There are two places I have felt comfortable frequenting during the pandemic and one of those, thankfully, is my local record store. Mask wearing and sanitizing your hands is non-negotiable. But even if it isn’t safe for you to go out with precautions in place, they have a couple of solutions- curbside pickup and shipping to your home. Just wanted to throw that out there because I am sure there are many other local, independent record stores doing the same.
You guys. I get pretty nervous about change. It is irrational and change is what life is about but here we are. 2020 has thrown us all for a loop and everything looks a little different this year. Naturally I was a little anxious about how Record Store Day (RSD) 2020 would be. It initially got pushed back from April to June and then pushed back again. It was finally split into three separate days- August 29, September 26, and October 24.
RSD weekend is usually full of festivities. My local shop has a listening party the night before with awesome giveaways including drawing the first five spots in line. It’s a fun time. I get to chat with a few other patrons that I unfortunately don’t see too often. Lots of local bands busk outside throughout the weekend. There is usually a bake sale to raise money for local organizations. Lots of people coming together!
This year there were still some awesome giveaways for different vinyl prize packs including some RSD exclusives, entry was just through their website instead of an in-person drawing. They drew for time blocks, each with ten people getting fifteen minutes to shop. With five minutes between each block to sanitize. I can’t imagine the amount of work (straight up hustling!) and organization that went into making such a big day run so seamlessly. Seriously, thank you to the Record Exchange in Boise for keeping it safe and extremely organized. All the titles were alphabetized by band name so it was smooth sailing and as always plenty of employees to help with any questions you may have!
My list was a little out of control (as usual) but we all have our splurges. These are the items I was able to pick up:
The Cure/Bloodflowers- 20th anniversary picture disc, 2 LPs. I usually don’t gravitate towards picture discs but for my favorite band I will, especially since I didn’t already own vinyl copies of these releases.
- The Cure/Seventeen Seconds- 40th anniversary picture disc, 1 LP.
- New Order/The John Peel Sessions- 1 LP.
- Robyn/Self titled- 2 LP, red color vinyl.
- Spacehog/Resident Alien- 25th anniversary, 2 LP, pink ‘no cream color vinyl. First ever vinyl pressing.
- Surfer Blood/Astro Coast- 10th anniversary, 2 LP, blue and purple color vinyl. I already own two other vinyl copies of this album but I am pretty excited about the previously unreleased demos, live tracks, and the Twin Shadow remix. Two of my Florida favorites.
I hope everyone had a fun RSD weekend, however you and your local record store may have celebrated! If you happen to have one of these gems in your community and you love music, support them when you can! You’ll probably notice they usually (when we’re not all dealing with a pandemic) have lots of cool things going on!
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