RSD: ‘Come On By. We’ll Make A Day Of It’
‘Music has become comic in the present phase primarily because something so completely useless is carried on with all the visible signs of the strain of serious work.'
T.Adorno, 'On The Fetish Character In Music And The Regression Of Listening'
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That may sound odd or even churlish coming from someone who has been in the record store business since 1978, 45 years of buying and selling pre-recorded music in a variety of formats. Why wouldn't I want a day dedicated to the exact thing I've been doing every day of the year (excluding Thanksgiving and Christmas, the only days we don't unlock our doors and welcome in all and sundry) for four and a half decades of, more or less, commercial bliss?
…
The first RSD was in 2008. I'm not sure which one of the Dave's we had working for us at the time (there must have been five or six of them, including, of course, my partner, Dave Stidman) but it was one of the Dave's who was a buyer at the time, so most likely Dave Wilkins or Dave Kerr. Anyway, one or maybe both of the Dave's came to me and said there's this new thing going to happen and it's called Record Store Day and it's going to be a special day to sell vinyl records.
At which, feeling churlish, I pointed to the unlocked front door and the handful of customers picking through our racks of music and said, 'Every day we're open is (lower case) record store day. We've got records to sell. People come in and buy those records. That's a record store day.'
Came the reply, 'But... but... Record Store Day is going to have all these special releases that are only available on Record Store Day!'
Which brought out even more churl: 'Ah, so Record Store Day is going to clog us up with a bunch of tin-plated, cheapjack, phony 'collector's records'. Are we going to have a Kenny Rogers "The Gambler" on gambler's visor green vinyl?'
'But... but...'
But me no buts. That first year we had no Record Store Day. We did have, lower case, a record store day. We were open. We sold some records. It was, as usual, a (lower case) record store day.
****
Lost in the fog of time, I don't remember if I continued to carry on in this, admittedly, high-handed, arrogant and churlish manner, or if I relented the next year or held out a bit longer - but relent I did and we were soon in the thick of it, celebrating in a single, concentrated, consecrated day, Record Store Day.
****
And the Dave's were right. Record Store Day has been a blast and I'll even admit that occasionally, not often but once in awhile, the powers-that-be with RSD will manage to put out something that almost qualifies as a genuine 'collectible'.
But what I've learned over the years is that regardless of what I think of the quality of the collectibles on hand for RSD, it is the joy and excitement of the people rushing through our doors that is genuine.
It's like a special Christmas just for my people: the nerds and goofs, the obsessives who have to have that Beatles single reissue with the extra three seconds where you can hear Paul pass gas as John falls over into the drum kit laughing.
Yeah, I'd buy that.
****
There is something spooky about RSD though -- we've had the damnedest luck, especially with the weather. It's been raining or, worse, snowing, on several of the days, occasioning discomfort and inconvenience for the hardy souls who show up early to get in the door first. We usually have a line-up of bands to play on the sidewalk and we've had to call that off more than once - in fact, just last year we had a fine slate of local psych bands scheduled but Mother Nature had other ideas - though we did get the bands on the sidewalk the next Saturday.
The craziest thing we had happen on RSD was a few years ago, pre-covid times, when our neighbor, Xcel, the electric company, decided that a Saturday in April, the exact RSD, was when they would do some major upgrades to their sub-station across the street from Wax Trax. This led Xcel to shut down 13th from Clarkson to Pearl while hauling in on several flat-bed trucks these enormous electric transformers that were as big as a house and looked like they had their own gravitational field. The noise from the trucks, the cranes, the machinery was deafening. Parking, already at a premium in our area, was insane.
And still, it was a great day! Probably our best -- until the next year when we had another RSD.
****
Well, that brings us almost to the end of this little piece. So let's talk about the year we didn't have a Record Store Day. No, not the one I wouldn't let the Dave's have. I mean the one we fucked up.
Here's how Denver's Westword reported it back in 2015:
'Wax Trax, an iconic record store here in Denver, will have more vinyl than you can browse through this Saturday, but nothing in stock will be an exclusive Record Store Day release. Because the store sold an exclusive release online for Black Friday, it was contacted by the head of Record Store Day, Michael Kurtz, informing them that they wouldn't be allowed to participate in this spring's April 18 event, as online sales are strictly against the rules.
"There was a mishap," says Wax Trax employee Sherry Gray. "We did something that we weren't supposed to do. He just wrote us an e-mail saying we can't participate this year, but we can reapply for next year."
"We made a mistake," says owner Duane Davis. "We thought it was a piggy-back Record Store Day release, but it was an actual exclusive."
Davis reached out to the Record Store Day organizers to try to sort out the mishap, but they never responded.'
So that was not good and we got spanked.
We made our amends, reapplied and were back on the next year. But... rain, snow, Xcel... and then 2020, the Covid Lockdown. No Record Store Day. No (lower case) record store day at all.
Dave and I have prided ourselves on being open 363 days every year, year in, year out: we're open. Rain or shine. Blizzard or tornado. Hungover and staggering. Cars running into the store. Fucking Xcel. Whatever, we’re open.
***
So I hope to see you Saturday, April 20, 2024. God willing and the creeks don't rise. It will be both Record Store Day and (lower case) record store day. Our doors will be open. We'll have some records to sell.
Come on by. We'll make a day of it.
Duane
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