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lemonade kid
Old Love
USA
9873 Posts |
 Posted - 10/04/2014 : 14:43:42
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I always assumed it was started by the record industry to promote the re-emerging vinyl market.
So all you guys loving the cool vinyl releases on Record Day, thank Chris Brown of Brunswick Maine for conceiving this day back in 2007. He is the co-founder of what was a was small indie vintl/cd store: Bull Moose Music (when he was a mere tike of a student at Bowdoin College in Brunswick)--Bull Moose has grown into a 10 store chain of indie shops here in Maine...and Record Day has grown too, as we all know!!
Record Store Day
The annual celebration of local record stores Ð dreamed up by Maine's own Chris Brown of Bull Moose Ð is sounding really cool.
Article from 2012
By Ray Routhier rrouthier@pressherald.com
Staff Writer
Chris Brown on Record Day
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWOTQhp9MKI
When Chris Brown first put out an e-mail to other indie record store folks more than five years ago, he knew he had a good idea.
He proposed a day, once a year, that celebrated the idea of a physical record store. The place where people come -- and have come for generations -- to browse, talk to other fans and music experts, and buy the next great work from their favorite artist.
With more and more people getting music online, it made sense to Brown, head of marketing for the Maine-based Bull Moose Music store chain, to try to play up all the positive aspects of the record store experience.
So he's not completely surprised that Record Store Day will be entering its fifth year this Saturday around the nation. But he is surprised with how fast it's become big. Huge, in fact.
This year, more than 1,000 independent music stores nationwide will participate with giveaways, live performances and other events. That's more participating stores than ever before.
And record labels have prepared more than 300 exclusive Record Store Day releases, including everything from old country and classic rock to punk and pop, and by everyone from Ralph Stanley and Dave Brubeck to The Black Keys and The White Stripes. Last year, there were about 188 special releases.
But what surprises Brown the most, and what he loves the most about Record Store Day, is the incredible vibe the day creates for everyone involved.
"Even bigger than the special releases, I think, is the fact that it just feels really, really good to be in a music store on that day. It's like a wedding reception or something," said Brown.
"The music store is always a unique experience, but on Record Store Day, it's intensified. It's like opening day at a baseball park; you've got all these complete strangers who are glad to be together sharing this experience."
On Saturday, Bull Moose stores will be celebrating Record Store Day with more than a dozen performances by local bands at 10 locations. Bull Moose and other independent stores will also be selling special Record Store Day releases, though not necessarily all of them.
With all the special releases by artists large and small, Record Store Day has become the most important day of the year for independent record stores. Therefore, it's a big day for artists and labels as well.
"Record Store Day has become the biggest sales day for indie retail stores -- bigger than Christmas and any other holiday, period," said Alex Brody, associate director of independent marketing for RED, a Sony Music company that handles sales and marketing for independent record labels.
"Why has it grown? Because everyone -- artists, managers, labels, distributors, indie record stores -- have all banded together for a common goal: Driving consumer traffic to independent retail and purchasing physical product. Chris Brown and company took the idea of celebrating record stores and turned it into a movement that everyone has noticed."
Record Store Day has become a day to celebrate local music as well. All the bands playing Bull Moose stores this year are local, and several of them are releasing music on that day. In years past, Bull Moose has landed national acts to play Record Store Day along with the local acts, such as Grace Potter and The Nocturnals. But the scheduling didn't work out this year, so the line-up is all local.
Because Record Store Day draws tons of music lovers to stores, it's an important vehicle for local bands to get their names and their music out to a wider audience.
"It's a great opportunity to connect with fans of all ages in a more personal and intimate setting than a normal show," said Mark Sayer of the Maine band Whitcomb, which will be playing Bull Moose's North Windham store on Saturday. "(Record Store Day) is a tremendous idea that's been embraced by customers, retailers, labels and artists as a way to help promote what it is we all do and love.
"The fact that it's homegrown and Chris Brown helped get it off the ground makes it extra special."
Portland musician Zach Jones, who will be playing the Scarborough Bull Moose on Saturday, said he'd go to Record Store Day events even if he wasn't trying to sell his music.
"I enjoy Record Store Day not just because I'm a musician, but because I am a record enthusiast," said Jones, 30. "Living at a time where a lot of people are streaming music from the Internet, it's important for us to be reminded of what an experience visiting the record store and picking up a physical copy of an album by your favorite artist can be."
Staff Writer Ray Routhier can be contacted at 791-6454 or at:
rrouthier@pressherald.com
Twitter: Ray Routhier
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Love these kinds of indie shops...long live the independents.
This is from a 2012 story in the Bangor Daily News but it is still relevant..fun stuff!
Maine music lovers, sellers ready to celebrate Record Store Day
©Bangor Daily News 2012, all rights reserved--no infringement intended--do not reprint
BRUNSWICK, Maine Ñ Curt Stephens found exactly what he was looking for Ñ which was an accomplishment, considering he didnÕt know what he was seeking when he walked into Vinylhaven, a record store on Maine Street.
He discovered an original pressing of Jimi HendrixÕs album ÒAxis: Bold as Love,Ó ÒGrand Funk Railroad Live,Ó April WineÕs ÒOn RecordÓ and four or five other albums, all etched in vinyl and packaged in their glorious foot-square cardboard sleeves. This is the old stuff, LPs, from the days before CDs and mp3s.
ÒI always find something here thatÕs worth buying,Ó said Stephens, a record fanatic from Nova Scotia who frequently ties family visits in the area to a trip to Vinylhaven. ÒItÕs one of my favorite spots.Ó
ÒDo you want me to do the numbers on those?Ósaid Dave Hunt, VinylhavenÕs owner, who was tinkering on a 1980s-era brushed aluminum Sony amplifier, dipping an electrode from place to place to determine where amid the switches and transistors the music stopped. He thumbed open a dog-eared book that told him the best-case-scenario values of the records, especially for the first-pressings, and came up with a total of $67. ThatÕs about half what the book said, minus $20 for some records Stephens brought from his home in Nova Scotia to trade.
ÒFair enough,Ó said Stephens, who has been collecting records since he was a kid.
ÒFair enough,Ó said Hunt, who has been selling them for a couple of decades. Another happy customer out the door.
On Saturday, Vinylhaven and music retailers all over the country and around the world will celebrate Record Store Day, a celebration of the notion that even though technology makes it possible to pluck music from cyberspace, there will always be a calling for stores that sell you something from your favorite band that you can hold in your hands.
ÒOne of the reasons why the store is so important is because itÕs where a CD lives,Ó said Chris Brown, who works for Maine-based Bull Moose Music and who conceived the idea of Record Store Day in 2007 as chairman of a trade group called Music Monitor Network. ÒThereÕs a big difference between listening a digital track isolated from everything else and listening to a whole album. If you like a band enough to want to hear their whole thing, youÕll probably buy the album at a record store.Ó
Record Store Day has grown from about 500 participating stores in 2008 to more than 1,700 this Saturday, said Brown, who said stores like Vinylhaven jumping into the event is what has led to such rapid growth.
ÒItÕs going to be one of [Bull MooseÕs] busiest sales days of the year,Ó he said.
That also likely will be true at Vinylhaven, said Hunt, who has been selling CDs and LPs in Brunswick since the late 1990s and has been fixing electrical equipment in the area for some 35 years.
His interest in music and music equipment started as a child marveling over the contraptions his grandfather, who worked for Central Maine Power, brought home to his basement workbench. Over the years heÕs fixed all manner of audio equipment and spent his fair share of time on stages singing and chopping away at a guitar. One of his recent projects, a mold-stained Fender Tweed guitar amplifier, came from the Topsham dump. Hunt replaced a couple of minor components and put it for sale in the front of his store with a sign that says Òsounds great.Ó
ÒItÕs a crime what people throw away,Ó he said. ÒThat amp today would cost you $1,400. More than 50 percent of the time the only problem is dirty switches and controls.Ó
That ended up being the only problem with that aluminum Sony amp, by the way. Another happy customer out the door.
Record stores come in all shapes and sizes, ranging from gleaming music sections in department stores to HuntÕs packed-in record stacks in a small downtown storefront. While for some the word ÒrecordÓ recalls the past and those black vinyl discs, for others itÕs a term that will live on forever as a shortened version of recording. At Vinylhaven, thereÕs a palpable love for the former, especially if itÕs rare Ñ a category almost all vinyl records will fall into sooner or later.
As part of SaturdayÕs festivities, Hunt is raffling off a few original-print Sun Records 45s from the likes of Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash, plus an obscure and eccentric Czechoslovakian LP called ÒMeditace: The Blue EffectÓ that Hunt describes as Gregorian chant/psychedelic fusion.
The point of records, Hunt said as he rested a stylus on a spinning Jerry Lee Lewis single, is hearing something different.
Troy R. Bennett | BDN
Dave Hunt of Vinylhaven Records on Maine Street in Brunswick holds one record from 1889 (left) and one from 2009. "The record's demise has been greatly exaggerated," he said. He'll be celebrating Record Store Day on Saturday with raffles, doughnuts and live music. Buy Photos
http://store.bangordailynews.com/Other/Week-of-April-16-2012/22457227_XD49TJ#!i=1808784250&k=rR8w34n
Curt Stephens of Halifax, Nova Scotia, browses the used albums at Vinylhaven Records on Maine Street in Brunswick on Tuesday April 17, 2012. Stephens said he visits Maine often, to see relatives, and always picks up a few more discs at the store.
Proprietor of Vinylhaven Records on Maine Street in Brunswick, Dave Hunt, holds six original Sun Records by Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash and Billy Riley on Tuesday, April 17, 2012. He'll be raffling them off this Saturday as part of his Record Store Day celebration.
A mysterious album from 1968 by an obscure Czech psychedelic band is just one of the goodies Dave Hunt will be raffling off at his record store,ÛÓ Vinylhaven Records in Brunswick, as part of Record Store Day on Saturday. Hunt describes the sound as "psychedelic Gregorian chants recorded through a pillow."
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"After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music".
-Aldous Huxley
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Edited by - lemonade kid on 10/04/2014 15:18:47 |
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Joe Morris
Old Love
3491 Posts |
Posted - 10/04/2014 : 19:44:40
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bet the remastered (in May) Led Zep albums will see reissue on vinyl as well as cd
I'm glad to have the cd. I HATED vinyl. Having to be careful with the stylus, and when I first was buying lps (the 80s)
the odd album wasn't even a gatefold (like the first album I bought, Steely Dan's Can't Buy a Thrill)
That being said, the first time I heard da capo was on a tape from off vinyl (I didn't have a turntable at that point) |
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lemonade kid
Old Love
USA
9873 Posts |
Posted - 11/04/2014 : 13:33:35
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Vinyl heaven. 
Caring for the vinyl with insane care is part of the joy! Handling the platter only by the edges to keep the grooves oil & dust free, gently placing it on the TT...holding and gazing at that one square foot piece of the often amazing art....perfection and ecstasy.
And nothing sounds better than the warm rich highs and lows of every analog recording! Brilliant!
Gatefold has always been a rarity...never cared if it wasn't; gatefold was a rare treat but never expected...CDs had to make up for their lack in size and in true analog audiophile sound by throwing in sometimes informative but many times lame liner notes.
Vinyl rules and I'm sure I have some backers here!
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"After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music".
-Aldous Huxley
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Joe Morris
Old Love
3491 Posts |
Posted - 11/04/2014 : 15:30:39
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what upset me about not having the gatefold for Can't Buy A Thrill is cos the gatefold had the LYRICS!
Still one of my favorite albums. Good luck finding their first (UK) single from that period (Dallas b/w Sail the waterway) from that time period though!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YjI3OqlOII |
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Record Store Day legacy-started in Maine 2007
