International Record Store Day - 20th April 2013

Where's Vinylology? I'm in there somewhere....

So, yesterday was International Record Store Day; an initiative which sees independent record stores the world over running in-store appearances from live acts, DJ's and offering a plethora of special pressings, limited editions and all sorts of exciting merchandise opportunities for dorks like me.

Unfortunately, Record Store Day also fell right in the middle of me buying a new house so a major splurge was not a possibility.

It also happened to occur on a day when I was working at an industry conference, meaning that I didn't have a great deal of time to devote to it. Happily however,  attendance at the conference did put me less than ten minutes walk from Auckland's Real Groovy store.

Knowing that I wasn't going to have a great deal of time (or a great deal of money) to devote to buying vinyl on Saturday, I was able to go to their late night opening on Friday (Thurs and Fri nights - open til 8.30) and have a fairly reasonable dig in their 'sale-price' bins (happily reduced from $3.00 to $2.00).

Xena 'On The Upside' bw 'On The Upside (Dub)' Streetwave 12" Single
I noticed this because it's on the same label (just two releases apart in the catalogue) as the stone-cold classic 'Al Naayfish' by Hashim, which I picked up in mint condition a couple of months ago.

Hashim: reference point

It's a great electro backed soul track, with an amazing opening melody - strangely reminiscent of Orbital. If it's not been heavily sampled, it should have been. I'm in the throes of starting to produce again after an eight year break, so it immediately inspired me to begin work on a re-edit. A major find for $2.00. (I'm definitely in the market for a double for DJ'ing as well).



D.C. La Rue 'Do You Want The Real Thing' Single-Sided Casablanca 12" Promotional Single (Music From The Original Soundtrack Of "Thank God It's Friday" Collectors Gift Series)

Disco: you had me at "promotional copy - not for resale"

There's a few rules to crate digging (I'm actually in the middle of writing a beginners guide which will be coming to Vinylology soon) and this answers several of them. Random promo formats, OST's to films that you've never heard of, being on a favoured label (I've got heaps of tunes on Casablanca), buy anything more than ten minutes long; this has it all - plus it's got the BPM marked on it. (Oh, those heady days at the beginning of what they called 'New York style mixing'). I've never heard of the film; Wikipedia says that despite an Academy Award for Donna Summer on the soundtrack, it's dreadful. Having read an explanation of the plot  (several intertwining storylines revolving around a series of nightclub patrons) it seems perilously close to a treatment for a New York gangster/caper movie that I wrote called 'Saturday Mass', that was supposed to be set in the last days of the Paradise Garage. As it had clearly been done before, badly, I can only thank god that I didn't put more work into it. I used to take myself far too seriously as a younger man.

Chris Hillman 'Clear Sailin'' Asylum Records LP
The actual pop/rock sale section at Real Groovy was rather daunting considering my limited budget, (it's best not to know what's there if you can't buy it), so I stuck initially (before moving onto the 12" singles - as above) to the country and folk. There's some fairly smaltzy country material on here alongside some more appealing acoustic material. I'm a huge fan of Hillman's other work with The Byrds, The Flying Burrito Brothers and Manassas, so I'm sure that my enjoyment of what's here will grow.

Judy Collins 'Living' Elektra LP
Two Leonard Cohen songs, one Joni Mitchell and one Bob Dylan (plus a Collins original and some others that I don't recognise). I bought her LP 'Wildflower' in the Sally Army shop a while back.

Judy Collins 'Nightingale' Elektra LP
Well, it's on Elektra, a label with a very strong sixties folk back-catalogue that I will ultimately buy most of. I guess that when I'm in a Judy Collins mood - I'll have a few to choose from. I do feel slightly guilty for this one; they had two copies in the sale bins - one with a knackered cover, one with a tatty disk. I made up a mongrel with the best bits of both and bought that. I hang my head in shame.

All in all though, not a bad nights work for $10.00.

So, onto Record Store Day itself.

Beastwars' Matt Hyde

I was delighted to learn that Wellington sludge/stoner metal favourites Beastwars (my favourite NZ band, of course) were playing an in-store to promote their new LP, 'Blood Becomes Fire', which came out the previous day.

(My girlfriend had actually confirmed that my pre-order had been hand delivered on Friday).

So, I managed to drag myself away from my trade stand to see Beastwars, who as always - rocked it.

They played a selection of tracks off the new record, including 'Caul Of Time' and recent single 'Tower Of Skulls' B-Side, the creepy 'The Sleeper'.

Beastwars' Nato: also the $2.00 bins that I scoured the night before

My only gripe is that it wasn't longer. (I did actually have to leave and get back to the conference, so it's not even as if I would have been able to watch it).

I feel almost ashamed of saying this, but it was actually also the first in-store performance that I've been to.

Call myself a muso? Pff.