Saturday 17 April is Record Store Day.
From top 20 stuff to second hand 12 inch 80s vinyl, from the hottest French electropop to Kiwi dub - it’s all good at your local record store.
Christchurch is well served by a mixture of chain stores, and local landmarks like Galaxy, Radar, Pennylane and Real Groovy (there is a list of Christchurch retail music stores from CHART).
Some record store related reading:
- High fidelity (Nick Hornby book, and movie starring John Cusack)
- Stuart McLean’s Vinyl Cafe books
- Old rare new : the independent record shop - a homage to the independent record shop, with interviews of a variety of music types like Everett True, Devendra Banhart and James Lavelle having their say on the joys of discovery.
The Library caters for music lovers well, we send you off to the record store better informed and give you the chance to try before you buy. See our Music pages for more information – and don’t forget next month is New Zealand Music Month and there will be performances in our libraries to liven up your May.
What do you think of record shops? Are you all about online music purchasing, or do you still love that vinyl?
14 April 2010 at 7:23 am
Used to be Marbeck’s was the only decent music store in the North Island (though there might have been an equivalent in Wellington) but even it’s gone down the gurgler. Just as well for me I can buy music on-line. Sometimes I even buy from the Marbeck web site, but their prices are usually too high.
14 April 2010 at 7:24 am
PS. I have about 800 LPs but I don’t buy them any more. Chance would be a fine thing to get the living room to myself to listen to them!
14 April 2010 at 10:10 am
800 is impressive! I’ve probably got about 100.
On the local celebrations of Record Store Day, I just spotted that Real Groovy in Christchurch is having some promotions and events:
1pm – J Dubs will do an in-store performance to promote his new album Keynotes
2pm – Decknology champion DJ Insomniac
3pm – Big Gary
4pm – DJ Skew-whiff plus other Real Groovy in-store DJs will spin a few classics
14 April 2010 at 10:21 am
I have about 450 LPs but they languish for lack of a turntable and any real desire to resurrect one. Plus the space needed; I have this post-children fantasy of my own music room/den with wall to wall bookshelves and a top end stereo and AV system, temperature controlled wine cellar, fine malt whisky…I don’t download.
14 April 2010 at 5:56 pm
Michael – that all sounds so grown-up! My only problem with this scenario is that all my vinyl dates from my early teens, and includes gems like the Bay City Rollers, which possibly won’t mesh too well with the surroundings ..
14 April 2010 at 8:18 pm
When I was a teenager (many eons ago) we used to meet at the record shop every Friday night before going out on the town. It was the coolest of the cool before cool existed. The new LP covers were salivated over – works of art, so desirable and unattainable. It’s just not the same with CD covers and online music. Sadly, Record Stores may well be an endangered species.
27 June 2010 at 4:27 pm
Cd’s and DVD’s are a format that is difficult to resist to the buyers of music today. But, the sound of digital technology is not the same as analog. It is hard, if not impossible, to describe the advantages of the “vinyl” years over a generation that is only familiar with the digital discs of today. Give me an hour and I can!!