Record Store Day 2010 at Radio-Active Records and Sweat Records, or Why I Probably Have More Grey Hair Today

The front and back of Fela Kuti's 10-inch EP, which was a Record Store Day exclusive

​Saturday was the absolutely perfect day to run around, buy records, drink a moderate amount of Strongbow cider, and consume a cornucopia of live music. Except: impressive Record Store Day events were planned for both Radio-Active Records in Fort Lauderdale, and Miami's Sweat Records, and there are 27.5 miles separating these two fine establishments. Who needs speed limits, anyhow!

My purchases at Radio-Active: R.E.M.'s Chronic Town vinyl reissue, Fela Kuti 10-inch vinyl EP, and Pavement's Quarantine the Past (non-Record Store Day track listing). I witnessed a young woman opening her copy of the Flaming Lips' Dark Side of the Moon release, and in spite of a sticker on the outside stating that the vinyl would be "sea foam green," we agreed that it was closer to "sea foam clear." Oh well.

Also, the man in front of me in line literally bought one of everything in the store, and there were several hundred others with similar chronic back pain-inducing record stacks. Radio-Active's website says more than 1,000 people purchased records from the store on Saturday. If you were one of them, what did you get?

Over at Sweat Records' Sweatstock extravaganza, the entire 5500 block of NE 2nd Ave -- Churchill's, Sweat and the empty lot on the block's Northeast corner -- was swarming with a happy assortment of well-coiffed music enthusiasts with marvelous sunglasses. If this crowd was upset about missing some rinky dink music festival that rhymes with Broachella going on out in California, they sure didn't show it. I caught sets by local ukelele pop extraordinaire Rachel Goodrich and the speedy noise bursts of Beings, as well as Sweat's Lauren "Lolo" Reskin rushing around looking wildly pleased.

Photographer Ian Witlin documented the rest -- including No Age -- in this fantastic slideshow. Also, plenty of highlights from the day at the Sweat Records' Twitter.