‘Record Store Day’ Attracts Huge Crowd On Santa Monica Blvd.

Yup, vinyl records are still very much a thing!

A line nearly two blocks long extended down Santa Monica Boulevard Saturday morning as audiophiles descended upon Record Surplus in search of rare and limited release items.

“Record Store Day” has become an annual tradition at nearly 14000 independent music shops around the globe.  

“It is a push to get people to go to your local, independent record stores.,” said music fan Everett Fisher who traveled from Westchester in search of hard to find recordings by Raybeats and The Replacements.

“A bunch of artists and labels come to gather and they put out exclusive releases — usually things that are bit more obscure — usually for big fans of the artists.  It’s not about it being exclusive.  The music itself is great.”

The first customers arrived at at Record Surplus at 2:30 a.m., a store employee told The Sun.

Among the first items to sell out:  rare vinyl issues by the Grateful Dead (Olympia Theatre, Paris, France 5/3/72), Kenny Loggins (At The Movies) and Linkin Park (Meteora).

Manny Otxoa drove in from Montebello and staked out his spot in line at 7:30 a.m.

He left with a Janis Joplin photo disc (Pearl), a limited edition Lady Gaga album (Chromatica) and a collaboration LP featuring Celia Cruz and Willie Colon.

“This is something that a lot of record collectors look forward to all year, Otxoa told The Sun. 

“It is very limited edition releases.  It is not cut throat…but vinyl that won’t be pressed (again) for a while.”

The first Record Store Day took place on April 19, 2008. Today there are participating shops on every continent except Antarctica.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s event is spread out over two days.  

Record enthusiasts will have another chance to find treasures on July 17.

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