Skip to main contentRecord Store Day, the annual holiday for vinyl collectors and music retailers, is once again upon us April 20, with the requisite flood of exclusive releases and reissues—many of them available in limited quantities. It’s not without its problems, to be sure (inflated prices, unnecessary junk clogging shelves, jerks flipping fan favorites at gross markups), but by and large, this 17-year-old event is a major boost for indie shops looking to survive the post-holiday doldrums.
Record stores throughout the area have certainly come to embrace the fun of RSD. Most spots, like 2nd Avenue Records, Music Millennium, and Vancouver’s 1709 Records, will open their doors early Saturday, with some holding special events to help draw customers. Jackpot Records, for example, will have Mudhoney guitarist Steve Turner on hand to DJ for a couple of hours. Be sure to check the social media feeds of your favorite shops to see what they’re getting up to.
As for the actual records being released this year, the list for RSD 2024 is packed with goodness, including a healthy amount of music coming from Portland artists and record labels. Toplining that subcategory are some rather big names. Sleater-Kinney will be dropping a 7-inch single this year featuring two songs recorded during the sessions for their most recent album, Little Rope, and the Dandy Warhols bring forth a live recording captured at the 2013 Levitation Fest in Austin, Texas.
Also on tap for RSD 2024 is singer-songwriter John Craigie, who has immortalized his fan-favorite solo performances of classic Beatles albums with Let It Be Lonely, a live set in which he plays all the songs from the Fab Four’s final LP. There’s also Victory for Mad Love, the brand-new full-length from local psych-rockers King Black Acid, a band that doesn’t take the vinyl holiday for granted. “In this time of economic decline, the digital music industry has squeezed every penny out of the creators,” says King Black Acid leader Daniel John Riddle. “Opportunities like RSD are few and far between.”
In addition to its own RSD celebrations, Jackpot Records once again gets into the mix with its in-house label slated to drop four killer records this year. The jewel of the bunch is the self-titled debut from SRC, an obscure psych-rock outfit from Michigan, which has been out of print on vinyl since 1969. “It’s a thunderous-sounding record,” says Jackpot Records owner Isaac Slusarenko, “and reminded me of Blue Cheer. I’ve only seen it once at a record store for sale.”
Great as that is, do save room on your shopping list for the other records that are part of Jackpot’s 2024 RSD roster: the reissue of the lone 1969 album by New York psych band Gandalf, and two rereleases of material by Wall of Voodoo, the post-punk outfit from L.A. led by the caustically funny vocalist Stan Ridgway and best known for their lone hit “Mexican Radio.” One of WoV’s rereleases is particularly meaningful to Slusarenko because the small sculpture of a dog on the EP’s cover now resides at Jackpot’s Southeast Hawthorne storefront. “It was a gift from my parents when the store opened in 1997,” Slusarenko says.
If the allure of getting your hands on some sweet new records weren’t incentive enough to line up outside the shop this Saturday morning, getting a glimpse at that sweet bit of musical ephemera just might do the trick.