Way back when (four years ago!) if you were a band or artist who wanted to participate in Record Store Day, all you really had to do more or less was offer a release on vinyl for the event and basically you were golden. This year however the releases are going one—perhaps ten—steps beyond just a vinyl issue. They’re arriving with a number of …surprises.
For example, Big Star’s “Third” will see a rerelease on Record Store Day and five random, lucky customers will find an authentic, autographed test pressing of the classic inside their purchase.
Dengue Fever have gone beyond being merely golden for Record Store Day with the release of their brand new Cannibal Courtship on vinyl—three days before it arrives anywhere, in any format. There are five, hand made, “golden tickets” stashed in five LPs circulating around on RSD2011. The recipients of the golden tickets will be granted free entry to any headline show by Dengue Fever through December 31, 2012. Full sweepstakes details will be on the band’s website on Record Store Day.
“With so many people listening to digital files on their phones and lap tops, thank God for Record Store Day! We’ve got our new album Cannibal Courtship coming out on vinyl and we hid five Golden Tickets somewhere within the packaging. Each ticket will get the lucky holder into any show we’re playing. If a man in dark clothing creeps up and offers to buy the ticket off you, think twice. You saw what happened in “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.”
A thousand years from now mankind might not be able to figure out CDs or MP3s but they’ll have a chance with vinyl. I’m glad we’ll be heard. It makes me want to stamp out a golden record like the one they sent off into space on the Voyager spacecraft in ’79.” —Zac Holtzman, guitar, Dengue Fever
“The first record I ever bought was Master of Reality by Black Sabbath, but it was not the first record I ever owned. I started off with a short stack I inherited from my parents, and one special record was given to me as a birthday present from a girl at school.
I had Uprising by Bob Marley, a strange Burl Ives album of folk tunes, Paul Simon’s Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover – I only listened to that song. I really loved Border Lord by Kris Kristofferson; I had no idea who he was except that he sounded like he had already been all over the country on foot.
The handful of Nina Simone albums I had baffled me. Some of her songs sounded like classical music with little singing, some with heart wrenching soul and others perfect little ditties.
It was Sean Cassidy’s “Da Doo Ron Ron” that was given to me by the cute girl. I burned a hole in that one – it was not only the music that warranted so many spins.
Dengue Fever | Cement Slippers
Writing about vinyl has gotten me thinking about the house I grew up in. The plaster was browned and crumbling around the wall heater. I’d set up drums in the living room and hang cymbals from beams by telephone wires. Proved very dangerous for those playing stringed instruments nearby.
Record Store Day means a lot to me. Right now I am listening to Master of Reality on my turntable as everything else sits dormant, I near tear to the sound of “Orchid” as my mother’s voice echoes from the past, ‘What is that song? It is beautiful.’”
—Senon Williams, bass, Dengue Fever
