Record Store Day at The Groove Records in Nashville
This was my first Record Store Day in Nashville, and it did not let me down. Record Store Day is so much more than the wax that we attempt to collect, but rather it’s an experience that we cherish. Don’t get me wrong, holding the product in your hands like Simba from the Lion King is the ultimate endgame, but there is also all the other things that go with it that make RSD special.
It’s a sport. In fact, it’s the Super Bowl for us audiophiles. The preparation itself is just as grueling, if not more wearing that the day itself. This year there were 387 titles available on April 20th, 2024. I don’t know about you, but I am strapped for that kind of cash or resources to make all tof hat mine. If you are not super familiar with this day and do not celebrate it for the true holiday that it is, I accept your beliefs and do not wish to push my religion on you. Instead of Merry Record Store Day, I will just say Happy Holiday’s.
RSD is about collecting that rare vinyl and those special releases that artists put out. There were roughtly 1200 participating, independent record stores across the country that participated in the 17th year of this event. And in some cases, there were only a few hundred presses of the black circle available to spread across these brick and mortar shops. That is where the composing of your gameplan kicks in. I personally set a budget up front. A dollar amount that I will not exceed under any circumstance, that is, until I walk into the store and then I totally blow past that number within minutes of my entry. That means Top Ramen and domestic beer for the next few weeks, as well as signing up for overtime at work.
Location is also key. I had to learn about these new outlets and how many people they have frequenting them every year. The big one is Grimey’s, here in Nashville and on Friday (the day before RSD) i stopped in to swoop up the new Pearl Jam Dark Matter and T Bone Burnett’s first album in 20 years. As I arrived there, people had already set up lawn chairs, formed a line and even began constructing tents to settle down for the night. So, I checked them off the list. They are a fantastic store and I will continue to be a patron but I need my bed. A couple of my other favorites, which are Analog Your Life and Phonoluxe were not participating in RSD this year. Vinyl Tap was also on my radar, but they had so much happening and I knew the crowds would be larger, so my choice became The Groove Records. At least first, I may hit all these places later in the day.
I realize as I am writing that this makes it sound like they were down the list. That is not the case. I have a top five. I always have a top five, just like Rob Gordon in the movie High Fidelity. No one is better than the other, just different.
Now that I had a budget (kinda) and a location, I needed to prepare a list of what I needed (besides food and water). Death Cab for Cutie’s Live at The Showbox was a must. I was at that show in Seattle, in February 2020, and that would be the last show I would see for an exceptionally long time, because… well, you know what happened next. I also wanted the Talking Heads –Live at WCOZ ‘77 and The Black Crowes have a 7” single out too in preparation for their next studio album which releases mid-March. The only other thing on my shopping list was the Olivo Rodrigo and Noah Kahan 7” for my friend Corrine at work. All other items absorbed by me would be random pulls, but I was certainly aware of what was out there.
I arrived at Grimey’s around 7:45 and was roughly 53rd in line as pointed out to me by the young lady in front of me named Kelsey (maybe I got that spelling correct). She was joined by Joey, and we became fast friends or I was annoying as hell. It is my story though, so we became fast friends. They were quite younger than myself, but we were there for the same experience. The rush of RSD. The store opened at 9am and It would be around 10:15 by they time we stepped foot into the actually store.
I will say this, kudos to The Groove for putting on an absolutely wonderful day and being so organized. I have been to Record Store Day’s in the past that were full of elbows, pushing and chaos and this was not that.
People began to exit the store as we mulled along the sidewalk and stairs, and the looks on their faces as they left, were genuine exultation. It was these big smiles and gasps of relief as if they had found The Holy Grail, and they kinda did. We watched carefully too in order to see what they had snatched from the racks. We questioned how many were left of what we sought after. We would ask questions to these patrons before us about the set up and how many copies remained from our beloved artists.
I was looking for that Death Cab record and there were only 1500 pressed in the world. I wasn’t even sure if it was going to be an option for me. I also wanted to get that Olivia and Noah joint for my friend, and I saw those leaving the building in rapid succession. Would I hve pivot and change my strategy. What else was on my list? De La Soul had a new album that I kept hearing about on local radio station WNEXP and it sounded like a banger. The Doors had a new release circulating to from a European concert in 1968 and The Doors self-titled album was the first record I ever bought. Not when it was originally released though, I am not that old. There were so many on the board in my brain and I began to shuffle them around in order of importance.
When I finally did touch my feet to the baseboards of the store there was an overall calmness that I enjoyed. Which then shifted to pure anxiety and that was the moment that I realized this false Zen from all the other humans in the shop. It was that old adage of a duck swimming. Everyone was gliding through the store and appearing to be at peace, but their hearts were racing, and their voices would have cracked had anyone been speaking at all. There was a security person onsite directing the crowd to enter the second room of the shop that contained the precious gems which we desired. One at a time could enter to the left, and when they had thumbed through the first crate and moved to their right, the next body could follow.
The next few minutes are a blur to me, literally. I got into the sacred room and I immediately picked up Parklife from BLUR. Ha, it seemed fitting, given my state. This is a beautiful picture disc record and the 30th anniversary of this perfect album. Next, I scored with the German pressing of David Bowie’s– Waiting in the Sky. This album is taken from Trident Studios ¼” tapes dated December of 1971, which were created for the provisional track-listing for what would become The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars album.
The Cranberries, Bury the Hatchet, had to be plucked up next. The Cranberries will live forever in my heart and attaches me strongly to my sister Kim. I was visiting her in Florida when we heard the news that lead singer and Irish angel Delores O’Riordan had passed away. We raised our glasses and toasted her legacy as we listened to just about everything in their catalogue.
This next moment made my entire journey well worth it. The three hours in line seemed like a flash in the pan as I gazed into that Death Cab for Cutie album. I could not believe i had snared one of the 1500 copies that floated across the universe. I knew my friends back in Seattle would have a challenging time grasping onto this piece of music history, as they are a Seattle band, with and album recorded live in city and if any copies were anywhere in the state of Washington, they would be first grabs. My day was already made, but far from over.
I passed up The Doors record for some reason, not even sure why, but possibly because I was still trying to hold to a budget. Then, I found the godfather of punk, Iggy Pop with Iggy & The Stooges -Live at Lokerse Feesten, 2005 shortly there after. The draw that followed was another bit of magic. Between my fingers I was twiddling a proof of that Talking Heads broadcast. This record contains 7 previously unleased performances recorded at Northern Studios on Novemember 17th, 1977. This was certainly becoming a trend of live album picks and I didn’t hate it.
Some Picks from Grimey’s, The Groove Records, and Vinyl Tap (coming in part II)
I also took a moment to breathe and take in the others that were searching around me. The eyes lighting up and the hearts being filled with so much music. Kelsey turned to me at one point and showed me that she had discovered the location of the Noah and Olivia 45 and said, “there’s plenty of them.” The owners of The Groove had done a fantastic job at curating the shop for this highly anticipated event. Wonderful amounts of the promised stock were available (as much as it can be). People seemed happy; I was already content. I happened upon another 45-rpm recent drop from Sleater-Kinney and reached back for a copy of The Melvins-Tarantula Heart as I came to the end of my campaign. The register would now tell the tale of what really happened on this hallowed ground today. Let us just say I was right about on the previously set spending amount. You don’t need to know what that was or how close, “close”, actually was. This was just the beginning of the day for me as I was back outside and awaiting the arrival of some dear friends, the bar to open and the live music to start. There’s a part two to this story and it’s just as wonderful and sometime soon I hope to publish it. Until then, I will see you on the B Side.
