Record Store Day in Downtown St. Petersburg

“Record Store Day was conceived in 2007 at a gathering of independent record store owners and employees as a way to celebrate and spread the word about the unique culture surrounding nearly 1,000 independently owned record stores in the US and thousands of similar stores internationally. There are Record Store Day participating stores on every continent except Antarctica. [ . . . ] “A Record Store Day participating store is defined as a stand alone brick and mortar retailer whose main primary business focuses on a physical store location, whose product line consists of at least 50% music retail, whose company is not publicly traded and whose ownership is at least 70% located in the state of operation (In other words, we’re dealing with real, live, physical, indie record stores—not online retailers or corporate behemoths).” —RecordStoreDay.com 

Saturday was a good day for rock and roll in downtown St. Petersburg. It was Record Store Day. I went to Central Avenue because I knew it would be best there, specifically on the 600 Block, where Daddy Kool Records and The Local 662 and FUBAR are stacked like crucial vertebrae that serve as the headquarters for local subterranean movements. This is where rock and roll lives—

Even on an off day you can bop into FUBAR for a cool $2 PBR and dig a good foreign horror movie played on mute with Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros vibrating about the dark walls; it is a good place to get out of the daylight.

They have great shows at FUBAR all the time, and lot of good bands played there for Record Store Day, and also at the Local 662, where The Tampa Bay Times held their Ultimate Band Showcase, which featured Sonic Graffiti, Archaic Interest, Good Graeff and a few others and included an impromptu acoustic set by Passafire, who played across the street at State Theater later that night.

It was fun to work your way up and down the sidewalk and stop in for drinks and watch all the bands—and of course Daddy Kool Records brought it all together: No Clubs Presents operates out of the back room at Daddy Kool, and they book just about every good show that comes through town.

Daddy Kool was a pledged participating member of national Record Store Day—they had tables lining the sidewalk in front of the store; covering the tables were boxes and boxes of records, twelve- and seven-inchers EP’s and 45’s and Long Play 33.5 rpm microgroove vinyl babies, and CDs and cassette tapes and even some 8-tracks: all on sale for $1 U.S.

Inside the store was a labyrinth of good deals on records and enthusiastic vinyl enthusiasts—they moved through the maze all day from 8 a.m. to close. Somebody won a vinyl test pressing of Green Day’s new Demolicious album, which was released on Record Store Day.

Kristin Stigaard, 24, of Daddy Kool Records / No Clubs Presents said, “Record Store Day creates a strong feeling of community among music lovers and vinyl enthusiasts. It’s also the busiest day of the year, and gets the word out that record stores still exist, and are working to thrive in the digital age.”