Celebrate Record Store Day

 

 

 

 

By Jackie Lam

Here's the haps that's going around in town on the day that celebrates what your record store brings to a community: a physical place to connect with fellow music lovers and keep the local music scene alive. There's a few new record shops that have sprouted around town recently, and this Saturday's Record Store Day would be a great time to check them out.

Notable RSD 2013 exclusives include releases from Wire (Change Becomes Us, 12" vinyl), Nick Drake (s/t, 12" vinyl), Portugal. The Man (Church Mouth, 12" vinyl), Destroyer (This Night, 12" vinyl), Tame Impala (s/t, 12" vinyl), Ra Ra Riot (Binary Mind, 10" vinyl), Best Coast (Fear of My Identity and What I Have Become, 7" vinyl), Black Lips / Icky Blossoms (7" vinyl), Dan Deacon (Konono Ripoff No. 1, 7" vinyl), Fitz & the Tantrums (Out of My League, 7" vinyl), Milo Greene (What's the Matter/Staging Point, 7" vinyl), Grizzly Bear (Horn of Plenty, 12" vinyl). For a full list, visit their website.

To confirm which releases each store will be carrying, I highly suggest checking out their FB pages or blogs or contacting the store beforehand.

 

Eastside

 Amoeba is going all-out with their annual daylong celebration. Doors open at 10:30 am. Hundreds of limited-edition RSD releases will be available along with a sale: 25% off all turntables, posters, and headphones, and significant mark-offs on their bargain Blu-rays and rare DVD collection.  Customers will receive a special RSD gift bag with purchase (while supplies last). 

Starting at noon there will be a RSD silkscreening, with all proceeds benefitting the Silverlake Conservatory of Music. Last year there were tote bags and tee-shirts available with a few rad designs, and I'm thinking this year it may be the same sort of thing. There's also gonna be a prize wheel to spin for some neat giveaways.

And what's a RSD without some tunes? Guest DJs spinning sets that day are Lance Rock (1 pm), Lucinda Williams (3 pm), and Jeff MacDonald (5 pm). 

Mono Records on Glendale Blvd. will open their doors at 10 am. They'll have some RSD releases plus 1000s of LPs for a mere buck. Everything else in the store will be discounted at 10%. 

Origami Vinyl in Echo Park  is up to their usual awesomeness with an entire day of DJ sets, special in-stores, and specials. Doors will open at 8 am for sprightly early birds, with the added incentive that the first person in line gets to shop in the store all by themselves for 5 minutes. They'll be carrying a fair amount of RSD exclusives (you can check out their blog for the full list). 

DJ sets and live music rotating every hour, including sets from Dean Spunk of No Age/PPM (11 am), Bennet Kogon of KXLU (10 am), Justin Gage of Aquarium Drunkard (1 pm), and Avey Tare of Animal Collective (2 pm). Live in-stores include Nick Waterhouse at 7 pm (first-come, first served) and Silversun Pickups at 8 pm. (sorry kids, but all tickets have been issued).

And after checking out the wares at Origami, stop by The Echo, where turntables will be available from 11 am - 3 pm to test out your crisp, new vinyl purchases.

 Rockaway Records on Glendale Blvd. is having their annual blowout RSD sale. The sale will go from 10 am-8 pm. Nearly everything in the store will be on sale at up to 50% off (except for RSD exclusives)  and Rockaway will be carrying 100s of exclusive RSD releases. And freebies and giveaways will be generously held throughout the day. 

VACATION Vinyl on Sunset will open their doors at 10 am, with a buttload of RSD exclusives and samplers. Sick City Records is hosting an in-store with a few bands from their label: Ugly Kids, Black Sea, Death Lens,Victory, and the Echo and the Sound!! The store opens at 11 am and bands go on starting at 3 pm. Sick City will be carrying some RSD exclusives, and will have their own special release on red vinyl with four bands on their label: Ugly Kids, Death Hymn Number 9, Cigarette Burns, and the Flytrap. Freebies include a Sick City T-shirt with every purchase (while supplies last). 

Gimme Gimme Records, having recently moved to Highland Park after being in NYC East Village for nearly 20 years, will take part in RSD with some RSD exclusives. All their bargain dollar records will be free that day.

High Fidelity Record Store in Los Feliz will have a handful of RSD exclusives including releases from Elliott Smith, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Wire, and Half Japanese. Plus music all day long:  DJ sets by DJ Sacred and DJ Maxwell, and live in-stores with IRIS, Dark Matter, HelixFossil, and singer/songwriter Joseph Scaturro.

  Westside

Record Surplus on Pico will be having their annual three-day weekend sale, which goes from Friday-Sunday. Their attic section will have CDs, DVDs, and LPs for a mere .92. All items in the store sans RSD exclusives will be 15% off. 

Touch Vinyl, a new shop on the westside on Sawtelle, is throwing an all-out bash,with DJ sets, a bunch of RSD exclusives, baked goods and a churro truck. Plus there's a raffle at 4:20 to win prizes such as a turnable and rare vinyl. They'll be open from noon-midnight.

Fingerprint Records out in Long Beach is worth trekking out to. They've put their own spin on Record Store Day, extending it to Record Store Month, full of daily giveaways, specials, live in-stores, and contests through all of April. Check out their FB page for daily deals and the RSD low down.