SEVEN NOISES

We record collectors and music addicts are just one step below comic book fans. We are freaks. Last Saturday on Rough Trade East, London, it was the confirmation. People queuing from two hours before the time the store opened in order to get a copy of a limited record (most of them for the first Blur single after the reunion that, I have to say, many of them ended up on Ebay selling for hundreds, so for many that day was just a way to make business). Once inside, people running, pushing, throwing records on the floor, records being stepped over, fights for a last copy and queues of one hour long wait to pay. And I was one of them. I once found myself laying on the floor in order to get a copy of the Dum Dum Girls / Male Bounding split. It was chaotic and surreal.
But this year, even more than for the two previous editions, was the confirmation that people is buying records again and, although this means that I'm going to wake up early and probably miss some records in future editions, I just have to feel happy about that. Record Store Day has become to replace what waking up on Christmas Day used to mean when we were kids: feeling nervous and excited from the moment we wake up.
I got most of the stuff I wanted, at least the ones that were available in the UK, so I was happy with my purchases. Here there are some:

The best packaging comes for Sub Pop with the releases for the Dum Dum Girls / Male Bounding and Happy Birthday singles, joking about mp3s and the revival of records in a retro sleeve. And good songs that didn't make it to the albums Sub Pop has lately released from this bands.

The Caribou and Beach House 12" releases are also great. Beach House's Zebra EP, containing two different versions of the album tracks Zebra and 10 Mile Stereo plus a new track and the B side for Norway and Caribou's Odessa in four great versions, the original and three mixes by Junior Boys, Nite Jewel and David Wrench.

I also got a 10" compilation of Factory records with Joy Division, New Order, Happy Mondays and The Durutti Column that, although a bit cheeky, it's worth if just for the cover, a tribute to Fact001 and for the fact of playing Transmission and Ceremony without changing the record.

And now the weirdest collaboration ever, Hot Chip and Bonnie Prince Billy in a new version of Hot Chip's last single, the auto-tune joke I Feel Better that, although the long dance version you can find online is even better, it's funny and good at the same time and it's another proof of the versatility and sense of humour Will Oldham has outside of his own releases.

I got the Danger Mouse / Sparklehorse single if only because it would sadly be the last ever single I would get from Mark Linkous.

Other stuff I got was the Grace Jones 12", the Pavement Cut your Hair / Grounded 7", Cocorosie's Lemonade (with the beautiful Surfer Girl cover on the B side), the Mogwai / Fuck Buttons split, Surfer Blood's Swim, Wooden Shjip's Australian tour single, Charlotte Gainsborough's Sunset sessions 7", JAMC's re edition of Just Like Honey and the First Aid Kit / Peggy Sue split. Yes I know, I spent more than what I could afford but, with the high of the moment, you just can take and take.