Brick 'N Mortar 'N Vinyl: Record Store Day is Today

The holiday for music nerds has arrived in Seal Beach. Left of the Dial Records will be participating in Record Store Day, opening at 7 a.m. today.

There’s a holiday for everything, but Record Store Day?

 “With the resurgence of vinyl, the music industry and recording artists did it to get people back into record stores,” says Left of the Dial Records owner Geoff Leamon. The first Records Store Day was in 2008. Musicians make special store appearances (the Foo Fighters are playing a sold-out show today at the Long Beach record store Fingerprints) and offer ultra-limited reissues and previously unreleased vinyl LPs, EPs, singles, and CDs. There’s also an official Record Store Day Ambassador. This year it’s Ozzy Osbourne.

With the limited nature of the releases, not every store will have every special offering from every participating artist. The quantities stores get are also quite limited. “Little guys like me get a smaller piece of the pie,” says Leamon. Leamon is still quite happy with what his store will be selling.

Left of the Dial will have a limited 10-inch record from the Beach Boys, a re-release of Big Star’s Third made to look like a test pressing (1 in every 300 will be an actual test pressing of the album from the 1970s), a 13th Floor Elevators vinyl single, and a 7-inch record from The Velvet Underground among other offerings from the Flaming Lips, Pearl Jam, OFF! and others.

 “The Syd Barrett record is the one I’m looking forward to the most,” says Leamon. “The packaging is really good. It’s called An Introduction to… and it’s got songs from when he was in Pink Floyd and solo material.”

While 7 AM isn’t a typical opening hour for a record store, Leamon is ready. “I’ll have my coffee,” he says. “I’m guessing there’s probably going to be a line based on phone calls I’m getting. People are going to hit a lot of stores and we’ll get a jump opening at seven.”

Leamon feels the philosophy behind Record Store Day dovetails nicely with his vision for his store.

“It brings people together. The hunt is half the fun with the collectability of vinyl,” he said. “I’m looking forward to it.”

Left of the Dial Records is located at 1065 Pacific Coast Hwy, Seal Beach.