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Exile on Main in downtown Champaign is set to celebrate National Record Store Day on April 18, 2009. Photo by Abby Toms

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Record Store Day Finds

Exile on Main Street will have a number of special releases in conjunction with Record Store Day available for purchase on April 18. Check out any of the following in their limited capacity.
Bob Dylan
“Dreaming from You”/”Down Along the Cove” 7-inch (recorded live at Bonnaroo)
Flaming Lips/Black Keys
“Borderline”/”Her Eyes Are a Blue Million Miles” split 7-inch
Guided by Voices
Hold On Hope LP (reissue with three bonus tracks)
My Morning Jacket
Celebración de la Ciudad Natal (two CDs or double 10-inch vinyl album)
Pavement
Live in Germany 1988 LP (previously unreleased)
Sonic Youth/Beck
Split 7-inch
Tom Waits
Live from the Glitterdome 7-inch (live tracks from Atlanta and Edinburgh)
Wilco
Ashes of American Flags DVD

Related Venues

Exile on Main Street »
Address: 1 E. Main St. Champaign, IL 61820
Phone: (217) 398-6246
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These days, hard drives are the most common form of music storage — no more milk crates or CD shelves. But despite the common rhetoric of “sticking it to the corporate fat cats,” downloading music seems just as removed from an actual love of music as the mass distribution system of the major chain stores. Scrolling down a blog’s archives seems entirely removed from the raw pleasure of digging through milk crates or barely organized CD stacks for hours on end. Record stores might be a “dying breed,” but there will always be people who are passionate about music in its physical form, and this is where Record Store Day comes in.

In 2007, Eric Levin, Michael Kurtz, Carrie Colliton, Amy Dorfman, Don Van Cleave and Brian Poehner, working from the idea of Chris Brown, introduced the concept of an annual day celebrating the importance of the independent record stores in the U.S. and internationally. According to http://www.recordstoreday.com, the first celebration was held April 19, 2008, and “Record Store Day is now celebrated the third Saturday every April.”

Jeff Brandt, owner of Exile on Main Street, an independent store in Champaign that carries a large selection of vinyl (new and used) and CDs as well as video games and DVDs, said that the scale of the celebration has been increased since last year. Brandt embraced the spirit of Record Store Day, saying that Exile on Main Street is “as indie as it gets” and that the celebration of record stores is mostly a celebration of the people who “get the value of paying for records.” Many people, he said, walk by the store and see it as a pawn shop. Brandt disagrees, stating that indie record stores are more like “hangout places,” as they are about atmosphere and the excitement of discovering a buried gem.

This year, on April 18, stores participating in Record Store Day will be selling limited-edition releases on vinyl and CD, created specifically for this special day. Among others, Brandt said to look for the Bob Dylan 7-inch composed of tracks recorded live at Bonnaroo and the new Wilco Ashes of American Flags DVD, both of which will be available at Exile on Main Street. Exile will also be holding in-store concerts featuring Elsinore, We’ve Landed on the Moon!, Common Loon, Post Historic, DJ Mertz, Santa member Stan McConnell, Mike Ingram and Dawna Nelson.

CORRECTION

Parasol Records, located in Urbana and the area’s other major resource for new vinyl, will be open on April 18. They will have exclusive Recored Store Day vinyl in stock.