• Share/Bookmark

Let’s Hear It for Record Store Day!

By Katie Ball

Music lovers across the globe all have stories of that first record store that ushered in their individual Age of Enlightenment. Chances are, those little shops of our youth are long gone, particularly now that digital technology offers customers the chance to shop from home with a click. But there are still die-hard fans out there who not only continue to go out into the world seeking used vinyl and new and used CDs, these folks are also fostering a young brood of new music lovers; buyers who are still willing to embrace new technology but also looking for both the tangible and more intrinsic benefits of vinyl.

Ringing in Record Store Day

More and more artists are answering the call by issuing new recordings in said-format, often in spectacular colors (and more and more with a digital download code included as a free bonus). Still, independent record stores throughout the country are struggling.

On the third Saturday of April, Record Store Day is celebrated throughout the world, where your favorite independent gets the chance to dream up all sorts of shenanigans to help celebrate the cornerstone of a music lover’s community. In honor of this year’s Record Store Day (April 17th) producer Katie Ball wandered around her three favorite haunts in Orlando, Florida: East-West Music Records, Rock & Roll Heaven and Park Ave CDs.

Take a look at these great record stores for yourself!

Be sure to check out the new Sounds of the Re:Union feature, For the Record, where we chronicle independent gems from across the country. We started with The Beat in Sacramento, California, and are working on an episode about the Louisiana Music Factory in New Orleans.

Tags: , , , , , , ,

This entry was posted on Friday, April 15th, 2011 at 5:23 am and is filed under Community Oriented, Sounds. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

  • Jan Whitehouse

    Hooray for Record Store Day! My friend Ray and I haunted Tampa’s Vinyl Fever and a couple other nearby shops and reveled while hours whizzed by as we uncovered treasures, sampling and trading headphones at the banged-up-but-working listening stations. We also found that a lot of our curiosity was driven by the visuals on the CDs, much like the expanded art on vinyl packaging had in years prior – it was another means of immersion.

    CD reviews would often be posted to promote the unfamiliar artists and everyone on staff (especially Carl!) was intimately familiar with my tastes. Whether I was buying, browsing, trading or even – yes – returning (!), they were, forgive the cliche, like family.

    Like having suffered an injury to my synapses, I have rewired and adapted and now I still discover great new music. The beauty of it is I never have to leave my house. The tragedy of it is I never have to leave my house.

  • Rick

    Record stores rock! So does Katie Ball!

  • Jan Whitehouse

    Hey – is there audio for this?

  • State of the Re:Union

    Yes! If you click on the play button next to the Ringing in Record Store Day, you should hear audio. Enjoy!

  • Rick Lang

    A great story! It is so much like many small businesses in America, it can give the personalized service that you cannot get over the internet or in a big box store. As these businesses are forced out or fad away we will lose something of the soul of who we are as a people.

    Katie, your the Charles Kuralt of NPR! thank you!

  • Tony Rizzo

    I was saved from metal hell as a teenager, by the staff at Record Bar in Fort Myers, FL. Invaluable guidance provided by Joe Honeycutt, Dave Roth and John Keane CHANGED MY LIFE. Simply by guiding me towards things I might also like. You like metal? Try some later period BLACK FLAG…listen to these SST bands. I was hooked, and am actually getting a bit ‘verklemmt’ remembering it. Music has been the love of my life…whether listening or playing.
    And I love Space Oddity, and Katie Ball, one of my most long-standing and very dearest friends, though we don’t see much of each other, when we did, it was as if not a day had gone by. xoxo

  • Sara S.

    Nicely done, Katie. Yes, record stores were special. I spent hours in vinyl shops every Saturday as an adolescent and teenager. Band trivia — no better conversational content back in the day! Good to hear your voice again!!

  • Phil Spectre Vs. Rector

    If it weren’t for record stores, where would I have channeled my near-Aspergers Syndrome during my wayward middle school years? In the pre-internet age, nothing was more rewarding than checking out 80′s editions of the Trouser Press Record Guide and asking my parents to drive me to distant shops to attempt being an SST completest. It was risky: rather than buying albums based on sounds I’ve heard, I had to make purchases based on words I’ve read… and only the independent record stores had those releases in stock.

    And perhaps that’s why record stores are magical. The Dungeons & Dragons that defined my youth made me a perennial treasure hunter, and buying in person has a definitely different euphoria than buying online. Sure, you can download the same Sun Ra reissues on the internet, but iTunes isn’t going to give you a pleasant discussion revolving around when his best period was. You can spend $40 on Phil Och’s “Pleasures Of The Harbor” on Amazon, but you might get lucky at East-West and pick it up for $10. Even romance blooms (turn on: women who buy early Chrome LPs).

    With the shift to digital, hopefully record stores can stay alive without having to resort to Coyote Shivers playing benefit shows (there’s a reason he was only on 120 Minutes ONCE). With Park Ave being the most versatile, R&R Heaven carrying more vinyl than a kinky shop, and East-West repping SODO, Orlando’s key record stores keep the city stocked with good supply.

    And if all else fails, just ask Katie!!

  • Katie Ball

    Wow, thank you all for taking the time to share your stories! I might not know what latest tv show is making waves but sit me down with a music lover and we’ll do just fine. Thanks again for having a listen and taking the time to write. It means a lot!

  • http://JimmyBoi2.wordpress.com Jimmy

    There is NOTHING like vinyl, and nobody quite like the record store vendors who perpetuate this medium. Listening to Phil Spector’s productions on his original Crystals 45s. is nothing quite like hearing them digitally re-mastered. Shops like these presenmt music the way it was originally recorded, and– thus– the way it was meant to be heard.
    As an independent bookstore manager whose store just closed, I can also empathize with the demise of independent resourcefulness and CREATIVITY in this land. The Look-Down Generation (those who are constantly looking down at their laptops, doing God-knows-what) will never appreciate the warmth and humanity of independence…

  • http://www.bootleg.tv Dave Segal

    ANOTHER WELL DONE DOCUMENT OF CULTURE TODAY.
    GREAT JOB KATIE!!!