Record Store Day - Record Store Day 2010

Record Store Day 2010

The third annual Record Store Day took place on Saturday, April 17, 2010. The official ambassador for the event was Joshua Homme. The official book of the event was "Last Shop Standing: Whatever Happened to Record Shops by Graham Jones". KCRW's Gary Calamar and Phil Gallo also released their own self-published book, "Record Store Days", which talks about independent record stores, with artist quotes provided by www.recordstoreday.com used throughout the book, and a specific chapter devoted to Record Store Day. NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg and New York City once again honored the day. Anything Anything with Rich Russo released a vinyl album of local bands performing on his radio show as well as doing a bus tour visiting numerous New York and New Jersey record stores. Several artists made in-store appearances to mark the event:The Smashing Pumpkins announced that they would kick off the tour promoting their new album with a special Record Store Day concert at Amoeba in Hollywood, CA. Other artists to announce special appearances included Frank Black, Exene Cervenka, Angie Stone, Jason Derulo, Alice in Chains, Mastodon, Josh Ritter, HIM, Slash, Sick Puppies, Care Bears on Fire, and Emmylou Harris. The year's event was also celebrated by giving young artists an opportunity to showcase their talent in the form of a national "Record Store Day: High School Battle of the Bands". Local, participating independent record stores nominated one local high school band by picking a cut from the band's supplied recording and entered their name and song cut into the contest. A panel of record executives and members from the Fender Corporation judged the entrants. Nine national semi-finalists were chosen to appear on a limited edition, compilation vinyl LP of their winning songs. Pressed by Gotta Groove, the LP features digital convenience. On the day of the event, it was announced that the grand prize winning band was SANUK, an indie band of HS students from Indianapolis, Indiana. They received a generous prize package of musical gear from the Fender Corporation and recording time with recording greats - Jack Ponti and Kevin "The Caveman" Shirley. SANUK was championed by their local record store, Indy CD & Vinyl. The sponsors of the contest were Caroline Distribution and EMI Label Services, Fender, and Fender Music Foundation. Aside from the Band Battle contest, many participating record stores had a line-up of live talent performing throughout the day. In 2010, more than 1,400 independent record stores participated in the unofficial holiday. More than 1,000 were from the US alone. Record stores saw a 41% increase in sales over the previous year's celebration, and a 109% increase over the previous Saturday's sales. By this time, the event had become such a nationally recognized event, that in the U.S., it was even referenced on "Saturday Night Live." During the year, the first Black Friday Record Store Day was also held, on November 26, 2010.

This year's releases included:

• Them Crooked Vultures - "Unreleased" (10" Vinyl)
• Blur - "Fool's Day" (7" Vinyl)
• John Lennon
• Bruce Springsteen
• Devo
• The Flaming Lips
• Lily Allen - "Back To The Start" (7" Vinyl, 1000 Copies Only)
• MGMT
• Gogol Bordello
• Built to Spill
• Gorillaz - "White Flag" (10" Vinyl, 1500 Copies Only)
• The Rolling Stones
• LCD Soundsystem
• Terrible Things
• Tinie Tempah - "Pass Out" (7" Vinyl, 1000 Copies Only)
• Ani DiFranco
• Hold Steady
• Muse
• Modest Mouse
• Josh Ritter
• Great Lake Swimmers