Record Store Day 2013

In the spectrum of annual events that bring joy once a full earthly revolution this past Saturday stands amongst the heaviest of hitters for this writer. Record Store Day falls on the third Saturday of April since it first launched in 2008. Organized by a relatively small group of people, RSD was conceived around the idea of supporting independent record store owners whose business is conducted within a brick and mortar store with at least 50% of the retail pertaining to music, they must also NOT be a publicly traded company. All of which is to say, this event is meant for the music lovers and the remaining stores that still believe in the tradition of experiencing music on a personal level. Of course, there's money to be made out of it.

But what is Record Store Day really? Well in short, record labels from big and small make limited edition runs of albums, singles, EPs, etc, and ship them out to the indie stores who request things they'd like from their distributors. Not every store gets everything. Some stores will get many things, some will get only a select few items. And when I say limited editions, I'm not talk about 20,000 worldwide or even 10,000. Most of the pressings are around 5000 and fewer. One of the records I was most excited to pick up was Orange Juice's debut LP, "You Can't Hide Your Love Forever," which first came out in 1982, but hasn't seen a vinyl pressing since. There were 750 of those distributed across all the indie record stores in America.
 
This 6th year had an impressive list of releases, although I think I was personally more excited about last year's list overall. Still, apart from the Orange Juice album, I managed to pick up some very cool things including:

-Dazed and Confused Soundtrack (first time on vinyl and one of my favorites movies of all time)

-Distinctive Rhythm Instrumentals by The Dave Brubeck Trio

-Cal Tjader Trio by The Cal Tjader Trio

-Entertainment single by Phoenix (the B side has the same song but sung in Korean!)

-Tomorrow Is Alright by Sonny & The Sunsets

-Fear Of My Identity single by Best Coast . . . and lots more

Speaking of Best Coast, oftentimes there will be in-store performances to help celebrate the day, and at one of the record stores I frequent, Best Coast stopped by to do a small set for the fans who bought their latest single.

More pictures later when I organize everything, but in the meantime here's a video I shot with some highlights of the performance:

(Youtube's shaky cam fix ruined the titles in the opening seconds, I'm trying to undo it now)


-J