A Glorious Day

It was a glorious day. The Good Lord smiled upon our little blue world with clear skies, warm sunshine, and limited edition 7" singles. I strolled into Tunes at 11:30am, just a half-hour after the store had opened. A large crowd of happy shoppers was already huddled round the main display shelves. Radiohead singles from every era of the band's brilliant career and so many colorful 7" discs and samplers and posters and platter mats and they have already run out of the Sonic Youth/Beck splits. What? Figures! Oh well. I am not disappointed—not too terribly. Instead, I am happy for those who came before me, happy for the bands and happy for the labels and happy for the world.

Because this is Record Store Day, and ain't nothing gonna break my stride. Ain't nothing gonna hold me down. Oh no. I've got to keep on moving.

An hour later, I moseyed on over to the cash register with my giant stack of records and told the girl that I loved her. Just kidding. I said, "I love this day. It's my second favorite holiday, next to Thanksgiving."

She laughed, and said she had been thinking the same thing. Or something similar. Then she handed me a stack of seven and twelve inch singles. "Okay," she said, "you get one of these for free. Let me know which one you want, and I'll get it for you."

It was an easy choice. I took the red vinyl Fat Possum 7". Side A features Crocodiles and Thomas Function, while Side B has Wavves and Preacher Man. (People are already selling it on eBay for $6.)

"Cool," she said. "Do you want one of these?"

A red platter mat with a picture of the Beastie Boys' Mike D. dressed to resemble the Skipper, Gilligan, the Professor, and Ginger, all at once. She held it between her index finger and thumb and let it hang there like it was a pair of panties.

"Yeah, I want one of those."

"How about this?"

A heavy-stock poster of the Beatles, Please Please Me-era, posing in front of an American flag ($18 on eBay).

"Sure!"

She also threw in a couple of CD samplers, a magazine, and a bunch of iron-on patches of record label and band logos. In addition to all the freebies, I left the store with:

—Flaming Lips/Black Keys split 7" single (Flaming Lips are with Stardeath and White Dwarfs, performing Madonna's "Borderline," while the Black Keys rip through Captain Beefheart's "Her Eyes Are a Blue Million Miles," all on awesome mint-green vinyl.)
—Chicha Libre/Dengue Fever split 7" single
—Magnolia Electric Co. 7" single
—Lykke Li/El Perro del Mar split 7" single
—Yeah Yeah Yeahs: It's Blitz LP

And a bunch of other stuff, of course.

COMMENTS
Trey's picture

I have never been a 7 inch single guy. I enjoy my handful of 10 inch EPs, and my 12 inch 45s are some of my favorites, but the single just never caught my attention.Trey

john devore's picture

A picture perfect day.

ken mac's picture

where is Tunes?

X