Sympathetic Vibrations | Five Reasons to Participate in Record Store Day 2018

Music lovers worldwide will celebrate in unison this Saturday, April 21, in faithful observance of Record Store Day – a crate geek holiday that began in 2007 and has enjoyed year-over-year growth in both geographical reach and sales figures since its creation by the Record Store Day organization.

And while it is undoubtedly the Black Friday of the music sales world, it is also a crucial opportunity to celebrate and support independent records stores. Local record shops have become an integral part of the local music scene – providing a gathering place for music fans and launch pad for local musicians.

Here are five great reasons to shop local on Record Store Day – straight from the mouths of some of the city’s finest purveyors of vinyl grooves:

Let Your Geek Flag Fly

Promise Clutter, manager of Revolution Records, loves that record stores like hers provide a warm, cozy place for people who love music. And RSD is a great way to celebrate that.

“A lot of emphasis in the media is put on about the exclusives for sale [on RSD], but I think a lot of people just like to come out and celebrate with us to shop the racks,” Clutter said. “Record stores have always fostered a very unique culture. I think they’re necessary in the community and hold a special place in a lot of people’s’ hearts as being a home for the music nerds who don’t otherwise have one. So Record Store Day ends up being a celebration of that culture.”

Revolution Records | 1830 Locust St.; open Saturday 8 a.m. to 11 p.m.

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Rarities Abound

Kyle Maggart, co-owner of Brothers Music, sees the day as a great opportunity to buy official RSD releases, but also a chance to catch some rare releases.

“We’re not as big as some of the other stores. So one way we try to compete is by putting out really hard to find records. We will still have exclusives and we ordered more exclusives than we’ve ever ordered before. But we are primarily a used record store,” Maggart said. “I’m the main buyer for large collections. And over the course of a year, we’ll buy around 7,000 records and slowly release them in store. So in addition to exclusives, we’ll put out about 800 rare used records, just on that day.”

Brothers Music | 5921 Johnson Drive, Mission, KS 66202; open Saturday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

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Trust the Process

Christian LaBeau, buyer and manager of Josey records likes the way that records can transform the process of music listening.

“With records, you’re taking time out. You’re not just throwing it on and driving and not really paying attention to it. You’re actually sitting down because you want to hear the record,” Labeau said. “There is a record club that comes to our store, and when they meet, they have a dinner and someone brings a record over that nobody has heard. And they all agree to turn their phones turn off so they can just listen to the record. I think people are just tired of pressing buttons and want to feel more connected.”

Josey Records | 1814 Oak St.; open Saturday 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.

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— Dan Calderon is Kansas City native, an attorney, and contributor to Flatland. You can contact him by emailing pdancalderon@gmail.com, or on Twitter @dansascity.