Shoppers lined up at 6 a.m. in front of Reckless Records in Wicker Park on Saturday, despite the rainy and cold weather, hoping to scoop up some of the store’s almost 180 limited-release albums available for sale on Record Store Day.
Record Store Day began in 2007 as a way to celebrate the culture and music of independently-owned record stores across the country while boosting dwindling sales. But over the last four years, Record Store Day has increased in size, and now hundreds of special releases — mostly 7-inch and records with outtakes, live concerts or other rare recordings — are planned to coincide with the third Saturday of April. That’s in addition to in-store live performances, giveaways and artist meet-and-greets.
Some, like Rob Sevier, who cofounded the Chicago-based archival record label The Numero Group, which hosted a pop-up record store on Saturday, say the day is a gimmick or question the new releases’ collectibility. But record store managers say there’s no denying that Record Store Day brings a heavy increase in foot traffic.
Bryan Smith, the general manager for Reckless Records, says his Wicker Park store sees between four and five times more traffic on Record Store Day than a normal shopping day, and considers it the single biggest-selling day, topping even days during the holiday season. He credits that in part to the large jump in exclusive offerings.
“We went from not very many, to dozens, to at least a couple hundred releases” this year, he said.
In-demand items at Reckless were a Phish 7-inch, a Jimmy Eat World 3LP, two White Stripes 7-inches and a Nirvana LP, all of which sold out shortly after the store opened at 10 a.m. Other releases that didn’t sell out, about 10 to 15 percent of Smith’s Record Store Day inventory, will be available for sale in-store this week or available for order online.
By late afternoon, a crowd was still huddled outside Reckless, and dozens of shoppers were perusing both the new and existing music selection inside. At 3 p.m. two members of Candy Golde, Nick Tremulis and Bun E. Carlos (who played drums for Cheap Trick) hopped on the wooden platform in the rear of the store to play a few singles from their new album.
“It’s just beautiful to stand in a record store again with people who love music, as opposed to people walking around with their headphones and iPods in,” Tremulis told RedEye after his performance.
Carlos, who said Reckless was “only about the 10,000th” in-store performance he’d done, added he was glad to be challenging himself musically — “The smaller the crowd, the tougher the crowd!” — while supporting a local business.
Some shoppers, like Liz Maguire, 25, took advantage of the more than 30 locations in Chicago participating in Record Store Day by making several stops. She hit up six shops, including the Reckless Wicker Park store and the Numero pop-up, and filled her Bon Jovi-emblazoned tote with new releases, like a 2LP from Fleetwood Mac, and some old favorites, like Stevie Ray Vaughan.
Maguire said she shops vinyl throughout the year, but “this seemed like the day to really do some damage.”
