2012 Record Store Day - NYC Events & Goodies!

 Saturday April 21st is Record Store Day for 2012, and that means plenty of live events at your local music shops as well as special vinyl releases. This year's RSD offerings include Bruce Springsteen "Rocky Ground," Iggy & the Stooges live at All Tomorrow's Parties, the David Bowie "Starman" picture disc, Grace Potter & The Nocturnals' "Live from the Legendary Sun Studios" CD & LP, and the Joey Ramone "Rock and Roll is the Answer" seven-inch.

And of course there's the much talked-about "Feistodon," a split seven-inch that features Feist covering a tune by metal band Mastodon on one side, and Mastodon covering Feist on the other. (Listen to Feist's Mastodon cover, "Black Tongue," here at Soundcloud.)

See the full Record Store Day release listing as a downloadable PDF or as a webpage.

Get ready for special vinyl releases galore at Record Store Day.

ScoutMob in New York lists its top five ways to celebrate Record Store Day in NYC. Among its choices (see websites for times, etc.):

• Generation Records in Greenwich Village has live music by The Paul Collins Beat (of The Nerves), Supertouch, and Joyce Manor (pop punk), as well as DJ sets by WFMU's Tom Scharpling and Three Chord Monte.
• Mates of State plays at Soundfix in Williamsburg, Brooklyn (7:30 p.m.)
• The Men perform at Other Music, where you'll also find Four Tet doing a DJ set

One of ScoutMob's choices deserves special attention, and that's J&R, NYC's huge (but still family owned) music/electronics complex. See the Record Store Day releases you'll find at J&R, and check out their live performances for Saturday, including:

• 12 Noon: Everest
• 1 p.m.: French musician Yann Tiersen
• 2 p.m.: Mike Doughty

J&R says it will have hundreds of RSD titles (some available for pre-order), including ...
Also, J&R will have a listening party for Jack White's new album "Blunderbuss"at 11 a.m.

Over in Jersey, Princeton Record Exchange will feature a performance by They Might Be Giants (in front of the town's public library) from 6 to 6:45 p.m., with record signing back at the store from around 7 to 8.

Also, see Paste Magazine's "21 Albums You Should Buy on Record Store Day" and its article "101 Musicians Discuss their Favorite Record Stores." And NPR Music weighs in with its "13 Reasons to Visit Your Local Record Store," surveying releases including the Iggy/Stooges offering, a Deerhoof/Of Montreal split seven-inch, and the T. Rex "Electric Warrior" seven-inch box set.

What are you doing for Record Store Day? Where will you be, and what special releases are you looking forward to picking up?

It's Record Store Day 2011! - Events, Special Releases, More - Sat., April 16th

Today the third Saturday in April, and that means one thing to music geeks: Record Store Day, the time for you to head out to your local independent music store (if you're lucky enough to still have one). As usual, there will be plenty of special vinyl releases as well as live events at many of the 700 or so indie music stores in the U.S. and hundreds of others worldwide.

At the Record Store Day website you can get the location of your local store(s), see what special RSD releases are available, and more. Some of the releases are available only on Record Store Day, others will be at additional stores in the future, and some will be sold only in certain stores or regions. (Note: The Beastie Boys had a single out to benefit the Red Cross Japan Relief Fund, but that now sold out before Noon.)

Besides the usual vinyl-gasm, Record Store Day will include live performances, giveaways, and more. (Find the full list of Record Store Day releases here.) And the RSD website has a number of contests in which you can win a variety of goodies. And as I mentioned last month the Foo Fighters will be driving around to different indie music stores in the white limousine used in their video, "White Limo."

If you're in the NYC area, check out Brooklyn Vegan's guide to Record Store Day events. Here are notes on a few releases and specials for your RSD enjoyment, as well as some random notes:
* Regina Spektor will perform at NYC's Other Music (but you had to be one of the first 100 people to buy her vinyl single there to get access, Brooklyn Vegan says). If you didn't make it, there will be a screening of Spektor's "Live in London" film at Lincoln Center tonight, along with "Sound It Out," a documentary about a record store in the northern English town of Teesside
* Lez Zeppelin, the all-female Led Zep cover band, appears at J&R Music World at 3 p.m. for an in-store performance and signing. J&R will also have a number of special releases including Nirvana's "Hormoaning" 12" EP, Pearl Jam's "Immortality" 7", and R.E.M.'s "First Three Singles From Collapse Into View"
* Utne Reader looks at some of the interesting collections, compilations, and collaborations among today's RSD releases, and offers free streams of the tracks from Sub Pop's collection, "Terminal Sales Vol. 4: Please to Enjoy"
* Bern and the Brights will perform an acoustic set at 4 p.m. at Tunes in Hoboken
* Joan Jett will have a clear-vinyl version of "I Love Rock N' Roll," to celebrate the album's 30th anniversary. See where to find it here
* Billboard looks at Record Store Day and how it has grown in its three years (2011 is the fourth year), and mentions some of the notable musicians who'll be out performing today

And, you can listen to Radiohead's exclusive Record Store Day 2011 songs here.

You can find the latest Record Store Day updates on Twitter at @recordstoreday.

It's looking like rainy weather here in the NYC area, but that won't deter me from visiting my local indie music store for Record Store Day 2011. Get out there and support your local independent music retailer (while it's still there)!

Vinyl Records Are Doing Just Fine, Thank You

Digital music sales are up and CD sales are down, but oddly enough vinyl LPs are holding their own in today's music market. The CBS Sunday Morning show did a segment on the resurgence of vinyl, interviewing two firms that press vinyl records (one of them in Brooklyn) and examining the factors leading to vinyl's success.

One of these factors is the perceived higher sound quality of a record over a CD or digital download. The retro appeal of vinyl could also be a factor, as well as the related desire for a physical record and even cover art and liner notes that are bigger than the shrunk-down CD inserts.

I wrote about the rebound in vinyl sales back in the summer, and the pace seems to have picked up since then, if anything. The Sunday Morning report mentioned that Amazon.com actually has a section of its online store devoted just to vinyl, even though the company also started selling digital download of music last year.

CD Sales Still Down, But Vinyl Rebounds

CD sales continue to fall, but there's actually a small bit of good news for the recording industry: people are buying more music in vinyl. Yes, you read that correctly, vinyl.

You would have thought that downloads killed the music star, but an article in the July 16 Guardian newspaper in the U.K. says that young music listeners have sparked a revival of the vinyl record. Sales have increased notably in the first half of 2007, and the boost is coming not from older listeners but from young music fans, many of them buying 7-inch singles.

The article says that two-thirds of all singles in the United Kingdom now are issued in the 7-inch format, with sales coming in at more than one million. The White Stripes' Icky Thump is the best seller.

Buyers apparently like the idea of having tangible copies of their music, rather than just a collection of thousands of songs on a hard drive, while music companies are attracted by putting out limited numbers of vinyl recordings that quickly become valuable collectors' items.