April 12 is Record Store Day and during a conversation about Digital Trends’ editorial plans for it, I mentioned that I haven’t been to a record store. At least, not for multiple decades. I don’t collect vinyl records, so why would I bother? My admission became a challenge, and initially I went along to a local store purely to take some fun photos with the Apple iPhone 16E. But I left with a lot more than just some pictures.
Visiting Spin Sounds
After checking the Record Store Day website I went to Spin Sounds, which was the only somewhat local record store to me. I wasn’t sure what I was going to find, or what I really wanted, and my only plan was to get some pictures and see what happened. You see, I don’t own a record player, so there was very little point in choosing and purchasing a vinyl record. However, I do own a CD player and I buy CDs, so that would be my only possible “in.”
There was a very particular ambience in Spin Sounds. The store was light, bright, clean, airy, and well organized. Racks, tubs, and stacks of records dominated the space, as you’d expect. Various patrons were gathered around the counter, all flicking through boxes containing 7-inch and 12-inch vinyl records, and while it appeared their actions were random, I have the feeling they knew exactly what they were looking for, and would instantly know it when they saw it. There was focus and intent, but in a casual, experienced way.
Beyond these traditional actions of commerce was something else. There was conversation. There was buzzing discussion about the items being purchased and possible trades, but what made me smile were the questions about incoming collections and their arrival. I could practically hear the pounding heartbeats as they worked out when they could next visit to see what was new. When I was leaving, a man came in with the expectation of finding records he’d clearly checked with the owner about beforehand. I was witnessing “the chase,” a phenomenon I knew only too well from my own adventures in collecting over the years, and I loved it.
Finding a CD
All this time I had been browsing the CDs, but held out little hope in finding something to add to my own collection. I buy CDs from Japan and Korea, by artists from those countries, simply because I can’t find them in the few regular stores that sell physical media here. The chances of finding even one option in Spin Sounds seemed unlikely.
My interest came up when I chatted to the owner, Lee Mayne, who told me in reality, he sent more products to Japan and Korea than he ever saw products coming in. It turns out there’s considerable demand for records released in the U.K. there, and for Mayne it can be the difference between never selling them here, or putting up with the shipping costs and selling them to keen local dealers on the other side of the world.
Mayne told me this coming Record Store Day would be the first for the store, and he was looking forward to seeing the reaction. He remained quiet about the potential, but admitted he’d ordered 7,000 British pounds (about $8,950) worth of exclusive Record Store Day products, and was actually concerned he’d ordered too little. As we talked about Record Store Day, he said it was probably a good thing I came to talk to him about it before the actual day, as it was highly likely record collectors would be queuing up outside. I had been warned about this beforehand, and knew there be no time for a tourist like me on April 12.
Nostalgia comes in many forms
While I was scanning through the hundreds of CDs, wondering if I’d find something, one caught my eye. It was the soundtrack to the John Cusack movie High Fidelity. As I pulled it out of the tightly packed CD rack, it seemed very appropriate, as the protagonist in the movie owns a record store. I remember seeing it in the theater, subsequently reading the Nick Hornby book, and I definitely owned the DVD but hadn’t seen it for a very long time. I remembered enjoying it, and feeling something about it. I picked up the CD, purchased it, and left Spin Sounds with a mission.
A few days later I watched High Fidelity again. Released in 2000, it not only has vinyl records, but pay phones, paper telephone directories, and characters smoking inside the record store. Jack Black is Jack Black, and wonderful at it, and John Cusack’s Rob is neurotic, uncertain, and endearingly directionless, and still a character I relate to, in the same way I do with aspects of the character he played in Grosse Point Blank.
When I first saw High Fidelity, I remember coming out of the theater and talking with my friends about Rob’s journey. Watching it again, this time as a considerably older person, I didn’t have the same reaction to it as my younger, definitely more neurotic self, yet I still really enjoyed High Fidelity 25 years on from its release. It made me laugh and I related to parts of it again, just different bits to before. It made me nostalgic. Not for the music, the vinyl, or the pay phones, but for the days when I went to see the film on the big screen.
Records are only part of the appeal
Spin Sounds, vinyl records, and record stores are all about nostalgia. Whether it’s people reliving a previous time, or someone beguiled by a bygone time they never personally experienced, everyone involved is searchng for that feeling. It occurred to me I still rode that wave of nostalgia, just not in the way most would expect on Record Store Day.
If I hadn’t visited Spin Sounds or seen the soundtrack on the shelf, it wouldn’t have happened. My CD is unlikely to earn me much kudos in the collector community, but I got something more from my visit because of it. It made it an experience. What I’m saying in all this is, don’t dismiss Record Store Day as being only for the geeks, the gatekeepers who frequent (and own) High Fidelity’s Championship Vinyl store, or even for those who only want to buy vinyl. If you crave a nostalgia high, stop by your local record store and take a look around regardless, as you may still find it even if you don’t want a record.