BY PATRICK WALL



If you’re a regular reader of Free Times and The Playlist in particular you’ve noticed that we’ve reported more than once on the sorry state of music retailers which we colloquially refer to as record stores these days. (Hell, there was even an award-winning Free Times cover story about it.) So we’re always happy when we see something celebrating the institution that is the record store. To wit: This Saturday, April 19, is National Record Store Day. Rob Gordon would be proud.

“[Record Store Day] is for those of us who believe that record stores are still a vital, cool, fun place to go, says Manifest store manager William Browder. There’s kind of a lost generation of record store buyers that are coming up that haven’t spent time in record stores hanging out, shopping in the bins, talking music, all of that kind of stuff. So Record Store Day is a celebration where everybody all at one time gets together and makes a statement across that country that we’re still here.

The brainchild of indie music retailer bigwigs, stores under the umbrellas of the Alliance of Independent Media Stores, Coalition of Independent Music Stores, Music Monitor Network, Newbury Comics and the Value Music Group of Indie Stores will participate in the event, which is designed to celebrate independent record shops and based on Free Comic Book Day, which celebrates independent comic book retailers. Celebrities from Bruce Springsteen to Paul McCartney to Cameron Crowe to Nick Hornsby (author of High Fidelity) have lent their support to the event, and artists the likes of Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, Death Cab for Cutie, Vampire Weekend, The Black Keys, Björk, R.E.M. and Built to Spill will be releasing limited-edition seven-inches, EPs, videos and other sweet swag at participating stores.

“If we lose the independent record store, we lose big, Henry Rollins says in Record Store Day’s press kit. Every time you buy your records at one of these places, it’s a blow to the empire.

So what exactly happens on National Record Store Day? Crate-digging contests? Seven-inch discus? Eight-track smashing sessions? Not quite. According to the National Record Store Day website (recordstoreday.com): Music, video and gaming will all take center stage with each store doing something different to celebrate including sales, in-store performances, demonstrations, swap meets or an ‘afternoon at a record store’ promotion, as well as, provide info on new formats and releases. The goal is to showcase everything that makes an indie store unique.

So what does this mean for you, the local indie-record-store patron? As you might know, indie retailer Value Music Concepts owns Manifest Discs and Tapes, which, in addition to the super sales and giveaways, will feature in-store performances from power-funkers Villanova, folk-hop troubadour Justin Smith, alt-rock heroes Testing Ground and hip-hop duo The SH.A.AW Bros., which features members of the Beat Junction Project.

Of course, there’s more than one record store in town; while Manifest is the only store officially participating in Record Store Day, Papa Jazz, Scratch N Spin, Sounds Familiar and Acme Comics and Records are also more than deserving of your support and your hard-earned dollars.

So color us excited for Record Store Day: At the very least, it’ll remind folks that local record stores are still alive and kicking; at the very most, it’ll be yet another shining example of why few joys in life are as pure as the record store experience.

“This is something that we do everyday: celebrate music, Browder says. If you go to Wal-Mart to save a dollar or whatever, that’s fine, but there’s so much more that we offer here. It’s a cool thing to do, still ... to walk into a store and get lost.

So get out to one or all of Columbia’s awesome independent record stores. You’ll be glad you did.

So, my question to you is... in honor of this day, what was the first record album or cd or single you bought, and what will you buy on Saturday, if you choose to?

For me it was like this:

The first album I bought was in 1978: Saturday Night Fever Movie Soundtrack by Multiple Artists (mostly the BeeGees)
The first cd I bought was in 1986: Songs in the Key of Life by Stevie Wonder (it was just transferred to cd)
The first single I bought was in 1978: Freak Out by Chic
Saturday I will buy: E=MC2 by Mariah Carey

bad date.

I'm going

Well damn, I was just out buying some CDs and records yesterday, but I guess I gotta go do some shopping on the 19th too

June7 said:

Ouch! What happened in the last thirty years!

Saturday night was on the #1 spot around the time I was born. Thanks June7!

June7 said:

I work in a wrecka stow. I think I'm gonna call in sick saturday!

I'll show support Saturday...any business that can still hold on gets my business anyway but a day just for them, I'm there.



[Edited 4/17/08 7:20am]

Sander said:

I do love her voice....

June7 said:

If only she'd use it! Without hissing every three or four words.


Oeh, love that hi-fi movie!

19th is a Saturday...Maybe I'll take a break from the studies to do some light shopping!

great! I will be going to a record convention and will be thinking of this thread.

What's a record store? Is that the place where they sell computers and washers and dryers and TV's and CD's?

ever since they closed towers here and some virgin megas i didnt go to record stores much. but then agn in the past few yrs like everyone else i dont even buy new cd's just get shit on itunes. but i do love going to used record stores for cd singles and imports.

Christopher said:

I think that counts...

I usually celebrate this holiday every year, but, yesterday, I went to go pick up my National Record Store tree at the tree lot & had the guy who sold it to me, tie to it to the roof my car. Well, afterwards, as I'm driving on the expressway, the damn thing comes loose & flies off of my car. So, as I'm turning into the nearest exit to see if I can find a way to turn around & retrieve it, I notice thru my rearview mirror, a massive pile-up of vehicles beginning to occur. Naturally, I assume it's because of my rogue National Record tree & instead just keep on driving home.

So I just say, fuck it.
Fuck it all to hell.

Besides, this holiday has gotten way too commercial.

And when you buy something on Wrecka Stow Day, make sure you do the owners an additional favor and pay in cash (rather than using a debit or credit card). That'll save them the service charge the credit card companies tack on. Lord knows their margins are narrow enough as it is.

Raze said:

Sounds like Best Buy.... lol

Sounds like a good cause...record stores these days can use the business.
I still love getting all my "goodies" at a record store...
Old-fashinoned? Probably, but I certainly don't care.

I wast tempted to go there first thing in the morning when they opened and then attempting to bring myself to the library but I might have to do the opposite...oh joy....Finding parking in downtown Ann Arbor Saturday evening! Maybe I can just go later when things have kind of claimed down with school.....

Never answered the question.
First CD I bought for myself....not sure. Got Pearl Jam "Vs" and "Beavis and Butthead Experience" when I got my CD player. Maybe Aerosmith "Get A Grip" but that might have been when I joined Columbia House or something so maybe I got a bunch at once...Not sure.

What will I buy? Who knows but I will be looking for some Patti Austin for sure.
[Edited 4/18/08 20:41pm]

obsessed said:

I can spend hours... literally hours, in a used wrecka stowe...