Friday, March 11, 2011
Crickets / Music Numero Group Has Big Plans for Record Store Day
Posted by Miles Raymer on 03.11.11 at 10:56 AM
Bold words from Mr. Shipley. The obvious response is, Do he and his label have plans to right the wrongs he sees? The answer is yes, and fairly elaborate ones at that.
First off, the label will offer the compilation Local Customs: Pressed at Boddie, which collects 17 tracks from the massive stash of tapes Numero acquired last year from a defunct Cleveland vinyl-pressing plant called the Boddie Recording Company, which they refer to "the epicenter of greater Cleveland's small time record business." The comp, which promises to span a range of styles from whacked-out protopunk to bizarro folk, will be available in a super-deluxe vinyl version, on CD, and on cassette at any sufficiently discerning shop that's celebrating Record Store Day. In his typically understated fashion Shipley refers to it as "what we believe to be the first must-own RSD album."
Much more interesting (and much more Chicago-centric) is the pop-up shop Numero will open for the day in the Stop Smiling headquarters at 1371 N. Milwaukee. It'll be stocked with Numero releases as well as used vinyl from the collections of Numero friends and notable record geeks like Courtland Green and Dante Carfagna, who helped put together the liner notes for Local Customs. The Numero pop-up will also be the only store selling an exclusive 45 from the label's Eccentric Soul collection; it's limited to 100 copies, many of which will no doubt turn up on eBay for completely ridiculous amounts of money.
On top of that Numero will broadcast a live radio show at 89.9 FM, consisting of "your favorite Numero tracks alongside vintage commercials, weather reports, air checks, and news updates." So if you live in the Wicker Park area and you wake up April 16 to news reports from the 1970s, don't panic. You probably haven't somehow been transported several decades into the past—if it helps, look out the window and check the model years of the cars driving past.
Here's a video preview of that exclusive 45:
Comments (5)
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I'm so pleased that the Numero Group is giving away all of that Record Store Day merchandise rather than participating in some kind of "cash grab."
-- MrJM
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It's also nice that their "Record Store Day" release isn't actually available in any established record store. What better way to support local record stores than to completely circumvent them. They should change it to "Record Label/ eBay Dealer Day", though that isn't very catchy. Ugh.
Explain to me again how Numero is profiting from this. And stillFlat, their RSD release will be available in stores... read the article again. Way to go after the huge corporate fat cat Numero label execs. I can picture them now with their feet up on their custom oak desks in their posh Little Village offices, cigar in mouth, laughing heartily about how much they're gonna make on RSD from 100 copies of a 7" record. Forgive them for offering something that is sadly overlooked in the record biz. And also for possibly increasing traffic to Reckless, Dustry Groove, or other stores nearby.
stillflat,
reckless will have this numero lp and i would imagine that other stores will have it too.
It's true that major labels are subsuming the spirit of Record Store Day to do the exact things Mr. Shipley speaks of. I have attended these events and have seen the Brian Wilson merchandise to prove it.
Furthermore, anyone bemoaning the nascent death of the record store scene in Wicker Park/Ukranian Village area would do well to either patronize the extant stores themselves or consider the fact that Dusty Groove and Reckless - which this pop-up store is nearly equidistant between - are two of the most successful record stores in the country.
