Greetings loyal DIY readers. I bet some of you were wondering “where the fuck was thursdays comic!?” and that is indeed a good question. Phyll is currently on vacation so it never got done, which is understandable, and I would have posted something short but sweet involving my uber talented MS paint skills that explained the situation, but I am banned from doing that apparently… I am sorry for the utter un-professionalism we are showing as webcomic-ers in doing this. It wasn’t so much the missed comic as much as it was the lack of communication both of us showed in not telling anyone what was happening or what was not going to happen. To top it off, Diy (a webcomic about dudes who own and opperate a record store) didn’t do a fucking thing yesterday which happened to be one of my favorite days of the year… record store day! That alone is just sad and I want to make sure it never happens again, so I am going to try to make it up to everyone the best I can in some way… whether it be nude photo’s, a video of me rapping a drake song nude, or video of me letting anyone who wants to punch me in the jaw do it… while I am nude ( I don’t know what yet but damnit I WILL be nude!) Anyway normal schedule should start again tuesday.
Going back to record store day though, I had a fucking blast at this years. For those who don’t know what record store day is, it is exactly what it sounds like, an awesome day where bands release exclusive vinyl, CD’s and everything else music related, exclusivly for this day. All the music is usually cheap, extrememly rare, fucking collectiable as anything could be, and just plain awesome. There are also a ton of free stuff given away too and record stores often do sales on their normal items and merch on this day as well. This day is not only amazing and great for us music fans, but it is important to music in general. In a country where stealing music is common, only big names get exposure, and somehow walmart still sells 1 in every 7 CD’s sold… we need record stores. Music has saved my life and this day is to celebrate the record stores that sell the artists that have touched me and touched my soul, and in the end it’s a celebration of music! It also cater’s to the hardcore music collecters like me because lets face it… how many average music fans buy vinyl at all? I imagine half of the “music fans” out there rarely buy CD’s even. I imagine normal people get everything from Itunes or whatever music program they choose from online. I am not a MP3 hater by any means, but there is a difference in how much you care about the artists who make great music, and like I said these are exclusive albums meaning that they can’t get them from anything else but this vinyl or CD. Anyway, in Vegas there is really only one indie record store and that is Zia Records (with it’s two Vegas locations). I got to a packed ZIA records around 10 AM and went straight to the exclusive section and grabbed a ton of sweet shit. I was grabbing everything, 45’s, CD’s, 32’s. I got a good stash:
Exclusive CD’s- Fun. – Live at fingerprints: A lot of the exclusives are live performances as you will see. Fun(there is a period after the fun in the bands name but seeings how that would confuse anyone who is reading this I am not going to put it there) is a amazing pop rock band that is just as their name says…fun. I saw them in concert a few months back with Jacks mannequin and it was extrememly energetic and awesome. The live album is all songs from their full length (a must get by the way) but it’s still all, so different. The album is a acoustic set, and it even plays with some of the music by adding different instruments on some of the songs making them different from the album version. If you have not heard the fun song called “The gambler” you need to immediatly because I say it’s one of the best love songs ever… period. Five amazing songs, some funny band banter plus an intro and a interlude for $3.97 is a awesome deal. Another thing I want to say is that just because some of the exclusives are only six songs long or so don’t mean they are short albums at all, as is the case with the next album.
Manchester Orchastra – live at park AVE: I adore this band. I have only been into them for about a year or so, but I dare anyone to not immediatly fall in love with this band after listening to their 2009 full legnth “mean everything to nothing.” Most of these live tracks are acoustic versions of songs from that album, which is amazing and acoustically they are extrememly emotional. Manchester Orcastra’s sound is usually somewhere inbetween a neo-grunge (in a good way though…), 90’s midewestern emo and folk (Like the get up kids and bright eyes) and even a bit of indie poprock (modest mouse). Andy Hull’s vocal’s haunt me for some reason. The lyrics stick with you long after the song is done. Well the album is awesome as expected, with a new song and even one old one thrown in for good measure too. Once again $3.97
RX bandits – Live at Park AVE: Another Park ave CD, they were busy for record store day. RX bandits are an amazing ska/alternative jam band with lyrics that speak peace, hippiness and all around goodness. Another Acoustic album, and another winner, this CD is still a fast paced album and even the acoustic’s couldn’t stop the Bandits from fucking jamming. $3.97 was worth it just for the version of 1980 which is amazing. The inbetween song banter is funny as fuck too.
Weezer – Raditude…happy record store day: Weezer and me have a love/hate history to say the least (and Phyll loves them). To me they are capable of being a amazing band… or a band of assholes who make shity music. Luckily For Weezer and their skeptical fans like me, they FINALLY released a really good record last year with Raditude. It’s what that band should(and should always) be. So they now released this album for record store day and all I can say is holy shit it’s weird… and amazingly awesome. Let me go track for track with this one. Track 1 is “I’m your Daddy” which is from the full length, except this version features… Kenny G…. you heard me correctly. Luckily for us the track is virtually the same version as the full legnth version with just a random flute solo in the middle of the song. It’s a great song. Track 2 is a redo of their current radio hit “(If your wondering if I want you to) I want you to” done acoustic with pop singer Sara Bareilles, this is fucking terrific all around, the dueling co-ed vocals are superb. Track 3 has them singing “Why Bother” live. Just a great weezer live track, and this song is really fun. Now we get to track 4 which threw me for a loop. It’s a weezer cover of Greenday’s hit song “brain stew” and not only that, it’s done on piano. Wow what a weird ass song, but it strangely works in a weird fucked up way. Last track is another live track, and it’s an acoustic version of weezers biggest hit ever “Buddy Holly” It’s a nice ending to a surprise album that I love. By the way, the cover of the exclusive has the same jumping dog from the normal full length but insted of a living room behind him, it’s a record store. Thought that was funny.
Zia records Local Music Compilation volume 4: Zia does this every year now. It showcases bands from Phoenix, Tucson, and Vegas (the towns Zia records are located at) and it usually is amazing and introduces me to a lot of bands that I would have never heard otherwise. The comp has a little bit of every genre of music and it really is awesome. On a side note, if you want some great alternative hip-hop that’s soaked in nerdiness then go look up the artist ”Mike Superhero”, he’s fucking crazy cool. The album is a 30 track double disc, was 2.99, and it came with a free Zia record store day t-shirt. A very Awesome deal.
So that’s the CD’s I got, plus we picked up Mae’s B-sides album because Tashi is a mega fan of the band. It wasn’t a record store day special or anything but it was merely 6 bucks do to the sale. Mae isn’t really my style of music but they got some good tunes and this CD has some DJ re-mixes that give the songs a whole new electronic dimension and it’s really pretty good.
Exclusive Vinyl’s I got!: Flogging Molly – the 45 exclusive: The Irish punk band gave us an awesome red vinyl 45 for record store day that has two live songs on it. The songs are “The seven deadly sins” and “No more (paddy’s lament)” An awesome exclusive that sounds terrific.
Owl City – The 45 exclusice: I am not a uber fan of this band like everyone seems to be these days. This was mostly for Tashi’s sake because she likes them. It’s a clear Vinyl that has Owl City’s two biggest hit songs. “Fireflys” and “Vanilla Twilight”. I don’t hate it but don’t like it that much either. It made Tashi happy and it was cheap so it was really worth it.
The Thermals and The cribs 45 exclusive split: I have to admit I had no clue who the cribs where when I picked this up, but I sure do know the Thermals well. The Thermals have been a personal favorite art/alt band of mine for years now, and they are from close to where I am from. The Thermals song is “seperate” which is great. The cribs song is a song called “so hot now” and it is also pretty cool, I need to check more out from them. The vinyl also came with a download for the two songs on the internet for free. I think there needs to be more cheap splits like this in the future. It’s a great way to spread bands around….
The official record store day 32 Vinyl: I am sure some of you probably got this too. This was the vinyl that was given to anyone in the country that bought vinyl on this day. It’s a compilation featuring a lot of band that have new albums out or albums do out within the next few months. It’s a mix that’s for sure, everyone from awesome electro indie rockers Neon Tree’s to Vegas’ regulars and 80’s hair metal revival band Steel panther (no comment on them…) A few duds are hidden among some great bands and some eye openers. Anberlin covering Danzigs “Mother” accousticly was particularly amazing. A great free sampler.
That was all the exclusives we got, but we did pick up some other non-exclusive vinyls as well. Tashi picked up Iron and Wines ” Our endless numbered days” 32 and it is amazing. Iron and wine is just a band made for vinyl, it sounds terrific. I found an old Elvis Costello record for like 2 bucks and I was happy as shit. It has the songs “Oliver’s Army” and “Alison” on it which are two great songs. I also ended up buying Meg and Dia’s “Here, here and here” 32 even though I already have the CD. I liked the CD a lot and since the vinyls was clearanced at 5$ I thought why not? You can make fun of Meg and Dia all you want but they are fucking good. Plain as that. We also picked up some free posters that were out, the poster for the upcoming Jack’s Mannequin DVD “Dear Jack” is fucking epic.
So that was the day’s events. Memorable to say the least and I got tons of great shit. NEXT YEAR DIY WILL DO SOMETHING AMAZING FOR THIS DAY I PROMISE. If you wish to discuss with me, join the forum as always.
-Cory