As Listen In has reported earlier this afternoon, today is national Record Store Day. As one might imagine, New York City has no shortage of record stores (though they have certainly dwindled in recent years) so around noon I set out in search of some vinyl.

My store of choice was Other Music on E. 4th and Broadway featuring 10% off everything in the store and DJ sets by Tapes ‘n Tapes, the Black Keys, Dead Meadow, and members of Grizzly Bear and Deerhunter.

I arrived about 7 minutes after open and there was already a fair number of people among the racks and crates. Eschewing the store’s rather large CD selection I rolled up my sleeves and dug through some vinyl. Used vinyl sections are always hit-or-miss and while the used rock seemed to have been mostly picked clean (though I did pass on a very good condition copy of Sandinista) the jazz, soul, and blues sections were excellent.

I definitely left a lot of wax in the crates that I wanted to take home, but economics won out and I escaped with:

• Radio Promo: Notorious B.I.G. - “Dangerous M.C.s”/”Who Shot Ya”
• Radio Promo: Wyclef Jean - “Party to Damascus”
• Radio Promo: Amel Larrieux - “Get Up”
• Charlie Parker’s All-Stars
• Broadcast Performace: Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, Fats Navarro
• Fugazi – Steady Diet of Nothing
• B.B. King – Blues on Top of Blues
• Johnny Cash – Live at Folsom Prison

45s:

• Belle and Sebastian – “I’m Waking Up to Us”/”I Love My Car”
• Sharon Jones – “I’m Not Gonna Cry”/”Money Don’t Make the Man”
• Naomi Shelton – “What Have You Done?”/”I’ll Take the Long Road”

Freebies:

• Heliocentric – “Dance of the Dogons (Part Two)”/”Noise”
• Merge Records : Destroyer – Madame Butterflies/Wye Oak – Prodigy
• Record Store Day Comp

Now, one might look at this haul after a stretch of digging and say to oneself “This is pretty good. I’m done for the day.” One might say that if they didn’t have a bit of a problem concerning record shopping.

On the way to the subway from the store I happened upon a street fair, and browsing through the food booths I saw an area where someone was selling records. I started lightly flipping through (once again, the rock sections weren’t all that great… I passed at least two copies of Frampton Comes Alive) but the other sections were gold. After another half hour or so of digging I came away with:

• Jazz series: Dizzie Gillespie
• Big Daddy Kane – I Get the Job Done (single)
• Bob Marley and the Wailers – Natty Dread
• Sly and the Family Stone – Fresh
• John Lennon – Imagine
• KC and the Sunshine Band – KC and the Sunshine Band
• The Best of Earth Wind and Fire Vol 1

Highlights also included getting checked out by a rather attractive looking girl (who was apparently there with her mom…) and someone coming up to me saying, “You’re a DJ aren’t you?”

Here’s to the First National Record Store Day, with hopes that enough stores survive for a second.

© 2008 Eric Atienza for Listen In. Some rights reserved.

• Share This:
  
  • Subscribe
  • Blinklist
  • Bloglines
  • Blogmarks
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Furl
  • Ma.gnolia
  • Reddit
  • StumbleUpon
  • Technorati