Hours before the sun rises Saturday, dozens of folks will be lined up outside of Beverly Records for a once-a-year tradition held on every continent except Antarctica.
Located at 11612 S. Western Ave. in Chicago’s Beverly neighborhood since 1967, the Dreznes family’s shop will open early for Record Store Day, a celebration of independent record stores featuring limited-edition releases.
The eighth annual event – marketed with an official poster designed by Delaware-based Dogfish Head Craft Brewery and musician Dave Grohl as this year’s ambassador – is a treasure hunt for vinyl lovers.
Some will search for the Violent Femmes’ first new music in 17 years with the 12-inch EP “Happy New Year” or the reissue of the radio station pre-release promo of the Bee Gees’ “Stayin’ Alive.”
Others will dig for Paul McCartney’s “The Family Way: Original Soundtrack Recording” (1967) or 7-inch color vinyl by Jeff Beck or Frank Zappa or a 10-inch picture disc by Gregg Allman.
Which stores will carry which releases on Record Store Day is so mysterious even the participating businesses aren’t sure what they’ll have in stock.
“All week we’ll be opening boxes and getting orders right up to Friday,” said Joe Lemus, a manager at Beverly Records. “We might order 10 copies of something and only get four or five. But there’s plenty for everybody and we’ve been increasing our orders.”
Beverly Records, which specializes in hard-to-find vinyl and also sells new vinyl and CDs, will open at 7 a.m. April 18 and offer soft drinks, snacks and entertainment plus a 20-percent discount on all used vinyl.
The folks at Beverly Records have even devised a scenic bicycle route through Beverly and Morgan Park for those interested in a bit of exercise during their vinyl mission (available at its sister site fortherecord.com).
With current artists such as Taylor Swift releasing material on vinyl and kids discovering their parents’ collections, a younger generation is flocking to record stores, Lemus said.
“Within this year we have seen younger record buyers,” he said. “Now it’s cool to spin records and they’re buying the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and AC/DC.”
Record Store Day 2014 was the shop’s best 1-day sale ever, scoring around a 20 percent boost in sales, he said.
Beverly Records also is partnering with Rock Island Public House, 13328 Old Western Ave. in Blue Island, for “South Side Brew & View” at 8 p.m. Thursday, April 16. The documentary “Records Collecting Dust,” the official movie of Record Store Day, will be screened and proceeds will benefit Special Olympics.
At the Rock Island Public House, the selection in the CD jukebox changes as frequently as the local brews on tap.
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On Record Store Day, the alehouse owned by husband and wife Dave and Jennifer Brown – punk rock fans, he a former beer buyer for Whole Foods, she a special education teacher at Rich East High School in Park Forest – will offer $1 discount on craft brews to patrons with a receipt from Beverly Records or any participating Record Store Day shop. Deejays who call themselves These Old Men They Play Records will spin select vinyl purchases.
“Record Store Day is a great way to support local businesses, and we started as a small business to support other small businesses,” Dave Brown said. “Beer and music have always gone well together. On Record Store Day you’re looking to get what nobody else has, like a limited release craft beer.”
Categories for Record Store Day include “exclusive releases” to be sold at participating stores and unavailable anywhere else in the same format.
Bedhead’s “Live in Chicago” and Erasure’s “The Violent Flame Remixes” with six remixes, four unreleased, of select tracks from the latest album “The Violet Flame” on red vinyl, are among the “limited run/regional focus releases,” a sub-list of exclusives that may be in very limited quantities and may not be distributed nationally.
Thirdly, “first releases” will be available at participating stores and, in four to six weeks, other retailers. “Firsts” include Social Distortion’s eponymous 1990 album remastered for vinyl – translucent blue vinyl, to be exact – from the original analog tapes for its 25th anniversary and packaged in a recreated jacket with the original lyric sleeve and limited to 6300 copies, and the Willie Wonka Golden Ticket-like affair with 500 transparent blue vinyl copies of Built To Spill’s album “Untethered Moon” randomly shipped to stores around the country.
There’s more to Record Store Day than vinyl. The day also includes new cassettes, such as Metallica’s official release of its widely circulated 1982 demo tape “No Life Til Leather.”
Other area businesses participating in Record Store Day include B-Side Records, 6735 Stanley Ave., Berwyn; Old School Records, 7446 W. Madison, Forest Park; Cyklopx, 7511 Madison St., Forest Park; the Music Experience, 1959 1/2 E. 73rd St., Chicago; Hyde Park Records, 1377 E. 53rd St., Chicago; and Death or Glory, 2557 1/2 W. Chicago Ave., Chicago.
For more information about Record Store Day, go to recordstoreday.com.
For more information about Beverly Records, call 773-779-0066 or go to beverlyrecords.com or fortherecordshop.com.
For more information about Rock Island Public House, call 708-388-5513 or go to rockislandpublichouse.com.
Vickie Jurkowski is a freelance writer for the Daily Southtown.