National Record Store Day

we talk shit quietly tho

I imagine your neckbeards muffle a lot of the snider remarks.

all 7 of them. the neckbeards that is.

I was planning to go to Sound Exchange in Houston, even though Cactus made it into the paper for the promotion.

I will buy a 45 or a 2dollar bin record and let them know they should be grateful for my contribution.

Or maybe I will spend 80 bucks on some cool shit.

I might do both.

I need one of my turntables fixed, and they do that.

Later on, after the fights are over, I will go on the other board I post and harass my friends to get off their ass.

also, Houston, library sale this weekend.

If you want any of this stuff, go NOW! I got to Waterloo Records two minutes before it opened and the line just started to wind around the building. Dude in front of me bought two of the Springsteen single. A gal walking by was carrying about ten (10!!) copies of THIS LP CRASHES HARD DRIVES. And so on. Still, I managed to get everything I wanted and then some (from three different stores):

Blitzen Trapper "War is Placebo/Booksmart" 7"
Slayer 7" single "Psychopathy Red" packaged in special X-Files-style, "confidential" packaging
Sonic Youth/Beck split 7" split 7" (RSD exclusive)
Sonic Youth/Jay Reatard split 7" split 7" (RSD exclusive)
Various Artists--THIS LP CRASHES HARD DRIVES
Various artists Records Toreism

Plus I got a mystery box of singles for $4.99 (20% cuz of NRSD), the new Marianne Faithfull, and Spellman's Four Lives in the Bebop Business.

The Neil Young and CSNY records are $65 a piece!!

(20% cuz of NRSD)

20% OFF...most;y crap and w/o sleeves but purchased in the spirit of the occasion.

I got the two SY 7"s which I basically assumed would be impossible to find even tho I asked for them in advance - so pretty pleased tbf

I decided not to bother with Record Store Day. I buy loads of records, in record stores, so I am not part of the problem.

I went into Rounder and Resident and Borderline in Brighton, but they were mostly oppressively full so I had to extricate myself. Also I had no money to spend. But yeah, good to see some interesting in-store stuff going on and people being reminded to use or lose.

I buy loads of records in thrift stores and garage sales, so maybe I am part of the problem. Usually they are way cheaper and more interesting in those places. But I'm still not partaking in this event today. Maybe that makes me lame. Independent stores deserve to survive, and I hope setting aside a special day for them pulls lots of young kids into the habit -- especially kids pointlessly addicted to getting music the day it comes out, a habit that has never made any sense to me. But braving the crowds seems silly. And I've never been somebody to buy records just because they're rare -- especially when they're created for the sole purpose of their rarity. Seems artificial to me somehow, and none of the records above strike me as all that inticing. (I thought something similar when baseball card companies got self-conscious about their collectibility, and it bugged me then, too. Not that it's especially anything new with record labels -- see also: SubPop Singles Club or whatever.) Anyway, more power to the stores -- whatever pulls in customers. I hope they all make tons of money. A friend of mine who runs a store in Philly said Record Store Day last year was his best day in years, and I hope this year he doesn't even better.

Just out of curiosity, though, what kind of exorbidant prices are those exclusive sucker-bait 7"s above going for?

I picked up the New Order and Stooges for $7.99 each, and the Camera Obscura for $6.99. This at Mad Platter in Riverside, CA.

Shit, they had the New Order? I just called Sonic Boom and Easy Street and neither of them have the New Order.

They must have had >10 there. I picked up the only Camera Obscura, tho.

yeah nobody here in Eugene has the New Order, they heard it was delayed.

I got both Sonic Youth singles for $5 each, the Def Jam 4LP for $15 (!!!), and then I also picked up a Kurt Vile LP on Mexican Summer since it was on sale. 12 bucks!

also got the Dengue Fever/Chicha Libre split single, 5 bucks as well.

if any kind soul wants to pick me up a copy of This LP Crashes Hard Drives I will reimburse you and sing your praises. Neither of my local stores had it.

Just saw the tracklisting for the Def Jam set, I may have to go back for it!

I got that big Black Sabbath box set for 35 bucks today at Newbury Comics in Cambridge...

^ which Newbury Comics? the Fresh Pond one's vinyl selection is pitiful. nothing for me to buy.

had a good time! my "home base" store Roadrunner was grilling out in back and had coolers of beer....couple hot dogs were great!

i didn't really go in for any of the crazy exclusive shit, most of that was already sold out anyway.

i did get the Arthur Russel "Love Is Overtaking Me" vinyl but I wanted that anyway. Didn't see the Def Jam thing or would have gotten that...The Sonic Youth/Reatard single is going to be crazy Ebay bait, so many dudes looking for that.

but I got some great used vinyl, good day:

Leo Koettke - 6 and 12 String Guitar (orig on Takoma)

Rod Stewart - The Rod Stewart Album

The Groundhogs - Who Will Save The World? (gatefold)

Gaunt - I Can See Your Mom From Here (only a buck!)

John Kongos - Kongos

on sale. 12 bucks!

Wow. I'm speechless.

(also the stores i went to were PACKED and everyone was having a lot of fun so i guess this day has worked out pretty well for them)

xxxpost Harvard Square

which was also packed, lots of vinyl flying off the shelves...

Some kids are losing their vinyl cherries today..

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3588/3453389766_caf408f709.jpg

I buy loads of records in thrift stores and garage sales, so maybe I am part of the problem. Usually they are way cheaper and more interesting in those places.

Yeah...kinda my problem too. Looking at the list up there, and, Arthur Russell apart there's not a whole lot i would want - it's all very white and young. Thing is, I'd bet it's guys like me that spend most on records now - middle aged, not all that interested in new stuff necessarily. What killed going to record stores for me was the CD - I just never got that excited about buying them, so when Vinyl started appearing in quantities in charity shops, and then on the 'bay, that's where my purchasing went.

Wow. I'm speechless.

it's $31 on eBay right now with 4 hours left, so I'd say that's a good deal. Enjoy your dollar records.

We had a really really great day at the shop I work at - loads of bands and artists playing all afternoon, loads of interest generated by the day itself and by the exclusive releases, most of which sold well. It was a wonderful party atmosphere and majorly busy all day long. Great fun and inspiring for our continued survival.

"Wow. I'm speechless."

Wow you are a dick.

Oh yeah, our 7''s were/are £3.99 for the most part.

did you get the jesus lizard thing in, alex?

Not yet. A bunch of things were delayed shipping so won't be with us until Monday (SY 7''s in particular). Not sure how many we'll get though, will have to wait and see...

if you do get the jesus lizard Inch in can you keep me one and PM me over on DFFD and i'll come in and get it?

I'll see what I can do, but no promises, I'm afraid. It's looking like, following Rough Trade's example, we could well be holding raffles for the really high demand items, as it's looking like we could only get a ridiculously small number (like 2 or 3 of each) and a hella lotta interest. I can put your name down for raffle entry for sure and will defn. keep you posted on how things pan out.

Yeah man that would be fine, thanks!

Kurt Vile LP on Mexican Summer since it was on sale. 12 bucks!

^^ love this record, and it's hard to find now so yeah.

also, we sold out of all the record store day exclusives within 45 minutes of opening. the only thing we have left is the Arthur Russell double LP (and it's great.)

also we had a bbq but all the food is gone--on to the beer drinking portion of the event...

'bout to head over to other music to wait in line for the Bill Callahan performance. Picked up the Records Toreism LP on Thrill Jockey along with the Pavement LP, the SY 7"s and the Akron/Family single earlier, too, and most of it is really good! I think the Records Toreism comp is probably the best of the lot, although the live Pavement album is really badass too.

I hear what xhuxk is saying. Collector bait is gross and a good half of the folks seemed to be grabbing at it for investment purposes (such as they are). But how else are the stores going to entice The People? Not with dollar records (now, penny records...). And is $12 really all that shocking?

The crowds were bad only at Waterloo but it's easy to wade through record geeks (and oh yeah, they had two copies of the New Order single).

Fwiw, I bought bands I love (and admire in the case of Slayer but the sleeve is nifty) and music I didn't already own. And I bought those various artist LPs for the accompanying zines as much as the music. Most of it was resistible, though. The Pitchfork review is hilarious cuz nothing is highly recommended.

Please tell me that child's first LP is NOT Vangelis ...

I just bought the Smiths single but the quality of the print on the sleeve is terrible.

i spent a hundred buxx today on records, but i bought them at an antique store.

i thought i might be able to open my little store by today, but real life intruded. the space we were in - that was pretty cheap - turned out to be too cheap. there are several cheap apartments above it, and one day some dude's toilet overflowed in his bathroom upstairs and it totally came raining down thru the ceiling into our store and on our stuff! ewwwww. luckily, there wasn't a ton of damage, but some records got wet and we promptly starting looking for another space. and we found a great one. right on main street. and it's bigger. and it has a huuuuuge DRY basement for storage. so, we are moving our stuff there at the end of this month. we feel like we dodged a bullet. our landlords at the old space didn't even care that toilet water had come raining down into our store. our new landlord is spending thousands of bucks renovating before we move in. we're excited.

Went to Music Saves in Cleveland, picked up the Pavement LP, the Sonic Youth 7"s, Camera Obscura, Jenny Lewis, and the Beastie's "Paul's Boutique" remaster on 180g vinyl, plus Black Keys and Blitzen Trapper for a friend of mine. Seemed like nobody there was buying the Jesus Lizard, but lots were buying the Stooges.

went to 1-2-3-4-GO! records in oakland, got the pavement LP (colored edition! 1/95 total! total luck.), the jesus lizard 7"s, the obits 7", the arthur russell LPs (on now, so good!), the sonik youth splits (both sonic youth songs are ehhh, jay r and beck sides are v v good). gf got camera obscura and a pavement LP, then we hit down at lulu's, i got charles manson's LIE, the kinks' VGPS, surfer rosa, and one of those golden triangle 7"s. then our friend's car broke down. :( then we walked into berkeley and hit half-price books, and i got god bless the kinks, some random 1987 sleeping bag records 12" for 25 cents, and a book abt african music by francis bebey.

great day!

sick haul.

seems like the Pavement thing was THEEE vaunted item of the day. everything else could pretty much be easily found, at least here in Chi-town. but, whoo, that Pavement LP --- the folks wanted that one!

also, LOL, Kevin wasn't kidding --- Neil Young 2LP for 63 bucks!! uh, no thanks!

I still dropped like 300 bucks ( to be fair this also included time at a RECORD FAIR, with DEALERS and so forth ... but also totally my indie shop peeps)

i think it's a pretty rad event. and xhuxk, c'mon man, be real.

fun day. arrived when the store opened, bought fever ray vinyl & jesus lizard singles, store owners saved me a jay reatard/SY and then gave it to me, received huge grab bag full of various samplers and singles they were giving out, played some music, ate a bunch of pizza, and hung out the rest of day w/ friends while various other local bands played. A+ day. also bought 10 albums in the 50 cent bin that looked semi-promising. heard the bjork album but only a couple tracks from the others

AMP - astralmoonbeamprojections (awesome cover, KRANKY records)
the juan mclean - give me every little thing 12" w/ a bunch of remixes
the curse of singapore sling
bjork - debut
be your own pet - s/t
the geraldine fibbers - butch
a-frames - black forest
the third eye foundation - ghost
the stills - oceans will rise
wharton tiers - brighter than life

Scriabin - Complete Etudes, Piers Lane
Twelve Songs by Charles Ives - Theo Bleckmann & Kneebody (arrangements w/ computers & a Rhodes, should be interesting)
Charles Ives - The Three Orchestral Sets
Conrad Schnitzler - Context
Max Morath plays The Best of Scott Joplin
Kick that Habit DVD - Sound Movie by Peter Liechti w/ Voice Crack

Ameoba was hoppin' today

Milton, man, I really want to see that Voice Crack thing .. was it discounted at all? I mean, I will surely buy it eventually .. just curious if there was a 'record store day' deal. The one time I saw Voice Crack remains one of those top 20 or 25 shows :)

what's the deal w/ the Joplin thing? He supposed to be a good interpreter?

$10 used promo copy but it's going for $16 new just about everywhere... I've seen it before, it is one amazing DVD, I envy you getting to actually see them

my favorite Joplin is the Rifkin because that's the one I grew up with, but I'm looking for other performances and the Morath was repped by a friend. it's aiming for period arrangements, piano banjo & guitar, more lively than Rifkin who plays him like spacey Bach I'm loving it so far.

not gonna camp out but I'm guessing/hoping the stuff I want won't be too in demand...the Beefheart and Gong records are pretty hard to find used. the live XTC one is probably gonna be great too. Ween will probably sell out to the campers as it always does. I think there's a reissue of The Orb's Bicycles and Tricycles too, dunno if US stores will get it but I'll probably snag a copy of that when I can

engaged with this for the first time last year to grab the PIL album (good)

was tempted by the SY (partly curious to see if “my” diamond sea is on there) but couldn’t see it on any local stores’ lists, kinda glad to be spared the hoo hah

will try to order the live Ween album tomorrow, nothing else I have to have

Got the SY Diamond Seas LP here in Finland. After one spin: this is no Grayfolded level awesomeness, seemed more like random overlaying of different takes of DS but the listening situation wasn't ideal so my evaluation might change when I can really concentrate on it.

I hear “national record store day” in my head to the tune of “national brotherhood week”by Tom Lehrer

xp listening now and sadly I agree

OK it's perking up now 6-7 minutes in

this was the first time I've been out for an RSD morning in many years, I got there 30 minutes early and the line was at least 150 people long already

Got the SY Diamond Seas LP here in Finland. After one spin: this is no Grayfolded level awesomeness, seemed more like random overlaying of different takes of DS but the listening situation wasn't ideal so my evaluation might change when I can really concentrate on it.

― jvc, Saturday, 18 April 2026 16:43 (one hour ago)

It is def more in the spirit of early SY tape fuckery a la Sonic Death not what I was expecting but found myself loving it by the end

I also grabbed the Cecil Taylor Unit triple, which is obv great & the Zeni Geva/Albini double which was charmingly filed under "G" and less charmingly had two copies of the Nai-HaLP instead of the live set.

grabbed Gong and XTC. put on the XTC record and holy hell, it sounds awful! it's not the pressing but the source, it sounds like an actual bootleg and not a good one. I'm shocked they released it. at least the Gong one sounds good.

I got there 30 minutes early

the first person in line at my local shop got there 3:15 pm on friday to wait til 10 am saturday

xxxp Sonic Death is a very good comparison point!

Had another round of Diamond Seas, this time on headphones which helped a lot as you can better appreciate the overlaying bits and discern the different textures of various recordings.

come talk here! I did a high volume listen on a good system but I bet it's rad on headphones

Time takes its crazy Poll... Sonic Youth: Washing Machine

I bobbed into Relevant in Cambridge mid-afternoon, just in case they still had Greg Wilson’s dub remix 12in of The Message/Rappers Delight. All 3 copies had gone, but their big hitter had been Slint, all 12 (ish) gone by 830am. By that time of the afternoon, there was more customer interest in the regular stock, from which I selected the 1970 Dorothy Ashby LP with the track that’s just won Music League.

<3 dorothy ashby

would've loved that mr bongo cuban box but the only record store i managed to visit today wasn't participating. bought a record of bird noises and some beautiful shakuhachi shit on lyrichord, both a quid

Crazy to read about hours of queuing. In Helsinki the RSD day was pretty chill. I walked into my local store at 4 PM, no waiting in line, some people browsing but no rush, two copies of Diamond Seas available. Got one, as well as the 2nd installment of the Metal Machine Music: Power to Consume record (where noise-adjacent artists provide a track in response to Reed's MMM).

I went to a record store near me around 10:45 AM, no line, a couple people in front of me browsing through the RSD selection, found what I was looking for, my daughter ran into another member of her Girl Scout troop and we were back in the car by 10:55.

I was in Mill Road a lot today too Mike, I did not go into Relevant because a swarm of record dealers queue up from midnight to grab anything of interest and sell it on discogs, every year.

I’ve had fun lining up a few hours early and chatting with the other dorks in line. I was a lot younger then.

I honored record store day by learning to solder and I fixed a technics 1300 I’ve had for years but it was unusable because of electrical problems THAT I FINALLY FIXED TODAY AFTER YEARS OF NOT PLAYING RECORDS AND MY WIFE IS OUT OF THE HOUSE AND I’M ROCKING THE FUCK OUT

That is great work.

u won the day

i walked by a mall shop, didn't notice anything interesting

NB am in another nation

Huge win Cow_Art!

First person to get in line at my local store did so at 12:30pm the day before. Not am, pm!

CAAL: it was a bit annoying at Relevant because you weren’t allowed to browse through the RSD stock; you could only read through the printed list of titles. It was a serendipitous impulse decision to visit; my mum lives about 15 minutes walk away. Then after she retired for the evening, we tried the Live And Let Live pub nearby, which turned out to be very much our sort of pub: proper backstreet boozer, good beer, would very happily have it as a local.

Yeah, i remember Windows in Newcastle (rip) having all the RSD stuff on a display behind the counter (regular stuff in the racks). Which meant you have to recognise the desirable item...

I smashed both sides of Diamond Seas together. Sounds pretty great that way, but it's even better hearing the opposing sides on different systems. Anyway: Enjoy!

ha I did the same!

debating whether to listen to that or whether it might spoiler my first listen of Diamond Seas, which should be arriving at my house soon

Listen to it on its own first. Interested to hear what you think.