This has been a real grower in the shop and I’d been waiting to see how much it grew on me before choosing it. However as these things sometimes go Michael from the band then brought in an album from the band’s guitarist Owen McAuley and though it is a different album altogether that too became a bit of a grower so putting the two together for the album club suddenly seemed to make perfect sense.  

More about both albums to follow but for those who fancy finding out more ASAP Smackvan will be playing with Slow Down, Molasses (a name almost as bad as Smackvan) at a Song, by Toad gig at Henry’s Cellar Bar on Wednesday. The album club emails will be sent out this week.  

Admiral Fallow wil be playing in-store on Monday 21st May at 5.30pm to celebrate the release of their second album. 

As always the in-store will be free which is a position I hope to maintain. Many shops insist that entry is by purchasing an album which is not unreasonable especially if the band are playing week of release. 

Our in-stores are often attended by visitors to Edinburgh and young kids seeing a band sometimes for the first time and I would like to keep it so they can see the band without being expected to buy the album. However if most of a bands’ fans buy online and then just turn up for a free gig it makes our position untenable. As I say I really hope we can keep our in-stores completely free. 

We have supported the band from the beginning since Robin their manager just off the train turned up with a bag full of CDs. Luckily he didn’t have far to go. It seems odd now that only a last minute rush of sales at Christmas snuck their first album into out top 20 for 2010 ! Times have certainly changed.

Similarly if the core support is not there from the local music community then those shops that have a tradition of working with local bands need to accept that and move on. When artists and labels say they don’t owe the shops their support that I would say very much depends on which artists and labels feel that way. Those that have built up a fan base with the help of shops do indeed owe those shops some support rather than just say “well we have fans emails now we will contact them directly”. Those that have built up fan bases using social media sites and gigs over the last few years indeed owe shops nothing at all. As time goes on that can only become more the case. 

It reminds me of when record companies first started cutting back on staff and let some long serving reps “go”. Many of these guys had looked after shops for years often coming in on Saturdays (unpaid) if more stock were needed. If they came into Avalanche looking for a CD I would never take money from them. That would simply have been wrong in my book. Other shops might at best offer them a small discount and think they were doing them a favour. I never got that.

Other artists and labels think they have the right to ignore release dates, sell what they want and then belatedly offer releases to shops. Again yes and no. Those “proper” bands on “proper” labels through “proper” distributors are obliged to observe release dates as are shops. They just don’t and nothing is done. The same would not apply to a shop. Those not with distributors can certainly do as they wish and of course shops have the right to decide that it is not worth their time to stock the release. For those “proper” bands they can of course offer all sorts of incentives for fans to buy from them and so long as the release date is observed then that too breaks no rules. However they can not object to the phrase “actively encouraging people not to buy from shops” when they make offers “not available in the shops”. Again as a shop you just have to accept there will never be a level playing field again and see if there is still a model that works with the odds so heavily stacked against you.

For Avalanche we are very much now on the cusp. Many young bands don’t feel they need shops at all which is just fine so long as they don’t come looking for help further down the line. However for many there is still an ambition to have a physical release available in a record shop despite the fact neither themselves or their fans buy physical releases or frequent record shops. Downloading music is inherently unsatisfying as is providing releases as downloads but that is a dichotomy shops can not help with.

I’m a great believer in listening to our customers but of late what people say they want and what they actually support have become two different things. Twitter only accentuates this. More soon.

As someone who helped organise the very first Record Store Day much has certainly changed and I’ll comment on that another time. Here however is a brief summary of how things went down this year.

The run up to RSD was busier than normal helped by the Spiritualized album and the week after RSD was busier than normal helped by the Jack White album. We tend to find RSD sales are very much confined to the day itself. 

Sales of RSD stock were up again this year which was not a surprise given the number of titles but overall sales were slightly down on last year as disappointingly despite a fantastic selection of vinyl and CDs non RSD stock sales were down considerably.

Some customers boycotted RSD (titles not really limited and prices too high) but came in before or after the day to support the shop which is much appreciated. 

One customer who wanted Belle & Sebastian, Human Don’t Be Angry, McLusky and Animal Collective but couldn’t make it in too early luckily did get all he wanted but his prediction that most titles would be available soon from the band or label proved true sooner than even he expected with all available except the Animal Collective by the Monday only fuelling the cynicism of many customers as to the “exclusivity” of RSD product.

We had a ridiculous number of phone calls  looking for Bowie then Abba then Noel Gallagher and many people seemed to think they could just email in a list and then collect it so I was worried on the day these folk would turn up but thankfully there were no such problems.

This year’s customers were definitely mainly “new” people in for the day but at least the weren’t like many last year who had just come in for whatever their band’s fan club had told them about. 

In-stores were brilliant. Many thanks to Dan and Gordon and of course to Red Dog for the PA. They were very well attended indeed. 

Most people seemed to have missed the message of supporting record stores and thought RSD was more to do with collectable records and vinyl which given the media coverage was understandable. 

Thanks to Hula, Analogue and James-Morrow the day had a more celebratory feel than just selling limited vinyl and of course The Bow Bar did their bit selling RSD beer. Thanks again to them all.

The Electric Circus aftershow party went really well and as with the in-store clips the clips of the cover versions have proved particularly popular. Thanks to all those who helped with the recording, the Electric Circus who as usual made things nice and easy, Stu Lewis for making sure everything went to plan on the day and of course The Last Battle, Emily Scott and Star Wheel Press for playing. All the artists that played on the day have had a significant increase in sales since.

This year with every man and his dog trying to jump on the RSD bandwagon I hope customers went away with the feeling that we had made a day of it and not just tried to sell them overpriced and rather dubious “exclusives”. Thanks to everybody who got in touch to say how much they enjoyed the day. Your comments were very much appreciated.     

The collection covers all genres and while there is more dance than anything else there is still an awful lot that isn’t dance and a lot of the dance stuff are releases and labels that even I recognise.

I’ve already pulled out some jazz, blues and soul for our sections and there are some interesting soundtracks too. Again I’ve already priced up some of the indie stuff like Bjork  but things keep “appearing” all the time.

Rarest finds so far have been a Cure promo limited to 50 and a Pet Shop Boys 2 x 12″ coloured vinyl promo. It is the collection of a BBC producer so as you can imagine there are interesting promos from Madonna to U2. 

About half of the collection has arrived and the vast majority is at the front of the shop either on the floor or on the benches we had the posters. Don’t forget though that some of the best stuff has already been priced and put in the racks though to he honest there are so many goodies that only a fraction have been pulled.