Record Store Day booty: Flaming Lips, Lee Hazlewood, Dinosaur Jr.

The lines were long, the heat was rough, the music-geek quotient off the charts, but one thing made it all worthwhile in the end: the booty. That is, the limited-edition vinyl that has become the hallmark of Record Store Day, the annual celebration of independent record retailers and the music they sell that occurred on Saturday in the U.S. and Britain.

In my case, said loot was made up of the new Flaming Lips double LP, "Flaming Lips & Heady Fwends," which features, among others, Erykah Badu, Bon Iver, Kesha, Chris Martin and Lightning Bolt; the double-LP teaser of Lee Hazlewood's 1968-71 work, "The LH1 Years: Singles, Nudes & Backsides"; "The Electronic Anthology Project of Dinosaur Jr.," which is exactly what it purports to be; a 7-inch single of the Carolina Chocolate Drops doing Run DMC's "You Be Illin'"; and an album by surreal Finnish metal band Circle, called "Manner." (Alas, I missed out on essential releases from Feist/Mastodon, Lee Perry and Peter Tosh, among others.)

In Los Angeles, the frenzy was focused on three different stores along Sunset Boulevard: Amoeba Music in Hollywood, Vacation Vinyl in Silver Lake, and Origami in Echo Park. I opted for Vacation, the little store across from Sunset Junction that is owned by the dudes who run Hydra Head Records. At 10 a.m., when the doors opened, the queue extended down Sunset and around a corner.

Should you see No tonight? Yes

Anyone passing by the Satellite on Wednesday night probably wondered what the fuss was about around 8:45 or so. A line around the block at that early hour probably means some secret Foo Fighters showcase or something, but in this instance it was a band's very first set. The group is the defiantly un-Googleable No, a new five-piece fronted by Bradley Hanan Carter, formerly of the New Zealand combo Steriogram and a recent L.A. transplant.

No is going to get a ton of the National comparisons, and for good reasons — Carter has a similar droll baritone and the band (which features Orgami Vinyl's Sean Stentz on bass) loves melancholy single-string guitar figures on its debut EP, "Don't Worry, You'll be Forever." But live, the No members season it with some gang choruses and upfront keyboards that keep singles like "Stay With Me" their own.

Sunset Strip Business Assn. to host record swap

More than 100,000 records from the '60s, '70s and '80s will be at the disposal of music aficionados hoping to score the missing pieces to their vinyl collection on Saturday when the Sunset Strip Business Assn. hosts a record swap.

Record Collector News and KLOS-FM (95.5) partnered with the association for the event, which is set to have 40 vendors, including Amoeba, Rockaway Records, Record Surplus, Headline Records, Hollywood Book & Poster and Burger Records.

The Record Swap starts at noon at LIVE! On Sunset, the former home of Tower Records.

Early-bird admission is $15, or $10 with a donated canned good. Admission is free after 2 p.m.

RELATED:

Sunset Strip Music Festival renovates one of L.A.'s classic rock addresses

Mötley Crüe, Public Enemy, Matt & Kim, Bush to headline Sunset Strip Music Festival

-- Gerrick D. Kennedy
Twitter.com/GerrickKennedy

Video of Jonsi performing at Origami Vinyl (and he won't do it again)

There are a few very valid reasons to be nervous about playing an in-store at Origami Vinyl; loading gear in up its perilous spiral staircase, the remote chance of plummeting off the loft into the crowd, Ali the Boxer dog witholding hugs in judgment of your set. (Full disclosure: I've played at Origami Records in my other life as a drummer, and received Ali hugs.)

We may never truly know why Sigur Rós frontman Jónsi pulled the ripcord on his planned acoustic record-store tour after playing Origami last month (he cited paralyzing nervousness at the set's intimacy, which was unexpected for a singer who headlines the world's biggest venues with Sigur Rós). But Origami and director Jack Schlinkert just posted two gorgeous clips from the show, each of songs from Jónsi's recent solo album, "Go." His otherworldly falsetto is pristine and betrays no trace of what he was feeling at the time, so enjoy these clips as the best evidence that a show like this actually happened, because it apparently won't happen again.

-- August Brown

Superchunk to perform at Origami in October; will swat away hipsters in keffiyeh scarves

Superchunk - Digging For Something from Merge Records on Vimeo.

Superchunk, the perennial heroes of purist indie rock from the hills of North Carolina, will be diving right into the belly of the beast on Oct. 19 at noon. Which beast, which belly?

The raw intestinal gorge of the hipster corridor, located approximately 2,040 nautical miles* from the prime meridian at 1816 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles.

Origami Vinyl just announced that Superchunk, currently on tour in support of its first new album in nine years, "Majesty Shredding," will be performing an all-acoustic set of songs in the record store's loft, typically the province of the kind of band that Superchunk lovingly spoofs in the video above for "Digging for Something."

The video, directed by former Daily Show writer Scott Jacobson, shows Mac McCaughan forging on with Superchunk 2.0 (played by Merge labelmates the Love Language), now outfitted in an array of neon sunglasses. Meanwhile, his former band members distract themselves with second-stage careers in dentistry, ceramics and bliss-chasing. When Laura Ballance sees a flier for "Superchunk! (Feat. One Original Member)," she leads a take-back of their old band, luring away one player with... well, we won't spoil it but it's good and hurts only a little.

In order to get yourself into the show, you have to buy "Majesty Shredding," which, in a sure sign that it's not 1999, debuted at #85 on the Billboard Top 200, or the reissues of Superchunk classics "No Pocky for Kitty" and "On the Mouth." There's only 40 spots; if things go wrong, we could see a tiny Altamont on our hands ... but instead of blood, maybe just tomato sauce from Two Boots Pizza next door.

If you can't squeeze into the wee record store, there are other opportunities to see the band. One: Matador's 21st birthday party in Las Vegas next weekend. Two: Henry Fonda, also Oct. 19.

--Margaret Wappler

*That would be a totally made-up figure, yes.

Origami Vinyl's one-year anniversary is Saturday. Take that, biz doomsayers.

A year and a half ago, I found an errant UPS delivery slip outside a gutted storefront on Sunset Boulevard in Echo Park. It was addressed to an "Origami Music," and we speculated accordingly about its enticing provenance.

A year ago this weekend, Origami Vinyl threw its doors open to rapturous local (and international) vinyl vermin, and it quickly established itself at the heart of young Echo Park as both a practical alternative to Amoeba and as a hangout for fans of indie, punk, folk and garage rock at their in-store performances.

On Saturday, they're taking a well-earned victory lap with an anniversary party with sets from wistful rockers Summer Darling, gloomy noiseniks Twilight Sleep and the all-girl Southern goth group Kissing Cousins, among others. Shows get started at 4 p.m., and feel free to hassle Neil about when the heck they're going to get that used section in there.

-August Brown

Photo by Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times

Origami Vinyl to open in Echo Park: Crazy like a fox?

Last May, Neil Schield was laid off from IODA, a digital music distribution company. Schield knows the grim state of the music economy as well as anyone, and no one would fault him of steering wide and clear of the business of selling songs in the future.

So Schield's forthcoming venture into a retail business -- one devoted entirely to selling vinyl records -- feels as if it falls somewhere between absolutely crazy and completely insane. But Origami Vinyl, the soon to open brick-and-mortar arm of Schield's record label, tucked in a dizzyingly gentrifying strip of Sunset Boulevard in Echo Park, might just be crazy enough to work. 

"It's the only corner of the physical music business that's growing," Schield said over a pint of craft ale at nearby cafe Masa. "I've lived in this neighborhood for eight years, and I've always been inspired by how much people here know about music and want to spend money on it."