Record Store Day Ruled

Record Store Day at Aquarius Records on Valencia Street in San Francisco

It sounds like Saturday's 2nd annual Record Store Day was a big success. I was happy to get out and buy some new music on a glorious San Francisco Day.

Closed-down Streetlight Records on 24th Street in San Francisco

Before I hit my destination of Aquarius Records, however, I happened to stop by the shuttered Streetlight Records on 24th Street (don't worry, their other locations in SF, San Jose and Santa Cruz are alive and well). It was a sad reminder of why support for indie music shops is so vital.

For the first time in a long time I bought some vinyl (it seemed fitting), picking up the new Bill Callahan release. I also got two CDs: Vashti Bunyan and Damon & Naomi with Ghost. My husband purchased Beck's "One Foot in the Grave: Expanded Edition" and an Okkervil River CD. Even our 3-year-old daughter selected some music. Her picks: Thee Oh Sees, Bottom, and Black Time. She was drawn to Thee Oh Sees by the bat on the cover and the other two jumped out at her as she scanned through a $3.99 bin.

Our Record Store Haul

After I got home, it was cool to see status updates on Facebook and Twitter from friends all over the country who participated in Record Store Day. There are so many ways to bond over music, and devoting an entire day to record stores became an awesome rallying cry for "music that you can hold in your hand."

I hope you got a chance to drop some coins at a record store on Saturday. If you didn't, then go today or tomorrow or this week...but just go!

Tomorrow's Record Store Day Promises Limited Vinyl Releases and Live Bands

I feel like Record Store Day (happening at more than 1000 record shops tomorrow) deserves another post from me, especially after seeing Pitchfork's extensive run-down of events happening all over the world AND their accompanying list of all the Record Store Day special releases that will be available at indie record shops.

And, man, am I jealous of you Midwesterners and East-Coasters who get to partake in Bill Callahan's week-long tour of record stores (as mentioned in a Philadelphia Inquirer piece about Philly events). My desire to pick up his brand-new album will definitely get me to my local indie music store tomorrow (Saturday, April 18th).

In his article for Pitchfork, Douglas Wolk reviews a number of the mostly-vinyl (7"s, 10"s and LPs) very limited releases (including Bad Religion, Black Kids, Camera Obscura, MC5, Smiths, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Waits, and many others) that were created for Record Store Day.

There's been a lot of press this year (do a Google Search for "Record Store Day 2009" and you get over 36 million results), so here's a short list of articles covering some of the regional happenings:

Maine events (where Record Store Day began!) in Bangor Daily News
South Florida happenings covered in Miami Herald article
Philadelphia-area events outlined in Philadelphia Daily News
Ventura, California record shop events in Ventura County Star
Dublin-Ireland RSD activities in The Irish Independent
Boise, Idaho events at local record shop in The Idaho Statesman

Some of the event highlights for every region (a sampling from the Pitchfork piece...see their article for many more) include:

Jay Reatard at Goner Records in Memphis.
Bill Callahan performing at New York's Other Music.
The Black Lips at Tucson's Zia Records.
Kim and Kelly Deal at Cincinatti's Shake It Records.
Aesop Rock and Kelley Stoltz at Amoeba Music in San Francisco.
Ra Ra Riot at East Lansing's Flat, Black & Circular.
Silversun Pickups at Rasputin Music, Berkeley
Eagles of Death Metal at Rhino Records in Claremont, CA.
Youth Group and Good Old War at Philly's Main Street Music.
Azita at Laurie's Planet of Sound in Chicago.
Evangelicals, the Uglysuit, Other Lives at Norman, OK's Guestroom Records.
Lair of the Minotaur at Chicago's Reckless Records.
Ladyfinger at Homer's Music and Gift in Omaha.

In related news, KCRW points out that one of the 7"s available on Record Store Day is from a live Grizzly Bear performance over their airwaves.

Ypulse Mashup in June for Youth Culture Geeks Like Me

In addition to my passion for music and college radio, I'm also hugely obsessed with pop culture (it's even what I got my graduate degree in). In particular I love teen media and would happily spend an entire weekend watching teen movies and high school-themed TV shows.

So, it's no surprise that when youth culture blog Ypulse started up in 2004, I was smitten. I remember running across the blog one day at work and immediately shooting off an email to editor Anastasia Goodstein, telling her how much I loved the blog and how similar our interests were. We'd both worked at some teen-related start ups and nearly crossed paths at the much heralded teen girl site Kibu back in the Internet boom years. I ended up doing some guest posts and conference reports for Ypulse and for awhile was one of their contributing editors. Writing for Ypulse was a blast because sometimes you really really need to review the latest crop of teen/college-themed TV shows or reminisce about the power of high school journalism.

Even in the early years, Anastasia loved the idea of connecting people who shared her passion for the intersection of youth culture, teen media, and technology. She started out hosting small mixers and eventually grew her idea into a conference that she calls the Ypulse Mashup, since it brings together folks with wide ranging interests in youth media (tween, teen, and college), from school librarians and youth ministers to non-profits like 826 Valencia and Youth Radio to major media companies like MTV, Disney, MySpace and ABC.

I attended the Mashup the last two years in San Francisco (got to hear about teen tech trends, some Go-Go's related teen music trends and about some amazing hip hop-related projects last year and in 2007 both danah boyd and Henry Jenkins graced the stage, chatting about technology) and am excited to be going again this year (June 1st and 2nd in SF).

Spinning Indie readers can get 10% off the conference cost by using the code SI during registration. Some early-bird discounts are available until tomorrow and there are also lower fees if you're a student or at a non-profit.

If you're planning to go, let me know. It should be a blast.

Hectic Music Week: EMP Pop Conference, Music & the Brain, Record Store Day, Coachella, NAB Show, WBAR-B-Q, and KFJC Bowling Party

The next 10 days are jam-packed with music and radio-related events, including conferences, festivals, and parties being hosted by college radio stations. Who said music wasn't alive and well??


EMP Pop Conference (April 16-19, 2009)

First of all, the annual Experience Music Project (EMP) Pop Conference starts in Seattle today (through Sunday, April 19th). Sadly, I won't be there this year, but I attended in 2008 (and posted a bunch of summaries) and it was an insane who's who of rock-star journalists (and musicians and academics). I love getting all intellectual about music and have given papers at similar events put on by the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (their annual conference is in San Diego in May).

This year I was particularly excited to hear that two of my idols: David Grubbs (amazing musician from Gastr del Sol, Squirrel Bait, etc. AND an academic) and Holly Kruse (wrote a great book Site and Sound: Understanding Independent Music Scenes, which is one of the few pieces of academic research that covers college radio and indie music) will be on a panel together. Super bummed to be missing that. But, I am looking forward to watching the blog-space for full reports from you lucky folks soaking in the conference.

For the college radio angle on the conference, check out some of the blog posts by affiliated station KEXP, including some interviews with this year's participants.

Symposium on Music and the Brain: Spontaneity and Improvisation (April 17-18, 2009)

I just heard about this fascinating free conference at Stanford University, all focused on the neuroscience of music and improvisation.

Record Store Day (Saturday, April 18, 2009)

This Saturday, April 18th is Record Store Day, a chance to show your support for your local record shop. See the website for all the details, including testimonials from various artists. The global celebration will include special events at record stores, ranging from live performances, to deals on limited edition releases. Major labels, like Warner Brothers are even involved, hyping some of their special vinyl releases. You can search for local participating stores here. Among the many events, Amoeba Records will be having live performances and giveaways at their stores in San Francisco, Berkeley and Hollywood.

Coachella (April 17-19, 2009)

Oh, and, um, there's this massive music festival, Coachella, out in the desert of Southern California this weekend too. Lots of indie-ish bands (and big ones too) over the course of 3 days (April 17-19), from Paul McCartney to Vivian Girls and everything in-between. I'm not sure if any college radio stations will be broadcasting from there, but there will be a live webcast on the AT&T site. Public/college radio station KCRW will be there and they are promoting the fest on their website with links to in-studio performances by Coachella artists.

NAB Show (April 18-23)

This weekend there is also the massive National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas, which includes a bunch of different conferences within the conference (Broadcast Management, Broadcast Engineering, etc.) and NAB Show. Sounds like it covers all kinds of content, including radio, TV, video games, Internet, and technology in general.

BEA 2009 Convention (April 22-25, 2009)

Following NAB, the Broadcast Education Association hosts their 2009 convention in Las Vegas, where broadcast researchers and educators convene to chat about radio and broadcasting in general. This year's conference theme is related to ethics.

KFJC Listener Appreciation Party (April 25, 2009)

The station where I DJ, KFJC, is starting its 50th anniversary celebration with a Listener Appreciation Party at Redwood Lanes in Redwood City on Saturday, April 25th starting at 8pm. It's free and there will be bowling, bands and DJs spinning live. Death Sentence: PANDA! and Slow Poisoner are on the bill, as well as KFJC DJs Cy Thoth, Cadillac Margarita, Captain Jack, and Belladonna. We're also hoping that lots of alumni DJs will come to the party.

WBAR-B-Q (April 26, 2009)

WBAR (the Barnard College radio station that I visited last month) hosts their annual WBAR-B-Q on the Barnard campus in New York City. It's a free event with a great lineup of live bands including Gang Gang Dance and Metalux. Read all about it on Brooklyn Vegan.

How many of these events will you be partaking in?

CMJ Staff Blog Profiles UC Santa Cruz Radio Station KZSC

Last month the CMJ Staff Blog posted three new interviews with staff from various college radio stations.

First up was an interview with the Music Director from KZSC-FM (University of California, Santa Cruz), Scott Karoly. In the piece he talks about the upcoming radio conference for radio stations within the University of California system. According to Scott,

"The University Of California Radio Network Conference (UCRN) is an event that happens twice a year, once at a station in Northern California and once down south. We’re a big state. It’s a Saturday where people from all the stations in the UC system gather to hang out, meet each other, go to discussion panels, share ideas, eat some food and have a good time. It’s kind of like a super-specialized version of CMJ’s College Day, for a group of people who see each other more frequently. I’ve made a lot of good friends through UCRN, and it’s one of my favorite parts of college radio."

I heard about the UCRN conference when I visited KALX recently, and it sounds like an amazing way to build a broader college radio community.

Additionally, Scott discusses KZSC's love for vinyl records, saying:

"People are really getting stoked on vinyl at KZSC. We have lots of community members who’ve never stopped using LPs, and we have thousands upon thousands, several walls worth at the station. We know digital releases are here and growing, but we’ve got a soft spot for tangible things, at least I do. Whenever I get a real record, 12 or 7-inches, it says something—a lot more than a paper case and a glossy photograph. Colored vinyl? Count me in. People are into it, and that makes me real happy."

I just found out that I'll get the chance to visit KZSC during the UCRN conference and am really looking forward to seeing the station (any station that values vinyl is a friend of mine) and meeting a bunch of college radio folks from all over California. So, stay tuned for my full report, and, of course, pictures of their station in the woods.

College Radio and Twitter

I signed up with Twitter (@SpinningIndie) nearly a year ago, but am only just starting to do any sort of posting on it. Clearly it's becoming mainstream (the recent multi-page feature in Star magazine about celebrities on Twitter was kind of a clue) and is no doubt the next Facebook.

I'm curious how radio stations are using Twitter, so I've started to follow a bunch of them. Now, I'm not savvy enough to figure out how to filter all the posts, but one of my first reactions is that I'm not super interested in getting updates on every single song played on a particular station. I think if that's a station's sole purpose in using Twitter, it's kind of a missed opportunity.

Several stations that I follow have separate accounts for station updates (contests, events, promotions, random thoughts, etc.) and for playlists (KEXP Playlist, XPN Playlist). That seems like a great way to do it. If you're desperate for real-time playlist information, then Twitter can be a nice tool for that. In fact, some of these stations may not have any other methods for reporting that information. For example, satellite station Sirius XMU sends out tweets for the songs they play, which is useful since their website doesn't offer archived playlists.

However, if you're someone like me who is interested in updates from lots and lots of stations, then bits of news get hopelessly lost amid the pages and pages of real-time playlist tweets.

I'm sure there's a way for me to filter through all of this in a better way (any suggestions?), but I'm probably not alone in this frustration as a relative newcomer to the whole Twitter scene.

So, as I venture into my investigation of college radio stations on Twitter, I'm curious about a few things:

1) Does your station use Twitter?
2) How often does your station post and who does the posting?
3) Do you follow stations on Twitter?
4) Do you want to see tweets relaying real-time playlists?
5) Which college radio stations are worth following on Twitter


Here are some college radio tweets that express the range of uses of Twitter:

@KZSC: Looks like our site and phones are down due to hooligans in San Jose. We're still broadcasting on 88.1fm though! Listen in! 12:56 PM Apr 9th from web

@WREK: Our programming formula: integral(0, 'Merzbow', ((sqrt(good)/'non-FCC conent')*NOISE), dWRAS/dDaveFM) 11:38 AM Jan 23rd from web

@WTUL: http://twitpic.com/24exm - Sunday rises as DJ Bear enters her 18th hour on the air during Hour 42 of the 2009 WTUL Rock On Survival Mara ...6:52 AM Mar 15th from TwitPic

@WXUT: next big thing in music (a college radio prediction): http://tinyurl.com/5m9tct 12:04 PM Mar 26th from web

@KJHK: Get at @thegirlgray for requests for her 8-10 p.m. show. What do you want to hear?! 2:57 PM Apr 9th from web

@WRFL: so very excited for Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti / Vivian Girls tonight @ Al's Bar (corner of 6th & Limestone). All Ages. $5. Doors @ 8:30. 8:56 AM Apr 6th from web

SF Chronicle's Flurry of Radio Coverage: KPFA Story today plus Recent Stories on San Jose Radio History, Pirate Station, and College Radio

Obviously it thrills me that the San Francisco Chronicle continues to report on radio, particularly via Ben Fong-Torres' "Radio Waves" column every other week in the Sunday Datebook section (he covered college radio and Spinning Indie last week).

But other radio stories have been making a regular appearance in other parts of the paper, including in recent months a profile of pirate radio station Pirate Cat Radio (be sure to read the comment-string for some eloquent words about college radio, particularly from some KZSU staffers) and a page 2 story last week about the early history of Bay Area radio (did you know that the first radio broadcasts of the human voice happened in San Jose at "Doc" Herrold's College of Wireless and Engineering in 1909?).

Today there's a front page story in the San Francisco Chronicle, "New Programs, Old Squabbles as Left-of-Dial KPFA turns 60," that reports on the dramatic history and upcoming anniversary of public radio station KPFA. According to the article:

"KPFA-FM will celebrate its 60th birthday this week, and the Berkeley public radio station that was the nation's first listener-supported outlet is still the proudly lefter-than-left Bay Area institution that thinks National Public Radio is too conservative and isn't shy about calling itself 'radical.'"

The piece also discusses the station's new 6pm newcast and "KPFA Interactive," in which listeners can upload questions, audio, and video.

The San Francisco Bay Area clearly has a rich and diverse batch of radio stations, so it's nice to see the wide range of recent radio stories. Does your local paper write about radio?