After reports from music-buying types on the state of their local record stores – both despondently negative and superbly positive – here we feature two bands chatting about their own favourite outlets of all things aural.
Said bands: The Race and Underground Railroad.
Record Store Day takes place on April 18 – ClashMusic.com will feature many more articles in the next few days, but for the time being…
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Continuing our countdown to Record Store Day 2009, The Race’s Dan Buchanan gives us the lowdown on his most pleasing vinyl hangout…
Dan Buchanan on Oxfam Music Shop, Reading…
This shop appeared in Reading about the time the FOPP store closed down in 2007. It also coincided with me receiving an old record player from a friend’s deceased relative. It is stuffed full of vinyl but also sells a whole bunch of other stuff too. Totally run by volunteers, they have a really clever way of shifting stock whether it be bundling up old comic books for 50p a pack or their latest lucky dip where you get a sealed box of 100 CD singles for £10 and have to trust the Oxfam staff on their choices. Locally they’ve put together compilation CDs of some of the bands in the area and also put on fundraising gigs, too. An awesome shop, and a great place for discovering some amazing records on the cheap.
My favourite record from there would probably be The Band’s second album. We’d just finished recording our album with producer Dave Eringa and he’d told me they where his favourite band of all time and that I had to check them out. A week later on my next visit, sitting in the newly arrived section was The Band’s self-titled album for £2.99. He wasn’t wrong.
Get a free download of The Race’s ‘Get It Wrong’ HERE.
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Underground Railroad’s Raphael Mura on Rough Trade East, London…
I spontaneously have to talk about Rough Trade East in London.
I know it might seem like the easy answer, as we are now east London based and I live about 10 minutes walk from there. Probably every band that has done a showcase there, like we did, loves that shop; but it truly means something special to me.
Coming from the suburbs of Paris, I would never have managed to found all those precious records coming from the most obscure international underground record labels, back there.
I’m so happy to be able to get anything from minimal techno to experimental noise rock in there. I guess I also enjoy the fact that it’s not only weird music that you can find, but you can also get all the newest releases from ‘trendy’ indie or major labels and, sometimes, other narrow-minded small record stores in Paris for example couldn’t bear compromising. I like open-minded people. It’s all about the finding a good balance.
And talking about the people from RTE, I happen to really enjoy going there almost every day only to shake hands with Phil or Spencer who now know me well. They probably find it weird that I end up not buying too many records, because I can’t afford it because I’m broke from playing too many unpaid tours, but I guess they love telling me about their new favourite releases and they love hearing my hangover stories from tours all over UK and Europe.
Phil advised me to get a few records, and I think one of the best I got recently was the Atlas Sound record, ‘Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See…’. It’s a beautiful ambient-pop album, as if Lou Reed started writing on a laptop. Bradford Cox (from Deerhunter) did it on his own; I love the fact he experiments with electronics and effects on vocals… It’s close to what Björk does on ‘Vespertine’. I will also wanna purchase the last Holy Fuck album – they’re from Toronto – or the new Black Lips LP, when I get a million pounds advance for our new record (please?). Maybe also the new Lily Allen album, if I don’t find it illegally first on the internet…
Underground Railroad on MySpace
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Tomorrow: more Record Store Day related feature content. Nice.
