LIFE: Celebrating Vinyl - Record Store Day 2014

Saturday saw the annual return of Record Store Day. If you're not aware, Record Store Day is a great day if you love limited releases, shopping in your local, independent record stores and especially love vinyl (you might remember my post regarding the day in 2013). The list of special, one off releases tends to come out a month before the day, you eye up what you'd love and cross everything in the hope that the record store(s) by you might have something. 

We'd originally planed to shop at UHF in Royal Oak, but after driving pass the crazy long queue at 8.30am, we decided to go to Flipside in Clawson which wasn't opening until 10am. So we spent over an hour, somewhat cold standing in what turned out to be pretty close to the front (we were like 15/16 in the line). While the sun was shining and the skies blue, Michigan skies can be very misleading this time of year, and dancing on the spot for warmth was the order of the day. Once the doors are open it's pretty much an orderly scrum and you have to grab something when you see it. It's all so very hit and miss.

So what did we get?

The biggie was the 30th anniversary special edition glow in the dark Ghostbusters theme 10" record - it is pretty awesome and has one of Joe's favorite films, I'm glad we managed to pick it up. It comes with the original version, instrumental and a couple of dance/dub versions. Plus like I said it GLOWS IN THE DARK!! And yes the Ghostbusters film is 30 years old this year, doesn't that make you feel old?!

We're both fans of The Zombies - the English rock band who formed in 1962, with The Beatles they were one of the big British Invasion Groups of the 60's. They had two special, limited re-release vinyls for Record Store Day - Odyssey & Oracle (2,500 copies) and The Zombies (1,500 copies) as we've never managed to come across any Zombies records at estate sales, we finally have some to add to our collection. 

Joe's a Jimi Hendrix fan - so the Jimi Hendrix Experience Live at Monterey was a must grab, and although I'm not a big Hendrix fan, it's a pretty cool album, it's also 280 gram vinyl - which if you're into such things is a big deal, it's set at the quality of an audio file although you need a top notch record player to get the most out of it. Also all our purchases came home in a pretty neat illustrated bag by Edward Ubiera - which you can see partially in the first photograph.

Sadly the increase in the day's popularity wasn't matched with quantity of vinyl available. Tweets, facebook comments and blog posts from record listeners and collectors seem to be echoing for a need for change in the future. Both Broken Record and Nailler 9's underlying message suggest RSD should be less about inferior titles and the quantity of them available and more about supporting the local, truely independent record stores throughout the year. Personally I hope next year they fine tune the number of listings and increase the number of pressings, which I know won't make them has "limited" it would allow more people the chance to find the record(s) they want after queuing for hours. As it stood on Saturday, If there's more than three people queuing in front of you wanting the same record, you have little hope.

Don't get me wrong I love the experience of Record Store Day, getting to meet some like minded people and support local record stores (which we do throughout the year anyway), I'd just like everyone to have a better chance of getting what they want.

What were your experiences with Record Store Day 2014? What did you buy or wish you could of got your hands on? Or just tell me what music you love - I'd love to hear!