Record Store Day can be a racket. What was, in theory, intended to sustain the vitality of small vinyl shops eventually got hijacked by major labels so that normies could play “wecowd cowector” (use a baby voice) for a day and pick up a colored 7-inch of some B-side scraped off the bottom of Jack White’s boot.
But having said that, now and then a gem pops up in the mix of which not even I, filled with a sufficient dosage of serotonin, can resist the consumption. Record Store Day 2016 has announced such a gem: In Hollywood, 1971, a double LP of renowned sitar master Ravi Shankar’s 1971 live performance in Hollywood. The performance is said to be what jumpstarted Shankar’s famous Concert for Bangladesh, which would popularize the common concept of the benefit concert.
Northern Spy Records is partnering with the Ravi Shankar Foundation to release these four ragas, packaged with liner notes penned by none other then Shankar’s wife. So get a coat and a thermos and grab a spot in line before the dilettantes show up on April 16.
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