[Vintage-Audio] Record Store Day

[Robert Nickels]

I often read comments to the effect that most of the stuff I enjoy 
playing with - from tube-type hi-fi gear to vintage ham radio 
boatanchors will soon be worthless and of no interest to anyone. These 
folks seem convinced that for some reason, contrary to every other 
"ancient technology", *we* are the last generation to understand and 
appreciate it. That's why I thought this article would be of interest - 
it's not old fart music on vinyl they're celebrating, but brand new 
material from todays indie artists and producers. Guess we better hang 
on to our turntables!

Since I figured Duane will have difficulty getting this off the website, 
I'll post the text below. From yesterday's Chicago Tribune.

73 Bob W9RAN


    Record Store Day celebrates vinyl and its fans

By Greg Kot, Tribune critic


But when the second annual Record Store Day arrives Saturday, artists 
and labels will be out in force: More than 1,000 stores 
worldwide—including 25 in Chicago and its suburbs—are expected to 
participate. They will offer in-store events or performances by dozens 
of artists, and more than 100 unique pieces of product, including rare 
singles and albums by everyone from Tom Waits to My Morning Jacket.

Though the number of independent "mom 'n' pop" record stores has shrunk 
drastically in recent years, from more than 7,000 at the outset of the 
'90s to fewer than 2,000 today, those that remain are hanging tough, and 
some are thriving despite a sluggish economy. A resurgence in interest 
in vinyl records (with sales climbing 89 percent last year to 1.8 
million) has helped these independent operators stay in business, and so 
has a renewed interest in artwork and physical artifacts.

"The reality is we were over-retailed," says Michael Kurtz, president of 
Record Store Day and the marketing company Music Monitor Network. "We 
had about four times as many stores as the market could bear. Combine 
that with the mass merchants online, and a lot of people who are not 
committed to this are gone. But there are new ones still coming, and 
it's because there is still a need that humans have to hold and own 
things. ... That is never going away, and we're going to super-serve 
those customers."

Customers will be served well Saturday when stores are expected to carry 
custom-made products that include "Records Toreism," a handmade, 
limited-edition compilation LP from Chicago-based Thrill Jockey Records 
that houses exclusive tracks by five bands (Mountains, Tortoise, Double 
Dagger, White Hills, Trans Am) and a fanzine with contributions from 
more than a dozen artists, retailers and journalists.

Another Chicago label, Numero Group, is joining forces with nine other 
independents to produce an equally lavish Record Store Day compilation, 
"This LP Crashes Hard Drives," that will include music and memorabilia 
in a gatefold-sleeve package.

"Last year's Record Store Day was a testing of the waters, but it seems 
more unified this year," says Rick Wojcik, owner of Dusty Groove 
America, a bastion of underground soul, jazz and world music in Wicker 
Park. Numero Group's owners and staff will spin records at the store 
Saturday while offering discounted merchandise. The number of in-store 
events has nearly tripled over last year's Record Store Day to 600, and 
the number of participating stores has nearly doubled, including 
hundreds in Japan and Europe.

For decades, independent record stores served not only as outlets for 
recorded music, but as hubs for a community of like-minded individuals. 
In Chicago, the emergence of the independently owned Wax Trax Records on 
Lincoln Avenue in the 1970s galvanized the local underground scene. The 
store became a conduit for punk and new-wave imports from Europe, and a 
Who's Who of local musicians worked behind the counter. The store soon 
spawned a successful record label and the genre of industrial disco.

The scenario was the same in countless cities nationwide. Indie stores 
were part of a network of fanzines, college radio stations and 
independent record labels crucial to the development of numerous artists 
in the '80s and '90s, from Prince and the Replacements to Nirvana and De 
La Soul. Future bands bonded, fans congregated, and records were talked 
about, played and savored in mom 'n' pop stores.

"I cut my teeth in indie record stores," the multimillion-selling artist 
Moby once told the Tribune. "It was where I found out about Roxy Music, 
Joy Division, Mission of Burma—all the music I love. It inspired me to 
want to try to make music as good as that."

The rise of digital file-sharing and the emergence of digital stores 
such as iTunes cut into record-store business; sales of compact discs, 
the foundation of retail since the mid-'80s, plummeted 50 percent since 
2000.

But in recent years, the most efficiently run indie stores have found 
their footing in the digital age with vinyl and deep underground catalog 
bringing in a new, younger audience.

"We have people coming into the store buying vinyl that don't even have 
turntables yet," says Dave Crain, proprietor of the vinyl-only Dave's 
Records in Lincoln Park. "It's great to see kids excited about 
something. I think there is a communal aspect, a physical aspect of 
going into a store in a digital age that really has an appeal."

That attitude is amplified by Rich Bengloff, president of the American 
Association of Independent Music. "The indie store is part of the 
culture of a community," he says. "No one goes into a Best Buy to be 
part of the community's culture. They go there to buy a commodity."

Not that indie stores don't mind selling commodities too. Wojcik says 
his Dusty Groove store was having its best year since its 1996 inception 
in 2008 until the fourth-quarter recession hit, but has since bounced back.

"This is a pretty damn big country, and [independent record retailers] 
have the tiniest slice of that audience, but that audience will always 
be rabid about music," he says. "With good music and good packaging at 
an affordable price, the customers will always be there. It's a 
faith-based game. If you tell customers the market is dying, you will 
create that prediction. But with Record Store Day, it's people who like 
indie stores coming together with us and saying, 'We're still 
dedicated.' It's not a swan song at all for us. There is still an 
audience that wants us."

A few years ago, the notion of an international Record Store Day 
might've felt more like a funeral than a celebration of the impact 
independent stores have had on music. As distribution (and later sales) 
of recorded music shifted into the Internet arena, Tower Records and 
hundreds of other music retailers nationwide went belly up.

Copyright © 2009, Chicago Tribune <http://www.chicagotribune.com/>