Dozens of Injuries & Arrests Connected to Record Store Day 2014
“Everything seemed perfectly normal one moment, and then the next thing I know six or seven young men are all brawling, punching, yelling, and pulling each other’s beards trying to wrestle for the last copy of a Dawes/Conor Oberst 7″ split. I was in fear for my life.”
Similar alarming accounts are coming in from witnesses and police all across the country as Record Store Day 2014 turns violent in many of the independent record stores the day is meant to promote. In multiple instances, vehement vinyl listeners are resulting to violence in order to obtain their favorite sought-after Record Store Day rarities, only made available in very limited quantities in small stores not normally set up for such a customer load.
Multiple police departments in multiple locations across the country are reporting incidents involving verbal altercations, property damage, theft, vandalism, and even assault & battery in connection to the promotional holiday. Since many of the participating record stores do as much business in this single day as they do the entire buying season before Christmas, it was only a matter of time before the event took a Black Friday turn, filled with fear-raising accounts and felony charges.
“Cuts, bruises, black eyes, and one incident we’re considering a sexual assault when a customer fished a Death Cab For Cutie album out of the front of a young lady’s shirt where she’d put it for safe keeping,” Austin, TX police spokesman Alexander Frankenfurter reports. “We’re also seeing a lot of incidents involving beards. Beards getting pulled, beards getting stuck in things, beards getting interlocked with other beards. Even when the incident is incidental because people are in cramped quarters searching for vinyl, fuses are running short and people are overreacting. We’re asking for anyone with a beard, especially a long beard who is participating in Record Store Day to seriously think about restraining the beard with maybe rubber bands or a scrunchie, or trimming the beard if possible. We also have a young lady who was taken to the hospital after she had her eye injured by the pointy end of a waxed mustache.”
Another harrowing story from San Francisco had the jaws of life being called to a record store after an individual dropped his vintage Ray Ban glasses between two record store bins, and got his elbow stuck when trying to retrieve them. “We’re asking people to be very patient,” said a San Francisco Fire Marshall spokesman. “Understand being involved in Record Store Day means you’re going to be in long lines, and cramped quarters. It also means dealing with people who regularly don’t leave their homes, and people who drink Pabst Blue Ribbon for no other reason than to be ironic.”
Though no totals for the amount of incidents stemming from Record Store Day violence are available at the moment, we do know multiple cities are reporting incidents, including such vinyl havens as Portland, OR., San Francisco, CA., The Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, Austin, TX, and Athens, GA. “If you live in Austin and don’t own a record player, we ask that you stay home,” Alexander Frankenfurter of the Austin Police says. “Or at least avoid the neighborhoods where local record stores and fair trade organic coffee shops are located.”
Founded in 2007, Record Store Day was inspired by Free Comic Book Day with the idea of supporting the local, independently-owned record store that was slowly becoming a dinosaur of the retail landscape in lieu of music’s digital download age. Since its advent, dozens, and now hundreds, if not thousands of artists release exclusive vinyl works hoping to entice consumers back to their local mom and pop’s.
April 19, 2014 @ 2:37 pm
Hilarious!
April 19, 2014 @ 3:02 pm
that’s about sums it up…
April 19, 2014 @ 3:57 pm
What’s a vinyl?
April 19, 2014 @ 5:15 pm
Hey, in my defense, that was a deluxe edition Transatlanticism
April 19, 2014 @ 5:43 pm
This isn’t too far from the truth. I remember how excited I was when Record Store Day first started. Then it came. It’s unorganized like the business – stores can’t tell you what release they will be receiving or how many quantities. You’re running all over town for that exclusive, poor quality vinyl you really won’t care about in two years (there’s a reason those songs didn’t make the real album).
However, it was fun following Third Man Records facebook page today. Like everything he does, Jack White knows how to celebrate a record holiday. If I lived in Nashville I would have attended as a spectator.
April 21, 2014 @ 8:06 am
Which store in Nashville?
I go to Grimey’s, Ernest Tubb (both locations) and Edward McKay’s quite a bit.
April 21, 2014 @ 10:57 am
Third Man Records – Jack White’s recording studio/ record store on 7th Ave. For RSD, he recorded an album, pressed it, and distributed it right there on the spot yesterday. They were promoting it as ‘The World’s Fastest Record!’
A lot of artists hold min-concerts at the studio and record and sell the album. The only one I have is Willie Nelson’s 80th birthday party with Ashely Monroe, Jamey Johnson, Willie Nelson, Leon Russell and others.
http://thirdmanrecords.com/news/view/willie-nelson-and-friends-from-third-man-records
https://www.facebook.com/ThirdManRecords
April 21, 2014 @ 12:47 pm
Thanks a lot.
I will be sure to get by there sometime soon.
April 19, 2014 @ 5:55 pm
Thoughts and prayers for the woman who took a ‘stache to the eye.
April 19, 2014 @ 5:57 pm
My experience this year was great at The Sound Garden in Baltimore. LONG line but even after waiting 4hrs they had everything I wanted and more. Looks like they had damn near every release.
April 19, 2014 @ 6:10 pm
Whew, I’m so glad I avoided the Origami vinyl record store on Sunset in Echo Park yesterday as I’m allergic to both hipsters and violent crowds. That was just too close of call for my tastes…(lol)
The way CD sales are heading will future Record Store Days feature CD releases as well as vinyl since both formats are nearing extinction? Hmm…
April 19, 2014 @ 9:56 pm
“The way CD sales are heading will future Record Store Days feature CD releases as well as vinyl since both formats are nearing extinction? Hmm”¦”
Personally, I doubt it. CDs just don’t have the same tactile appeal as vinyl records. But I never would have predicted something like Record Store day would become popular in the first place, so who knows.
April 19, 2014 @ 8:09 pm
Man, am in tears. This was hilarious!
April 19, 2014 @ 9:11 pm
That opening quote made me LOL — the Dawes/Conor Oberst reference was an especially nice touch. 😀
April 19, 2014 @ 9:19 pm
“It also means dealing with people who regularly don”™t leave their homes, and people who drink Pabst Blue Ribbon for no other reason than to be ironic”
HA! I loved this!!!
I did go to our city’s used CD/record store this evening. I don’t have a record player, but it seems these days making an effort to buy physical CD’s instead of just downloading makes a person a bit of a hipster.
I DID feel kinda douchey when I said something like, “I can find (insert random crappy band) here, but they don’t have Scorpion Child?”
I only drink PBR at shows because it’s, like, $2.50 for a 16 oz at our biggest local venue, by the way.
April 19, 2014 @ 9:46 pm
At first I only read the opening quote before scrolling down to look over the comments. I’m glad I’m not the only one that thought this was funny (and truth be told, I didn’t know it was a joke from that brief snippet so I felt bad for being amused). I took advantage of some deals today, myself, but ironically I only bought CDs. I was briefly tempted by a remastered vinyl pressing of AC/DC’s Back in Black, but I’ve resolved to wait until I can get my hands on an original 1980 copy.
On another note, I spent four hours cataloguing my grandparents and parents vinyl and cassette collections yesterday without realizing what day was today. Funny coincidence.
April 20, 2014 @ 5:18 am
I had a great experience at Record Den in the Cleveland, OH area. Most everyone there seemed polite and in control of their behavior.
It’s a shame that so many people elsewhere had to behave like boars and ruin what is meant to be such a cool day.
April 20, 2014 @ 11:25 am
whoosh!
April 20, 2014 @ 1:52 pm
When is mixtape day round here?
April 20, 2014 @ 3:47 pm
Spin those black circles! I didn’t make it to record store Day this year but I do like my vinyl records. I specially like that I can get boxes and boxes of them for nothing or next to such. I make a point of asking all my friends especially older ones or people who are moving or downsizing to let me let their records collect dust in my garage instead.
April 20, 2014 @ 8:14 pm
Do you ever happen to get any Pearl Jam? 😉
April 21, 2014 @ 5:20 am
Excellent piece!
April 21, 2014 @ 8:34 am
I was sure this was a real article until I saw the name Alexander Frankenfurter and I started laughing. It wouldn’t surprise me if these kinds of things actually happened, hipsters will do anything to be more ironic than the hipster next door.
April 22, 2014 @ 7:54 am
Funniest thing I’ve read today.
April 26, 2014 @ 12:57 am
I LOVE record store day. Bin diving is so much fun and you get to talk to music junkies, you also get to talk to pretentious wankers but I digress…
I hear cassettes are coming back as a hipster thing because of the whole revival of the mixtape craze. Maybe I can get some sweet Craigslist cash for my tape deck.
Personally, I understand the tactile appeal of vinyl and the ritual and all that (I used to really dig vinyl) but getting a good pressing is a pain in the ass, and the size just isn’t portable, and it can’t be played in the car, and all those pops and hisses that are not part of the music annoy me… of course the sirens flying by my house are not part of the music either, nor is the boiling pasta water, or cat that won’t shut up… Eh… so much for “sound quality”. LOL!
I do like CDs because they are smaller and because if my digital files crash or get lost I at least have SOMETHING to play. I just have to rummage through storage to find them.