What Year Is This Again?

I Was Sure It Was 2013

I did my usual Friday trip to Jack's today. I picked through the new vinyl and the used CD's and saw, mostly, the same stuff I see every week with a few, new additions here and there.

Jack's has a wall display where they display new releases and the top sellers in the store. As I walked out, I walked past the top sellers and this is what I saw:

1. Eric Clapton, Old Sock

2. David Bowie, The Next Day

3. Bon Jovi, What About Now

4. Jimi Hendrix, People, Hell & Angels

I think Van Morrison was number 9.

Really, people?

Nothing wrong with any of those artists, and I'm sure the albums contain some fine, fine music. But is this really where we're at now? Are we this conservative, nostalgic, resistant to change, whatever when it comes to our music? Is it a local phenomenon? Or is this saying something about the state of the music industry, who gets promoted, who buys albums?

This is just another one of those times when I'm jolted out of the little hermetically sealed bubble that is "indie" music, which, I'm beginning to agree, gets a great deal more press and attention than its cultural impact merits.

Maybe it's just temporary, and Mumford & Sons and The Lumineers will be back on top next week.

If it is more than just a temporary, local phenomenon, though, it sure would explain the lineup at that 121212 concert.

Record Store Day Postscript

In Pursuit of Flexi Discs

That was fun, I guess. 

The swim carpool has gotten, overall, much more complicated in recent weeks.  Texts fly back and forth all day.  Sometimes, two different people show up to pick up CoolDaughter #1 for practice.  The bottom line, though, is that I almost never have to drive to swimming anymore.  So Saturday morning I had time to head over to Jack’s Music Shoppe by nine for Record Store Day.

I was after two things, mainly.  I got one, the “KROKODIL” single by St. Vincent.  It’s a red seven-inch, and it’s a great, hard rock track.  Jack’s, though, never got a copy of the Domino Records Smugglers Way flexi-zine, a twenty-four page magazine of sorts containing five, different colored flexi discs by the likes of Dirty Projectors and New Jersey’s Real Estate.  Flexi discs are really horrible sounding singles pressed onto thin, flexible vinyl that you can play on a turntable.  They used to be given out as promotional items on the backs of cereal boxes or as pages in magazines.

I’m not really a record collector.  I’m a married, suburban dad with a couple of kids and a corporate job, but this multi-colored, flexi thing just sounded great to me.  I can be a little bit obsessive sometimes, and I spent the next couple of days trying to get a copy on eBay.  I learned a bit about the power of marketing and group psychology during my pursuit.

Smugglers Way retailed, I think, for around twenty dollars, maybe less.  A few copies showed up on eBay by late Saturday morning.  I put in some bids, going up to around forty-five dollars once or twice.  The things sold for over a hundred bucks.  It's cool, but it's not that cool.  I gave up on ever owning this little magazine containing five, square, flexible, previously unreleased singles in blue, red, green, orange, and yellow.

Then, this afternoon, I peeked at eBay again.  A few more copies had appeared for sale, and I put in a few bids.  As of five-thirty today, I am the proud owner of Domino’s Smugglers Way flexi-zine -- for twenty-four dollars and nineteen cents.  I was lucky, but the market has definitely shifted as the Record Store Day 2012 frenzy has subsided.  Monday’s going rate seems to be around thirty dollars.

I’m not sure that the eBay price normalization on something like Smugglers Way really says that the level of interest generated by the marketing build-up and the limited releases of Record Store Day was just a weekend phenomenon.  Though, I wouldn’t have that much trouble believing that the “Hey, Record Store Day is every day” crowd are the only ones that will be paying any real attention to record stores until it all starts up again next year.

Like I said at the beginning, for me, it was fun, and I buy music almost every week of the year.  Sometimes I even buy it from a record store.  I could really see myself getting into collecting these flexi discs, too.

One last bit: I also, impulsively, bought Wilco’s The Whole Love box set.  That netted me a second copy of their Black Friday Record Store Day release of the Speak Into The Rose EP.  It comes on red, translucent vinyl, and I may do some kind of contest where the winner will get my extra copy.  Stay tuned.

Bring on Your Wrecking Ball

Midnight Record Release Sale at Jack’s Music Shoppe in Red Bank, NJ, March 6, 2012

So, I did this.  Got dressed and headed over to Jack's Music Shoppe in Red Bank to buy Bruce Springsteen’s new album, Wrecking Ball, the moment it was released at midnight.  I’m not sure what brought me out there.  I really didn’t believe that Springsteen would show up to personally thank us all for our fandom like he did back in 2001.  Wrecking Ball really isn’t close to Springsteen’s best, though it’s his best in ages.  I'm pretty sure I'd be able to walk in there today and pick up the album like a normal person.

An exchange I heard as I browsed the used CD’s in front of the register, though, I think may sum it up for me.

“Do any other record stores do anything like this?”

“What other record stores are there?”

I’ve never been someone who’s into nostalgia for its own sake, but Jack’s has been in Red Bank my whole life.  I used to wait there for concert tickets way back when they had a Ticketron machine in the back at the old location across the street.  In recent years, it’s become a Friday afternoon tradition for me to grab lunch in Red Bank and then spend some time browsing at Jack’s.

Is it the world’s greatest record store?  Probably not.  Can you find a wider selection of obscure titles online? Depends on what you’re looking for, but generally yes.  Isn’t all of this music cheaper at Amazon?  Usually.  But I still enjoy searching for stuff while some record store employee’s choice of music is piped over the sound system.  And I still enjoy walking out of there with my orange and white striped paper bag.

As he lay comfortably in his bed in Rumson or Colts Neck or wherever he was during last night’s sub-30’s temperatures, I’m sure Bruce was satisfied that a bunch of fools were out supporting him and another local business.

Oh, and I bought the vinyl.