Posted on April 14, 2010 - by Editor

“I Need That Record! The Death (or Possible Survival) of the Independent Record Store” comes to DVD April 17th

Press Release:

Guerilla filmmaker Brendan Toller presents a documentary feature examining why over 3000 independent record stores have closed across the U.S. in the past decade.

Greedy record labels, media consolidation, homogenized radio, big box stores, Ecommerce, shoddy “stars” pushed by big money, and the digital revolution all pose threats on the very well being of our favorite record stores and the music industry at large. Will these stores die? Will they survive?

Featuring discussion and commentary by Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, Ian Mackaye of Dischord Records Fugazi/Minor Threat, activist/author Noam Chomsky, Mike Watt of The Minutemen, Lenny Kaye guitarist of The Patti Smith group, Shris Frantz of The Talking Heads/Tom Tom Slub, guitar composer Glenn Branca, Patterson Hood of Drive-By Truckers, Pat Carney of The Black Keys, punk author Legs McNeil, rock photographer Bob Gruen and many indie record stores across the united states.

“This film has been a four year labor of love playing at over 25 film festivals worldwide (and continuing),” said Toller. “So when it came time to craft the DVD we packed it with 2+ hours of candid interview extras with: Thurston Moore, Mike Watt, Ian MacKaye, Lenny Kaye, Patterson Hood, Glenn Branca, Pat Carney, and Legs McNeil.”

The film also features amazing animation by Matt Newman. Currently Toller is working with Justin Skrakowski on a collagic film portrait of rock legend Danny Fields.

The DVD is released for North American distribution on April 17 (Record Store Day). It will be offered exclusively to independent record stores for a period of 90 days. Afterwards, it will be available everywhere on July 27.