Last Saturday was Record Store Day, the one day in the year reserved to shine a spotlight on records and record stores across the country.
It was a very successful one, too! The Black Angels 7″ that we’ve been raving about did mighty well at Waterloo Records, who reported that it made #4 on the best-selling 45RPMs and The Raveonettes EP that was just released was #4 best-selling CD. Zia Records had the pleasure of hosting our very own Vintage Trouble at their store in Las Vegas. They had a great turnout and took some pretty rad photos, which you just have check out here. Other Music hosted Suckers as they spun some tunes in the totally packed store. Check out the pics on Brooklyn Vegan!
Of course, as eager Orchard-ites, we were present everywhere we could be. We couldn’t make it to all of our bands’ performances in stores all around the country (Vintage Trouble, Rhett Miller, RACES, Mates of State and Suckers), but we do have some accounts of what we did see:
The lovely Allison Ullrich — who took a whole bunch of great photos, including the one accompanying this post — went store hopping in NYC and even wrote a blog post about it for Purple Revolver. In it, she shares her experience with mad RSD lines, impromptu fights and friendly record buyers post mayhem.
One of our Interactive Marketing Managers Tonia Samman went to see Mates of State at Brooklyn’s Soundfix and had this to say about it: ”Brooklyn’s Soundfix was at capacity and overflowing with Mates of State fans at 7:30AM when the band’s performance began, and most of them stuck around throughout the set just to listen and catch glimpses of Jason and Kori in the windows. Rounded out by a guitarist and second keyboard player (who also doubled on trumpet), Mates of State sounded as tight as ever as they ran through hits from 2011’s Mountaintops including “Palomino” and “Maracas,” and highlights from 2009’s Re-arrange Us like “My Only Offer” and the album’s title track. They also did an inspired cover of “The Weight” in honor of the late Levon Helm.”
Our Creative guru Blake Russell was also in attendance: “As anyone who’s ever helped me move can attest, I’m a pretty avid record collector. It takes very little encouragement to get me to spend a few hours digging in the crates anyway, so an event like Record Store Day is pretty much impossible to resist/a great excuse to spend waaaaaay more money than I should on vinyl. This year my friends and I hit up perennial faves like Other Music, Kim’s, and Generation Records, but I think my favorite experience was at Living Stereo’s newly opened store on Great Jones street. In addition to a killer selection, they had a vat full of free PBR, DJs and bands performing, and an absurdly nice staff with impeccable taste (the woman at the counter told me that 4-5 of the records I bought used to belong to her). They’re also conveniently adjacent to Great Jones Cafe whose Cajun Bloody Marys are highly recommended. It’s experiences like this that are quickly turning RSD into one of my favorite days of the year.”
With Blake was our ever-so-lovely Retail Marketing delight Meagan Friedman: “Unlike Blake, I’ve just started to build out my record collection, which pretty much commenced with what is now our annual Record Store Day tradition, which we started 3 years ago. We start at Other Music and then stumble to the other relatively close stores while finishing up at BYOB Indian food on 1st Ave. Much like Blake, I can confirm that those conveniently located Bloody Marys at Great Jones make my Record Store Day that much sweeter. Or spicier. Or something.”
So if you were unfortunate enough to miss Record Store Day this year, jot it down in your calendars for next year… and the year after that… and the year after that. It’s the third Saturday of April — every year.
