next weekend

http://www.recordstoreday.com/Home

look at the special releases list

Vinyl reissues of Calling Out of Context (!) and Confusion Is Sex (!!!!) Holy shit.

Anyone with the power to do so, please continue to make sure that I am able to blow a bunch of money on the greatest albums ever made by anyone as part of "Record Store Day special releases." Thanks.

I'm really, really excited.

Early release for Josh Ritter, woohoo

Chronic Town on BLUE vinyl

Shit, I might even consider buying that.

it'd be a good purchase.

Oh, and Record Store Day = My Birthday. I don't live near any records stores though.

http://www.clashmusic.com/news/the-fall-ce...ecord-store-day

Even if a lot of the "record store day exclusives" are just re-issues, I love this idea and that it seems to be turning into a real tradition and something to look forward to. My only complaint is that it's basically a holiday for music geeks and they've decided to choose a date that will almost always coincide with Coachella.

fuck me... i want all of these:

Built To Spill "Water Sleepers/Linus & Lucy (Live)" 7" single of new tracks 7" single 2500

David Bazan Live at Electrical Audio Live performance CD

Flaming Lips and Stardeath and White Dwarfs Dark Side of the Moon 12" seafoam green vinyl 5000

Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros Global A Go-Go reissue, 1st time on vinyl 12" vinyl 1200

Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros Streetcore reiuuse, 1st time on vinyl 12" vinyl 1200

John Fahey The Yellow Princess Reissue with original artwork as part of Vanguard's 60th Anniversary 12" vinyl 500

Magnetic Fields 69 Love Songs Box set 3 double gate fold, 10"s, with digital convenience card, released 3 days early for RSD 10" vinyl 3000

Pavement Quarantine the Past: Best of Pavement Track listing selected by winner of Record Store Day contest 12" vinyl 1000

Queens of the Stone Age Feel Good Hit of the Summer EP 10" vinyl picture disc of EP 10" vinyl picture disc

R.E.M. Chronic Town EP Previously out of print debut; limited edition blue vinyl, individually numbered 12" BLUE vinyl

Sonic Youth Confusion Is Sex vinyl reissue 12" white vinyl 1500

Sonic Youth EVOL vinyl reissue 12" pink vinyl 1500

Soundgarden "Hunted Down"/"Nothing To Say" reiusse of translucent vinyl 7" vinyl 3000

Superchunk "Misfits and Mistakes"/"Misfits and Mistakes" picture disc release; autographed by the band 7" vinyl

Tutu & the Pirates Sub-Urvan Insult Rock For the Anti-Lectual demos from Chicago punk band 1978-79 12" vinyl 1500

I Need That Record: The Death or Possible Survival of the Independent Record Store documentary by Brendan Toller featuring Thurston
Moore, Ian Mackaye, Mike Watt, Lenny Kaye, Patterson Hood and more DVD

Velvet Underground Live 1969 Vol 1 vinyl reissue 12" vinyl 1500

Velvet Underground Live 1969 Vol 2 vinyl reissue 12" vinyl 3000

Wilco Kicking Television, 4 LP box set, 8 extra tracks, deluxe package vinyl reissue for the first time 4 LP vinyl set w/CD 1000

Yeah Yeah Yeahs "Skeletons" 7" single Studio Version Side A; Exclusive Live version Side B

Brand new Get Up Kids EP?!?

The version of I Need That Record that I saw was pretty disappointing. And this is coming from someone that owned a record store.

is this a newer version?

I don't know. I saw it a couple years ago as a screener. He may have done more work since then, there may be bonus features.

Christ, Paves looks really good in that leather jacket.

I'm a 50 year old man.

Happy Record Store Day, everyone! Okay, who went?

I was too lazy to get up early for breakfast at the West Seattle Easy Street store - worst service, but breakfast the way it should be - and instead dragged my hungover ass to Sonic Boom, Everyday Music and Easy Street Queen Anne from 1-2:30. Lotta stuff was gone by then, but still grabbed a delightful booty of records:

Beach House - 4-song 12" (2,000 pressed, terrific packaging w/ heavy stock + Sub Pop logo embossed on inner sleeve)
Devo - 12" new single, blue vinyl
Menomena and Helio Sequence split 45, very nice artwork and high quality print production
DA - full length of demos, singles, alternate mixes, outtakes and live stuff. Had never heard of this band. LOVE them now.
The Black Keys - 12" single
Them Crooked Vultures - 10" picture disc, unreleased studio & live songs, interview
Queens of the Stone Age - 10" picture disc, 4 songs
The Stars of Goldwax - 45 w/ 1 song each by James Carr, the Ovations, Barbara Perry, George & Greer
Gogol Bordello - 45 on green vinyl, single from forthcoming album (4/27 release)
Ted Leo & the Pharmacists - 45, neither song is on the new album
Elvis Costello & the Attractions - 45, from Live at Hollywood High ('79) - Pump it Up, Lip Service, Waiting for the End of the World
Jakob Dylan and Court Yard Hounds split 45
Charlotte Gainsbourg - 45, had never heard of her, admittedly bought the 45 because she's, uh, quite pretty. Good tunes, it turns out.

I knew it'd be hard to spend less than a hundo but I got a bonus a couple weeks ago from work, first time it had a comma in the number, so I booked a couple mini-vacations and earmarked a c-note for Record Store Day in advance, came in a tad over at 126, but after listening to everything, I am a very happy consumer.

Chronic Town E.P. - R.E.M.
White Flag - Gorillaz
Water Sleepers / Linus & Lucy - Built To Spill
Your Woman Is A Living Thing - Drive-By Truckers
Live @ Clark University - Jimi Hendrix
The Moon & Antarctica LP - Modest Mouse

I think I spent about $75. Also, unrelated from the Record Store Day material, I found nice vinyl copies of Let It Be by the Replacements and Histoire De Melody Nelson by Serge Gainsbourg. Overall, a pretty nice day!

I'm jealous.

As for my haul... very satisfying. I got all the "exclusive" shit I wanted, which wasn't much, but still. I certainly overestimated how quickly people would nab these (their loss) because 30-40 minutes after the Reckless on Broadway opened, I managed to become the proud owner of three of my favorite albums that I lost hope for ever obtaining on vinyl:

Arthur Russell - Calling Out of Context, 2LP (beautiful... reasonably priced!)
Sonic Youth - Confusion Is Sex, white vinyl (awesome... unreasonably priced!)
Kurt Vile - God Is Saying This To You..., LP/cassette combo (very fucking cool to see Reckless get some of these! Out of print, but his best collection of songs thus far. Hilarious generic packaging on the cassette, too, i.e. cover art taking up most of the top half while the rest is black and the title and artist are listed in white lettering. I had a lot of tapes that looked just like that when I was kid.)

Simakos bought me a dollar bin CD copy of Eggs 96 Teenbeat Exploder, as well. Cool.

Over at Permanent, I got that vinyl copy of Puerto Rico Flowers' 4 12" that I've been meaning to pick up and also swooped up a used CD copy of Harry Pussy's You'll Never Play This Town Again. Fantastic. Got some free sunglasses, too!

Ran into some friends, hung out briefly, stopped back at home, and headed out again for some in-stores. Liam Hayes & Plush (I must have glanced over this on the website so it ended up being a pleasant surprise when I saw them listed on a flier at the Broadway store... a nice surprise) at the Reckless on Milwaukee, and White Mystery and Puffy Aereolas at Permanent Records. They were all pretty okay.

First half of the day was more enjoyable because I was less exhausted. Still pretty decent overall, though.

Never mind.

I missed out on the big stuff I wanted (Hold Steady, Japandroids, Mountain Goats DVD, the Peter Gabriel splits) but still managed to spend $150. Picked up Chronic Town, both Joe Strummer LP's, Dear Science, the Phoenix 12", Middle Cyclone, and the Built To Spill, Drive-By Truckers, Helio Sequence/Menomena, and Telekinesis 7"s.

Most of the good stuff was gone by the time I finally made it down to Amoeba around 3pm. Picked up the colored vinyl Mastodon Blood Mountain re-issue, the Queens of the Stone Age EP, the Fanfarlo 7", the Deftones "Rocket Skates" 7" (with an M83 remix B-side, intriguing) and the Bonobo 12" on Ninja TUne

I couldn't find most of the stuff I was looking for, but I did capitalize on some deals...I got Al Green - Green is Blues, The Temptations - Psychedelic Shack, Elvis Costello - My Aim is True, and Miles Davis - Sketches of Spain all for under 10 bucks


edit: oh, and I also got a free homemade donut out of the deal and saw a performance by some horrific local band

As of pretty late, last night, nobody was yet out of these. Really surprised.

My only RSD-related disappointment was that nobody but Breakers was running any kind of sale on anything. Would've loved to pick up a few things cuz they were suddenly affordable, but it's all good. Got the very few things I wanted, so I'm all right.

my regualr record store got fuck all (at least nothing i wanted).

i found out one of the chain stores in town got a shit load. that really pisses me off. I thought this was all about indie record stores? what a crock of SHIT.

I went back today to shop more casually - got the Fall 45, live Jimi and Sonic Youth debut - and grabbed the last Ted Leo single for ya.

Drove by one store at noon, when they opened, and the line was two blocks long.
Fuck that.

really bummed the Strummer stuff was gone by the time i got up to the counter. i slimmed my WANTED list down a bit and only purchased this stuff:

John Fahey The Yellow Princess Reissue with original artwork as part of Vanguard's 60th Anniversary 12" vinyl 500

Pavement Quarantine the Past: Best of Pavement Track listing selected by winner of Record Store Day contest 12" vinyl 1000

Queens of the Stone Age Feel Good Hit of the Summer EP 10" vinyl picture disc of EP 10" vinyl picture disc

R.E.M. Chronic Town EP Previously out of print debut; limited edition blue vinyl, individually numbered 12" BLUE vinyl

Tutu & the Pirates Sub - Urvan Insult Rock For the Anti-Lectual demos from Chicago punk band 1978-79 12" vinyl 1500


that's a great record, hope you enjoy it.

I got there around noon and everything I was looking for was already picked over. I still walked away with a few nice finds.

The Beatles - Carnival of Light 12"

Adolf Hitler/Elliott Smith - Deathbed Confessions pts. I-II/"I Can't Believe I Ate the Whole Thing"

Pink Floyd - "Publius Enigma Revealed"/DFA remix 12"

Red Hot Chili Peppers - "Jungle Man" (live) 12"

Does anyone know how well these days actually do?

Are the record stores seeing a vast increase in people buying records or are they just getting a vast increase in the people looking at records?

Would be interesting to know. I think the day's a great idea, but if it's only increasing the amount of people looking at physical copies of things they'll go home and download later, then that's a shame.

just from what i saw, there was a lineup 40 people deep, all with at least 5 LP's and a few singles each.

When I went back to Sonic Boom this morning (right as they opened, which I should have fucking done Saturday morning but didn't because I was too god damned stupid and had too many martinis on what is basically christmas eve for a music lover - DAMMIT!), I overheard one clerk say to another as he appeared to be looking at yesterday's numbers, "Do you know how great Record Store Day is? Since we moved to this location (2.5 months ago), yesterday we made six times as much as the best day here before yesterday."

This event has really picked up steam in a hurry. Seems like last year there was a small handful of participating stores in Seattle, this year virtually every one of them was in on it AND the stores were far more crowded. What will it be like next year?

Great news.

they do pretty well. two of four stores i visited on saturday had deep lines at the counter with most everyone carrying a bundle. the other two at least had bumps in traffic. i overheard one employee say that thursday and friday had been empty, but saturday was easily on pace to make up for those days. i'd say that's a good sign.

i was one of the many waiting outside for permanent to open at midnight. a guy near me in line was only accompanying a friend. he didn't seem to understand the concept of record store day and kept asking, "so you can drink beer while you look at records?" then he told this story about a kid in the school he works at smearing cum all over a desk during class. the friend was terribly embarrassed and they walked away from the line before the shop even opened. nice start to the day...

That is fucking fantastic, man. I was there, too, for what it's worth. All I can tell you is that one of the Trouble in Mind (label) guys was behind me, and one of his buddies was a fucking obnoxious piece of shit.

i talked to one of the trouble in mind guys on my way out since we'd chatted about some things at chirp's fair last weekend. i'm really looking forward to that label's progress in 2010.

i'm guessing there was a mass exodus from high dive over to permanent around 11:45 because a few people in line, especially dude with the cum-smearing story, seemed pretty drunk.

That new split is SO good, man.

Didn't Permanent announce the midnight opening in a last minute newsletter? Simakos and I decided that was kind of a dick move.

You dicks aren't appreciating this enough. Pearls before swine.

He's not kidding about the Carnival of Light 12". It was a Kiss The Sky exclusive.

i guess that depends on your definition of "last minute." i got an email late thursday night.

well, we weren't complaining about the timing of the email, more about the whole decision in general. i asked a few of the Reckless people what they thought about that move and they were mostly indifferent except for one woman working there who thought it was weird thing to do. kind of defeating the whole purpose of the day in general and you know people showed up Saturday early and didn't get something in particular because of it.

i thought it was a weird/controversial decision, but if i wasn't already scheduled to work that nite i would have been all over it too.

a store in Toronto did the same thing.

dick move indeed.

The only caveat is that the website said for like three weeks in a row that all you had to do to find out about their "special surprise," or whatever, for Record Store Day, was sign up for the mailing list. The last two times I was in the store, in fact, they were telling every single person who came in that they should sign up for said mailing list, so that they were informed about the announcement for RSD. Of course, though, that doesn't and didn't help anybody who never checks the website or who don't go to the shop every/every other week. And there are plenty of loyal customers who don't, so that sucks.

While I'm generally happy for anything that generates buzz and revenue for local independent record stores, I really can't stand record store day. Well let me be more specific, I like the idea, burt I hate the short runs and exclusive editions of albums.

It all contributes to the collector mentality, which for me is almost like a disease. I virtually had to quit collecting comic books for the same reason. Obtaining first print copies of every special edition and alternate cover became more important than enjoying the art.

Also, I've railed against the escalating price of vinyl in other threads, and RSD is only contributing to it. I just looked at ebay prices for the Drive-By Truckers RSD 7". With shipping, it looks like its going for anywhere from $15 to $40 bucks. This is a 7" that came out a week ago. That's complete fucking bullshit.

I like the Ian MacKaye model. Keep it in print and keep it affordable. I'm not saying there shouldn't be any collectibles, but bands should strive to make their catalog accesible to fans; and I'm also not saying there shouldn't be a record store day.

Keep the live performances, sales, contests, t-shirt giveaways, etc. But as for the special editions, fuck'em.

Well, yeah, it's incredibly lame that a single LP Sonic Youth reissue costs ten dollars more than a double LP Arthur Russell one. Whatever, though. I'd stay home and protest, but then I wouldn't own them.

i talked to one of the employees at midnight and was told that some items were set aside for saturday's 10am opening. but i didn't get any details. i thought it was a really cool thing. i used to go to midnight sales back when release dates meant something and i got the feeling that a lot of people in line did so too.



yeah, i'd pretty much cosign this. the amount of people who didn't buy any non-RSD releases was staggering. i saw a ton of people walk into a store, go straight to the counter and begin to reel off their to-buy lists. that's not record shopping. shopping is fucking digging and, correct, record store day doesn't really push that angle. but they don't have to because this is their version of a hallmark holiday. it's all about dollars. i really dislike the flippers who're going straight to ebay with their hauls. but you can't really weed them out.

I felt kind of bummed arriving at Reckless a couple minutes after opening, looking through the window, and seeing almost quite literally nobody not standing in line waiting to get to the counter. Kind of surreal to see all that empty space.

Record Store Day bonus for Vivian: turns out I won the raffle down at Amoeba on Telegraph!!!

I'm headed down later tonight to redeem my prize, a brand spanking new Needle Doctor Pro-ject Debut USB.
with a swanky cartridge and everything.

Pretty stoked.