Twenty people were lined up outside Wazoo on State Street by the time employee Will Lovick opened the store at 10 a.m. on Saturday, April 17. Over on Liberty, Underground Sounds’ owner Matt Bradish found fifteen people waiting when he got there. By the end of the day, both stores racked up the highest sales volume in their histories.
The draw was the Third Annual Record Store Day, and most of the sales were actual records–one-time vinyl releases made just for RSD, like a previously unissued song by the Rolling Stones from their classic Exile on Main Street period. The biggest hit at both stores: the Flaming Lips’ radical reinterpretation of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon LP. “They brought it out on vinyl for list $24.99,” says Bradish, “made just 10,000, and sold them all.” And lots of what was sold immediately became collectible: Lovick checked later that afternoon and says the Flaming Lips LP was selling “on eBay for $40-$60 and Amazon Marketplace for prices approaching $80!”
The vinyl mania is not just a once-a-year phenomenon: at both stores, records now account for most of the sales. Wazoo owner John Kerr says he “never would have imagined it ten years ago, but it’s simply where the excitement and action is nowadays.”
