"So who truly is to blame for the death of my stupid neighbor? I blame independent record stores.”

Record store day, fucking riot man.

But me and Ryan made it out with what we were looking for.

Our own "Whats in the bag?" special I guess.

Me:

Flaming Lips/Stardeath White Dwarf - Dark Side of the Moon (Barely!)

Fucked Up - Daytrotter Sessions 7" EP (Spiral Scratch Cover)

DJ Ilya Monosov & the 21st Century Punks - New Music

Total Abuse - Sex Pig 7" EP

Ryan:

REM - Chronic Town 12" EP/Automatic for the People (CD)

Coheed & Cambria - Guns of Summer/Pearl of the Stars 7" (picture disc)

Avenged Sevenfold - All Excess

I knew it would be crowded, but that was ridiculous. At the same time it was fun, I do not get many opportunities to make big purchases at Amoeba.

Alas I did not check out Freakbeat this year. Out of money.

Post Script

I know record collecting, or just collecting can be fun in general. But when it takes records out of the hands of people that actually want to use them (and yes, that means through removing the shrink wrap) then it annoys me. While I was searching for the Flaming Lips record I overheard some gentlemen saying that they picked up a FEW copies of  record store day exclusive records to negotiate some deals with people, thankfully record store day protocol allocated ONE copy of each record to an individual but I didn't know this when I heard it. The same thing goes for instrument collecting. Lets face it, your making things unnavailable to people that cannot put down the now $50 going rate for the Flaming Lips record, for the $25 profit. I'm not going to make judgements on people for doing this, but if you are you have to know what your doing.

The "Daytrotter" EP from Fucked Up is a good example, limited to 1700 copies total, I see about 1697 of them on ebay. Going rate for that is $9.99, which is $4 profit, most likely from oversaturation, might as well had left it on the shelfs so a Fucked Up fan could actually listen to it.

I have the same tiff with instrument collectors, probably actually to a greater intensity, because old instruments used to be a source for budding musicians to get decent sounding equipment for a reasonable price, however now its not an option, and all that we have available to us is trashy-sounding assembly-line-from-Indonesia equipment. Me and Ryan have been able to manage getting a decent sounding rig for much cheaper than it would appear, but it took a lot of time, effort, and luck.

Guitars are for playing, they sound better the more you play them, it gives them character, and when someone takes a '72 fender and sticks it in some glass showcase it just takes it away from the hands of someone that can use it to make art.

And when someone sells a record for an unreasonable amount and makes people think twice about opening it to listen to, it ruins that experience.

I opened the Flaming Lips record, and I enjoyed it a lot, so there is now 4999 pristine copies at the most.