National Record Store Day set for Saturday April 19

i know what some of you may be thinking: "Billy, what the shit is this?" if you are unaware of this day, perhaps a brief introduction is in order.

Record Store Day

many moons ago most consumers were able to purchase albums at locally owned shops. these shops would have a wonderful system of cataloging not only national and regional releases, but the local releases as well. the independent record store has been and still is an important piece to the puzzle for the emerging artist. often viewed as a bastion for the most pretentious of music listener, the store acts as an informational guide for music that is not forced down the throat of listeners via top 40 or AAA format radio.

with the rise of electronic store chains, the mom and pop stores were being undersold. best buy is infamous for this tactic. the store will undersell the cd price. meaning the company will lose a profit to distributors for selling cheap cds in an effort to lure younger consumers to buy other overpriced items in their store. the problem here is that it puts the independents out of business.

so for one day out of the year all independents stores unite to bring attention to their neck of the woods. with the increase of a digital music market, we are seeing a slow extinction of this familiar shop. the ones that survive are finding new niches to fill, whether it providing an exclusive line of import vinyl (god bless vinyl) or providing vintage clothing or even an art installation .

for columbia, we saw the end of some dear friends:

Salt of the Earth: this store closed in 2001 after being open for 23 years. former owner eddie boster can still be seen at shows and still in the very fabric of the columbia music scene that he help establish many years ago. the shop also boasted a large selection of skateboards. but after a recession and an increase in rent, the store closed its doors permanently. i remember picking up elliott smith's "either/or" album there. it is still missed almost a decade later.

Whizz Records: After being considered the top of the record store food chain in the 90's, this retired shop called itself home on north 10th st. where the old rag tag cinemacafe used to be. easily the best selection in town, and had access to all of the best imports, exports, reports, portports, etc. the owners moved to north carolina selling the leftover stock and name to a different owner. whizz remained opened in columbia, but it was not the same. some said the old owners took the good half of the selection, and left the rest for columbia.

Kevin's World: we all knew that kevin walsh's store had a short life span, but he was able to extend it well past its lease. kevin's goal was to have a place that would help people usher in the new digital world by providing customers to bring in vinyl and cd and he would help make the digital transfers to a source of their choice. additionally he had a great collection of albums from new and emerging artists.

columbia really doesn't have a consistent record store. slacker's has a really good selection of newer vinyl selections, but their main fair is the video game selection.

for those visiting other cities, or living there, i recommend some of my favorites:
APOP (St. Louis - former Columbia residents)
Vintage Vinyl (St. Louis)
Euclid Records (St. Louis)
Permanent Records (Chicago - former Columbia residents)
Sonic Boom (Seattle - big ol' KEXP party)

speaking of records, PCWZ's pal In-Misery had an interesting post on break up records today, and it got me thinking about a conversation i had with a former girlfriend of mine a long time ago regarding what kind of music you listen to when you are down. angela was the girlfriend that taught me about music, women, and life in general. i still hold her in the highest regards to this day. so up until this conversation i was in the boat of "when you're sad you listen to happy music". angela was in the "when you're sad you listen to music you can relate to." she couldn't have been more right. listening to upbeat tempo pop does not help ease the pain of a heart break. the album i turn to in my darkest of times is Cat Power's Moon Pix. If Metal Heart doesn't hit the right chord with your broken heart strings then you are more machine than human...