10 YEARS OF LOCAL: LONG LIVE RECORD STORE DAY

Photos courtesy of Tres Gatos

As sure as you can be that most employees of DigBoston will spend way too many pesos on Record Store Day, one can bet one’s ass that vinyl muse and guru Phil Wilcox of Tres Gatos in Jamaica Plain will be screaming from his indie soapbox for the weeks leading up to the high musical holiday. As he wrote us in an email last month, “RSD is my favorite day of the year, and not because of crazy sales. We survive—like a lot of small stores—on a group of 200-300 regulars who come in weekly and buy vinyl. They are only in one place at one time once a year, on RSD. Seeing the connections made, friendships, drinking buddies, even relationships, is amazing.”

We’re so touched by the dedication of Wilcox and ace wax consultants like him everywhere that we asked him to further plug what he calls “an amazing event that brings together record collectors and music fans from all over to celebrate the thing that they love: vinyl!” Without further ado, your one-man RSD welcoming committee … -Dig Editors

Record Store Day strikes again on April 22, and at Tres Gatos, just like at record stores across the city, state, country, and world, we will open our doors at 9am to eager vinyl hounds looking for long-lost albums, records that have been out of print for decades, and limited-press releases from huge acts and obscure artists alike. It is truly Christmas for vinyl collectors, a day to hunt and dig and flip through stacks, and a day for connection.

This is the 10th anniversary of RSD. It started with a handful of stores and artists, and has become an international event, with thousands of stores in 10 countries selling hundreds and hundreds of special releases. It’s our favorite day of the year—not just because it’s the busiest day, or a symbol of the continuing renaissance of the vinyl industry, but because we get to see the hundreds and hundreds of regulars who keep our little vinyl shop in business in one place at one time, meeting and greeting, making connections, forming friendships over Talking Heads 7-inches and live Townes Van Zandt albums, the new single from War on Drugs, and unreleased Sharon Jones recordings.

Love is in the air: love for vinyl, love for culture, and love for your neighborhood, wherever that may be. In JP, we celebrate with all the official RSD records you could ever want, plus free coffee and cookies and pastries. It’s a time for music lovers of all ages to gather, shop, talk, debate, drink (the aforementioned coffee followed by beers later on) and toast one another. At the end, we’ll walk out with our arms full of wax and, hopefully, a couple of new phone numbers of fellow vinyl junkies.

Some people say things like, “I don’t need the pageantry, every day is record store day.” And they aren’t wrong to think that way; if this is your passion, your hobby, your obsession, then every day probably is record store day. Nevertheless, there is only one Record Store Day, and this year it’s on April 22.

ALSO CHECK OUT: DIG MUSIC EDITOR NINA CORCORAN’S ESSENTIAL RSD ROUNDUP