Like any presumptuous 20-something fan of the classic tunes, I have an opinion on Record Store Day that I can't just let be. My opinion is mixed, as is expected by my pretence of calling myself "presumptuous."
Feeling #1:
It's fantastic that a group was formed to help out the little independent records stores because every time I turn around, another one is going out of business. So it's nice to give them a "Black Friday" so to speak for them to get a wealth of income in one day. It's also cool that such big names have gotten involved in it to lure in potential customers with new, special, one-of-a-kind, re-issued, Record Store Day merchandise. It appeals to the collector in all of us.
Feeling #2:
The bigger feeling is the negative feeling. Firstly, not everyone can get to a record store. Either because they will be working that day or because they live in a place that doesn't have a record store three minutes away from them. I understand that the whole point is to encourage people to go out in to the world and stay away from the internet and give money to the local businesses, but some people just can't. This sucky situation for those people is increased exponentially by how much they want a special release. Sometimes people in small towns are hardcore David Bowie fans but they can't drive five hours and wait in line from 3am-8am to try and beat someone to death with a pocketbook over the 1 Bowie picture disc the store got in their inventory. I guess the silver lining of that would be to expand one's social circle to find people to help you out and get it for you. But, then that becomes a lot like the thing that angers me the most about Record Store Day:
eBay. Right now, eBay is exploding with listings of Record Store Day items. I think there was a Joy Division listing every thirty seconds for the first day. Each one selling for about $50 if you take an average. This record, in the shops, cost between $12 and $18 on the actual day, for perspective. So this means that thousands of people went around to their local record store and bought as many copies as policy allowed of each album, brought them home, and listed them immediately on eBay to make themselves a 150% profit. While that is a successful way to make money, it really just sucks. Because the guy who went in and bought up every copy of "An Ideal for Living" a store had wasn't actually a Joy Division fan to begin with. And the Joy Division fans who showed up to the bad news of them being sold out didn't get their records. They had to go and buy them for 3 times as much from the first guy. Because of that, the meaning of the whole thing is lost. Sure, the record companies and stores are making money, but the collectors are losing out horribly.
But what does it matter, right? The whole thing is a gimmick anyway. Made to suck people in to spending money on things that aren't really vinyl, they're newfangled re-issued heavyweight vinyl. I understand that argument. But speaking as both a Joy Division and David Bowie fan, I can offer a new argument to that. The Bowie picture discs are a lot of fun. They're just a neat collectable thing. I'd be interested in them even if I just wanted to put them on the wall (something I hate, but these look fanatastic). If they were Record Store Day only releases that would be one thing. But some are released just for the fuck of it. "Life on Mars?" "Sorrow" and "Rebel Rebel" have all been mass released. In order to complete a collection already started, one must beat someone to death with a pocketbook or be the lucky person to get the 1 copy the store has. It's a provoking strategy. The Joy Division release makes me even more angry because one either finds an original copy and pays thousands of dollars for it or buys a bootleg copy of "An Ideal for Living." This was the first official release of this since Anonymous did it in the '70s. Even though it is Rhino and not Anonymous, it was something legitimate and therefore of good quality I assume. I don't know, I bought myself a bootleg. But for completists, it would have been a nice thing to have officially.
But, yes, I agree, a lot of the other releases are just sugar-coated nothing. Unless you're in to vinyl revival, I suppose.
So there's my very confusing and long mixed feelings about Record Store Day which could have simply been summed up by saying "It's good on paper."
And before you ask, yes, I did go the long road to the record store on the day looking for Peter Murphy, Joy Division, and David Bowie. I found the bootleg "An Ideal for Living" and I got myself the official Oasis release "Supersonic" because it was all I could find and I refuse to travel such a long distance and come back with nothing. Plus, we should all know my feelings on Noel Gallagher. I know, I know, I know, Oasis music isn't meant to be listened to on vinyl. It's a CD/Casette era thing. But I couldn't help myself. I have a problem.
