National Record Store Day

I went into Rounder and Resident and Borderline in Brighton, but they were mostly oppressively full so I had to extricate myself. Also I had no money to spend. But yeah, good to see some interesting in-store stuff going on and people being reminded to use or lose.

I buy loads of records in thrift stores and garage sales, so maybe I am part of the problem. Usually they are way cheaper and more interesting in those places. But I'm still not partaking in this event today. Maybe that makes me lame. Independent stores deserve to survive, and I hope setting aside a special day for them pulls lots of young kids into the habit -- especially kids pointlessly addicted to getting music the day it comes out, a habit that has never made any sense to me. But braving the crowds seems silly. And I've never been somebody to buy records just because they're rare -- especially when they're created for the sole purpose of their rarity. Seems artificial to me somehow, and none of the records above strike me as all that inticing. (I thought something similar when baseball card companies got self-conscious about their collectibility, and it bugged me then, too. Not that it's especially anything new with record labels -- see also: SubPop Singles Club or whatever.) Anyway, more power to the stores -- whatever pulls in customers. I hope they all make tons of money. A friend of mine who runs a store in Philly said Record Store Day last year was his best day in years, and I hope this year he doesn't even better.

Just out of curiosity, though, what kind of exorbidant prices are those exclusive sucker-bait 7"s above going for?

I picked up the New Order and Stooges for $7.99 each, and the Camera Obscura for $6.99. This at Mad Platter in Riverside, CA.

Shit, they had the New Order? I just called Sonic Boom and Easy Street and neither of them have the New Order.

They must have had >10 there. I picked up the only Camera Obscura, tho.

yeah nobody here in Eugene has the New Order, they heard it was delayed.

I got both Sonic Youth singles for $5 each, the Def Jam 4LP for $15 (!!!), and then I also picked up a Kurt Vile LP on Mexican Summer since it was on sale. 12 bucks!

also got the Dengue Fever/Chicha Libre split single, 5 bucks as well.

if any kind soul wants to pick me up a copy of This LP Crashes Hard Drives I will reimburse you and sing your praises. Neither of my local stores had it.

Just saw the tracklisting for the Def Jam set, I may have to go back for it!

I got that big Black Sabbath box set for 35 bucks today at Newbury Comics in Cambridge...

^ which Newbury Comics? the Fresh Pond one's vinyl selection is pitiful. nothing for me to buy.

had a good time! my "home base" store Roadrunner was grilling out in back and had coolers of beer....couple hot dogs were great!

i didn't really go in for any of the crazy exclusive shit, most of that was already sold out anyway.

i did get the Arthur Russel "Love Is Overtaking Me" vinyl but I wanted that anyway. Didn't see the Def Jam thing or would have gotten that...The Sonic Youth/Reatard single is going to be crazy Ebay bait, so many dudes looking for that.

but I got some great used vinyl, good day:

Leo Koettke - 6 and 12 String Guitar (orig on Takoma)

Rod Stewart - The Rod Stewart Album

The Groundhogs - Who Will Save The World? (gatefold)

Gaunt - I Can See Your Mom From Here (only a buck!)

John Kongos - Kongos

on sale. 12 bucks!

Wow. I'm speechless.

(also the stores i went to were PACKED and everyone was having a lot of fun so i guess this day has worked out pretty well for them)

xxxpost Harvard Square

which was also packed, lots of vinyl flying off the shelves...

Some kids are losing their vinyl cherries today..

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3588/3453389766_caf408f709.jpg

I buy loads of records in thrift stores and garage sales, so maybe I am part of the problem. Usually they are way cheaper and more interesting in those places.

Yeah...kinda my problem too. Looking at the list up there, and, Arthur Russell apart there's not a whole lot i would want - it's all very white and young. Thing is, I'd bet it's guys like me that spend most on records now - middle aged, not all that interested in new stuff necessarily. What killed going to record stores for me was the CD - I just never got that excited about buying them, so when Vinyl started appearing in quantities in charity shops, and then on the 'bay, that's where my purchasing went.

Wow. I'm speechless.

it's $31 on eBay right now with 4 hours left, so I'd say that's a good deal. Enjoy your dollar records.

We had a really really great day at the shop I work at - loads of bands and artists playing all afternoon, loads of interest generated by the day itself and by the exclusive releases, most of which sold well. It was a wonderful party atmosphere and majorly busy all day long. Great fun and inspiring for our continued survival.

"Wow. I'm speechless."

Wow you are a dick.

Oh yeah, our 7''s were/are £3.99 for the most part.

did you get the jesus lizard thing in, alex?

Not yet. A bunch of things were delayed shipping so won't be with us until Monday (SY 7''s in particular). Not sure how many we'll get though, will have to wait and see...

if you do get the jesus lizard Inch in can you keep me one and PM me over on DFFD and i'll come in and get it?

I'll see what I can do, but no promises, I'm afraid. It's looking like, following Rough Trade's example, we could well be holding raffles for the really high demand items, as it's looking like we could only get a ridiculously small number (like 2 or 3 of each) and a hella lotta interest. I can put your name down for raffle entry for sure and will defn. keep you posted on how things pan out.

Yeah man that would be fine, thanks!

Kurt Vile LP on Mexican Summer since it was on sale. 12 bucks!

^^ love this record, and it's hard to find now so yeah.

also, we sold out of all the record store day exclusives within 45 minutes of opening. the only thing we have left is the Arthur Russell double LP (and it's great.)

also we had a bbq but all the food is gone--on to the beer drinking portion of the event...

'bout to head over to other music to wait in line for the Bill Callahan performance. Picked up the Records Toreism LP on Thrill Jockey along with the Pavement LP, the SY 7"s and the Akron/Family single earlier, too, and most of it is really good! I think the Records Toreism comp is probably the best of the lot, although the live Pavement album is really badass too.

I hear what xhuxk is saying. Collector bait is gross and a good half of the folks seemed to be grabbing at it for investment purposes (such as they are). But how else are the stores going to entice The People? Not with dollar records (now, penny records...). And is $12 really all that shocking?

The crowds were bad only at Waterloo but it's easy to wade through record geeks (and oh yeah, they had two copies of the New Order single).

Fwiw, I bought bands I love (and admire in the case of Slayer but the sleeve is nifty) and music I didn't already own. And I bought those various artist LPs for the accompanying zines as much as the music. Most of it was resistible, though. The Pitchfork review is hilarious cuz nothing is highly recommended.

Please tell me that child's first LP is NOT Vangelis ...

I just bought the Smiths single but the quality of the print on the sleeve is terrible.

i spent a hundred buxx today on records, but i bought them at an antique store.

i thought i might be able to open my little store by today, but real life intruded. the space we were in - that was pretty cheap - turned out to be too cheap. there are several cheap apartments above it, and one day some dude's toilet overflowed in his bathroom upstairs and it totally came raining down thru the ceiling into our store and on our stuff! ewwwww. luckily, there wasn't a ton of damage, but some records got wet and we promptly starting looking for another space. and we found a great one. right on main street. and it's bigger. and it has a huuuuuge DRY basement for storage. so, we are moving our stuff there at the end of this month. we feel like we dodged a bullet. our landlords at the old space didn't even care that toilet water had come raining down into our store. our new landlord is spending thousands of bucks renovating before we move in. we're excited.

Went to Music Saves in Cleveland, picked up the Pavement LP, the Sonic Youth 7"s, Camera Obscura, Jenny Lewis, and the Beastie's "Paul's Boutique" remaster on 180g vinyl, plus Black Keys and Blitzen Trapper for a friend of mine. Seemed like nobody there was buying the Jesus Lizard, but lots were buying the Stooges.

went to 1-2-3-4-GO! records in oakland, got the pavement LP (colored edition! 1/95 total! total luck.), the jesus lizard 7"s, the obits 7", the arthur russell LPs (on now, so good!), the sonik youth splits (both sonic youth songs are ehhh, jay r and beck sides are v v good). gf got camera obscura and a pavement LP, then we hit down at lulu's, i got charles manson's LIE, the kinks' VGPS, surfer rosa, and one of those golden triangle 7"s. then our friend's car broke down. :( then we walked into berkeley and hit half-price books, and i got god bless the kinks, some random 1987 sleeping bag records 12" for 25 cents, and a book abt african music by francis bebey.

great day!

sick haul.

seems like the Pavement thing was THEEE vaunted item of the day. everything else could pretty much be easily found, at least here in Chi-town. but, whoo, that Pavement LP --- the folks wanted that one!

also, LOL, Kevin wasn't kidding --- Neil Young 2LP for 63 bucks!! uh, no thanks!

I still dropped like 300 bucks ( to be fair this also included time at a RECORD FAIR, with DEALERS and so forth ... but also totally my indie shop peeps)

i think it's a pretty rad event. and xhuxk, c'mon man, be real.

fun day. arrived when the store opened, bought fever ray vinyl & jesus lizard singles, store owners saved me a jay reatard/SY and then gave it to me, received huge grab bag full of various samplers and singles they were giving out, played some music, ate a bunch of pizza, and hung out the rest of day w/ friends while various other local bands played. A+ day. also bought 10 albums in the 50 cent bin that looked semi-promising. heard the bjork album but only a couple tracks from the others

AMP - astralmoonbeamprojections (awesome cover, KRANKY records)
the juan mclean - give me every little thing 12" w/ a bunch of remixes
the curse of singapore sling
bjork - debut
be your own pet - s/t
the geraldine fibbers - butch
a-frames - black forest
the third eye foundation - ghost
the stills - oceans will rise
wharton tiers - brighter than life

Scriabin - Complete Etudes, Piers Lane
Twelve Songs by Charles Ives - Theo Bleckmann & Kneebody (arrangements w/ computers & a Rhodes, should be interesting)
Charles Ives - The Three Orchestral Sets
Conrad Schnitzler - Context
Max Morath plays The Best of Scott Joplin
Kick that Habit DVD - Sound Movie by Peter Liechti w/ Voice Crack

Ameoba was hoppin' today

Milton, man, I really want to see that Voice Crack thing .. was it discounted at all? I mean, I will surely buy it eventually .. just curious if there was a 'record store day' deal. The one time I saw Voice Crack remains one of those top 20 or 25 shows :)

what's the deal w/ the Joplin thing? He supposed to be a good interpreter?

$10 used promo copy but it's going for $16 new just about everywhere... I've seen it before, it is one amazing DVD, I envy you getting to actually see them

my favorite Joplin is the Rifkin because that's the one I grew up with, but I'm looking for other performances and the Morath was repped by a friend. it's aiming for period arrangements, piano banjo & guitar, more lively than Rifkin who plays him like spacey Bach I'm loving it so far.

okay, i'll post what i bought today here too:

carmen - fandangos in space (1974 - paramount)

john jacob niles - i wonder as i wander (carols and love songs) (tradition)

voivod - dimension hatross (1988 - noise)

incredible string band - hard rope & silken twine (1974 - reprise)

blue oyster cult - imaginos (1988 - cbs)

diva gray and oyster - hotel paradise (1979 - columbia)

crumbacher - incandescent (1985 - broken) (i couldn't resist. 80's xian synthpop!)

kracker - "kracker brand" (1973 - abc)

ayers rock - big red rock (1974 - a&m)

steel river - a better road (evolution)

jeanie greene - mary called jeanie greene (1971 - elektra)

100% whole wheat - s/t (1977 - avi)

raven - rock until you drop (1981 - neat)

richard & mimi farina - memories (vanguard) (totally minty replacement copy for my old copy)

rockin' foo - s/t (1971 - uni)

jamme - s/t (dunhill)

lalo schifrin - marquis de sade (verve)

sonoma - s/t (1973 - abc)

amazing blondel - england (1973 - island)

punch - s/t (a&m)

l.a. jets - s/t (1976 - rca)

creation - s/t (1974 - atco)

tom cora/david moss - cargo cult revival (1983 - rift)

dantzig twist - marquis de sade (1979 - emi)

carl oglesby - going to damascus (1971 - vanguard)

frost - early frost (1978 - vanguard)

marty thau presents 2x5 (1980 - red star) (red star comp. bloodless pharaohs, comateens, revelons, fleshtones, student teachers)

the bridge - the bridge in blue (1972 - buddah)

the rose of avalanche - always there (1986 - fire) (i really liked the song "velveteen" in 1986. the rest of tha album hasn't aged so well. or isn't as good, anyway.)

even though i didn't buy them in a record store.

i'm keeping that tom cora album. it's rad. the rest will be store stockkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk.

Magma - Attahk
Shinehead - Rough & Rugged
Sabbath - Heaven & Hell
Gaslight Anthem - Record Store Day exclusive live 10"
some japanese fusion band i've never heard of

i stopped by two of my local record stores today. i guess i got there too late for the best of the record store day stuff (i hit my first store around noon). honestly i was mostly reminded how dull the local stores are. stock always seems to be the same, half of the time i look for something offbeat (even a new release) they're unlikely to have it.

though granted i'm a bit jaded as far as record stores are concerned. if i could find a record store that carried lots of used congolese LPs, i'd be excited.

i guess i just live in a boring part of the country for records. :-(

bought mostly older stuff today... the newest album i picked up was tokyo police club's elephant shell (for $5.99). not that interested in most of the RSD "exclusives" but perhaps i'll poke around tomorrow and see if i can find the pavement thing.

This made me really angry about Rekid Store Day:

Established last year with the intention of celebrating the unique culture of independently owned record stores, the event has turned slightly political this year with the involvement of the Australian Music Retailers' Association. As Australia's larger chains such as JB Hi-Fi, Sanity and Virgin are aligned with the group, the AMRA was informed they could not participate with Record Store Day celebrations because the event is held specifically for indie stores.

Instead, AMRA have announced Record Store Day Australia will also be held this Saturday, which the indies argue diverts attention from their event.

As a result, most big chains and indies will host events over the weekend.

As my partner said - JB HiFi? EVERY day is record store day for them, they have tons of customers, they dont NEED any promotion!

So we have indie bands at the little stores... and Cheech and Chong at JB HiFi or someplace. I wish I was kidding.

lolllllll sanity is barely even a record store any more.

i DJ'ed at my local shop. they had a smoke machine and everything! also much free beer. i got arthur russell 'world of...' (recent-ish repress) and the poplife sucks mix.

it just occurred to me i was checking back on this thread to see what condition sleeve's sleeve condition was in

haha, the sleeve is very nice as well!

lol

my local shop has the same problem, anything priced $75 and up they have real trouble selling despite how many people are "interested".

Probably more appropriate for 'post a controversial music opinion', but I think any multi-disc album that costs more than $40 should also be released in separate sets, "Use Your Illusion"-style

Or, at least offer us a 33.3-rpm version of non-double LPs on a single disc (or 2 if it's in the 90ish min range), instead of padding the cost (and annoyance factor) with the 45-rpm trend

eh, I don't think having a 2xLP and a 3xLP version of the same album out there is really a great idea. I think the Chemical Brothers' last album did this, which was weird because the album was only 47 minutes long. the 3xLP doesn't even have any extra tracks, one side is like 5 minutes

I do think bands need to be more willing to shuffle tracks around in order to accomodate the vinyl split rather than put a 42 minute album on two LPs. AnCo's Strawberry Jam is one of those, I think they wanted For Reverend Green and Fireworks to be on the same side (which makes sense) but they could've done it by changing the order. might annoy the purists but whatever.

i just buy CDs if something is long. i don't tend to listen to an entire double album in one sitting and never a triple album. i remember in the late 90s and early 2000s when i would buy rap albums that were 3 LPs and i basically never played them. thus, the humble CD. i remember when that cool Trad Gras Och Stenar box came out and the vinyl version was around a hundred bucks and the CD set was 20! i never looked back. and tracks weren't cut in half either.

^^^ this, I refuse to buy vinyl with split tracks, hate it so much. just gimme a CD.

I guess I didn't explain my idea very well: for albs that would fit on one record, but are released on double vinyl (prob because they get the unnecessary 45 rpm treatment), figure out a way to put them on a single disc for those who don't want the 45 rpm edition, and for 4+ LP releases priced at $75+, split them in half

or, you know... don't do any of that at all and release it as a pono player exclusive, as the real rsd gods intended.

also, for some relevant discourse-
fleet foxes, like the assholes they are, actually did follow the spirit of rsd and released a vinyl exclusive live album. i want to hear it! haven't bothered with fan uploads or youtube, but it looks mighty healthy: https://www.discogs.com/master/3463574-Fleet-Foxes-Live-On-Boston-Harbor

there are some audiophile pressings of Genesis albums that just came out at 45rpm...do I want a 4 disc Lamb? fuck no. Likewise I do not want Supper's Ready split over two sides, wtf.

I assume with the chemical brothers (and other dance stuff) it gets split across multiples to make djing easier? Wider grooves, easier to cue? Excuse me if this is dumb or obvious

well in the old school economy, 45 pressings were generally louder and, therefore, would sound p fucken spiff in the club sound system. but that was like... dance music that's supposed to go BOOMBOOMBOOM with the bass and whatnot. chemical bros makes some sense, but i don't understand the treatment for stuff like, say, genesis. you're not getting much of an upgrade between the stellar vinyl reissues from about a decade ago and the tiny bit of increased loudness on the expnaded 45 pressings.

yeah I understand why the Chems would do that but still you can do 46 minutes on a 2xLP @ 45 RPM, no reason to release a 3xLP version at the same time

I do like stuff like the Underworld Pearl's Girl 3x12" where there's a separate track on each side, but that's when vinyl was a lot cheaper...it cost me like six bucks

STOP MAKING NEW RECORDS THEY ARE DUMB AND TOO HEAVY AND THE CORNERS ARE SO SHARP THEY SUCK PLUS THE PLANET!!

(btw, i'm frantically searching for an old wordpress/blogspot post from the mid-2010s where the dude sought out full lengths pressed at 45. there was a lot of stuff from the 80s and a lot of british pop music. from what i remember he was only interested in having lps pressed at 45 and didn't care about the music; all he wanted was the thing. he was way ahead of his time.)

did the 45 rpm lp thing start with chris cutler's early eighties re records releases? i think they're the only examples i've heard (& they do sound good)

Well, Pil's "Metal Box"...

I bought a 2x45rpm reissue of New Hope For The Wretched by the Plasmatics (second hand so it wasn't expensive) and regretted not just waiting to find a single LP version. that is not a record that benefits from the 45rpm treatment

I bought a 2x45rpm reissue of New Hope For The Wretched by the Plasmatics (second hand so it wasn't expensive) and regretted not just waiting to find a single LP version. that is not a record that benefits from the 45rpm treatment

oops

The first one I came across was the Cocteau Twins' Victorialand in 1986.

Klaus Schulze's Innovative Communication label put out 45rpm LPs for a while in the early 80s, including Popol Vuh's Sei Still, Wisse Ich Bin. Don't recall if it sounded significantly better than it would have at 33 tbh.