Highlights of the Upcoming Record Store Day 2011 Event

The fourth annual Record Store Day will take place on Saturday, April 16, 2011. Record Store Day is an internationally celebrated day observed the third Saturday of April each year to celebrate the art of music. The concept is to bring together fans, artists, and the over 700 independently owned record stores in the United States, along with hundreds of independent record stores across the world.



Eric Levin, Michael Kurtz, Carrie Colliton, Amy Dorfman, Don Van Cleave and Brian Poehner founded Record Store Day in 2007. The event has grown and is now celebrated across the world with hundreds of musicians making special appearances, meeting their fans, live performances, holding music-themed art exhibits, and the issuing of special vinyl and CD albums along with other ideas and events to support the cause.



The highlights of this year’s event include a rare six-track Nirvana EP, called Hormoaning, that was originally only available during a Australia tour in 1992 and features two original tracks and covers from a John Peel session. This collection is limited to only 6,000 copies. Gorillaz are also releasing a limited edition version of their fourth studio album The Fall - with the album getting a CD release two days later. Punk bands Green Day and Husker Du are releasing a split for Record Store Day. The Cure will reissue their 1990 live album, Entreat, as a 2-disc LP, while Dave Grohl’s Foo Fighters will be releasing a covers album called ‘Medium Rare’ that features covers of songs by Gary Numan, Wings, Pink Floyd, Prince, and The Zombies.



Rolling Stones will be releasing a limited edition 7-inch of their classic 1971 single ‘Brown Sugar‘. Panda Bear has brought forward the release of his fourth studio album ‘Tomboy’ especially for the event. In a the more bizarre releases, The Flaming Lips are to release a new box-set collection of their Warner Brothers albums issued under the title Heady Nuggs: The First 5 Warner Bros. Records 1992 – 2002.



Last year, music by Jimi Hendrix, Coheed and Cambria, MGMT and She & Him were especially popular, while special releases by the Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Bruce Springsteen were a very popular method of getting people buying records and CDs.



Ex-Black Sabbath front man, solo artist, and television star Ozzy Osbourne has been awarded the title of Record Store Day Ambassador, which was held by Josh Homme last year. Ozzy said: "I now have the power to command you to attend Record Store Day, April 16th. Be there!" We will Ozzy, we will.



The continuing plummeting of CD sales and a strong move towards downloading in recent years, Record Store Day is a healthy reminder of the benefits of a "physical copy" of a piece of music.



Andrew Parker writes the latest album reviews for music news and reviews website Electric Banana.