Record Store Day 2009

Happy Record Store Day! Today record stores across the nation are putting on all sorts of special events to celebrate their own existence. Yeah, it's kind of an invented holiday, but as a man who loves his physical media and its independent purveyors, I'm more than happy to celebrate right along with them.

Here in Charleston, 52.5 Records is hosting an art show, curated by Chuck Keppler, featuring prints by 38 artists based their favorite song lyrics. The store will also be selling as many of the exclusive RSD promo releases as they can "put [their] grubby little hands on." Also, used CDs, LPs and DVDs will be 52.5% off, just like the store's birthday weekend this past February.

Now, regarding those RSD exclusives, a very complete list of everything being made available can be found over at MBV, but some of these are very limited pressings, in some cases barely outnumbering the participating stores, I don't know what all store-owner Clay Scales will be able to get in, but here's a list of things I'll be looking for:


Daptone, Finders Keepers, Honest Jons, Jazzman, Light In The Attic, Now Again, Numero Group, Sublime Frequencies, Timmion, and Vampi Soul have combined forces to put together a sweet 2xLP compilation of the kinds of obscure and awesome sounds they specialize in reissuing. It gets better: the comp, entitled This LP Crashes Hard Drives, lists for a mere $10! Clay has told me personally that 52.5 is for-sure getting 20 copies of this, so I am definitely picking up one of these.


Speaking of label comps, Thrill Jockey's Records Toreism looks pretty sweet. It's a 5-track 12" with exclusives from Tortoise, Double Dagger, Mountains, White Hills, and Trans Am featuring Tim Soete from the Fucking Champs. Plus there are two special print inserts, a zine and a "manifesto." There are only 900 of these, so if you get your hands o one, consider yourself lucky!


In addition to a couple of tempting Sonic Youth split 7-inches, the venerable Matador Records will be releasing a live LP by none other than Pavement! The LP features recordings made at a concert in Germany over 10 years ago (has it really been that long?) and is limited to only 2500 copies, as are those two SY 7-inches I mentioned earlier.

There are a few other things I just couldn't find pictures for, too, live the vinyl reissue of Guided by Voices' Hold on Hope EP with the Plugs for the Program EP appended to it, and a plethora of 7" releases (reissue and otherwise) by the Smiths, New Order, Elvis Costello, Obits, Camera Obscura, Blitzen Trapper, and even the Stooges! I'd better get dressed if I wanna get there early.