Southern Albertans can celebrate independent record stores April 20 with the 17th annual Record Store Day Canada.
Local vinylists can venture out to the King of Trade, located in downtown Lethbridge, to dig through crates of used records and some one-off specials, including live special releases from The Tragically Hip and The Weeknd and a picture disc from Barenaked Ladies.
Owner Hunter Heggie says the local store has participated in Record Store Day for about five years. “They bring out a lot of different artists. Big artists will put out special albums, different coloured albums and special live albums – all kinds of different things to entice collectors.”
This year, Heggie notes, customers have been asking about a few of the upcoming releases, including collector editions from Pearl Jam, The Offspring and Motley Crue. “We try to stock up. We try to get a variety. The deal with Record Store Day albums is those albums are special albums that only come out that particular Record Store Day and that’s it.”
“And there’s only so many made. It’s a lot of fun,” adds Heggie.
Records, these days, are amazing and the industry has come full circle, says Heggie, as more youth turn to turntables to listen to their music. “It seems like such a throwback. It’s kind of going back in time a little bit and it’s cool. I find it awesome.”
Heggie says he listens to records all day in his office and has collected records for a long time. King of Trade also has thousands of new and used records in stock. “It’s an incredibly fun hobby.”
“Some of it is so obscure. If we look at what we’ve sold in a day, sometimes you go ‘wow, I would have never thought that album would sell.’ But somebody out there, there’s a song on there or whatever it may be – a special memory they might have. It’s a broad range of people buying it. It’s something parents can do with their teenagers too to have fun,” says Heggie.
Record collecting is also an investment, Heggie adds. “The albums that sold for $5 years ago are selling for $20 or $30 now.”
“Record Store Day is all about fun. We’ll have coffee and donuts for whoever shows up there in the morning,” says Heggie. Doors open at 10 a.m.
“There may or may not be a line-up. It’s really unpredictable, depending on what albums people really want. I do hope people get involved in records because it is a great hobby.”