For Luke: A day early, but Happy Record Store Day!

Good news Luke! Cool store, as others have said.

My town is blessed to have 2 vinyl-carrying stores. I picked up 2 albums today.
 
Happy Record Store Day to all music heads!.

Being myself a music fanatic and self considered record collector, obviously went to support the biggest and almost last independent music store in NZ, which is in Auckland and its called Real Groovy. Although small when compared to Amoeba in California which is enormous RG is by no means small, here are some shots of the day.

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While this should be "normal" in terms of how many people goes to a record store a few years ago, now it needs to be a worldwide event to take people into a shop. Still, it was great fun for the whole family, and great to see every aisle full of people buying and supporting pop culture in every sense.

and in words of the great Nick Hornby

"Records stores can't save your life, but they can give you a better one."

Hope your store was also full Luke!.

ps: all this shots with the GR only.
 
Wow, all these people buying records again. While I just recycled about 500 CDs acquired over about 28 years (I think I remember I started buying CDs in 1986 - I could be off by a year either direction). I now have no physical media with recorded music on it except for a few old tapes with some old family stuff and my own recordings (which are terrible, but they're the only evidence I have that I once could sort of play, almost). And once I take the time to digitize those, they'll be gone too. We don't have any equipment for playing any records or CDs and I have one small portable tape deck that'll go once I convert that handful of tapes. And then there are the CD players in our cars - the final holdouts... We still have a few DVDs but nothing left to play those on either - the personal stuff we'll digitize but we'll probably trash the rest soon. We've gone completely digital with files on various hard drives, SSDs, and clouds and such... Even with books we're down to coffee table books, photo books, and other graphic intensive stuff. But for day to day reading material, all Kindle.

But I'm glad there are still people keeping stores like Luke's going. Those photos really bring back memories - your store looks almost EXACTLY like the little record store in Tucson where I first started buying albums about 44 or so years ago. It survived a while, converting over to tapes, but I think the big corporate places killed it before CD's came along... I'm glad there are still places like that, although I don't know exactly why, other than I'm glad Luke can make a living and keep buying cameras! I was watching some news show yesterday and they actually mentioned that it was Record Store Day - it was sort of a novelty item used to get a laugh on the show, but at least they mentioned it...

-Ray
 
Ray, I understand your feelings about leaving physical media behind. Going fully digital can feel completely liberating to many. The analogy isn't perfect, but I think the way some people prefer playing physical media vs. digital files is a bit like the folks here on this forum preferring a dedicated camera with lots of physical controls to using a high quality cel phone camera. One is not inherently better than the other, but the joy of the experience varies from person to person.

Here's my last couple shots from the day.....most of the time, I was too busy bagging up people's purchases or swiping credit cards to be shooting.

Here's a sidewalk sale we set-up in front of our neighbors at the Comet Cafe (you may have seen them featured on the TV show "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" on the Food Network. Every time they replay the episode, obese tourists from all over make the pilgrimage to try the bacon-wrapped meatloaf.) Mark from Furthermore Beer (they are very small craft brewers from Spring Green, WI....just outside of Madison) is serving up free samples of their latest IPA called Viking Afternoon......I had a few yesterday....they were pretty good.
13927160652_0eeb80db69_b.jpg
DSCF5120 by Luke Lavin, on Flickr

And here's a goofy shot of one of our regulars. A hip, young man with impeccable taste who was bemused by this misogynistic record being offered in such a fine shop.
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DSCF5123 by Luke Lavin, on Flickr
 
Luke, great fun. Glad it was a cool day for you. The last photo is really interesting. It reminds me why I have had a renewed interest in vinyl records over the last decade. (Not that I want 'Booty Phat') It is amazing the variety of albums that never made in to CDs or digital. I try to stop by Cactus Records once a month to see what people have brought in to their used vinyl record collection. I am glad there are people like you that keep the record shop culture alive. :)

Ray, I understand your feelings about leaving physical media behind. Going fully digital can feel completely liberating to many. The analogy isn't perfect, but I think the way some people prefer playing physical media vs. digital files is a bit like the folks here on this forum preferring a dedicated camera with lots of physical controls to using a high quality cel phone camera. One is not inherently better than the other, but the joy of the experience varies from person to person.

Here's my last couple shots from the day.....most of the time, I was too busy bagging up people's purchases or swiping credit cards to be shooting.

Here's a sidewalk sale we set-up in front of our neighbors at the Comet Cafe (you may have seen them featured on the TV show "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" on the Food Network. Every time they replay the episode, obese tourists from all over make the pilgrimage to try the bacon-wrapped meatloaf.) Mark from Furthermore Beer (they are very small craft brewers from Spring Green, WI....just outside of Madison) is serving up free samples of their latest IPA called Viking Afternoon......I had a few yesterday....they were pretty good.
13927160652_0eeb80db69_b.jpg
DSCF5120 by Luke Lavin, on Flickr

And here's a goofy shot of one of our regulars. A hip, young man with impeccable taste who was bemused by this misogynistic record being offered in such a fine shop.
13950322173_168014898a_c.jpg
DSCF5123 by Luke Lavin, on Flickr
 
I am sorry to say that I have not bought a CD or vinyl in years. The main reason is that there are no good record stores left in my area (or probably all of Puerto Rico) anymore. I used to LOVE to browse through racks of records, particularly in the days of vinyl, in search of new or previously undiscovered music. For a while, I would order CDs from Amazon, until they discontinued free shipping to Puerto Rico. Since then, it's only been downloads from iTunes. :(

Oh well, brave new world!
 
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