So what are you doing Record Store Day? What’s that? You didn’t even know there was a Record Store Day? There is and it’s April 18.
According to the event’s Web site, it was created to celebrate “the unique culture surrounding over 700 independently owned record stores in the U.S., and hundreds of similar stores internationally.”
To mark the day, a slew of special releases, in-store appearances and general revelry will take place in and around these stores to alert music fans to the fact that these cultural institutions are surviving – and even thriving – in the changing music environment.
Artists making appearances at shops around the country like Plan 9 Music, Rasputin Music, Amoeba Music and Reckless Records include Pop Evil, Anberlin, Hollywood Undead, Ra Ra Riot, Band of Annuals, Silversun Pickups, Queensryche, Del McCoury Band, Mute Math, Black Joe Louis & The Honeybears, The Avett Brothers, Cannibal Corpse, The Black Lips, Sarah Borges, Indigo Girls, Aaron Tippin, Kim & Kelly Deal, Static X, Killswitch Engage, Chris Cornell, Talib Kweli, Eagles of Death Metal (whose frontman Jesse “Boots Electric” Hughes is the ambassador of Record Store Day) and lots, lots more.
Acts releasing special vinyl singles, EPs and limited edition CDs include The Pretenders, Queen, Radiohead, Regina Spektor, Rivers Cuomo, Silversun Pickups, Slayer, Sonic Youth, Beck, Sublime, Taking Back Sunday, Talking Heads, The Smiths, The Stooges, Tift Merritt, Tom Waits, Depeche Mode, Derek Trucks, Dr. Dog, Elvis Costello, Elvis Perkins, Leonard Cohen, Lykke Li, Mastadon, MC 5, Metric, Misfits, Bad Religion, Black Kids, Bob Dylan, New Order, Neil Young, Oasis, Bruce Springsteen, Death Cab for Cutie and many others.
In addition, the event’s official Web site is giving away an autographed Brian May guitar and a custom Silversun Pickups Epiphone Les Paul guitar.
Long live the record store!
For a complete list of participating stores, schedules for in-store appearances and lots more fun stuff like videos by Erykah Badu, Moby and others, visit RecordStoreDay.com.