Celebrating National Record Store Day: Employees at Houses of the Holy

If we are to continue on this road of easy access, what’s at stake? Do we, at the risk of villages without magic, burn our witches? If all is Ziploc’ed, packed away and tidy, then what goo will seep into the crevices of the underground?

It’s as much a part of growing up as having your first wet dream: You, the sloppy, sincere, inquisitive, adventurous youngster, enter a record store filled with questions about the sounds in your head, and risk embarrassment at the hand of that oh-so-knowledgeable, too-cool-for-school record-store employee. You ask who sings that “Greenleaf” song, and soon discover Black Sabbath by being led to the “B” rock section. You have now learned a life lesson (nearly) as valuable as mastering fishing in order to stave off starvation.

Will you ever forget your first Tastemaker Messiah, whose denim jacket you coveted for years? It doesn’t matter if she was snotty with pink riot-grrl bangs, who led you to your desired aisle with enough attitude to freeze a zombie in its tracks; or a kindhearted, dreadlocked stoner in a Bad Brains T-shirt who bobbed his head to a rhythm only he could hear. They had answers. They knew. They’d heard things you’d never imagined.

National Record Store Day is April 18, and its stated goal is not only to bring to light the glorious nature of the brick-and-mortar retail experience but also to illustrate why neighborhood record stores’ vitality is good for the community — and one of the last, best refuges from the doldrums of corporate sonic homogeny. Even Coachella, which celebrates the live-music experience, is honoring its recorded-music allies; its on-site shop is being operated in conjunction with National Record Store Day (though any fool dumb enough to buy vinyl in the desert needs to spend a little more time with his/her Tastemaker Messiah). With, in recent years, the continued resurgence in vinyl sales, and with the arrival, in Echo Park, of a new vinyl-only store, Origami Records, the tiny shops that could are working to weather the troubled economy. In honor of this grand holiday, we asked some of our favorite record store–worker musicians to share thoughts on the vinyl life.

Employee: JUAN VELASQUEZ

Band: Abe Vigoda

Instrument: bass

Record store: Amoeba

What’s the best thing about working in a record store?
For me, because I buy a lot of vinyl, it’s cool to find stuff that you’ve been looking for for a long time, and you meet a lot of people who are just as nerdy about music as you. So it’s fun to work around people like that and always be around music.

What do record stores offer that getting music off the Internet doesn’t?
You can’t download a vinyl record, and you can’t find everything on the Internet. If you buy CDs, I can see that, maybe, but a lot of people here just buy vinyl. They just want the physical object and the artwork and have it big — and you can’t have that on your iPod. So that’s the best part: It’s just nice to have it as a tangible item.

Craziest/best story about working here?
This one time there was this paranoid-schizophrenic woman who was having a fit and I still had to ring her up as she was screaming about the government, and she would just, like, give me CDs, and she was yelling in my face and just totally insane, so that was kind of funny.

Do you remember what she bought
I do not remember. I was just trying to get her out of here as fast as possible. Oh! And one time I got to ring up Björk, and that was really cool. That was my favorite day.

Employee: SHAN BEASTE

Pseudonym/Band: Zombelle, The Sandinistas.

Instrument: all

Record store: Amoeba

Are record stores still a vital part of the scene
They are extremely important.

Entertainment’s important; it’s a part of everyone’s life. Especially with the war and the elections and the intense things that have happened in the past few years.

People crave something to get their mind off the horrifying things that occur in the world on a daily basis. Some people turn to reality TV, and some people turn to music; I kind of appreciate both of those realms, but music definitely helps me more.

Craziest/best story about working here?
I don’t know, there have been so many great things — my co-worker Daniel dressing up as a cat and handing out candy canes on Christmas. I met David Lynch — and that was, like, the highlight of my life.

Employee: ELVIN ESTELLA

Band/DJ: Blank Blue. “I’m also known as DJ Nobody, and I make instrumental hip-hop.”

Instrument: guitar, sampler, turntables

Record store: Poo-Bah

What’s the best thing about working in a record store?
For a musician, the best thing about working in a record store is that the records are awesome and you get first pick,