National Record Store Day

(usually from artists too obscure to interest eBay flippers),

From what I've seen in previous years, there's nothing too obscure for these assholes. More than once I've seen guys in line ask for "one copy of everything you have on the list". I mean, I don't know how you can do anything about that beyond limiting one copy per customer, but it's disheartening and completely spoils my enjoyment of the day. I'd be fine if there were absolutely no special releases and just a general celebration of record stores. Maybe the "special" items could be just free things like label samplers and whatever.

all i want to get is the glenn jones release but i'm not willing to brave the lunatic fringe of record collector scum to do it. hoping it'll be around a couple days later.

yeah the glenn jones one is great, the alvarius b./sir richard bishop split is great. but those do seem like the sorts of things that won't be too hard to come by after record store day? i could be wrong.

all i want is solar motel band, bardo pond, and maybe alexander tucker but not for $$
i'm guessing i'll be able to find/hear these otherwise -- the BP cover of "here come the warm jets" did not electrify me tbh

probably gonna skip the whole thing unless there are some in stores i wanna see, haven't checked that yet

yeahhh, the solar motel live thing is worth standing in line for. record stores i've contacted around here have not ordered it tho.

i'd be driving around town like a gd idiot and asking for something i probably have to explain to every single person
i just want to hear it! it's a live recording right?

oh duh
you said that

but do you think it'll be available for download? i don't see why not. he puts everything else up, right?

our local instore is Mobb Deep! not gonna brave the crowds though.

All local bands here. Hence, I hate Record Store Day. But you might have heard about that already.

I can't really be bothered with any of this cobblers, but there are some cool sounding things on this list:

http://thequietus.com/articles/15042-top-releases-record-store-day-2014

Would probably get the Czukay album and Teeth of the Sea's alternative soundtrack to A Field in England if i was going to a record shop, but tbh it's the one single day of the year that I deliberately avoid them.

The Grateful Dead Hampton shows are still streaming on archive.org, the LCD concert is also on a great-sounding DVD, Shut Up And Play The Hits (well, sounds great on def sub-audiophile headphones x laptop).

But not on VINYL!!!

It's a crappy digital transfer, but it's on VINYL!!!

It says "Record Store Day" on the cover of the VINYL!!!

I always have a nice time on record store day. I'm not ever remotely interested in the crap that is flippable. In fact if I just wait I can usually find the stuff I'd wanted on sale months later. This year I also very badly want the Glenn Jones record among a few other lower-key releases. That being said, it's usually no more crowded than a record fair and that doesn't bother me either. Plus it's my birthday so a group of friends and I are doing a record/bar crawl. Should be fun.

You might find young vinyl buyers defending all the garbage releases over at reddit.com/r/vinyl

i've always been able to find all of the RSD avant stuff, like three lobed LPs and loren connors and stuff like that, for cheap even weeks later.

honestly i don't get the hate toward eBay flippers. this "exclusive" shit they put out is 90% worthless in any artistic/aesthetic sense, it's practically designed for folks to buy and then flip to some asshole who wants to pay $200 for their 85th-favorite record on puke-colored vinyl. i'm not ashamed to say i've gone to RSD mostly to buy stuff I can flip w/in hours and the money i make from all that is just as likely as not to go back to the same fucking store for some actually worthwhile stuff on a non-record-store day.

i actually want to take a road trip tomorrow because i'm getting stir crazy so maybe i'll show up to some random midwestern record store and see what's going down.

the thing that makes me not want to go is the crowds. i like my record stores relatively empty so i can browse in peace. also i don't much like other people.

honestly i don't get the hate toward eBay flippers.

Really? I mean, even if you don't give a shit about 90% of the releases, its dispiriting to see these guys being the main beneficiaries of the day. And, a few years ago I was waiting in line at a store behind two like 13 year-old girls just super, super exicted to get a My Chemical Romance exclusive. A few minutes into the official sale start, these two 50+ dudes walk out bragging about cleaning the store out of most of the "big name" exclusives, specifically listing the MCR. These two girls started crying and left the store. I mean, you can be whatever about My Chemical Romance, but that is exactly the opposite of what Record Store Day should be all about.

i'm not sure the ethics of 'flipping' is so straightforward. well yeah the hate towards people flipping the cool shit like test pressings of Paul McCartney's Ram and Big Star's Third is justified. but the other 90%, the contrived singles and whatnot, who cares

Happy birthday Evan!

I would like the Bardo Pond and maybe the Alexander Robotnick reissue plus a couple of the comps (e.g. the new Todo Muere and maybe the Faux Discx one), but I figure the shop in my town probably won't have bothered getting the things I'm most interested in and even if they do this stuff is more expensive than I can really justify spending currently, so not really sure if I'll bother taking the bus to the other side of town yet. The asking price for everything I want is going to be £20=$33 to £25=$40, judging by last year and the prices on the Rough Trade website.

its dispiriting to see these guys being the main beneficiaries of the day

but the day is DESIGNED this way, or at least that's how it has progressed. RSD is bullshit, the eBay flippers are just getting a little something out of it.

if those teenage girls were disabused of any interest in "collectable" bullshit then I say it was a win-win

they should have started record store day before the damn internet.

and frankly if i don't buy whatever stupid crap they're selling and flip it, somebody else--probably someone who otherwise spends less money in record stores--will. so fuck it.

they should have started record store day before the damn internet.

― brimstead, Friday, April 18, 2014 3:17 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

before the internet, every day was record store day.

For me two days a week, but specifically not Record Store Day, is record store day.

it's antiquated just like (as moe (?) pointed out in the vinyl reissue thread) "from the original master tapes" is not such a big deal when digital conversion processes are so good. the future!

well awesome but for a lot of record stores, record store day IS record store day, just take a look at their receipts

Oh, don't get me wrong, I'm glad it exists for the stores and I don't begrudge them the $$$$$$, I just wish it evolved differently, that's all. As it is, the day is definitively not for me.

yeah i like the part where people who run good record stores make money

ebay flippers are cunts

I went to a record store the other day, bought used copies of Fleetwood Mac's "Kiln House" and Percy Sledge "I'll Be Your Everything", plus a new release of "Static Age" (it was $14! Reminded my of buying music in the 90s!). On the way out the clerk told us there was a stack of free records, all out of their jackets, and I grabbed a bunch of random ones. Lots of UK dance music, plus disc 2 of "The Wall"! Had a great day!

Then I realized it was record store day tomorrow. Damn, I've already spent enough $ on records this week. Sorry, RSD.

Do the labels encourage flipping by promoting limited editions and RSD exclusives rather than just introducing new rarities on RSD? Printing only 500 copies helps ensure they'll be stocked by the stores, and that the stores will sell them quickly, but also means the bulk of the profits will go the the eBay flippers rather than the record stores that RSD ostensibly is intended to promote. I'd like the record labels to explicitly state that even though a potentially coveted item is making its debut on RSD, that they'll keep it available as long as the demand is there, stamping out new batches as necessary. That would discourage buying for investment or flipping, rather than playing it on your own turntable for your own enjoyment which is what RSD should be promoting.

ebay flippers are cunts

― Scooby Doom (۩), Friday, April 18, 2014 3:24 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

so sorry you didn't get to buy that jack white 7" that's filled with chocolate-chip cheesecake

so sorry you didn't get to buy that jack white 7" that's filled with chocolate-chip cheesecake

This disingenuous argument that the eBay flippers are only reselling the crap releases is pretty tiring.

dont give a shit about jack white. I thought ebay flippers were CUNTS long before RSD.

I'm sure youre a very nice fellow and I wasnt specifically talking about you but gripping on ebay is a really shitty thing to do.

so sorry you didn't get to buy that jack white 7" that's filled with chocolate-chip cheesecake

This disingenuous argument that the eBay flippers are only reselling the crap releases is pretty tiring.

― djenter the dragon? (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Friday, April 18, 2014 3:32 PM (17 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

95% of the RSD releases are "crap releases." possibly 99%

the stuff that's not crap will still be in the stores two weeks later

Sometimes it's fun to go to a store early and get something a little rare that also looks pretty

I don't know why ya'll are in here doing a cost/benefit analysis on it

Thanks, a passing spacecadet!!

the stuff that's not crap will still be in the stores two weeks later

― espring (amateurist), Friday, April 18, 2014 4:53 PM (22 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I think the people (not me for the most part) who would disagree with you about what you're considering crap would be very confused by the logic of this sentence.

Isn't colored/clear vinyl noticeably/notoriously crappy-sounding compared to regular black vinyl?

i dunno, the actual interesting/new music (not just familiar stuff in fancy packaging) that is released in RSD is often the stuff that people sleep on, and that I see hanging around the store weeks later. whereas the ultra-deluxe box set of 480-gram cake LPs complete with a bottle of no-doze will probably be gone in hours.

xp

xxp from here: http://thequietus.com/articles/13250-steve-albini-interview-rapeman-shellac

Joe Foster, who recorded The Jesus and Mary Chain and My Bloody Valentine, told me that the best sounding vinyl is clear vinyl. Do you agree?

SA: There's a theoretical point there, which is that polyvinyl chloride is colourless, so if you're adding something to it to colour it, then you're changing the chemistry of it slightly, and that has potential to make it sound not as good by having inclusions. Like if it's carbon black then there can be little granules of graphite or whatever. The biggest problem is that presses are set up to run black vinyl regularly, and if you have to clear the presses of the black vinyl, then put in the clear vinyl, then the presses have to come up to temperature from cold, and until they're operating at a stabilised temperature the pressings will not be filled properly. That is, you'll get much more surface noise. So, coloured vinyl typically sounds noisier than black vinyl because it has to be run in a special production run, during which the presses have not quite gotten up to temperature. So you end up with poor in-fill. In-fill meaning the vinyl doesn't penetrate all the way into the back of the stamper, and you end up with more ticks and pops, and more surface noise. So while it's conceivable that clear vinyl would sound better were all records made out of clear vinyl, when you make an edition of a record on clear vinyl – interrupting a normal production run of black vinyl – you're creating opportunities for that record to sound worse. So it's sort of a theoretical point. If all records were made out of clear vinyl, then it's possible that there would be slightly less surface noise on those records. But they're not. And so if records are made specially out of clear vinyl, there's a real good chance that your records will be noisier than the black records that were made the day before.

But what about the vinyl that's filled with chocolate-chip cheesecake!?

it's really weird to read a whole paragraph written by steve albini that's completely devoid of whining about major labels

like i said elsewhere, a lot of my best customers came in today and bought a ton of records and none of them knew about record store day. these...are my people.

xp
There's implicit whining about the record companies not bringing the presses up to their optimal heat before stamping clear vinyl, and because of this we'll never know vinyl's potential best sound.

Agree w amatuerist. My store has had stuff like a rough guide to desert blues, lots of cook stuff after. There's always some cool stiff that's hot like the Big Star Third or that Unreleased Husker 7 inch....I got Live at the Old Waldorf by Television at 4 pm that day

Also amatuerist you must not read many Albini interviews