Record Store Day

In these days of political correctness, every dog has its day. We’ve just had International women’s Day (not to be confused with Mother’s Day), International Children’s Book Day is around the corner and Earth Day is at the end of the month. The world has gone mad with its Hallmark celebrations and soon we’ll be buying fluffy cards for our goldfish and chocolates for our hamsters for fear that they might feel unloved!

What the world needs is rock n’ roll fuelled day - a day that celebrates music as the glue of the world and the binding force that keeps it together, minus the fuzzy cards and tacky trinkets. Something like ‘Rex Manning Day’ from the cult movie Empire Records, complete with roof top versions of ‘Sugar High’ and gatherings of devout fans. A proper celebration that makes music come alive in a carnival at the source of the heart-rending magic. What the world needs is a ‘Rex Manning Day’ dedicated to the Empire Records of this world.

“We mustn't dwell... no, not today. We CAN'T. Not on Rex Manning Day!”

Now thanks to Chris Brown, an employee at Bull Moose record store in Portland, the dream has come a reality and turned into a global celebration – Record Store Day! It’s a day dedicated to our local indie libraries and their constant battle with the MusicTowns of this world. It comes complete with exclusive releases and hundreds of artists coming together across the globe to perform in local stores. And it’s celebrating its fourth birthday on April 16th in independent record stores across Ireland.

Leading from the front is bat-biting pensioner Ozzy Osbourne, who has taken up the mantle of Record Store Day Ambassador. A role that was inaugurally filled by the Eagles

of Death Metal front man Jesse ‘Boots Electric’ Hughes in 2009 and Queens of the Stone Age’s Joshua Homme in 2010. Ozzy’s tasked with conveying the majesty of the releases made on the world’s only holiday devoted to music and in drawing attention away from the big monetarily strong chainstores, and directing it at the ‘Empires’ of the world. In a time of dumbed down mass produced art when homogeneous companies are slowly burying the smaller diverse indie shops we sit back and remember that without them many of the big names in music would still be undiscovered.

While its too early for stores to release their line-up for the day, here’s a taste of what happened in Dublin last year: Tower Records hosted special guest performances from Mundy, Heathers, Neil Hannon, amongst others and ran a discount throughout the store with vouchers and gig tickets to be won; the ill-fated Road Records had live performances from Paul Noonan (Bell X1), Lisa Hannigan, Villagers, Neil Hannon and Jape; City Discs and Freebird Records had discounts on all stock and live DJ sets from the cream of the crop of Irish DJs. These stores, and others across Ireland, used Record Store Day to connect the people with the physicality of music again, an essence that has been lost with the rise of the Mp3 file, by drawing light to time, energy and love that each store devotes to their library of tunes.

Despite the success of online retailers, the explosion of Internet downloads and high-profile closings of megastores, independents like All City, Celtic Note, City Discs, Freebird Records, Freebird Records (Secret Book and Record Store), Sound Cellar, Spindizzy Records and Tower Records are still championing the cause in Dublin. And while it’s hard to imagine there is generation out there that never experienced the music phenomena of holding a piece of music in their hand or experienced the thrill of flipping through a Nick Cave bootleg box in their local indie house, they do exist! Record Store Day is the perfect chance to place a 12” in these kid’s hands and inform them about how the concept of cover art actually used to mean something more than a downloaded jpeg. It’s a perfect opportunity to teach them that listening to music used to be an event - forced to sit down at a turntable and actually listen to the music. That the scratches and

pops associated with the vinyl are all part of the warmth of the experience - something they’ll never get with the thousands of songs on their Mp3 players.

Already there are 185 exclusive releases pegged for the fourth anniversary which include a Rolling Stones limited vinyl edition of Brown Sugar, Mastodon’s “Blood Mountain” in two colored vinyl disc edition, a Deftones limited white vinyl 7” single from the forthcoming “Diamond Eyes” album, a limited Muse “Exogenesis: Symphony” in black vinyl , Metallica’s “Live at Grimey's” on 10" Double vinyl and “Wide Awake in Europe” from U2, a 12" vinyl 3 live tracks from European 360 tour. From Soundgarden the unreleased track "Telephantasm" on 7" and a vinyl 7" single from Neil Young of “Heart of Gold” recorded during the Harvest LP sessions in 1971 in Nashville - featuring James Taylor and Linda Rondstadt who were in Nashville at the time as guests on the Johnny Cash television show.

Take time out on April 16th to take a trip to your local indie record shop tomorrow, you’ll see how and why music still matters, but don’t expect a card!

“Damn the man, Save the Empire”

Record Store Day, the global annual celebration of independent music shops, will take place on April 16th. Last year, shops all over Ireland hosted in-store performances, raffles and giveaways, and this year is set to be similarly successful, with indie outlets in Dublin, Cork, Mullingar, Belfast, Derry and more set to participate.

For more information check out www.recordstoreday.com

Record Store Day Quotes:

It's not just the ability to touch, see and smell an album and the artwork...it's the fact that you are in a Real Place with Real People...and not just any people: other music-obsessed freaks like you.

Amanda Palmer (The Dresden Dolls)

A proper record shop reminds us why we got into this in the first place - a place to be reminded of old friends, still in their spots on the shelves, a source of unexpected magic and lucid memories - a place that reminds us that music is more than dumb file sharing and the management of dead data by faceless sociopathic corporations, but a storehouse of dreams, both possible and impossible."

Max Richter (Fat Cat Records)

“There would be no Elvis. There would be no Johnny Cash. There’d be no B.B King. There’d be no Roscoe Gordon. There’d be no Carl Perkins. There would be no Jerry Lee Lewis. There would be no Roy Orbison. I can just tell you. We owe all of that to the independents and the independent people that work so hard for us to have something that could be accepted through their efforts, hard work, and desire to keep a personal feeling in every record.”

Sam Phillips (A&R/producer for Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, and many others)

"Buy real records in real shops, or I'll come round your house and scream at your mother.”

Ian Gillan (Deep Purple)

"Music is an important part of our culture and record stores play a vital part in keeping the power of music alive"

Chuck Berry

"The 'cool' record store. It is where you can talk to people who are like you. They look like you, think like you and, most tellingly like the same music as you - the only comparable experience these days would probably be an art museum - an actual place where you can stand and simply be surrounded by your heroes."

Wayne Coyne (The Flaming Lips)

“Folks who work here are professors. Don't replace all the knowers with guessers keep'em open they're the ears of the town”

Tom Waits

“I now have the power to command you to attend Record Store Day, April 16 be there!”

Ozzy Osbourne