If you haven’t done so already, be sure to mark April 16th on your calendar. That’s the date for this year’s Record Store Day, the annual event that celebrates independent record stores with literally hundreds of exclusive releases. RSD has named the members of Metallica as its Ambassadors for this year’s event.
This is the ninth year of the event which takes place annually on the third Saturday in April and various labels roll out limited editions of releases from a variety of genres: classic rock, blues, jazz… you name it. For Record Store Day 2016, Metallica’s official release is a special live CD, Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité, Metallica! – Live at Le Bataclan. Paris, France – June 11th, 2003, a live concert recording from the Paris theatre that became the focus of the world in November 2015. Its proceeds are going to Fondation de France’s Give For France charity.
The song list from the Metallica release:
The Four Horsemen
Leper Messiah
No Remorse
Fade to Black
Frantic
Ride the Lightning
Blackened
Seek & Destroy
Damage, Inc.
Check out “Fade to Black” here…
Best Classic Bands will provide a comprehensive recap of what to look for once all the releases are officially announced.
In the official statement: “From the very first Record Store Day, Metallica have embraced the concept, and celebrated the culture of the indie record store with in-store appearances and special releases for both our special April Saturday and Black Friday.”
Check out the official video!
The band’s drummer, Lars Ulrich, penned this very personal tribute about his “obsession”:
“For reasons I’ll never quite understand, the rock department at Bristol Music Center was in the basement of the four-story store, but walking in there felt like the ultimate rush. I never knew what was going to await me. I never knew what newfound gem was going to be blaring out of the speakers. All I knew was that something incredible would happen, because it always did. It was all about the possibilities and the possibilities were infinite. Like a kid in a candy store, except my version of that was…a kid in a record store.
From the mid ’70s to the early ’80s, the rock department at Bristol Music Center in Copenhagen, Denmark was the most significant part of my life outside school and family, and probably often tied right in there with both. My dad had started taking me there as early as I could remember, and the early excursions felt like going to another world. Growing up I thought my dad was the coolest guy, and no place was more ‘next level’ than his music room in our pad, which housed one of the vastest record collections around town in the 60s. There were thousands of records, scattered all over – in the racks, on the furniture, on the shelves, next to the record player. Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, the Doors, the Rolling Stones, Janis Joplin….the list is endless. And after my dad dragged me to see Deep Purple in 1973, I acquired the Fireball album the next day, and began attempting to amass a collection worthy of my father’s.
Ken and Ole, who were the guys responsible for the rock department at Bristol, were my heroes. Whatever they recommended instantly became a must have. In 1979 when I got invited back to Ken’s apartment to check out his personal record collection, it was one of the most exciting things in my life. Period. After I moved to the United States in the early ’80s they became my lifeline to European hard rock, and the packages they would send me on a monthly basis were the most invigorating, life-affirming elements that showed up in my mailbox. I would sit for hours with my records; listening, looking, imagining, transporting myself to some other dimension, as the music enveloped me and carried me as far away as my imagination was capable of taking me. And the covers! Those record sleeves kept me fixated on the bands, musicians, lyrics and imagery being thrown in my direction. I kept logs over what records I would listen to, and how many times I would listen to them. In other words, I was obsessed. I lived and breathed in a record universe, day in, day out.
Boy, do I miss those days!
As times have changed, records unfortunately play a significantly different role in most young people’s lives and have primarily become a niche entity. But there are signs of hope. My seventeen-year-old asked for a record player for his birthday two years ago, and I have been steadily doing my best due diligence as a parent, feeding him the classics since then. This process reached its emotional peak (and I even got misty-eyed!) when he put Deep Purple’s Machine Head and Made in Japan on his latest Christmas wish-list, in good old vinyl format. What a moment! Maybe it all will work out after all….
As music becomes available either through only the internet or in gigantic airport-size retail stores, it is more important than ever – actually vital – that all us fanatics continue to bring to light the importance of records, and to support to the maximum of our abilities the independent record store outlet. The good news is, of course, that vinyl is making a measurable comeback. But that is not enough for us to rest on our laurels. We must all bond continuously together and scream from every rooftop with our loudest voices, enlighten our kids, fly the flag, and beat the drum (!) to the best of our ability.
For music.
For vinyl.
For independent record stores.
For people like you and me who live and breathe music twenty-four hours a day.
Lars Ulrich
(Previous Ambassadors have included Dave Grohl, Iggy Pop and Jack White.)
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