Record Store Day 2015 (April 18)
There is probably no quote that describes the magic of record stores better than Penny Lane’s from the 2000 movie Almost Famous.
A record store is so much more than just a place that sells music. It gives one a good vibe every time you enter it, it is a place to socialize, a place to talk music, a place to live music. You can enter a store in a bad mood and you will leave it in a good one – guaranteed. Record stores breathe music in every moment and every store has its one story which is worth being told (but to this I will come another time).
Record Store Day is the official annual event which is dedicated to the celebration of independent record stores all around the globe the third Saturday every April. Last Saturday, on April 18, 2015, it took place for the already 8th time and as always it was a day that will stay in my mind.
Last year I was a Record Store Day tourist and spent it on the road from Boston to New York City before hitting the famous and fabulous “Generation Records” and “Bleecker Street Records” in the West Village. This was an absolutely fantastic and mind-blowing experience, but also this year I knew that Record Store Day 2015 – back in my hometown Vienna, Austria – would not be less exciting.
The agenda for this day was not very complex. Pay my three favorite record stores in town – “Recordbag”, “Substance” and “Rave Up Records” a visit, listen to some live music there, acquire some good LPs and spend a great day with some other music passionados (and enjoy a couple drinks together).
After a short night, I made it to “Recordbag” at 9am. The queue outside that was waiting to be the first ones to get some of the highly popular exclusive Record Store Day releases was already insanely long. I managed to make it pass the people and into the store, where the first band of the day was about to perform a short gig in the backroom. The Austrian-American collective Nowhere Train presented their newly – on Recordbag’s own label – released album Tape. It was the perfect way to start the morning. Nowhere Train plays fresh, uncomplicated country rock songs that could easily be straight from Albuquerque, as well. Their Americana sound reminds very much of bands like the fantastic Richmond Fontaine or the Avett Brothers. It was a great atmosphere that I witnessed. People were sitting on the floor or were leaning against the wall, while the owners had coffee and pie provided. And everyone enjoyed great music, either by watching the band directly, or by queuing for the releases or by rummaging in the range of vinyls in the store itself.
Nowhere Train played for a bit over an hour and after the gig it was time for me to look around for LPs to enlarge my own collection. I eventually ended up with the new Jon Spencer Blues Explosion issue Freedom Tower, Alabama Shakes’ Sound & Color that just came out a day earlier, Great Lake Swimmer’s 2009 record Lost Channels and – I have to admit that I could not resist, but the band is fantastic – the 2012 album Shields by Grizzly Bear.
After having the spent the first of many Euros at Recordbag, it was time for a breakfast only to come back later to meet some friends that had made their way to the store by then, as well. They were friendly enough to hold a place in the queue for me, because it was now time to have a look at the special releases. A list of those issues was passed around outside the store and after some consideration time, I decided that I would be going for the Midlake Live in Denton, TX LP.
Before heading over to “Substance” – the second record store on the list – we stopped by a bar called “Voodoo” to enjoy some afternoon pivos, talk music and reflect our first record store visit of the day. At some point, we ended up discussing about Townes Van Zandt and somehow I set my mind to not going home until I added a Van Zandt record to my purchases. Funnily enough, there was also the possibility to buy some second hand records at this bar. They had them in two big boxes for sale and when flipping through them, I found Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon. I suddenly realized that I did not possess any Pink Floyd vinyl at all and thus could not help but buying it for a very reasonable price.
As mentioned before, “Substance” in the 7th district of Vienna, was our next stop. Beside their focus on independent and alternative rock music, they also have a decent variety of electronic music and a big collection of both new and second hand singles. At Substance I decided to go for Folklore by the astonishing Sixteen Horsepower, last year’s ablum Till Midnight by Chuck Ragan, The Demonstration of the Craws by James Yorkston and We Used To think The Freeway Sounded Like A River by already mentioned Richmond Fontaine. What I feared before was already happening at the second record store; that it was going to be a very expensive day.
It was already late afternoon by the time we arrived at our last stop for the day – “Rave Up Records”. This store in Vienna’s 6th district is already an institution in the city and will become 28 years young in September. As a special offer they granted a 10% discount on all products that were to be bought on Record Store Day. And there, next to a couple Tom Waits live albums (Tom Waits is never a bad idea) and the fantastic Jim White vs The Packway Handle Band recording Take It Like A Man, I finally purchased my Townes Van Zandt LP. It turned out to be the 1969 album Our Mother The Mountain and I can already reveal that this acquisition has totally been worth it.
This fantastic day ended at my local pub – Johnny’s. We had some more beers and talked about music, about the stuff that we bought and about how much we were looking forward to listening to our treasures. The only disappointing thing about this day was that I was unable to find the record Pleased To Meet Me by the English punk band The Replacements, an album that I have always wanted to possess in vinyl.
I spent the whole Sunday doing so and I am still doing it while I am writing these lines and I love every moment of it. There is no better sound on this planet than the sound of the needle hitting the record. These few seconds of silence, when you hear nothing but the scratching noise of the vinyl spinning beneath the needle before the music starts going off cannot be compared to anything else. I am far away from having listened to all the albums I bought, but until now the Jim White and the 16 Horsepower recordings stand out.
In the end, I would like to mention one more time, what a huge impact record stores have had to my life. They not only provide me with the music that I love, but as absurdly as it might sound, they have always been there for me, when I needed them. Record Store Day is a great way to support them. There is nothing wrong with listening to music via tools like Spotify or Youtube – I use them too – but please keep going to record stores. There is not much more joy than going through boxes of old or new LPs and single and finding some treasures and rarities you would have never thought that they still existed. Record stores are also – next to magazines and my Dad – my biggest inspiration for music. I cannot count how many times I discovered a new fantastic band, just because I heard them being played in the shop or because of talking to the owners.
So, in this spirit, keep the music spinning! I am already looking forward to my next visit at a record store and of course to the third Sunday in April 2016, when Record Store Day will take place yet again. Only 361 days left!
Purchases at RSD 2015 (in no particular order):
Jim White vs The Packway Handle Band - Take It Like A Man
Sixteen Horsepower - Folklore
Townes Van Zandt - Our Mother The Mountain
Nowhere Train - Tape
Midlake - Live in Denton, TX
Tom Waits - Virginia Avenue (Live in Ivanhoe Theatre, Chicago – November 21, 1976)
Tom Waits - On the Scene ’73 (KPFK Folk Scene Broadcast)
Tom Waits - Blood Money
Alabama Shakes - Sound & Color
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Freedom Tower (No Wave Dance Party 2015)
Great Lake Swimmers - Lost Channels
Grizzly Bear - Shields
Pink Floyd - Dark Side Of The Moon
Chuck Ragan - Till Midnight
James Yorkston - The Demonstration Of The Craws
Richmond Fontaine - We Used To Think The Freeway Sounded Like A River (14 songs written around and about the Pacific Northwest)
Frank Fairfield - Duncan & Brady 7''
Record Store Day
Nowhere Train
Recordbag
Substance
Rave Up Records
Generation Records
Bleecker Street Records
A record store is so much more than just a place that sells music. It gives one a good vibe every time you enter it, it is a place to socialize, a place to talk music, a place to live music. You can enter a store in a bad mood and you will leave it in a good one – guaranteed. Record stores breathe music in every moment and every store has its one story which is worth being told (but to this I will come another time).
Record Store Day is the official annual event which is dedicated to the celebration of independent record stores all around the globe the third Saturday every April. Last Saturday, on April 18, 2015, it took place for the already 8th time and as always it was a day that will stay in my mind.
Last year I was a Record Store Day tourist and spent it on the road from Boston to New York City before hitting the famous and fabulous “Generation Records” and “Bleecker Street Records” in the West Village. This was an absolutely fantastic and mind-blowing experience, but also this year I knew that Record Store Day 2015 – back in my hometown Vienna, Austria – would not be less exciting.
The agenda for this day was not very complex. Pay my three favorite record stores in town – “Recordbag”, “Substance” and “Rave Up Records” a visit, listen to some live music there, acquire some good LPs and spend a great day with some other music passionados (and enjoy a couple drinks together).
After a short night, I made it to “Recordbag” at 9am. The queue outside that was waiting to be the first ones to get some of the highly popular exclusive Record Store Day releases was already insanely long. I managed to make it pass the people and into the store, where the first band of the day was about to perform a short gig in the backroom. The Austrian-American collective Nowhere Train presented their newly – on Recordbag’s own label – released album Tape. It was the perfect way to start the morning. Nowhere Train plays fresh, uncomplicated country rock songs that could easily be straight from Albuquerque, as well. Their Americana sound reminds very much of bands like the fantastic Richmond Fontaine or the Avett Brothers. It was a great atmosphere that I witnessed. People were sitting on the floor or were leaning against the wall, while the owners had coffee and pie provided. And everyone enjoyed great music, either by watching the band directly, or by queuing for the releases or by rummaging in the range of vinyls in the store itself.
Nowhere Train played for a bit over an hour and after the gig it was time for me to look around for LPs to enlarge my own collection. I eventually ended up with the new Jon Spencer Blues Explosion issue Freedom Tower, Alabama Shakes’ Sound & Color that just came out a day earlier, Great Lake Swimmer’s 2009 record Lost Channels and – I have to admit that I could not resist, but the band is fantastic – the 2012 album Shields by Grizzly Bear.
After having the spent the first of many Euros at Recordbag, it was time for a breakfast only to come back later to meet some friends that had made their way to the store by then, as well. They were friendly enough to hold a place in the queue for me, because it was now time to have a look at the special releases. A list of those issues was passed around outside the store and after some consideration time, I decided that I would be going for the Midlake Live in Denton, TX LP.
Before heading over to “Substance” – the second record store on the list – we stopped by a bar called “Voodoo” to enjoy some afternoon pivos, talk music and reflect our first record store visit of the day. At some point, we ended up discussing about Townes Van Zandt and somehow I set my mind to not going home until I added a Van Zandt record to my purchases. Funnily enough, there was also the possibility to buy some second hand records at this bar. They had them in two big boxes for sale and when flipping through them, I found Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon. I suddenly realized that I did not possess any Pink Floyd vinyl at all and thus could not help but buying it for a very reasonable price.
As mentioned before, “Substance” in the 7th district of Vienna, was our next stop. Beside their focus on independent and alternative rock music, they also have a decent variety of electronic music and a big collection of both new and second hand singles. At Substance I decided to go for Folklore by the astonishing Sixteen Horsepower, last year’s ablum Till Midnight by Chuck Ragan, The Demonstration of the Craws by James Yorkston and We Used To think The Freeway Sounded Like A River by already mentioned Richmond Fontaine. What I feared before was already happening at the second record store; that it was going to be a very expensive day.
It was already late afternoon by the time we arrived at our last stop for the day – “Rave Up Records”. This store in Vienna’s 6th district is already an institution in the city and will become 28 years young in September. As a special offer they granted a 10% discount on all products that were to be bought on Record Store Day. And there, next to a couple Tom Waits live albums (Tom Waits is never a bad idea) and the fantastic Jim White vs The Packway Handle Band recording Take It Like A Man, I finally purchased my Townes Van Zandt LP. It turned out to be the 1969 album Our Mother The Mountain and I can already reveal that this acquisition has totally been worth it.
This fantastic day ended at my local pub – Johnny’s. We had some more beers and talked about music, about the stuff that we bought and about how much we were looking forward to listening to our treasures. The only disappointing thing about this day was that I was unable to find the record Pleased To Meet Me by the English punk band The Replacements, an album that I have always wanted to possess in vinyl.
I spent the whole Sunday doing so and I am still doing it while I am writing these lines and I love every moment of it. There is no better sound on this planet than the sound of the needle hitting the record. These few seconds of silence, when you hear nothing but the scratching noise of the vinyl spinning beneath the needle before the music starts going off cannot be compared to anything else. I am far away from having listened to all the albums I bought, but until now the Jim White and the 16 Horsepower recordings stand out.
In the end, I would like to mention one more time, what a huge impact record stores have had to my life. They not only provide me with the music that I love, but as absurdly as it might sound, they have always been there for me, when I needed them. Record Store Day is a great way to support them. There is nothing wrong with listening to music via tools like Spotify or Youtube – I use them too – but please keep going to record stores. There is not much more joy than going through boxes of old or new LPs and single and finding some treasures and rarities you would have never thought that they still existed. Record stores are also – next to magazines and my Dad – my biggest inspiration for music. I cannot count how many times I discovered a new fantastic band, just because I heard them being played in the shop or because of talking to the owners.
So, in this spirit, keep the music spinning! I am already looking forward to my next visit at a record store and of course to the third Sunday in April 2016, when Record Store Day will take place yet again. Only 361 days left!
Purchases at RSD 2015 (in no particular order):
Jim White vs The Packway Handle Band - Take It Like A Man
Sixteen Horsepower - Folklore
Townes Van Zandt - Our Mother The Mountain
Nowhere Train - Tape
Midlake - Live in Denton, TX
Tom Waits - Virginia Avenue (Live in Ivanhoe Theatre, Chicago – November 21, 1976)
Tom Waits - On the Scene ’73 (KPFK Folk Scene Broadcast)
Tom Waits - Blood Money
Alabama Shakes - Sound & Color
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Freedom Tower (No Wave Dance Party 2015)
Great Lake Swimmers - Lost Channels
Grizzly Bear - Shields
Pink Floyd - Dark Side Of The Moon
Chuck Ragan - Till Midnight
James Yorkston - The Demonstration Of The Craws
Richmond Fontaine - We Used To Think The Freeway Sounded Like A River (14 songs written around and about the Pacific Northwest)
Frank Fairfield - Duncan & Brady 7''
Record Store Day
Nowhere Train
Recordbag
Substance
Rave Up Records
Generation Records
Bleecker Street Records