Record Store Day!

 Saturday April 20^th was Record Store Day.  Record Store Day occurs one Saturday every year and is used to encourage people to get out and support local independent music stores.

We decided to hang out at main st. music in Manayunk because our friends know the owner and the other cool music loving people who work there. 

 

Though I’ve lived in this area my entire life, this was my first trip to Manayunk.  I love places where you can leisurely wander about looking in store windows and eating tasty food…speaking of food, we started off our afternoon by having lunch.  We took a walk up and down an entire stretch of restaurants and shops, examining each eating establishment before settling on Cactus. 

After being seated our server brought us complimentary chips and salsa.  I must say and my eating companions agreed that it was some of the best restaurant salsa we have ever eaten.  It tasted smoky with just a touch of sweet.  They had to refill our chips and salsa before our meals arrived because we couldn’t stop stuffing our faces. 

The entire week leading up to record store day I suffered a hankering for enchiladas so I barely had to look at the menu before finalizing my decision.  The chicken enchiladas were amazing.  Like the salsa, the enchilada sauce was smoky with just a hint of sweet and there was such a thick gooey layer of cheese it was difficult to identify the enchiladas underneath.  The black beans and rice weren’t half bad either.

  Even the iced tea seemed perfect.  We really wanted to get dessert (specifically the strawberry funnel cake sundae) but after scarfing down enchiladas and burritos there was only a tiny bit of space left in our bellies so we paid our bill and set out to find a place to get a good cup of coffee.

 

Once caffeinated beverages were obtained we stopped in a cool science store called Spectrum Science.  There were a lot of fun things in the store from giant telescopes to gel ant farms. My cousin and I reminisced about our childhoods spent going to the Edmund Scientific store.  I most vividly remember my mom buying me a spy kit from Edmund.

 

 

When our scientific curiosities were satisfied, we finally made our way back to main st. music.  It was packed with a vast array of music loving individuals.  The people running the event said that it was the best turn out for a record store day thus far which I found impressive, especially in this day of instant digital music.

 

 

There were bands that were there either to play, sign things or both. 

 

  The store had plenty of new and used music to browse though and purchase.  The conversations that people had as they rifled through the cds and records were interesting.  People have such diverse tastes and strong loves and hates when it comes to their listening choices.

 

I bought this. 

 

 

Don’t make fun.  Sometimes you need to listen to fun happy bouncy music on those sunny blue sky fluffy cloud days.

Jamie and Mark (we know them and they are awesome!) were working the register.  They must have been exhausted by the end of the day as the stream of purchasing customers seemed never ending.

 

If you were hungry the store had free tomato pies and pepperoni bread to munch and if you were of age there was also free beer supplied by Heineken.  Free munchies, beer and good tunes, what more could you ask for during a sunny April Saturday afternoon?

 

If you missed Record Store Day this year make sure you catch it next year, and until then take some time to seek out an independent music store near you and show them a little love by stopping in and purchasing some music.  The nice thing about a physical store is that there are physical people working there who are knowledgeable and enthusiastic about all kinds of music and can help turn you on to the next band/musician that will make your ears happy.

*If you enjoy similar events, this coming Saturday, May 4th,  is Free Comic Book Day.  Check out this link to find a participating comic book store near you!

Free Comic Book Day