Happy Record Store Day

I love record stores. I know they are dying, but I still love them. We have two: one local that is also a head shop and the other that is a regional chain. And they are across the street from each other.

A few years ago I began describing myself as a recovering music geek. Music was still important to me, but it hasn't been a huge part of my life recently. Today I walked into Head Shop Record Store and began talking to the clerk... Within a few minutes I realized that I had fallen off the music geek wagon. One eye-roll at the mention of Joy Division, and my general music snobbery was back.

Anyway, today is Record Store Day. Stores have specials and freebies. In some cities there were even lines (not here, though). But, there have been a few things I've wanted to pick up, so I figured today was a good day to do that.

It's been awhile since I listened to newer (newer = the last three years or so) music. I got lazy when I lived down south. I really didn't know where to start again, so the record store clerk asked me what I liked. I told him I was a stereotypical '80s indie music person. I think we had different interpretations of what "'80s indie music" means, because he pulled lots of stuff I didn't like. Like Portisehead. I have a few songs of theirs that I like, but for the most part they are fingernails on the chalkboard.

For round two I listed the last few albums I bought: Spoon, Hold Steady, Heartless Bastards, Elvis Perkins, and TV on the Radio. He pulled several albums off the shelf, and let me tell ya, he totally nailed it.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs: It's Blitz. This was on my list already.

Fleet Foxes. s/t. I had heard bits of them before and didn't know what to think. They kind of annoed me. He described them as the modern-day Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young. I don't know if I would go that far, but I liked what I heard.

Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson. s/t. The record store guy called them "Friends of TV on the Radio." Definitely. Many similarities. I like this album a lot.

Phosphorescent. To Willie. A Willie Nelson tribute. I am completely in love with this. Seriously. This little album rocks my world. I've already listened to it twice. This album gave me goosebumps while I was listening to it in the store. Go buy it. Now.

Being Record Store Day there were freebies. Stickers, catalogs, blah blah blah. "Do you have a turntable?," he asked. When I told him I had a Numark USB turntable (Sally has one), he responded with "Right on." He asked because he gave me a sample mix on vinyl. I also got some sort of Morrisey CD in the goodie bag, too. But seeing that I am not a big Morrisey fame (I know, blasphemy. I'm not a big Smith fan, either), I got more horned up about the sample mix.

I know I'm almost 40 years old, but there is still something satisfying about going into a boy-dominated subculture (like music geekdom) and being able to impress the boys, the boys who think they are the coolest of the cool without coming across as being too cool. More Rob Gordon or Dick in High Fidelty than Bary.

The one thing they didn't have was Bob Mould's new one. I had to go across the street to the regional chain store across the street for that one. They weren't nearly as much fun as the guys at the Head Shop Record Store.