If you are still fortunate enough to have a real record store in your neighborhood, city, town, burg, whatever, please make a point to stop by it tomorrow and give thanks. And maybe even buy a record. I mean, with 200 or so titles being released tomorrow, you should be able to find something, no? And most of the stores will have all kindsa things on hand to help celebrate – bands playing, a dj spinning, a record swap happening in the parking lot, food trucks close-by, you’ll want for nothing while you’re there. Ideally, that is.

So, I am not even going to try to sell you something today. Rather, I encourage you to actually leave the house and go into  physical record store (where available) and soak in what it was that made you passionate about music in the first place. And interact with the others around you that share that same indescribable joy. You’ll be glad you did. Or, at least, the owner of that record store will be glad you did.

I would like to leave you with two quotes on the RSD site, the first of which was posted by my good freind Steven King on his FB page earlier this morning…

Do yourself a tremendous favour and go to a record store today. The relatively mild exertion of getting off your fat, computer-shackled ass and venturing out to find the object of your desire, the thrill of moving through actual space and time, through row upon row of records, and the tactile ecstasy of fondling the quested treasure-all this will augment and enrich the mental associations the music invokes in you for the rest of your life.” – Grinderman

Man, I love that quote. Pefect. The second, and decidedly different, is courtesy of Slug from Atmosphere. You won’t see me quoting Slug often, if for no other reason that he usually resides well off my radar. But this is pretty great…

“I grew up in independent record stores. As a teenager, I would hang out in them, looking at records, learning about records. Eventually I spent my twentysomethings working behind the counters of two of the more prominent indie stores in my city. Graduated from that to co-owning one. So I’m sort of biased, I guess. If I were to make a list of the traits that make the indie store a vital part of the music industries movement, this blurb would be too long. So I will stick to two basic points: 1. breaking new bands. 2. Great place to meet awesome women. Don’t need to go any further than that. In fact, looking back, I can’t really come up with anything negative to say about indie stores. Well, except that the indie store is what made me a music snob. And honestly, I’m even thankful for that.” – Sean aka Slug (Atmosphere)

Yep. If it wasn’t for record stores, I would have never met my wife. We worked for the same record chain way back in the day, and actually first met at a Record Bar conference, when we were both store managers, in different states. A year later, I found myself moving from Florida in North Carolina, and we’ve been blissfully together ever since. Like, umm, 30 years now? So yeah, maybe a handful of non-blissful moments. But my point is this – without record stores, my life would have been dramatically altered. And not for the good. So, thank you, music. Thank you, record stores. And thank you, Michelle.

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record store day

April 15, 2011

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