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Brendan Toller Does Well With Record Store Day Release
05.06.10
Filmmaker Brendan Toller took the opportunity to release his independent record shop documentary during this past US Record Store Day. As quick as I Need That Record! hit shelves during the April 17th event, it found it’s way into shoppers’ baskets, leaving stocked shops promptly sold out. Toller’s film is said to document the tragic recession of independent shops in relation to digital downloads. The film boasts Minutemen/Stooges’ Mike Watt, Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore, Ian MacKaye of Fugazi/Minor Threat fame and philosopher Noam Chomsky. Toller argues the communal offering courtesy the independent shop experience saying, “Sure, you can find any music on the Internet. But there’s a part of that experience that’s lonely. For music fans, going to stores is the centre of your social universe. It’s the same community of people that sit in sports bars or bookstores. We’re social beings, but it’s harder and harder to support local business if prices aren’t affordable.” Check out the trailer for Toller’s first feature I Need That Record!

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Record Store Day 2010: Biggest Success Yet
04.28.10
Nielsen SoundScan, reaching back as far as 1991, has announced this past Record Store Day to have logged the most vinyl sales in 24 hours since SoundScan’s erection almost 20 years ago. Meanwhile NYC’s Other Music, Sonic Boom in Seattle, and New Jersey’s Vintage Vinyl, celebrated their most lucrative days to date. Ah geez… I’m so proud I could cry.

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Blur’s Fool’s Day Available for Free Download
04.19.10
As you recall, we reported Britpop heavy hands Blur were releasing their first track together after seven years of recording silence. The outfit printed a thousand copies of the single for a special UK only Record Store Day 7″, and seeing as many of you couldn’t get their hands on the much sought out release, the boys have made Fool’s Day available as a free download! Surf over to Blur’s official website, enter your email address, and voila… Instant free track!

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Wilco, Hole, & MGMT To Release Record Store Day Exclusives
04.16.10
A myriad of artists are getting exclusive for this year’s Record Store Day. On Saturday April 17th exclusive releases brought to you by Wilco, Hole, MGMT and more will grace the music shops’ shelves in limited quantities. Wilco offers their live effort Kicking Television in a four LP vinyl box set complete with eight extra tracks and a bonus CD. MGMT drops the lengthy Siberian Breaks in 12″ form, while Hole offers up Skinny Little Bitch with a new track from Nobody’s Daughter on 10″ white vinyl and a white label 12″ single courtesy the Beastie Boys makes a thousand copy appearance. And if you need even more out of your Saturday retail experience, then you’ll be happy to hear reports indicate the Rolling Stones, Soundgarden, The Doors, Sonic Youth, Bruce Springsteen, and The Flaming Lips will have special nest eggs ready for the event. Hours and counting folks… Hours and counting.

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The Raconteurs Perform as The Racontwoers for Record Store Day
04.13.10
Busy, busy, busy… The Raconteurs members have been quite pre-occupied with other endeavors and haven’t quite found time to play together much. Well all that changes on Record Store Day when guitarist/singer Brendan Benson and drummer Patrick Keeler hook up to perform at Jack White’s Third Man Records in Nashville. The appearance is in parallel with the re-release of the outfit’s 2006 effort Broken Boy Soldiers. The pair are slated to hammer out some Raconteurs classics under the moniker The Racontwoers, all complete with Third Man awesomeness available. Three hundred copper colored, limited editions of the band’s debut album will be available for Record Store Day as well as a black-and-blue vinyl version of the in-store performance and Polaroid photos off yourself taken with the three remaining Go Karts from the Steady as She Goes vid. Jack White’s “Copper Kid” Go Kart will also be auctioned off with all the proceeds going to the Nashville Rescue Mission. It all goes down April 17th at Jack White’s Third Man Records in Nashville.

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Record Store Day Marks New Blur Single
04.09.10
Solidified reports indicate that the recording scene estranged London quartet Blur, will return to the spotlight on Record Store Day to release their first single in seven years. Slated to helm a special Record Store Day 7″ for the ever growing April 17th retail event, the new track is yet to be titled and according to EMI, is for now not the sign of a new album to come. In any case this new ditty is the first to flow from the English outfit’s hands in a dog’s age; with the last being 2003′s effort, Good Song. So make your way out on April 17th, but heads up Blurians, only a thousand copies of the wax is said to be printed… Hit the shops early!

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Josh Homme Acts as Ambassador for Record Store Day
03.25.10
For anyone who grew up ordering hard to find titles at their local indie record store, it’s hard to concede that there is a whole generation of kids who have no concept of yearning for the physical recording. Record Store Day is all about making sure we don’t forget that those stores are still out there, and doing the job of turning people on to awesome new music. The latest artist to throw their weight behind this musical thanksgiving of sorts is Josh Homme of Them Crooked Vultures/Queens of the Stone Age who has volunteered his services as an ambassador for this year’s Record Store Day. This April 17th, music fans are encouraged to visit their local indie record store to feast on the rarities and gems to be found there, including various in-store appearances and special one-off releases only available in participating stores on the day itself. On video, which is both frequently hilarious and rabble-rousing, Homme delivers, “Indie record stores are a hotbed of discovery — and bacteria — for music lovers both young and old, filled with aisles and aisles of hot and tasty gems, imports, picture discs … all to help you develop that sense of individuality as you come to that age where it’s time to discover your own theme music.” Continuing, “There’s only two ingredients necessary on Independant Record Store Day: that’s you and the independent record store. Put those ingredients together and give yourself and your loved ones the ‘eargasm’ you deserve.” As someone who slaved thanklessly for several years at well below minimum wage in a small record store, I salute you, sir!
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Billy Corgan to Pay Homage to Indie Record Store Amoeba
03.22.10
The new incarnation of The Smashing Pumpkins, aka Billy Corgan and a bunch of guys standing around as he plays his songs (Oh wait… wasn’t that Zwan?), are back to pay homage to indie-record store Amoeba. And what better way than to play a gig at Los Angeles’ Amoeba – which anyone who’s been there will tell you – basically feels like being in a supermarket? Says Corgan in a statement, who will appear solo at the store on Record Store Day, April 17th, “I used to work at an indie record shop so I’ll always have a soft spot for the places where I still go to find the most vital music, whether new or still hidden”. Fans of the band not living in L.A. are also being lured to indie stores on April 17th with the promise of a collector’s edition black light poster from the band. The first 250 fans who pre-order the group’s new, limited-edition EP, Teargarden by Kaleidyscope Vol 1: Songs for a Sailor, at Amoeba Music in Los Angeles will be given a wristband providing entry into an exclusive gig at Space 15 Twenty.
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Modest Mouse Re-Release The Moon & Antartica on Vinyl
03.17.10
Modest Mouse’s classic The Moon & Antartica figures easily in any top rock records of the 2000s list. And for that reason, it’s pretty handy news that the Pacific-Northwesterners are re-releasing it on vinyl for (in which format it has been long out of print) this April 17th, in honor of both its 10th anniversary and this year’s Record Store Day. The jams have been remastered using the band’s preferred 2004 master, but with the original tracklisting, and apparently with the original sleeve design too. The extras on the expanded edition also won’t be there either, but, you know, you can’t have everything in life can you?
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Fucked Up to Release Eleven 7”s with Ten Different Covers for Record Store Day
02.16.10
Record Store Day 2010 is nigh, and on April 17th, the music community will show its appreciation to the independent record stores that gave us our first taste of bands we couldn’t see on the TV or hear on the radio while growing up. Think of it as the Mother’s Day for indie record stores, because on this day each year, bands do something special to show their appreciation like releasing limited edition records and goodies for sale only in select stores. This year, Toronto hardcore band Fucked Up, who claim to have released more than thirty five 7” records in their time, have announced via their blog that they’re to release a whole load more. Eleven different versions of the same 7” with ten different covers, to be exact, the art for each being sent to the band by the ten stores they’ve decided to pay tribute to. The music on said historic artifacts will include three songs from the band’s Daytrotter Session, Magic Word and David Comes to Life (both included on the Couple Tracks comp) as well as Crooked Head. So, if you want to get your mitts on all eleven of these suckers, you’re going to have to find a way to get the following stores to send them to you (presuming you don’t plan on visiting them all on the day by helicopter or something…): Wax Trax in Denver, Waterloo Records in Austin, Spiral Scratch in Buffalo, Speakertree in Lynchburg, Lunchbox in Charlotte, Grimey’s in Nashville, Generation in New York, Fingerprints in Long Beach, Disc Exchange in Knoxville, and CD Alley in Chapel Hill.
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The Beatles Offering USB Drive Chock-O-Block Full Of Tunes
11.05.09
Pony up $279.99 at The Beatles’ online store on December 7th (in the UK) or 8th (over here in North America); just in time for Christmas, you’ll receive an apple shaped USB drive with September’s Beatles reissues. Apple Corps and EMI have put their heads together on this one to bring us all 14 reissued albums, as well 13 mini-docs about the releases. There will only be 30,000 of these guys out there, so if you’re interested, move quickly… If this is not your idea of the perfect gift, there is always the vinyl option. On November 7th, a limited edition box set commemorating the 40th anniversary of Abbey Road is being released by the good people of Record Store Day fame. The vinyl comes with a T-shirt and poster, emblazoned with the cover of the Come Together/Something single. There are only 5000 of these out there, and word is they are only going to be made available to the indie record stores of discerning taste…
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Have You Hugged Your Neighborhood Record Store Today?
04.18.09
Today is record store day! April 18th 2009 marks this second annual event, the day when independent record stores come together to celebrate their long lasting unique culture. Since Metallica officially kicked off record store day in 2008 an excited buzz has filled music communities in anticipation of 2009’s festivities. Private performances, rare album releases, special swag for the connoisseur and vinyl as far as the eye can see are only some of the attributes that this fine day boasts. This year shoppers can get their hands on rare today only releases of Pavement Live in Germany 1988 LP, Sonic Youth/Beck Split 7-inch, some Tom Waits goodies and piles of more RSD specials. These are the shops that made music accessible to the public before Internet was available and before the corporate platforms gobbled up the market. So freeze… Step away from your computer… Look away from the download button… Go to your favorite record store… NOW!
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