Dave Matthews Band album cover from Live at Red Rocks. Photo by: Matthew McGuire
Dave Matthews Band album cover from Live at Red Rocks. Photo by: Matthew McGuire

Catch Live Performances, Grab Exclusive Music, and Connect with Good People Across the Country at Independent Record Stores

Record Store Day and Earth Day have collectively made Saturday, April 22 one of the best days of the year.

In 2008, a small list of titles was released on Record Store Day and that list has grown to include artists and labels both large and small, in every genre and price point.

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Ten years later, independent record stores across the world help release limited edition copies of vinyl records. This initiative helps local businesses keep their doors open.

  • Stream What Now on Sylvan Esso’s main website.
  • Stream new music from The Head And The Heart via the Record Store Day main website.

“After 6 months away from the road, the 6 of us got together to start working on new music, which became what you now know as ‘Signs of Light’. The first writing session was held at a home studio in Stinson Beach, Ca. ‘Bluebird’ was an old unfinished song of mine that finally clicked with everyone during our time in California. It’s a favorite of ours and we hope you enjoy it as well!” – Jon, The Head and the Heart

Record Store Day now takes place twice a year, with a secondary event taking place near the holiday season.

Dave Matthews Band released a 4 disc set of the Red Rocks performance from 1995. I grew up with the album, and arrived to the local record store early for the best chance at picking up a copy. Luckily, when I arrived there was one copy of the live album. During the checkout, one of the works at Hard Copies in Carbondale, Illinois pointed out that there had been a break in at the Dave Matthews warehouse. They noted that several stores were shorted the album to the theft.

The Dave Matthews Band has got a bad rap with indie music fans. It is true, the music they release is under Sony, one of the biggest record labels. That being said, the band still made a big effort to get material out today, and tour almost every single year.

The theft does raise the issue of stealing music. Napster and other services have made stealing music almost mainstream. But, with the rise of streaming music, and the crackdown on peer-to-peer file sharing, the music industry is starting to regain momentum.

Along with the DMB release, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit released 4,000 copies of a live cut to Welcome to 1979.

My older brother loves music history and requested the 1936 and 1937 recordings by Robert Johnson titled The Complete Recordings: The Centennial Collection. Johnson was a Delta blues musician, and pioneered the bridge between blues and rock music.

Browse over highlights from today on social media.