Why does it not surprise me that Metallica was the first band to celebrate record store day back in 2008?
The music industry sucks. In the age of internet sensations, illegal downloading, and bankrupt music stores, it’s (surprisingly) the smaller, independently owned stores that are left standing.
Founded in 2007 Record Store Day celebrates the “unique culture surrounding over 700 independently owned record stores in the USA, and hundreds of similar stores internationally.” Once a year (every third Saturday in April), record stores join with artists and release exclusive vinyls and CDs that are only available on this day. Special performances, meet and greets, and parades are just some of the festivities taking place at local participating record stores.
This year, Record Store Day appointed the Prince of Darkness himself as the Record Store Day Ambassador of 2011. “I now have the power to command you all to attend Record Store Day April 16th,” Ozzy tells us in the video below.
Most appointed Ambassadors don’t wear all black and have long hair. And isn’t an Ambassador supposed to be easy to understand?
If the sheer awesomeness of Ozzy Osbourne being the Ambassador of anything doesn’t convince you to attend Record Store Day, Ozzy, as well as hundreds of other awesome artists, are releasing limited edition, never-before-released music. Here are some of the best picks of 2011:
Daft Punk-Tron Soundtrack
Death Cab For Cutie-Atlantic Records Presents: Death Cab for Cutie In Living Stereo!
Yeasayer-End Blood;
Nirvana-Hormoning;
Panda Bear-Tomboy Vinyl/T-shirt Bundle
Pearl Jam-VS. remastered
Regina Spector-Four From Afar
The Decemberists- Live at Bull Moose
Wild Flag-Future Crimes b/w Glass Tambourine
So remember, attend Record Store Day…or Ozzy will find you.
April 17, 2011 at 12:04 am, We can't help ourselves said:
Music via the internet is efficient, cheap and job killing. Same with eBooks. And streaming video. Is this really the world we want?