Happy Record Store Day
This should be a national holiday. Record Store Day celebrates the culture of the more than 700 independently owned record stores across the U.S. Special releases by hundreds of artists are made available for the day, some are made exclusively for the day and others are first-time re-issues, previously unreleased stuff, advance singles from forthcoming albums, etc. It's mostly vinyl but some CD. Most stores have live in-store shows, some have cook-outs, artist meet-and-greets, body painting, parades, and so forth. Metallica kicked off the first Record Store Day at a San Francisco store in 2008 and it is now an annual tradition on the third Saturday of every April. Record Store Day is Christmas for music geeks.
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).
What's not to love about this?
Happy Record Store Day, everyone!
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 with a musical menu - for cryin' out loud, check out this awesome menu!. Instead, I slept in and hit Sonic Boom, Everyday Music and Easy Street Queen Anne from 1-2:30. A lotta stuff was gone by then, but I 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. Had never heard of the artist but I trust Sub Pop more than enough to buy a random album and I really like this dark, dreamy pop.
Devo - 12" new single, blue vinyl. That's right. 
New Devo. Get used to it. They're wearing blue hats now.
Menomena and Helio Sequence split 45, very cool artwork and high quality print production. Menomena may be an acquired taste, a little too slow-core for me; but the Helio Sequence song is good, and I've liked this band from the beginning. The artwork and print production alone are worth the five bucks.
DA - full length of demos, singles, alternate mixes, outtakes and live stuff. Had never heard of this band, but the sticker offered a quote from the Chicago Reader describing the sound as "Patti Smith fronting Joy Division." Sold. LOVE them now.
The Black Keys - 12" single from the new album, both sides are awesome.
Them Crooked Vultures - 10" picture disc, unreleased studio & live songs, interview from this super group of Dave Grohl (Nirvana, Foo Fighters), Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age) and John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin). For once, a "super group" is actually super.
Queens of the Stone Age - 10" picture disc, 4 songs
The Stars of Goldwax - 4-song 7" from this under-celebrated Memphis r&b and soul label which put out lots of great stuff in the late 60s and early 70s, 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) from this very interesting and arty gypsy punk band from New York's Lower East Side
Ted Leo & the Pharmacists - 45, neither song is on the new album
Elvis Costello & the Attractions - 45, from the popularly bootlegged Live at Hollywood High ('79) - Pump it Up on the A-side, Lip Service and Waiting for the End of the World on the B-side
Jakob Dylan and Court Yard Hounds split 45 - Jake on one side, the Dixie Chicks real country project (not to be confused with the DC's normal brand of shiny, SUV, glossed-up country) on the B-side, a duet with Jake
Charlotte Gainsbourg - 45, had never heard of her, admittedly bought it because she's, uh, quite pretty. Good tunes, it turns out. Both songs written by Beck Hansen.
I knew it'd be hard to spend less than a hundo but I got a bonus a few weeks ago from work, first time the annual check had a comma in the number, so I booked a couple mini-vacations and earmarked a c-note for Record Store Day in advance. I am a very happy consumer.
DIGITAL MUSIC. Now, I understand and participate in the digital age. I've bought at least 600 songs on iTunes and dozens if not hundreds of albums on amazon and other online places during the last 6-7 years, but I've also bought as many pieces of physical recorded music at record stores. It sure is convenient to download music. It's cheap, eliminates some links in the supply chain (read: cheaper) and does not require leaving the house. But it just isn't the same. The sound quality is empirically less - the file size of an mp3 or iTunes download is about a quarter to a third as resolute as what you hear on a CD. Downloaded songs are meant to be played on earbuds or headphones, where they sound fine. Play that stuff in a hi-fi system, it sounds muddy; try it in a PA at a bar, club, wedding, etc. - sounds horrible. Consider a small digital photo, thumbnail size, from Facebook or anywhere else. It looks fine on your monitor, at wallet size. Blow that photo up to an 8x10 or poster size, and it looks like crap. Same thing.
RECORDS. A physical product, the listener must handle it, the piece of music also includes packaging and artwork through which the recording artist may extend more versions of itself. Ultimately, it's about the music. Cool artwork, extensive liner notes, alternative packaging... singles, EPs, full-lengths, double albums, boxed sets, picture discs, colored vinyl, 10", 7", 12" - these media allow an artist to express him/her/itself beyond the music, with more creative value, more interesting, not to mention the personal experience of actually handling a piece of art. Digital downloads offer none of this. I mean, when's the last time your mp3 file looked like: 
