Record Store Day 2011

With another Record Store Day before us, prior to heading to Amoeba to exhaust my latest paycheck, I find myself thinking of the independent landscape. From the record stores that help to mold us, to the labels that scrape by to deliver us music that matters, now 20 years after music became the centerpiece of what drives, inspires and helps me to relate, I remain in awe of the impact that music can have on our lives.

Not a day passes that I don't feel grateful to the artists who abandon a comfortable life to give back. Yes, this is what they're doing. They record, tour, and grow old fast, in order to give us what we struggle to find. And for that, I can't thank them enough.

With nostalgia on my mind, here are a few of the records that guided me down that path:

Uncle Tupelo Still Feel Gone (Rockville, 1991)

When I arrived back in New Jersey for summer break in 1994, I awoke on day one and floored the Mazda 626 to Ramsey Books & Records, standing outside in the heat before the store even opened. When the lights finally came on, I darted past the Whitesnake poster that adorned the entrance and headed straight for "U." Nothing. I desperately asked the clerk how I could get my hands on the three Uncle Tupelo records released by tiny independent label Rockville Records. We ordered them. Two weeks later, the opening fury of "Gun" changed something in me. Music moved from hobby to first love.

Marah Let's Cut the Crap and Hook Up Later on Tonight (Black Dog Records, 1998)

Chris Hudson, brother of Blue Mountain frontman Cary Hudson, launched Black Dog Records and it seemed to epitomize everything intangible about the joys of music. Community, bbqs, summer camps, booze and a collection of musicians seemingly born out of The Replacements. South Philly's Marah, threw in banjos, accordians, legendary baseball announcers, dog howls and words that could break your heart one moment, while injecting you with dreams and hope at the next turn. And in the end, they just turned to "Punk Rock Radio."

The Wrens The Meadowlands (Absolutely Kosher, 2003)

Outside of those Springsteen records, perhaps the best top-to-bottom album released by a New Jersey band.....ever. "The House That Guilt Build" not only feels exactly like the Suburban town of my youth, but reveals the stark reality of hitting adulthood and looking back and wondering what might have been. Every single song on this record is bleeding in soul, promise and reflection.

Kenny Roby Rather Not Know (Morebarn, 2002)

Following a few great records under the name 6 String Drag, Roby went on to release one phenomenal record after another. If I could choose just one artist to see who I'd never seen before, once I got past The Beatles and Sam Cooke, I just might go with Kenny Roby.

Dave Bruinooge

I can't even recall the year, but it was sometime in the mid/late 90s when my closest friend handed me a five-song demo that he'd recorded that summer in Connecticut. Enlisting local musicians to back him, Dave's EP has songs on par with all of the songwriters I seemingly idolize. "Every night I walk alone in my house, I think of long lost lives and criminal times and the ones that slip by" he pleads on "Revolution 2000." "Crosswalk Marrow" and "Ultra Low-Tar Taste" round out a small collection of songs that have stood the test of time.