This Saturday marks Record Store Day, a day in which indie record stores team up with artists and record companies to celebrate the shops’ unique space in the industry. Many artists are putting out special limited-edition releases that are only available at these independent shops.
Among the acts taking part in Record Store Day are huge names like Bruce Springsteen (a limited edition 10″ single featuring live versions of Wrecking Ball and The Ghost of Tom Joad), Wilco (a deluxe package of the Kicking Television live release with eight bonus tracks and a CD), Velvet Underground (vinyl reissues of Live 1969 Vol.1 and Vol. 2) and the Rolling Stones (7″ single featuring unreleased track from Exile on Main St sessions). You can peep a full list of the special Record Store Day releases at the the RSD website.
With all this talk about Record Store Day, I can’t help but think about the local indie shop in my hometown of Hazlet, NJ – Now and Then Records. I loved walking into Now and Then with some hard-earned cash and walking out with a stack of vinyl and/or CDs that I would play over and over again until my next trip to the shop. Things have changed in a big way since the ’90s and Now and Then has been gone for over 10 years. While it’s amazing to be able to download whatever album you want instantaneously, that instant gratification has come at the expense of most local record shops. I’ll be heading to Generation Records in the village on Saturday to support one of the remaining indie shops and I hope you do the same.
What was (is) your favorite local record store? Let us know all about your favorite shop by leaving a comment below…
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