So Saturday is Record Store Day and I guess the reason we’re starting to celebrate it is because of the death of the music industry as we know it. I gotta say I look back on the record store days as pretty sweet. Me and my sister used to go to the local record store (at the Shoppes) and see all these cool records which we weren’t yet familiar, when I was around 9-10 years old. I always remember a Dirty Deeds poster and wondering why all the peoples’ eyes were blacked-out, and a life-size Ringo Starr cardboard cutout in a police uniform. But at that age we were mainly going there to get to the arcade in the back of the store, where I honed my Donkey Kong skills as often as I could.
Fast forward a year or two after Back In Black opened my eyes to rock ‘n roll, and I’m going to the Record Bar at the mall almost religiously and ordering records from the record club…getting 10-12 records at a time in a cardboard box in the mail is about as cool as life gets.
Then a few years later in high school, how many trips did I make to Clifton from the burbs of Cincinnati to visit Wizzards Records to load up on cheap used albums? Then there’s all the stores I’ve loved before… Everybody’s Records, Mole’s, Used Kids, Recycle, and a couple I’ve visited where I live now… Academy Annex in Williamsburg and that joint on Bleecker Street. I’ve gotten the best deals most recently though at NYC street fairs and the last WFMU Record Fair.
So get out there Saturday and find your local record store and grab yourself some tasty vinyl. Or if you don’t have a turntable, seek a cheap one out. Shit, you could even get one of those USB Ion tables, if you don’t have a proper receiver. Anyway, here’s a couple other things…
- Listen to a killer vinyl rip (via Muxtape) , of Neil Young’s Time Fades Away, and then find yourself a vinyl copy of it at your local shop
- Get your free download of the new Gnarls Barkley! The catch…it’s backwards.
- More talk about classic rock live albums at Hidden Track
- Can you think of any other bands that peaked too soon? I’m thinking The Specials.
- You absolutely have to see and hear David Byrne doing his rendition of Paul Simon’s I Know What I Know, which he just performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (where I was married) for the recent Paul Simon Graceland tribute, Under African Skies.
- Central Park Summerstage‘s calendar is up.
