This year’s Record Store Day did not really excite me. There wasn’t much on the list of releases
that I just had to have. Every year
there is less I want and prices are higher.
I have a hard time paying $12 for a 7 inch single. The one record I really wanted was Devo’s “Live
at Max’s Kansas City. It was sold out at
the four stores I went to and is currently going for over $60 on ebay. I started the day by waiting in line at the Exclusive
Company at 6am. They opened at 7am, and
by 6am I was already about number 100 in line.
Exclusive Company has about 7 or 8 stores in Wisconsin, so they have
buying power. But by the time I made it
into the store, it was pretty wiped out, only buying two items on my list. I then went to Rush-Mor, a great local
independent store. There I picked up
Devo (the picture disc), John Spencer 12-inch, and local punk legends Suburban
Mutilation. A trip to the east side
Exclusive Company was a waste of time, so I finished my day at Acme Records in
Bayview. Acme, like Rush-Mor is a small
vinyl heavy record store. At Acme I
watched Blessed Feathers play a great folksy pop set and bought even more
records (this time non-RSD releases).
The highlight of this year’s Record Store Day was the re-issue release
of Milwaukee’s Die Kreuzen’s first record, the “Cows and Beer” 7-inch ep. Original copies are going for over $200 so it
is nice to have a worthy remastered high quality substitute. Original members Dan Kubinski and Keith
Brammer were at Rush-Mor signing copies for appreciative fans . It is great to see the record stores packed
and selling lots of records. Hopefully
the new customers will keep coming back.