Pastiche: Record Store Day b/w Love and a 45

You know what’s coming next, doncha? Yes - I’m going to hammer it home that every dirty digital download we make is impacting the good guys as well as the bad guys. But I’m not going to villanize you. First off, I do it too, so that’d be hypocritical, and secondly, the music industry does have some growing pains with which it needs to deal. Regardless, indie retailers and artists are most assuredly feeling the pinch, and here’s the delayed good news - we can help.

Last year marked the first Record Store Day, which attracted music lovers to their retailers of choice (over 300 stores participated) both in the States and across the world. This year, on April 18th (Saturday) we’ve got 37 stores in Texas alone taking part in the event - you can scroll down to see the list - and artists like Radiohead, Slayer, The MC5 and many more are contributing special limited releases to be sold specifically on Record Store Day.

Among all of the great Austin stores participating, stores in San Antonio, Corpus Christi and more are also getting in on the action. Music Town’s Brent Evans explains the role of his store in a city like San Antonio, where music and media sales in general are dominated by big box retailers: “I think independent record stores are important because it reminds everyone that even though we are the third biggest city in Texas, we still have some sort communal relevance - we still have some sense of culture. You can point to an indie record store in San Antonio and say: ‘Yes! That’s where culture exists!’ For their part, Music Town is featuring in-store performances by Autosuggestion and Gleeson, in addition to featuring the many deals and limited purchases Record Store Day has to offer.

Because buying a physical piece of music has seemingly become a specialty purchase these days, record stores are more and more often stocking vinyl records for people dedicated to owning music. But before this piece becomes yet another “Vinyl is Back!” love letter, the sobering truth is that only .01 percent of music sales in ’08 could be traced to vinyl, so we’d be imprudent to start brandishing “Vinyl is the past AND future of music!” banners quite yet.

Still, it’s a great time to be a vinyl lover, especially in Austin. On a national scale, many artists are offering “7s exclusive to Record Store Day; among them are Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, and The Jesus Lizard. Def Jam is planning a 4 LP set that traces the history of the label, and Guided By Voices are re-releasing their Hold on Hope EP with bonus tracks (making it an LP?). With all of the recent reissues of albums on vinyl, its relative affordability compared to CDs, and that many labels and/or artists offer free digital downloads of albums purchased on wax, investing in honest-to-goodness records has become more of a populist pastime than just a dweeb’s paradise.

To that end, local watering hole Rio Rita has been hosting their “Love and a 45” night on Monday evenings for quite a while, during which they invite locals to come out, sign up, spin three 45 rpm singles, and then sign up again if they'd like. Participating means learning how to use the turntables and mixers, but the event organizers and longtime participants are more than happy to help you in your metamorphosis from Mike Nobody to DJ Mike Nobody.

Love and a 45 is a joint venture between Beerland owner Randall Stockton and David Thomson - latter runs and came up with the idea for the event. Both avid vinyl lovers, it’s not a rare thing to see them both queuing up for their chance to spin tunes. We have on good authority that Stockton is partial to “Rock Me Amadeus,” and Thomson to “Kickstart My Heart.”

Both Stockton and Thomson recall when vinyl was the order of the day, and record playing parties were just a great way to get together. “I’m old enough to have bought records when they were new,” says Stockton with a laugh, and in discussing the genesis of Love and a 45, Thomson says, “It kinda reminded me of what I did when I was younger - we used to have a bunch of friends come over with record players and have a little party.”

On one hand, Love and a 45 is directly to that renewed interest in vinyl. “There’s been a vinyl resurgence lately, of course,” says Stockton. “In a digital age, CDs become obsolete, but something tangible, something analog, something with a big picture on it -that’s always going to be with us, thank god. And I think there’s a lot of excitement about that. It’s started to pick up again lately because as CDs fade further and further into the distance, and what with our iPods and being able to download stuff off the internet, people who actually want to hold and experience music in a three-dimensional way are always going to reach for vinyl.”

But there’s more to Love and a 45 than just an insular love of records themselves. It is also a reaction against the order of holier-than-thou, “don’t touch the grooves!” vinyl culture. Says Thomson: “[Love and a 45] really kind of came from the new DJs out there now who are doing these shows, doing this elitist thing where you may walk up and say, ‘Hey man, will you play this song?’ and they kind of look at you cross-eyed, like ‘Screw you, kid, get away.’ So it became kind of this anti-elitist DJ thing, and we made you the DJ for three songs." Stockton agrees. “This is a democratic experience. If you don’t care for what someone’s spinning, well thank god they’ve only got three songs that they can play, and you can sign up and you can spin your own stuff. It lets people be the DJ, and gives everybody the opportunity. All the time we’re like, ‘Here’s how the turntable works, here’s how the mixer works, here are the headphones.’ Sometimes people show up, and they’re just like, ‘Well…here are my records.’ No, no, no! You’re going to do it. And once in awhile there’s a flub or whatever, but that’s the charm.”

Participating Texas Record Stores:

180 Grams [San Antonio] ALLRECORDS [Houston] Antone's Record Shop [Austin] BackSpin Records [Austin] Cactus Music! [Houston] CD Source [Dallas] CD Universe [Dallas] CD World [Dallas] Cheap Thrills Records and CDs [San Antonio] Cheapo [Austin] Disc Go Round [Corpus Christi] Eargazum [Arlington] End of an Ear [Austin] evolution:records,tapes,&more [Baytown] evolution:records,tapes,&more [Deer park] Forever Young Records [Grand Prairie] Good Records [Dallas] Hastings Entertainment [Amarillo] M&M Music Store [Tyler] Movie Trading Company [Dallas] Music Depot [Houston] Music Town [San Antonio] Musicmania [Austin] Piranha Records [Round Rock] Ralph's Records [Lubbock] Rewind Music & More [Dallas] Serious Sounds, Etc. [Houston] Sig's Lagoon [Houston] Snake Eyes Vinyl [Austin] Sound Exchange [Houston] Soundwaves [Houston] Strawberry Fields [Denton] Surf Club Records [Corpus Christi] The ROCK BOX [San Antonio] Vinal Edge Records [Houston] Waterloo Records [Austin]