Tuesday 22 April 2014

LIFE: Celebrating Vinyl - Record Store Day 2014

Record Store Day

Saturday saw the annual return of Record Store Day. If you're not aware, Record Store Day is a great day if you love limited releases, shopping in your local, independent record stores and especially love vinyl (you might remember my post regarding the day in 2013). The list of special, one off releases tends to come out a month before the day, you eye up what you'd love and cross everything in the hope that the record store(s) by you might have something. 

We'd originally planed to shop at UHF in Royal Oak, but after driving pass the crazy long queue at 8.30am, we decided to go to Flipside in Clawson which wasn't opening until 10am. So we spent over an hour, somewhat cold standing in what turned out to be pretty close to the front (we were like 15/16 in the line). While the sun was shining and the skies blue, Michigan skies can be very misleading this time of year, and dancing on the spot for warmth was the order of the day. Once the doors are open it's pretty much an orderly scrum and you have to grab something when you see it. It's all so very hit and miss.

So what did we get?

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The biggie was the 30th anniversary special edition glow in the dark Ghostbusters theme 10" record - it is pretty awesome and has one of Joe's favorite films, I'm glad we managed to pick it up. It comes with the original version, instrumental and a couple of dance/dub versions. Plus like I said it GLOWS IN THE DARK!! And yes the Ghostbusters film is 30 years old this year, doesn't that make you feel old?!

We're both fans of The Zombies - the English rock band who formed in 1962, with The Beatles they were one of the big British Invasion Groups of the 60's. They had two special, limited re-release vinyls for Record Store Day - Odyssey & Oracle (2,500 copies) and The Zombies (1,500 copies) as we've never managed to come across any Zombies records at estate sales, we finally have some to add to our collection. 

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Joe's a Jimi Hendrix fan - so the Jimi Hendrix Experience Live at Monterey was a must grab, and although I'm not a big Hendrix fan, it's a pretty cool album, it's also 280 gram vinyl - which if you're into such things is a big deal, it's set at the quality of an audio file although you need a top notch record player to get the most out of it. Also all our purchases came home in a pretty neat illustrated bag by Edward Ubiera - which you can see partially in the first photograph.

Sadly the increase in the day's popularity wasn't matched with quantity of vinyl available. Tweets, facebook comments and blog posts from record listeners and collectors seem to be echoing for a need for change in the future. Both Broken Record and Nailler 9's underlying message suggest RSD should be less about inferior titles and the quantity of them available and more about supporting the local, truely independent record stores throughout the year. Personally I hope next year they fine tune the number of listings and increase the number of pressings, which I know won't make them has "limited" it would allow more people the chance to find the record(s) they want after queuing for hours. As it stood on Saturday, If there's more than three people queuing in front of you wanting the same record, you have little hope.

Don't get me wrong I love the experience of Record Store Day, getting to meet some like minded people and support local record stores (which we do throughout the year anyway), I'd just like everyone to have a better chance of getting what they want.

What were your experiences with Record Store Day 2014? What did you buy or wish you could of got your hands on? Or just tell me what music you love - I'd love to hear!

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14 comments:

  1. Aahhhh! You had better luck than us! My sister managed to pick up the Brian Jonestown Massacre release for me though, which will be a present for my boyfriends birthday (two limited edition vinyls in consecutive years, he's a lucky boy)! There weren't any in the UK that really caught my eye but I'm still reeling from last year's SIGNED Mystery Jets release. And that Ghostbusters one looks amazing!

    Glad to see another blogger rooting for the RSD! x

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    1. It's good to finally meet someone else that gets involved with RSD (not sure there's many of us haha). Great find last year - that must have been awesome. And yeah the Ghostbusters one is pretty neat, we finally got it glowing in the dark the other night, looked pretty cool as an object yet alone for what's on it!

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    2. Well you'll have to take a pic and show us! Bet it looks awesome when it's on the turntable! There really aren't, I posted about it on my blog and those pages have the least views, but I care about it so whatever! Have you heard about all the stuff to do with touting and the Paul Weller release? Not good! x

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  2. Very cool haul! I didn't even know about Record day! Though I haven't gotten into vinyl until just recently and am slowly building my collection.

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    1. Yeah it's been going for a while, just this year it really reached the mainstream.

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  3. That bag is pretty cool. I agree with you completely about it needing to change, I came away empty handed which totally sucked :(

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    1. Hopefully RSD organisers take note of the issues that there's been this year, there's been enough of the issues raised so hopefully they notice. I know they can't really do anything about the ebay sellers, but I think they could address the number of each pressings and such, hopefully!

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  4. I've never heard of RSD and I'm pretty sad about it!!
    Glow in the dark Ghostbusters record? Amazing. But I simply refuse to believe it's 30 years old. Nope. Not for a second!
    M x Life Outside London

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    1. We only heard about it early last year and in honesty I don't even know how we came across it even then - it certainly wasn't getting much air time prior to this year! But yes, the Ghostbusters, its like when I remember how old now the movies are from my childhood ... like no, not happening!

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  5. I'm not really into records, collecting wise, but I do love music. But I fully admit, I'm not so savvy on the classics and such. I'm very much a radio listener and then when I hear something I like I go for it. Our latest love is a band from the Netherlands, Within Temptation, we have a concert to go to on Tuesday :D

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    1. See I'm not so up on the modern stuff. After university it kind of started to pass me by. I did see a poster for the Within Temptation tour, they are coming to the next city over but it's on a weekday which doesn't make it too feasible sadly (wah I sound old lol).

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  6. We went to Cob Records in Portmadog in North Wales for Record Store Day but they didn't have anything specific happening on the day apart from a few posters. My parents used to go there in the 60s and 70s and buy vinyl (I'm sure my dad still has a large collection of stuff!).
    We don't tend to buy many vinyl albums but we do collect a lot of 45s for our jukebox! :-) x

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