This YouTube clip is outstanding…the annoying thing about it is that there’s no mention of WHERE this awesome record store is located, but a quick bit of research shows it’s at 3770 Denis in Montreal. It looks like a GREAT place to shop for vinyl. You can also get a closer look with another YouTube clip featuring Beatnick Music or check out the Beatnik online shop.
Record Show Calendars
Vinyl collectors tend to find the really awesome record shows and mark their calendars accordingly, but woe to the poor collector who doesn’t know where and when the shows are–how many amazingly rare, cool and lustworthy vinyl titles have you missed because you just…didn’t…know?
Here’s a collection of resources to help you mark your calendar:
Record Shows Of America is one of Turntabling’s go-to resources for record show dates, and the name is a bit misleading as the site also covers record shows in Canada, too. “Record Stores Of North America” doesn’t really have the same ring to it, but that’s what this site truly is. Recommended!
There’s also good info to be found at the Goldmine Record Show Calendar, and Goldmine also gives our neighbors to the north some love as well.
Vinyl Times also has a record show calendar which urges you to contact the shows by e-mail prior to traveling–good advice!
These are what we’d consider the top three online resources for record shows–at least that we’re currently aware of. Some excellent results can be had by Googling the name of your state or city along with the phrase “record collector shows” to find events in your area that might not have made it onto the listings for the sites mentioned above. Believe it or not, some events don’t take advantage of these centralized show listings–usually because they don’t know they exist, we’re guessing.
WTF Album Covers: Semargl Satanic Pop Metal
Run that by me again–Satanic Pop Metal? What? Not having heard any of this album, the title brings to mind some kind of unholy combination of New Kids On The Block and Grim Reaper.
It’s unclear what a woman’s buttocks have to do with Satan or pop metal, except perhaps as an overt statement that sexism still sells metal records. Not that album covers have to be nudity-free, not by any stretch of the imagination, but where metal records are concerned, you might just be able to say there’s a bit of a track record of paternalistic nonsense. As in, the metal genre can be as much as much of a testosterone-fueled sausage fest as any college football game.
I can already hear the wails of protest coming from Mom’s basement on this one, but I ask you, my corpsepaint loving metalhead complainers, to please refer me to a SINGLE gay-themed heavy metal outfit that could act as a counterbalance to all this?
Rob Halford doesn’t count–I’m talking about the EQUIVALENT to something along the lines of the above album cover, not just a band that HAPPENS to have a non-heterosexual in it. I’m waiting. An openly gay death metal band would be a huge blast of fresh air here–something unique, at long last! AND actually genuinely rebellious to boot. Maybe there’s a whole army of ’em and I’m just behind the times? I’d love to know. Seriously.
Why am I on about all this? It’s the same reason I was so totally into the idea of Gangstagrass–hip hop mashed up with bluegrass music. Could there ever be a collision of styles that traditionalists on both sides of these musical fences would hate MORE? How totally awesome–and again, TRULY rebellious and not just a bit of half-ass fakery. But I’m rambling here. This album cover on its own merits is dopey enough without all the subtext. I mean, just LOOK at it…
–Joe Wallace
Not Just Another Record Store Day 2012 Report: TheRockFather.Com
I ran across this amazing blog post from a new-to-me blog called The Rock Father. This post covers Records Store Day 2012, but also gets into the highs and lows of being a music-loving maverick working in the corporate hells of Wal-Mart, Super K-Mart, and Sam Goody. And when I say “maverick”, I mean it. Here’s a quote found on the blog post–a caption from one of the photographs:
“Nearly 100 feet of releases from Victory Records, Fearless, Hopeless, Epitaph, and local bands? How many Sam Goody mall stores had that? Mine did.”
The idea that a local Sam Goody had a local scene evangelist working to promote the bands is pretty amazing, and just goes to show you that one person CAN make a difference. It’s a pretty inspirational piece that does eventually get round to discussing Record Store Day 2012 (the image to the left is part of that story) and unfortunately has to end on a bit of a downbeat note–apparently there aren’t any true indie record shops near TheRockFather.com central.
RockFather.com founder James Zahn works in a variety of creative disciplines, and is available to bands for hire for music video projects, album trailers and much more. I haven’t had a chance to get acquainted with the rest of his site, but the Record Store Day post was great fun to read and I hope there’s more musing about vinyl, record stores, and indie culture there…
–Joe Wallace