I picked up my copy of The New York Times this morning – yes, I still sometimes read a physical newspaper, ’cause I’m a dick like that – and was more than a little surprised to see Tom Araya’s photo alongside that of some distinctly non-metal performers on the front page of the arts section. Intrigued, I read the following:

A few months ago a peculiar item called “Favorite Recorded Scream” began to trickle into New York City record stores. Pressed on 12-inch vinyl in an edition of 500, it has little on its red cover except a list of 74 songs, each linked to a Manhattan record shop.

But anyone curious enough to buy it would find that the record is exactly what it says it is: an audio catalog of scream snippets — each a few seconds long — chosen by employees at various record stores in Manhattan. It begins with the Pixies’ “Vamos” and includes samples of recordings by the Stooges, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, De La Soul, Slayer, Bjork and dozens of others. Spliced together on Side 1 into a continuous, bumpy howl, the whole thing lasts only 3 minutes 32 seconds. Its creator is LeRoy Stevens, a 25-year-old artist who made the album both in homage to his creative hero, Ed Ruscha — whose 1963 book “Twentysix Gasoline Stations” is simply photographs of gas stations from California to Oklahoma — and as a more practical travelogue. Last fall Mr. Stevens moved to New York from Chicago, and to get his geographical bearings he plotted a map of every record shop in Manhattan and vowed to bring to each a questionnaire asking for every clerk’s favorite scream and why.

Even as a fan of screaming in music, I’m not really sure why the fuck anyone would need or want such a collection. That being said, I haven’t heard it, so… shrug. Maybe it’s not some douchie hipster think. Maybe this LeRoy Stevens fellow actually took all the audio samples and did something really cool with ‘em. Or maybe he’s exactly the kind of person I’d assume a dude named “LeRoy” that looks like this would be:

Read the rest of the article here. And if anyone has heard this thing, drop us a line and let us know how it is.

-AR