Record Store Day 2010

April 17th is Record Store Day, an occasion for recognising and celebrating the role of (a diminishing number) of record shops in nurturing and championing music that you won't find on TV or commercial radio. I've marked Record Store Day before on Counting The Beat with an episode devoted to the the great, but sadly defunct, Crawlspace Records.

In this episode I'm taking a look at another record shop, this one still in operation, Slow Boat Records in Wellington. By the way, I don't have any association with Slow Boat other than being a customer and fan, but it's a great shop and I make a special effort to visit each time I'm in Wellington.

This is a shop where I can find esoteric alternative releases like Incredibly Hot Sex with Hideous People, a zine published by ex Wendyhouse member Bryce Galloway. The issue I stumbled across on the Slow Boat counter included a CD of experimental musical artists like Galloway's own Mr Pudding covering Madonna songs.

Slow Boat also stocks the vintage NZ 7" singles that I hanker after - singles like Bas Turbert with The Hubcaps singing 'The Way She Handles The Clutch' or The Choir of St Mary's Catheral Auckland singing 'The New Zealand Weather Forecast'.

And, in an age where finding someone who stocks an independent release can seem impossible, Slow Boat are likely to have it. When I was looking for The Eastern's EP Oh, Mystery!, Slow Boat was the only place that had it. It was the same with The Renderers latest album Monsters and Miasmas. You'll find videos from both bands on the video page.

Thank goodness we still have places like Slow Boat records. I urge you to support them and hope your discoveries are as rich as mine.

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