Entertainment
Head Spin
April 20 also happens to be the day to support your local record store
Peanut butter and jelly. Ham and burger. Music and marijuana. There are some things that just seem like they were always meant to be together. Luckily for music fans everywhere, the ultimate day of our sativa sacrament—4
April 20 also happens to be the day to support your local record store
Peanut butter and jelly. Ham and burger. Music and marijuana. There are some things that just seem like they were always meant to be together. Luckily for music fans everywhere, the ultimate day of our sativa sacrament—420—also happens to be date when the vinyl frontier reaches to invade your ear holes. April 20 this year will also double as Record Store Day (RSD), a celebration of indie record store culture and the music that sustains them. The day is usually marked by promotions and issuing of special CD and vinyl releases.
Worldwide, around 1,700 independent stores from every continent (except for Antarctica) are expected to celebrate the 6th annual event. Musician and record connoisseur Jack White will serve as the official RSD Ambassador, promoting the wonders of records—heck, he might even make an in-store appearance.
Some notable RSD releases include, Live: Volume 1 – Selections from Adrenaline, a compilation of songs handpicked by the Deftones; Closer Remixed by Tegan and Sara (who graced the cover of CULTURE’s March issue); and a strictly experimental album, Zaireeka, that needs four disks to be played simultaneously by The Flaming Lips. Zaireeka’s songs talk about a pilot that commits suicide mid-flight, uses high/low frequencies that may cause premonitions—and what album wouldn’t be complete without cartoons about demented vegetables?
All in all, more than 350 unique and limited-edition records will be made available, including releases from Mumford & Sons, Imagine Dragons, REM, Bob Dylan, Pink Floyd, Iron & Wine, Garbage, Linkin Park and more.
Although RSD co-founder Michael Kurtz, insists that the event just so happened to fall on April 20 this year (the day traditionally falls on the third Saturday in April) he tells CULTURE, “Willie Nelson’s Record Store Day release is called ‘Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die.’ Somehow I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Willie is releasing this record on 420.”
