Record Store Day 2023

I'll take the gD Boston to complete the 3 day run on vinyl. Especially since it's due 5 days after I run the Boston Marathon so hopefully a good cause to celebrate. The nrps Lyceum will go nice with the Lyceum GD box

Sir Doug at the Ashgrove

RZA as Bobby Digital

Van Halen Live: Right Here, Right Now

Dolly Parton - The Monument Singles Collection

Koko Taylor - I Got What It Takes

Scott Weiland - 12 Bar Blues

Violent Femmes 40th

As a vintage record store, I don't bother with RSD.  The feedback I get from my customers is not terribly glowing.  Their main beef is that the majority of the pressings are shoddily done and are not up to the quality they expect.  Secondary issues are a lack of the titles they are interested in, and having to deal with overly competitive shoppers.  

What's your experience been like?

Mixed bag. I haven't been in years, just order the ones I want on line, some good some terrible. Was better early on and I def don't buy anything if an OG available, for instance the blood on the tracks test press is pretty hard to obtain but the initial RSD release was plagued with qc issues. They actually repressed is small batch and I was lucky to get one. Happy with that. Another is my OG international submarine band is in stereo but finding a mono is expensive so that one was a good score. I generally grab a couple rsd exclusive pressings and call it a day, usually grab the gd or jg for fun

Lots of great options- too many, maybe. Not really interested in the 2xLP, 3xLP (or more) releases, vinyl is pretty cumbersome for those longer releases. The NRPS, Augustus Pablo, Sun Ra are looking good right now. The qc issues are not unique to RSD, lots of re-issues are crap these days, too much analog > digital > analog transfers, and just not as much manufacturing qc as there was when the companies pressing the records were, like, huge. For things that haven't been released yet though, if there's nothing to compare it to, then it's fine...

My local store never (rarely) has the titles I'm into, and I'm not going to bust down the door at 8am or whenever they open. If there are RSD releases still available whenever I drop by, all the better. I love my local store though, it's not their fault.

At this point in my collecting I'm really only buying "stuff I think I'm probably never/rarely going to see again", so record store day is definitely out.

I do appreciate some of the titles that are being put out, but really only for the novelty reasons already covered. I personally see a lot of parallels between the current state of the retail record market and baseball cards in the 90's. (Many many low quality kitschy versions of what are all basically more or less the same thing).

But if it gets people into stores spending money and getting and excited about music, then I think it's generally a good thing.