PM, cathedral square, it's raining cats and dogs, it's raining so hard that even with the wipers at full speed, I can't see beyond 10 meters. I arrive at the appointment on time, wait 2 minutes and he arrives too, parks next to my car, if I didn't know he was about to sell me a record, I was already seeing the heroine sachet sticking out of the window.

He tells me to get into his car, the rain is falling even stronger, I have the terrible fear of ruining the record. I bring my vinyl carry bag and a plastic bag. After the niceties, the record peeks out of his suitcase, I even heard cherub choirs and saw a ray of sun illuminate the inside of the suitcase, then it vanished. He hands it to me inside 2 plastic bags, I add my bag and the carry bag, everything's ready to face that cubic meter of rain which will intensify as soon as I open the door. Before leaving, he tries to sell me a complete set of pots, a New York Knicks cap, and A Gilded Eternity by Loop, I refuse everything and face the rain.

The rain intensifies as expected. I open the car then the back door, place the record and all the paperwork, that's done too; I return home happy probably listening to Winona from this album.

I get home, put on the record, lay down the needle and off it goes: All that American lo-fi Shoegaze, at times experimental flows, as always, with pleasure. The cover is in pristine condition, the best 35€ ever spent in my life. A week later I return to the record store, this time the batch of alternative records is completely out. As luck would have it there's a copy of Delaware by Drop Nineteens, I look at the price: 60€, now I can die, I've beaten the system!