Record Store Day

What a glorious day it was. Info from recordstoreday.com:
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Conceived by [a few guys] as a celebration of the unique culture surrounding over 700 independently owned record stores in the U.S. and hundreds of similar stores internationally. Special vinyl and CD releases and various promotional products were made exclusively for the day and hundreds of artists made in-store appearances. Festivities included performances, cook-outs, body painting, meet & greets with artists, parades, and DJs spinning records. Metallica officially kicked off Record Store Day at Rasputin Music in San Franscisco last year and the annual event is now celebrated the third Saturday every April.
NOTE: A Record Store Day participating store is defined as a physical retailer whose product line consists of at least 50% music retail, whose company is not publicly traded and whose ownership is at least 70% located in the state of operation. (In other words, we’re dealing with real, live, physical, indie record stores—not online retailers or corporate behemoths).
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I hit Sonic Boom Records, a couple blocks from home. I've been going there weekly for three years and have not seen this many people on one occasion. Boxes of records everywhere. People milling about, fingering through titles, buying records, using a t-shirt iron-on machine. A DJ setting up, indie rock DJ Cheryl Waters from the world's coolest station KEXP. Plenty of staff on-hand to answer questions and help people find things. The staff at this store rocks, always playing cool stuff, always friendly and helpful, knowledgeable but honest about copping to what they don't know, always making sure you find what you're looking for and super cool about special-ordering titles they don't have, as I've experienced with a few titles in the past.

My Record Store Day booty:

My treasure trove of 7-inch vinyl includes:
MC5 - Kick Out The Jams b/w Motor City Burning - packaged in the original rare picture sleeve, first time available since 1969
Pretenders - new song + one unreleased song
Dylan - Dreaming of You /Down Along the Cove - recorded live at Bonnaroo '04; packaged in clear sleeve with 3x5 photo
Springsteen - new song + the unreleased "A Night With The Jersey Devil"
The Stooges - 1969/Real Cool Time - packaged in the original rare picture sleeve
Tom Waits - live tracks from Atlanta & Edinburgh
and and AND... While there, I picked up the new Wilco tour documentary DVD, Ashes of American Flags.
Aaaaaaaand... they gave me this full-length long-playing record!
It's got remixes of songs by Raphael Saadiq, MGMT, Franz Ferdinand, Black Kids, Willie Nelson, plus a live in-studio recording by Glasvegas and songs by Q-Tip, Tiempo Libre, Charles Mingus, Living Things, and Cage The Elephant. Free? DAMN!

Going to the record store is a cultural experience that can never be replaced by anything. Not by convenient online purchasing channels, lower prices, or anything. Like anyone in the 21st Century, I buy music online. Case in point: My 2am enlightenment that the 3-disc Queen Anthology needs to be on my shelf is a good idea but one which will die of old age even if I write it down and wait for the store to open at 10am (truth: I played "Flash" at my DJ gig last night and people LOVED it!). But, I buy most of my music at independent, locally owned stores. This behavioral habit is driven in equal parts by my preference to support local business and my need for the record store experience. If you haven't been into a record store in a while, and you like music even a little, even just enough to want the latest hits by Lady GaGa and Beyonce in your iPod, do it. You'll find that it isn't a novelty & nostalgia lark, like eating Tater Tots or wearing trucker caps (still crappy after all these years). It's the experience you wish had never left your weekly or monthly routine, and you'll delight in re-applying it. Maybe you build it into your budget, every Saturday, or every payday, or once a month, you go to the record store and spend $x or less. Live in the now. Still get stuff on iTunes or emusic or wherever. Just build the local record store into your diet. That's all I'm suggesting.

IN UNRELATED NEWS:
The New York Skankees got all Nancy Kerrigan on us today: "WHYYYYYYYYYYYYY??? WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY???" when they were bludgeoned to a baseball pulp by my new 3rd favorite team (after the Red Sox and Cubs) the Cleveland Indians. In the course of a 22-4 Indians victory, both teams set a host of inversely delightful records. In the second inning alone, the Tribe scored 14 runs on 13 hits and all nine of their players scored. As if the Bronx Bummers being on the business end of a 5-star beat-down ain't enough... this marvelous slice of Americana happened in the new Yankee Stadium. I'd feel bad for any other team this situation, but it's the Yankees, so... Welcome to your new digs, jerkoffs!