Saturday is Record Store Day across Canada, and local record shops are preparing for the annual tradition.
Trevor Worsell, owner of Sound Fixation, is preparing a little more than most. He re-opens his shop on Record Store Day.
“It’s been a crazy, crazy month and a half,” Worsell said. “Trying to get it done in this small window of time also adds a little pressure, but it’ll be worth it.”
Sound Fixation has long been a popular record store in Stratford. After a brief hiatus moving shop from their old location on Wellington Street, they are opening a stone’s throw away at 4 George St. W.
As Worsell said, it is especially meaningful because they originally opened on Record Store Day eight years ago.
Record Store Day was originally conceived in 2007 at a gathering of independent record store owners and employees. What began as a small movement in the United States quickly grew. Today, it is celebrated across the world, with special vinyl and CD releases just for that day, featuring a wide range of genres.
Worsell said that in bigger centres there can be some large lineups to get the exclusives. What’s nice about Stratford is that there is usually a steady stream of traffic, but no lines.
Wayne Riehl, owner of Diamond Dogs Vinyl on Ontario Street, agrees.
This year, Riehl said that he is impressed by the collection. Every year the curators of the exclusives try to have a varied amount of interests and genres covered, but this year has some eye-catching ones especially, such as K-pop.
Plus there will be a couple of cool, never-before-heard records as well, he said, like David Bowie’s Waiting in The Sky.
That Record Store Day exclusive was put together from stereo tapes created for The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. Waiting in The Sky is a full LP that runs differently from the Ziggy Stardust album and features four songs that didn’t make it onto the final record.
The full list of records coming to stores this Saturday can be found here. Both Riehl and Worsell said that they have purchased some of the records included in the list, but not all – they only purchase stock they think Stratford’s market will have an interest in after all.
In addition to Record Store Day, Saturday evening Sound Fixation is hosting an all-vinyl dance party at Revival House, free of charge, in thanks to all the support they have gotten from the community.
The party takes place from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. and features all vinyl sets from Revival Vinyl Society Crew.
