Record Store Day

Record Store Day April 16, 2011. Record stores all around the world were celebrated, and threw celebrations for the record form. We actually still have a turntable and vinyl. I still like my Rubber Soul vinyl record with the pops and static from years of play with an old record player needle that had never been changed after my father passed away because he was the one who was the hi-fi-guy in the house. There is no sound like the sound you can get off of vinyl.

A little tidbit that may make you become a fan of records again: Did you know that the Smithsonian Museum chooses to use records made in a type of hard material like bakelite to store their recordings? It is because you can run almost anything in the groove of a record without any electricity or power, and still get a sound vibration from it. So, when our current civilization ends, and the next one comes and discovers the records, they will not need any special gear to get the sound or vibration from the records. They just need to figure out that records is a recording medium.

On Record Store Day, we went to 2 of our local record stores, Grimey's and Third Man Records. Grimey's had BBQ, beer, a lot of records for sale, and a whole afternoon of mini-concerts from a dozen or so bands. It was nice, the bands had a stage outside in the corner of the parking lot, and you could just swing in and out of the parking area to catch the bands.

We saw that United Record Pressing Plant set up a table at Grimey's. URPressing is located near the Sounds Baseball Stadium, is one of the handful of vinyl record pressing plants left in the nation. I think it is the largest record pressing plant in the world at this point. They offer tours on Tuesdays and Fridays, and they will even schedule a tour if you have tour group. One day a few years ago, we got a group together to take a tour, and we just loved it. There is a lot of physics that is involved in making records. There are crafts people manually making each record. After our tour, I think some of the boomers went home and dusted off their old turntables and pulled out their favorite records, and enjoyed the music from their vinyl records.

We also swung by Third Man Records near downtown. There were limited edition records and poster for sale, and many people were lined up to buy these special items. There was an archtype there, a twenty-something hipster with some form of black clothing on trying to be a bit Goth' but not quite connecting the dots. We went for pizza and grilled cheese, but that is a different blog post.

the scene at Grimey's Records Store

United Records Pressing Plant display

records on sale at Grimey's

bands playing at Grimey's

Third Man Records store

Third Man Record Store stage getting ready for
THE Jerry Lee Lewis

some guy at Third Man Record store