Iowa Marks Record Store Day
by Paul DeatonSaturday, April 16, 2011 is Record Store Day, which means 24 hours of retro for baby boomers and fans. It is also a small way to thumb our noses at Wal-Mart, Target and the big box stores that ran most independent record stores out of business. To find a participating record store in Iowa, click here.
The original idea for Record Store Day was conceived by Chris Brown, and was founded in 2007 by Eric Levin, Michael Kurtz, Carrie Colliton, Amy Dorfman, Don Van Cleave and Brian Poehner as a celebration of the unique culture surrounding over 700 independently owned record stores in the USA, and hundreds of similar stores internationally.
This is the one day that all of the independently owned record stores come together with artists to celebrate the art of music. Special vinyl and CD releases and various promotional products are made exclusively for the day and hundreds of artists in the United States and in various countries across the globe make special appearances and performances. Festivities include performances, cook-outs, body painting, meet & greets with artists, parades, djs spinning records and on and on. Metallica officially kicked off Record Store Day at Rasputin Music in San Francisco on April 19, 2008 and Record Store Day is now celebrated the third Saturday every April.
While this is a most commercial of commercial enterprises, most bands and singer song writers were in it for the money, and even Dylan has a vinyl release of Bob Dylan In Concert: Brandeis University 1963 this week.
~Paul
Deaton is a native Iowan living in rural Johnson County and weekend
editor of Blog for Iowa. E-mail
Paul Deaton
Blog For Iowa 