Hi Everyone,

Last week I made a quick trip to New York for our annual Record Store Day meetup. Every year the co-founders take a couple of days to get together in the same room to meet, discuss issues, work on our annual Summer Camp conference and brainstorm on how to solve the music world’s problems. I always leave reinvigorated with new ideas and ready to get to work.

Thanks to our friends at ADA/ BMG, we also got to take in a screening of the new Boom Town Rats documentary, Citizens of Boomtown. There was a Q&A afterwards and my big take away from the evening was hearing Bob Geldof reflect on his career and how so many of songs that he wrote over thirty years ago are still so relevant today. I Hate Mondays was one that immediately comes to mind. He also recalled the evening news story that inspired him to want to do something more- something to really make a change. I love the story of Band-Aid and Live Aid. I probably watch the making of documentary about once a year (admittedly around the holidays). The thing that was so inspiring to me was how this somewhat unlikely character was able to come along and channel all his anger and frustration not to divide or build walls, but to break them down, and to bring people together with music. That is a powerful thing.

Speaking of bringing people together through music, I saw on Twitter today that No Depression polled their staff, industry professionals and musicians to compile a list of 75 of the best record stores across the US. I was thrilled to see that 22 of our CIMS stores made the list!

Cactus – Houston, TX
Central Square – Santa Rosa Beach, FL
Dearborn Music – Dearborn, MI
Easy Street – Seattle, WA
Electric Fetus – Minneapolis, MN & Duluth, MN
Euclid Records – St. Louis, MO
Fingerprints – Long Beach, CA
Homer’s – Omaha, NE
Indy CD & Vinyl – Indianapolis, IN
Lou’s Records – Encinitas, CA
Magnolia Thunderpussy – Columbus, OH
Music Millennium – Portland
Park Avenue CD – Orlando, FL
Plan 9 – Richmond
Pure Pop – Burlington, VT
Record Archive – Rochester
Record Exchange – Boise, ID
Rockin’ Rudy’s – Missoula, MT
Schoolkids Records - multiple locations
Strictly Discs – Madison, WI
T-Bones – Hattiesburg, MS
Twist and Shout – Denver, CO
Waterloo Records and Video – Austin, TX

For the full list of shops, get the latest issue of No Depression here: https://store.nodepression.com/collections/subscribe?utm_source=CIMS&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=spring20

I would like to extend a big congrats to ALL of the shops featured. Some of the most important people in my life, I met through music or in a record shop, so to all the amazing record stores out there, thank you for doing what you do and giving people a place to come together through music.

Here are the charts,
Andrea

Andrea Paschal
Executive Director
Coalition of Independent Music Stores
ThinkIndie Distribution
3738 4th Terrace North
Birmingham, AL 35222
Phone: 205.595.1932 x.208
Fax: 205.595.1938
Email : andrea@cimsmusic.com
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