Them Crooked Vultures’ Joshua Homme, in a bizarre video, promotes RSD
Record Store Day is like Easter, Christmas and Valentine’s Day wrapped up into one day for people who love independent music and the experience of hanging out in an indie record store, meeting people, getting advice from the staff, discovering new music, and tripping down memory lane while flipping through record collections of almost every genre ever created.
For these folks, the hard-core loyalists of indie music culture, visits to the decreasing number of indie record stores are still an integral part of their lives, but the experience is simply not the same as it was years ago when towns and cities all across America has a multitude of locally-owned record stores, before the Walmarts, the Best Buys, and the Borders came in and slaughtered the soul, culture, landscape and local businesses of thousands of communities from Oregon to Florida, Kansas to Maine, and everywhere in between.
The documentary I Need That Record, from Unsatisfied Films (watch it below) is the best film we’ve ever seen about how the music culture and business, and the music itself, changed so radically in the past two to three decades.
Independent record stores, a symbol of American culture like baseball and apple pie, are an endangered institution across the United States. In I Need That Record, the producers do a terrific job of investigating, writing, interviewing and editing one chapter after another.
Record Store Day has become both a celebration of those largely bygone days, and a day to raise awareness and send out a call to action to music lovers to support the remaining indie record stores in a battle to keep these important landmarks of the American cultural landscape intact for years to come, and overseas as well. Record Store Day is also the one day of the year that collectors and fans can get releases never previously available on vinyl. (see the list below)
Thankfully, and yet ironically, the web has made it possible to spread information about the dirty deeds of the corporate record industry, and connect like-minded people who understand the importance of keeping the record industry in check, not to mention share music easily in an interactive forum. The web allows indie artists to easily distribute their music online themselves with little or no money required, thereby, actually allowing more artists to be truly independent than ever before.
The web has also permitted artists to instantly send news to their fans and provide new music, videos, tour schedules, personal information, updates and so on - a kind of engagement with their audience that was unheard of only 15 years ago. So, there are many good things about the web that benefit both the fans and the artists, including the ability to bypass the company or corporation that used to stay in the way, and unfortunately, part of the plague independent record stores have had to come to terms with, especially over the past decade.
“Zebra (UK edit)” - Beach House from Zebra Record Store Day 7-inch single
The web has made it possible for legit music downloaders to use a vast number of online stores to purchase music they want, eliminating the need to visit their local record store. The same phenomenon has affected small businesses from book stores to printing shops. For illegitimate downloaders of music, especially those people who pretty much get all of the music they want online through various pirate resources, they are one of the biggest enemy of indie record stores, and also make it more difficult for the artists they enjoy the most to make a decent living as musicians.
That is not to say that acquiring some music online free isn’t cool - especially when it is being given away by its creators - but there has to be some fair arrangement by which music lovers can buy music at a reasonable price, and hopefully do so more than a couple of times a year. Often without knowing it, frequent downloaders of illegit music who think they are “getting back” at the big, bad record corporations are actually hurting artists and indie record stores more than anyone else.
The documentary (above) is a must-see for devoted music lovers. Chapter by chapter, the film makers, in an informative and entertaining way, take you on a journey of the major shifts and changes in the music industry, the affect on indie record stores; pitting art vs. commerce; the corporate take-over of music distribution and indie radio stations; the bastardization of MTV; the vastly inflated and ridiculous cost of plastic discs (even at $9.99, the record companies would still make a killing on CDs); the ‘mall-ification’ of America; the negative, and slightly positive, effects of technology and the Internet on music; and the resurgence of vinyl.
The following is a list of each chapter in I Need That Music:
1) Intro 2) Opening Animation, 3) Art v. Commerce, 4) Radio Playola, 5) Telecom ‘96, 6) MTV Blues, 7) Schnaat House Records, 
Big Box, 9) CD Prices, 10) The Internet, 11) iPod Blues, 12)
Vinyl, 13) Ride into the Sun, End Credits
We strongly recommend watching this documentary from start to finish. By the time it’s over, you will know more about what has happened to music as an art form and as a business in the past three decades than some music writers. And to finish on a perfect note, the documentary’s end credits are set to The Kinks’ classic song, “I’m Not Like Everybody Else,” which was a brilliant choice by the producers because the lyrics and the intensity of the song, the declaration of personal choice, and so on, reflect the overall tone of the documentary itself.
The Kinks’ 1970 LP Lola vs. Powerman rips the music establishment
“I’m Not Like Everybody Else” - The Kinks (1966)
The decision of where the music art form and business will go in the years to come is ultimately up to you. The record industry is focused on short-term goals to satisfy investors, and instead of cultivating talented bands, being more user-friendly with their customers (or potential customers) and being less fixated on an outdated profit scheme, they remain unwilling to change. Even with the incredible drop of record (mostly CD) sales in the past decade, the industry still has the system rigged, promotes a bunch of crap music, and insists on selling a CD for $14-$18.
It appears the major record corporations strategy is basically kill, control, over-run, squeeze, seize and swindle any threat to their profit margins, without consideration to music as an art form. And that’s where they’ve screwed themselves, and many other people in the process. In the meantime, they are counting on millions of people “out there” to keep buying and consuming the constant flow of templated crap fed to them via the same corporations’ monopolized networks of radio, television, cable, and film.
For those reasons, and others, we rarely profile artists and bands from the Big Five (Sony, Universal, EMI, BMG, Capitol) major labels, instead preferring to stick mostly with artists from indie labels, and the hundreds of DIY and completely independent, unsigned artists that we love for who they are, and the what they create, and why they are regularly featured on IRC. The problem there, as Yoko Ono revealed in our interview with her on Thursday, is that “now they want a piece” of the indie movement, and have already created numerous “small” labels as shills because they know there is so much backlash against the corporate record labels by many music consumers.
Gogol Bordello’s one minute promo for Record Store Day 2010
- Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore talks about his first experiences with records as a teen, from I Need That Record documentary (watch above).
- Two Door Cinema Club talk about indie record stores and vinyl, among other things.
“Something Good Can Work” (The Twelves Remix) - Two Door Cinema Club
- The Smashing Pumpkin’s frontman Billy Corgan plays a rough home version of “Today” (interrupted by silly kids) in support of Record Store Day 2010.
- The legendary Solomon Burke gives a shout out to support indie record stores.
- The Whigs talk about the first albums they bought in a video short for Record Store Day 2010.
- Of Montreal talks last week with audience (1:05 to 1:45) in Tampa about supporting “dying breed” of indie stores by “buying some sh*t” from the Vinyl Fever record shop in Tampa after announcing the Tallahassee store had recently closed.
- Here’s another great video from the same show:
“Kill Me Carolyne” - The Whigs, new 2010 single
- Members of Valencia talk about their independent record store experiences as teens.
- Devo’s performance at 11:45pm PDT at Coachella will be webcasted live via Facebook
- Dead Confederate take viewers on a tour of indie record stores in Athens, GA
“Free The Rat” - Dead Confederate
- Mason Jennings gives props to independent record stores and Record Store Day and announces some limited editions of his own avaiable on April 17th.
- Dubmaster at Horizon Records gives a tour of the store as they celebrate 35 years in business; features music from Galactic and Albert King, plus many album covers.
- Check out RockItOutBlog coverage of Record Store Day.
- Paste Magazine’s selection of The 17 Coolest Record Stores in America
- A one-minute animated short about indie record stores and the iPod.
- Main Man Records is giving away a free compilation of 33 songs from each CD in their catalog, plus a sneak preview of Devo tribute LP.
- David Schools of Widespread Panic gives views a tour of the last independent record store in Santa Rosa, California.
- Will Sheff of Okkervil River, and Roky Erickson, plug their To Cast Out All Evil on Record Store Day.
- Carly Simon talks about the importance of independent record stores and sings a few verses.
Find your local indie record store using this map.
Music Releases especially geared for Record Store Day: Built to Spill, The Doors, The Flaming Lips, Devo, Phoenix and more
- The legendary Built to Spill will release a limited (2,500) 7-inch edition of the previously unreleased track “Watersleepers” with a live B-side.
- Holiday Shores release a split 7-inch vinyl with Surfer Blood. Also view Holiday Shores, an IRC Band to Watch, official video for “Phones Don’t Feud” from their terrific 2009 debut LP, Columbus’d The Whim.
“Phones Don’t Feud” - Holiday Shores
“Swim” - Surfer Blood
- The Doors‘ remaining members will release 2,500 copies of a special 7-inch vinyl of “People Are Strange” and “The Crystal Ship” to help promote their film biopic out now, When You Are Strange. See the trailer.
- The Deftones release exclusive, limited 7-inch of “Rocket Skates” and a M83 remix.
- The band fun release a limited edition deluxe double vinyl of Aim and Ignite, with embossed metallic gatefold jacket, etched picture disc plus the album CD.
“All The Pretty Girls” - fun from Aim and Ignite
- Devo will release Duty Now For the Future reissue on vinyl with a new 12-inch of their track “Fresh”
- The popular indie French band Phoenix (who we are seeing tonight in Santa Cruz, CA) talk about the importance of indie record stores.
In this video, a guy wearing a blue bowl on his head, reviews some of the 150 special releases targeted only for Record Store Day, including limited editions of John Lennon, The Beastie Boys, Bouncing Soul, Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs, Elvis Costello, and many more.
The following is a list of all of special vinyl and other releases, re-issues and more (compiled by Pitchfork) on Record Store Day, Saturday, April 17, 2010
The Album Leaf: There Is a Wind [Sub Pop]
Beach House: Zebra 12″ [Sub Pop]
Bloc Party: Silent Alarm [Wichita]
Bon Iver/Peter Gabriel: Split 7″ [Jagjaguwar]
Bright Eyes: Fevers and Mirrors [Wichita]
CocoRosie: “Lemonade” b/w “Surfer Girl” [Sub Pop]
Crystal Castles: “Doe Deer” 12″ [Fiction/Lies]
Deerhoof: Apple O’ [Kill Rock Stars] [vinyl reissue]
Deerhoof: Green Cosmos [Kill Rock Stars] [vinyl reissue]
Dum Dum Girls/Male Bonding: Split 7″ [Sub Pop]
Fela Kuti and His Africa 70: 10″ EP [Knitting Factory Records]
First Aid Kit/Peggy Sue: Split 7″ [Wichita]
The Flaming Lips/Stardeath and White Dwarfs: The Dark Side of the Moon [limited edition vinyl release]
Fucked Up: “Magic Word”, “Come to Life” and “Crooked Head” 7″ [Matador] [11 variant covers]
Happy Birthday: TBA 7″ [Sub Pop]
Modest Mouse: The Moon and Antarctica [Sony] [10th anniversary vinyl reissue]
The Mountain Goats: The Life of the World to Come [4AD] [DVD]
Pavement: Quarantine the Past [Matador] [Record Store Day exclusive track list]
Simian Mobile Disco: Attack Decay Sustain Release [Wichita]
Soundgarden: “Hunted Down” b/w “Nothing to Say” [Sub Pop]
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists: “The Oldest House”/”North Coast” 7″ [Matador]
The Thermals/Cribs: Split 7″ [Kill Rock Stars]
Various Artists: Casual Nostalgia Fest [Sub Pop]
Various Artists: Fragments From a Work in Progress [4AD]
Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Yeah Yeah Yeahs EP [Wichita]
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