Record Store Day 2011 – Reflections on Awesomeness

As you can see, things had died down a little

Allow me to paint a picture for you of a gray, dreary Saturday that turned out to be amongst the best days of my year. Are you ready? Good.

The day started out strange enough, with a gay guy wearing a fur trimmed coat riding a Hello Kitty bicycle. He was buying a candy bar and asked for a bag while my father was getting coffee from a gas station. Brilliance.

After that, we made the short drive over to Euclid Records and then we made the longer drive around and around the block looking for a parking space. Finally, we got inside and found madness at the EP table.

The Madness of Record Store Day

The exclusives were stacked there (in the picture it’s in the background to the left). People were crowded around it on all sides, searching and searching for the one record that would make their heart content. Or, you know, the twelve that would do so. Or maybe they were planning to sell them on ebay, which is a part of Record Store Day as well (but that’s a rant for another day). But again, as I stated before, this madness was not the kind of single-minded, no holds barred, cut-throat screw-the-other-guy kind of retail madness you get at department stores on Black Friday, but the kind where somebody who couldn’t get up close says “Does anybody see the Wild Flag Seven Inch in there?” and then somebody says, “Yeah,” and hands it back. So, thanks, anonymous music fan, for handing me my Wild Flag exclusive record.

Slightly less crazy were the regular browsing racks. I sifted through and got two of the four records I was looking for (they didn’t have the Broken Bells Meyrin Fields EP and they didn’t seem to have the Local Natives Gorilla Manor on vinyl so I got it on CD) and my father found an old Pointer Sisters LP. And then, having searched once for a good inexpensive copy of Kind of Blue (no luck) and an original master LP of The Moody Blues Days of Future Passed (also no luck), and taking one last sweeping look at the wonderful chaos, we got in line.

The Spirit of Record Store Day

While in line, a guy wearing a Fidel Castro style hat came up from the Exclusives table with a copy of a record. He approached two people in front of me and said, “Hey guys, I know you were both looking for this one, and I found one copy, and I figured I’d offer it to you first since you were looking for it.” The two guys, one in a Slayer T-shirt and one in a black hoodie, who had been looking for it looked at each other. They clearly had not come together and hadn’t started out as friends, but they had been in line for twenty minutes talking. They each deferred to the other to take it, and in kind, both refused it, leaving it to the guy who brought it to them. “It’s cool, thanks a lot for bringing it over,” the one wearing the Slayer T-Shirt said. “Yeah, it’s cool, but if you want it, you found it, so it’s yours,” the hoodie said.

The Freebies of Record Store Day

My haul this year was more plentiful than last year’s, partially because I came in knowing exactly what I wanted and also because this year I had set aside money from the get-go, meaning I knew exactly how much I had to spend and was able to set the limit and plan at the same time.

Back Row L t R The Decemberists The King is Dead, DeVotchKa 100 Lovers; Front Row L to R Local Natives Gorilla Manor, Wild Flag Glass Tambourines/Future Crimes 7"

But then came the freebies, which were incredible this year.

So Much Free Stuff

If you can’t see it, I’ll just tell you: I got a bunch of coupons for local record stores, an Ozzy Osbourne Poster, a reusable shopping bag for records, a Record Store Day pin, a pin and a guitar pick for Lou Fest, a Utne mini-issue with free music download, a Universal Music Group CD sampler, a Record Store Day Music For the People sampler, a Sub Pop Records CD sampler, a CD sampler called Le Disquaire Day which is RSD exclusive French music sampler, and two Euclid Records bumper stickers. All in all, though I only bought about three hours worth of music, I got almost eight hours worth of music to listen to.

How was your Record Store Day? What exclusives did you get? Where did you go? Tell us in the comments. We love to hear from you!