This Saturday is a big deal for music lovers in Seal Beach and all over the world, and not just because Radiohead is headlining Coachella Saturday. In case you haven’t heard, this Saturday is Record Store Day, an international celebration of the art of music on vinyl.
To mark the occasion, Seal Beach’s Left of the Dial Records will have an in-store performance by the legendary SoCal punk band, Channel 3.
“It’s great for independent record stores,” Left of the Dial Records owner Geoff Leamon said. “With the exclusive releases coming out, it drives people to our business because the items are so limited. We do in a day what we (normally) do in a month. Record Store Day has become such a big deal.”
The first Record Store Day was in 2008 and is internationally celebrated the third Saturday of April each year. Musicians, like Channel 3, will play live shows in stores (Al Jardin of the Beach Boys will be playing at fingerprints in Long Beach), and there will be limited release vinyl, EP’s, and other promotional material. This year, Iggy Pop will be spreading the musical cheer as the Official Ambassador of Record Store Day.
Left of the Dial Records will have the exclusive Record Store Day release of the collaborative Flaming Lips album, Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends, which features duets with Yoko Ono, Bon Iver, and Nick Cave. Other notable releases available are the vinyl reissue of the Misfits album Walk Among Us as well as others from Iggy Pop and Stooges.
Left of the Dial will open at 6 AM and have coffee and donuts. To ensure you can wont miss Channel 3 perform at 3 p.m., call the store to get on the list.
Leamon is excited to be a part of Record Store Day because it reminds people that vinyl is still relevant.
“It’s a great way of record labels celebrating record stores and lets people know that we haven’t gone away,” Leamon said. “We desperately need this in the digital download age because it pays homage to vinyl.”
Left of the Dial Records is located at 1065 Pacific Coast Hwy, Seal Beach
wy, Seal Beach.
