Re: Record Store Day

I was walking around my girlfriend's small town - Natick, MA - the other night after a round of pub trivia (in which we were thoroughly thrashed). We went down an alley, and voila -- ran into a small little record store! (It was closed at the time). I couldnt believe it. I peered through the glass and saw something I havent seen in 20 years - a wall of (used) cassette tapes. I was in shock and awe. How is it possible that my girlfriend would neglect to inform me that her town - a town in which she is a leading political figure -- cultural council, selectman, all that stuff -- contained an indie record store? She said "O yeah - we have a record store." like it was some piece of minutia that she forget to convey to me. Why she didnt tell me right away is a complete mystery to me since she knows I am a record store fanatic. It really looked like something that emerged from a time capsule. Every town used to have one of these just a short time ago and now it is all gone - heartbreakingly gone. I am going to that store today, and I dont care if they have the worst selection and the highest prices in the world. I am spending at least $100 bucks there, and I hope it helps the storekeeper keep the shop open just a little bit longer. Hopefully I can spend another $100 next year. Amen.

Cool! Let us know what you picked up.

I checked the link for Record Store Day earlier this week and discovered two record stores within 20 miles of my house that I didn't know even existed. It happens!

In Natick? Seriously? Wellesley, maybe. . .

Cool find.

Mmm, I can almost smell the record store. I can almost wipe away the dust on those cassettes with my finger.

Spent $185 at my local record shop today, most of which was on non-RSD-specials.

I am grateful that the Electronic Anthology Project thingy for Dino Jr. got played in the store while I was there. I had grabbed the limited edition color vinyl off the shelf for $26, but upon hearing the damn thing, I decided that was twice again as much as I was willing to pay for it, so I bought the limited edition CD instead for half the price. My vinyl fetishism goes only so far....

Also of note was that my record store had a "clairvoyant" posted by the door to read each customer's vinyl future and tell you what record you were going to go home with. She asked my name, had me look into a miniature crystal ball, and after pondering for a moment or two and stating that I was a tough case, she reached into a crate of records to pull out the record that was meant for me. To no one's surprise, my vinyl future consisted of the Doobie Brothers' Living On The Fault Line. I got a laugh out of that and made sure to ask when checking out at the register whether I got a discount for taking that fucking album off their hands.

rhettlawrence wrote:

> She asked
> my name, had me look into a miniature crystal ball, and after
> pondering for a moment or two and stating that I was a tough
> case, she reached into a crate of records to pull out the
> record that was meant for me. To no one's surprise, my vinyl
> future consisted of the Doobie Brothers' Living On The Fault
> Line.

I'd grab the record and smash it against the nearest hard surface à la Bluto smashing the guitar in Animal House. Then I'd sheepishly grin and shrug.

In addition to being the hometown of Doug Flutie, I'd like to point out that Natick is where everyone on the North Shore goes to shop when they don't feel like traveling into Boston or up to Portsmouth. When you're in Ipswich, Natick seems pretty cosmopolitan.

All of which is to say Natick should have a record store.

It was admittedly kind of a sucky one, but I enjoyed going there. It was run by a couple crusty older guys who were talking about how great the band Traffic was. They fielded a call while I was in the store and gave an exasperated answer to a customer inquiring about Phish bootlegs. The place had some kind of weird metal detector near the door which basically inhibited walking about and down the rows. The CDs had those weird plastic things on them which must be some kind of ecological nightmare (on the day before Earth day). Basically, all those little touches that all the bad record stores had back in the day. THere was nary a new release of any kind in sight, and I was looking for pretty obvious ones like The Shins, Alabama Shakes etc. There was some section named "New Releases" which had some random blues and pop and rock records in it, none of which were new. I take that back - they had that new CD from Battles with the messy ice cream sunday on it (Gloss Drop ?) But the newness I guess referred to the fact that they had newish reissues of Pink Floyd's The Wall and some other classic rock records in it.

Overall, it was kind of a disappointment. They did have a pretty decent section of discount $4 CDs which I wanted to thoroughly pillage. My gf and son were desperately pulling me out of that store , so I only got to explore for about 15 minutes. I bought a bunch of random older stuff that I already know but just kind of wanted on CD. Nothing special enough to record here... I also grabbeed basically all the free sampler CDs the labels put out, and there was some good nes.

Later on, I took my kid to the ginormous Natick Mall which contains a Newbury Comics (our local chain store which used to focus on comic books and music but now mostly sells tchochkies). I spent about 45 minutes gathering all these newer CDs I wanted - Loudon Wainwright, The Men, The Shins, Cloud Nothings - and some awesome looking vinyl reissues - Uncle Tupelo, that Flaming Lips 2 record Record Store Dy thing. When I got to the counter it turns out I forgot my wallet in the car which was about a mile away. O well. It's probably for the better. I was about to spend more than I actually have.

Overall, not a great haul. What did you all get?

Aside from the aforementioned Doobies and Dino purchases (tho the Doobies album was a "gift"), I got the new Lee Ranaldo, that Grinderman remix album (double vinyl), the new High on Fire, a bunch of used stuff, and some CDs for the Wyfe (including the new Sinead and that last JC Brooks disc). Haven't really had a chance to listen to any of it yet except for the Grinderman album, which was mostly interesting, but not mind-blowing. I also bought the Watt/Dukowski split 7" and it ain't much.

Natick should have a record store, and they should close each day playing our pal's "Maybe A Walk Home From Natick High School."

Natick's junior high was the sister school to my own. Each year there would be an exchange/visit between our basketball teams. My girlfriend at the time dumped me for one of the Natick boys. This after a couple of months without any necking, even.

Today that girl has children with and is married to another girl.

I have not had the best luck with the gay girls I've dated.

True love is not nice.



Post Edited (04-23-12 00:41)

M. Johnson wrote:


> I have not had the best luck with the gay girls I've dated.

Go figure.

Nonetheless, good thing you didn't marry one of 'em. Could have been a train wreck.

Another local record store bites the dust here in Boston. One of the last:

[www.boston.com]

I went to this aforementioned store - Diskovery in Brighton - today since it is scheduled to close this month. It is the most gloriously messy collection of books and CDs and cassette tapes ever. Total chaos. Some aisles I physically could not get down. There were cats sleeping all over the merchandise.

Guess what I bought? hint It was about time for a fresh copy.

I also bought that double-CD of quadrophenia I always wanted but was always reluctant to shell out for. And a nice hardcover copy of the selected writings of Melville. (I felt like Erik) And the complete writings of Isak Babel. A fun trip to the local record store.

"I also bought that double-CD of quadrophenia I always wanted but was always reluctant to shell out for. And a nice hardcover copy of the selected writings of Melville. (I felt like Erik)"

Actually, you felt like me in more ways than one--I've resisted the pull of that Quadrophenia set too.

As to that Melville collection, I think "Benito Cereno" is in there. . . a must-read. It's a short story (about a Spanish slave ship) that prefigures Hitchcock-ian suspense (by about a hundred years).

Was yesterday World Quadrophenia Day or something? I bought a copy on CD at a Goodwill store yesterday.

Isn't there still a record store with actual records in it close to the Wellesley border, called Deja Vu? It used to be run by a crazy old lady who doesn't price anything until you get to the counter. If she's still there, ask and she'll show you the high priced record show stuff she keeps in the back room.

Man, is it possible I missed 2 record stores I drive by all the time ??? Need to investigate and review internal procedures.

I took Record Store Day off this year.

These price-gougers/speculators/(Dare I say it? I will dare) record store owners/employees were on it, however:

[www.ebay.com]

[www.ebay.com]

[www.ebay.com]

Bunch of savages.

Anybody pick up that "London Calling 2012" 7"? I had it in my hand, but at some point before I got to the register, it seems to have gone missing and I didn't notice that it wasn't among my 18 or so items until much later that night.

I sent my girlfriend in search of Deja Vu records. Apparently it is now a karate studio. Another one rides the bus.....I mean, bites the dust.

They still have a live website, but it looks like it was last updated last fall. There are Google reviews from three months ago.

[www.dejavurecords.net]

Try calling the number, maybe they've moved.

Thanks Totale! The reports of the demise of Deja Vu Records have been greatly exaggerated. My gf went out and looked for it again. This time she found it. Just got the following text: "Best record store ever! I just introduced myself to the owner, Eleni. I said I wanted to make sure she was still here. She said"where else would I be?" you will love it"

Am excited to go drop some dough!

Main Man Records put out a pretty good Winter Hours 2-disc tribute a few years back:

[www.theaquarian.com]

I didn't even realize they were from New Jersey until I picked it up.

Well, my thoughts on Record Store Day are a little dark. I just blogged about it today on PPM. The gist of it is I think it jumped the shark and is now as noxious as Black Friday by this year. It didn't take long to leave the Garden of Eden. I'm against the idea of battling for issues that have contrived scarcity driving their desire. I find small runs of product by world famous groups noxious on the face of it and elitist. Against the very principals that rock and roll were founded on. And I'm also against these hard to buy records being snapped up by poachers for resale. I think it's all devolved into an exploitative stunt that artificially boosts sales for one day while perhaps avoiding all together the notion of fostering the idea of spending more time throughout the year at your friendly, local record store.

Don't get me started on the issues not available in this country or that market!



Former TP subscriber [81, 82, 83, 84]

[postpunkmonk.com]
For further rumination on the Fresh New Sound of Yesterday®

I'm with our new Post-Punk friend on this one.
I was a true believer back in the day. I would literally dream at night about finding a rare album. All this stuff now is artificial. Now I would rather get a CD delivered or download the music.
Life is too short.

I didn't take part in Record Store Day. I was either driving to Salem, or attending the big gig there. And as it turns out, the record store of choice in that town (Ranch Records) is closed on Sundays. But I did hit a couple of excellent stores in Portland on my drive home.

At Music Millennium, I found a reissue of the lone album by Winter Hours, a New Jersey band from the Eighties. This was a particularly great find to me, because my own band shared a bill with Winter Hours and The Godfathers, when those two groups played in Colorado Springs in late 1987. Live, they were very R.E.M.-inspired; most of the studio stuff is more country-flavored, but still great. Excellent lead singer, too (who, I'm sad to learn, passed away in 2003). The CD includes several demos, a couple of unreleased songs, and a live take of The Hollies' "Bus Stop."

I got that Winter Hours reissue myself a few months ago. It was put by the same label that compiled the Carnival Season and Primitons CDs. I guess Arena Rock is on a mission to rescue 80s guitar pop bands from undeserved obscurity.

Ah, Ranch Records. Shoulda read this post before responding to the other. Glad it's still there!

I dug that Winter Hours album a lot back in the day, but haven't heard it in 20 years. I'll keep an eye open for the reissue.