We've decided to get rid of our Classical Music. Simply put, it sells almost as poorly as hip hop and cajun music--though it takes up 20 times the space.

So, from July 2 to July 9, Classical Music will be offered at 50% off. Get it while you can. After that, it's gone.

Just a reminder that the Annual Summer Sale starts this Saturday. Here's a breakdown:

Sale runs Saturday June 26 - Wednesday June 30. Each day the discount will increase 5% on remaining used stock.

June 26 - 30% off
June 27 - 35% off
June 28 - 40% off
June 29 - 45% off
June 30 - 50% off

Discount is good on all used CDs, DVDs, Vinyl, and Blu-Ray discs. 10% off the new inventory.

We expect it to be very busy. If you've been to our annual summer sale before or our boxing week sale, you'll know what I mean. As we did last boxing week, if you're buying a huge qty of cds, we may take your items and ask that you come back hours or days later to pick them up so that fulfilling your order doesn't force the massive line behind you to wait a crazy amount of time. However, this decision will be up to the staff. We don't want people handing us a 10 cds and saying they'll be back in an hour.

Mark your calanders. The Annual Vortex Summer Sale dates and discounts have been decided. Here's the scoop:

Sale runs Saturday June 26 - Wednesday June 30. Each day the discount will increase 5% on remaining used stock.

June 26 - 30% off
June 27 - 35% off
June 28 - 40% off
June 29 - 45% off
June 30 - 50% off

Discount is good on all used CDs, DVDs, Vinyl, and Blu-Ray discs. 10% off the new inventory.

We expect it to be very busy. If you've been to our annual summer sale before or our boxing week sale, you'll know what I mean. As we did last boxing week, if you're buying a huge qty of cds, we may take your items and ask that you come back hours or days later to pick them up so that fulfilling your order doesn't force the massive line behind you to wait a crazy amount of time. However, this decision will be up to the staff. We don't want people handing us a 10 cds and saying they'll be back in an hour.

Please do not bring us your items to sell during the sale. It's far too busy for us to be doing that and we'll probably just show you the door without looking at your stuff.

Okay, phone's been ringing off the hook with questions. Here's everything you need to know about our Record Store Day sale:

WHEN
Saturday, April 17, 2010.
10am - 10pm

WHERE
2309 Yonge Street, Second Floor
That's a half block north of Eglinton on the east side--right across from the Indigo books and on top of Madanto Pizza.

DISCOUNT
25% off all USED CDs, DVDs, Vinyl, and Blu-Ray.

PLEASE
Do not ask us to hold things for you (over the phone or in person). We will NOT do this for anyone.

VORTEX RSD COMP
We'll be giving away 75 copies of To Think, We've Never Met, a Vortex-exclusive CD compilation of previously unreleased tracks--nine artists from eight countries. More info here. Limit one per customer. Want one? Just ask.

PURCHASING LIMIT
Because qtys are so limited, we are restricting people to buying just ONE of each RSD item.

RECORD STORE DAY ITEMS
Some items we only have a couple of. Some we have dozens of. If you're super keen on anything in this list, I highly suggest you get there early. YES, we expect there to be a lineup before we open. There is at every other sale we throw.

WHAT WE HAVE
Here's a list of the Record Store Day items that we absolutely will have at 10am. What we'll have at 10:01 I can't say.

Against Me - I Was a Teenage Anarchist / Acoustic version of same 7"
Beach House - Zebra 12"
Jeff Beck - Emotion and Commotion 180g
Built to Spill - Water Sleepers / Linus and Lucy 7"
Neko Case - Middle Cyclone - 2LP - Clear Vinyl
CocoRosie - Lemonade 7"
Elvis Costello - Hollywood High 7"
Deerhoof - Apple O'
Deerhoof - Green Cosmos
Devo - Duty Now For the Future
Devo - Fresh / What We Do 12" - 45rpm
Doors - People Are Strange / the Crystal Ship 7"
Roky Erickson and Okkervil River - True Love Cast Out All Evil
Flaming Lips with Stardeath and White Dwarfs - Dark Side of the Moon LP+CD
Peter Gabriel & Stephin Merritt 7"
Hold Steady - Heaven Is Whenever (clear vinyl; hand screened cover)
Sharon Jones / Budos Band - split 7"
John Lennon - 3 x 7" (ltd to 7000, numbered)
Ted Leo / Pharmacist - The Oldest Growth / North Coast 7"
Mastodon - Blood Mountain - 2LP 45RPM 180G
Mastodon - Blood Mountain - Colored vinyl
Mountain Goats - Life Of the World To Come - Rian Johnson documentary dvd
Paolo Nutini - Live at Preservation Hall CDEP
Pantera - Far Beyond Driven 2 x 180g
Pantera - Vulgar Display of Power 2 x 180g
Pantera - Cowboys from Hell 2 x 180g
Pavement - Quarantine the Past: Best Of (alternate track list)
Queens of the Stone Age - Feel Good Hit of the Summer 10" pic disc
REM - Chronic Town (blue vinyl)
Rodriguez - Inner City Blues / I'm Gonna Live Till I Die 7"
Rolling Stones - Plundered My Soul 7"
Arthur Russell - Calling Out of Context - 2LP
Sonic Youth - Hits are for Squares 2LP
Soundgarden - Hunted Down / Nothing to Say 7"
Joe Strummer - Global A-Go-Go 2LP
Joe Strummer - Streetcore
Tegan and Sarah - AOL Sessions CD -
Them Crooked Vultures - Mind Eraser, No Chaser 12"
TV On the Radio - Dear Science
Tom Waits - Mule Variations - 2LP 180g and print
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Skeletons 7"
Various Artists - Stars of Goldwax 7" (OV Wright, James Carr and the Ovations)
Various Artists - Fragments from a Work In Progress 12" (Blonde Redhead, The Big Pink, Gang Gang Dance, Ariel Pink, Tune Yards)
Various Artists - SP20: Casual Nostalgia Fest CD (Key performances from Sub Pop's 20th Anniversary Bash)

PRICES
Word on the street is that some stores are gouging and putting super high prices on the harder to get stuff. We are not. When pricing, I treated each item as if it were a regular new release and did the standard markup. The lowest priced RSD item we have is $4.99 (Sharon Jones / Budos Band 7") and to my knowledge we're the only store in the country with this item. The highest is 56.99 (Mastodon Blood Mountain 2LP 45RPM). All but one item is under $30 if memory serves me right and most single LPs are $16 - $20. Some 12" records are around $13. Picture discs are $15 or so. All but one of the 7" records (Stars of Goldwax) are under $10 with a few under $7.

PRIZES
For every $20 you spend, you get 1 ticket for our raffle. On Sunday I'll do a draw for the winners of these prizes:

• Fihavanana (Mississippi Records) - a 3LP set of field recordings and photography from Madagascar (out of print, limited and hand numbered to 200 copies; donated by Vortex);


• Animal Collective’s 3LP Crack Box (out of print and limited to 1000 copies; donated by me);


• Signed test pressing of Anduin’s Abandoned In Sleep LP (one of a kind!; donated by SMTG Ltd.);


• Signed copy of Triple Burner's self titled LP (out of print; ltd to 500; donated by Triple Burner)


• Grouper's Wide LP (ltd to 1000; donated by Grouper)


• Dinosaur Jr. skatedeck and copy of the band’s Farm CD (donated by Jagjaguwar);


• Autographed CD of Bon Iver’s For Emma, Forever Ago (donated by Jagjaguwar);


• Sharon Jones / Budos Band split 7" (donated by me) and autographed Sharon Jones poster (donated by Daptone Records);


• Soft Machine - Live at Henie Onstad Art Centre 1971 (2LP; limited to 150 UK, 350 USA; donated by Vortex);


• Dinosaur Jr. poster autographed by the entire band (donated by Jagjaguwar);


• La Roux RSD 7" (Donated by Universal Music);


• Peter Gabriel Scratch My Back LP (Donated by Universal Music);


• Peter Gabriel / Stephin Merritt 7" (Donated by Universal Music);

ALRIGHT. I made one final update post with all the info. It's HERE.

UPDATE 3: If you scroll down to the RSD Exclusive releases list you can see what we have already received. Anything in bold has already arrived at the store and will be available to purchase on Saturday--first come first served. Come early--some qtys are ridiculously low. NOTE that we will be limiting RSD titles to one per person. This means you can buy one of each thing but you can't buy more than one of any item. I don't want people coming in and grabbing 10 copies of Pavement or Queens of the Stone Age. ONE per person.

UPDATE 2: People are asking how the raffle is going to work. We were originally going to do just a free raffle, one ticket per person. But considering that we expect it to be crazy busy, there's no way we can restrict or remember who got a ticket over the 12 hour day and I don't want people dropping in ten damn tickets as it won't be fair to those who play honest. So... You will get one ticket for every $20 you spend after tax.

UPDATE: We have added a few more prizes, courtesy of the nice people at Universal music: 1) Peter Gabriel LP, 2) Peter Gabriel/Stephin Merrit 7", 3) La Roux 7".

Okay, so the requests for information on Record Store Day events are becoming a little overwhelming so I'm making this last post about the day and will add any future news I get to this post so bookmark it if you're keen.

Here's everything in a nutshell:

Sale

We will be having a sale on all used product. It will be all day, Saturday, April 17, 2010 and will be a fixed discount of 25%. It will function just like our Boxing Week and Summer Sales but it'll just be for 12 hours instead of six days. Discount will apply to all USED CDs, DVDs, Vinyl, and Blu-Ray.

Vortex-exclusive CD Compilation

We're offering a CD Compilation of exclusive, previously unreleased tracks from some of my favorite artists. The CD is 45+ minutes long. Here is the track list at the moment:

1. Dirty Three - Slow Drive to Shore (Australia)
2. Electrelane - Carolina Wren (UK)
3. Glissandro 70 - You the Vandal (Canada)
4. Anduin - Chamberlayne (live) (USA)
5. Jacaszek - Ornithology (Poland)
6. Jasper TX - Antwerp (Sweden)
7. Elegi - Dårekiste (Norway)
8. Khate - Micro2 (USA)
9. Pixelord - With Kids (Russia)

I chose the artists and they (and/or their labels) graciously donated the tracks. With the exception of the Electrelane track, all tracks are previously unreleased. The Electrelane track is from an out of print single/Japanese release.

My goals in artist-choice were quality, geography, and diversity while still maintaining a flow of listening. Nine artists from eight countries. I'll be the first to admit that this mix is not for everyone but I think it flows beautifully and if you like ambient, experimental, or instrumental music there will be something on here you'll dig. It runs the gamut: relaxed to playful; joyful to haunting; structured to chaotic. CD artwork will be done by Bud.

As far as I know we're the only store in the world doing this but I'd love to be proven wrong. Email if you know different.

Note that we are only pressing 75 of these. They will be hand-numbered and given out free over the course of the day to anyone who asks for one--one per person.

Vortex-exclusive Raffle Goodness

We will be offering up numerous items via a raffle. So far, here are the prizes:

• Fihavanana (Mississippi Records) - a 3LP set of field recordings and photography from Madagascar (out of print, limited and hand numbered to 200 copies; donated by Vortex);


• Animal Collective’s 3LP Crack Box (out of print and limited to 1000 copies; donated by me);


• Signed test pressing of Anduin’s Abandoned In Sleep LP (one of a kind!; donated by SMTG Ltd.);


• Signed copy of Triple Burner's self titled LP (out of print; ltd to 500; donated by Triple Burner)


• Grouper's Wide LP (ltd to 1000; donated by Grouper)


• Dinosaur Jr. skatedeck and copy of the band’s Farm CD (donated by Jagjaguwar);


• Autographed CD of Bon Iver’s For Emma, Forever Ago (donated by Jagjaguwar);


• Sharon Jones / Budos Band split 7" (donated by me) and autographed Sharon Jones poster (donated by Daptone Records);


• Soft Machine - Live at Henie Onstad Art Centre 1971 (2LP; limited to 150 UK, 350 USA; donated by Vortex);


• Dinosaur Jr. poster autographed by the entire band (donated by Jagjaguwar);

Other prizes might become available as we get closer to the actual celebration; I'll of course announce them here when they're firmed up.

Record Store Day Items

Record Store Day's official function is to offer music fans exclusive CD, DVD and vinyl pressings of limited run items. The order of operations is:

1. Labels/artists announce the releases for various territories (countries).
2. Labels/artists/distributors offer the releases to stores in those territories.
3. Stores place orders for what they think they can sell.
4. Some qty of what the stores order arrives and are offered for sale to customers.

Of course, because the items are limited runs, there's simply not enough for everyone. Just because a store ordered X qty of items, doesn't mean the store is going to get that qty. Not all items are offered to all territories.

Vortex will be selling as many of these exclusive items as we can get from our distributors and the labels/artists. Though I know what I ordered for the day, I don't know what will be shipped to me.

These items are sold on a first come first served basis. One of each item MAX per person. No holds.

In addition to the items being offered to all Canadian indie stores, we will have three copies of the Soft Machine 2LP available and eight copies of the Sharon Jones / Budos Band 7". To the best of my knowledge, we will be the only store in Canada offering these two items. We'll also have one of each of these in the raffle.

Here is a list of what was offered to us for RSD. If it's in bold, we already have it and you can purchase it Saturday, starting at 10am. Note that some items we got ridiculously low qtys and some we got dozens. Come early! One of each item per person.

Against Me - I Was a Teenage Anarchist / Acoustic version of same 7"
Beach House - Zebra 12" (ltd to 1500)
Jeff Beck - Emotion and Commotion 180g (ltd to 3000)
Black Keys - Tighten Up / Howlin' For You 12" (ltd to 500)
Built to Spill - Water Sleepers / Linus and Lucy 7" (ltd to 2500)
Neko Case - Middle Cyclone - 2LP - Clear Vinyl (ltd to 2000)
CocoRosie - Lemonade 7" (ltd to 1400)
Elvis Costello - Hollywood High 7"
Deerhoof - Apple O'
Deerhoof - Green Cosmos
Deftones - Rocketskates/Rocketskates(M83 Remix) 7"
Devo - Duty Now For the Future (ltd to 2500)
Devo - Fresh / What We Do 12" - 45rpm (ltd to 2500)
Doors - People Are Strange / the Crystal Ship 7" (ltd to 2500)
Roky Erickson and Okkervil River - True Love Cast Out All Evil (ltd to 1200)
Flaming Lips with Stardeath and White Dwarfs - Dark Side of the Moon LP+CD (ltd to 5000)
Fucked Up - Daytrotter 7" (ltd to 1700)
Peter Gabriel & Stephin Merritt 7" (ltd to 2500)
Hold Steady - Heaven Is Whenever (clear vinyl; hand screened cover; ltd to 600)
Sharon Jones / Budos Band - split 7"
John Lennon - 3 x 7" (ltd to 7000, numbered)
Ted Leo / Pharmacist - The Oldest Growth / North Coast 7"
Mastodon - Blood Mountain - 2LP 45RPM 180G (ltd to 2500)
Mastodon - Blood Mountain - Colored vinyl (ltd to 3000)
Mountain Goats - Life Of the World To Come - Rian Johnson documentary dvd (ltd to 2000)
Paolo Nutini - Live at Preservation Hall CDEP (ltd to 2500)
Pantera - Far Beyond Driven 2 x 180g (ltd to 3000)
Pantera - Vulgar Display of Power 2 x 180g (ltd to 5000)
Pantera - Cowboys from Hell 2 x 180g (ltd to 5000)
Pavement - Quarantine the Past: Best Of (alternate track list; ltd to 1000)
Queens of the Stone Age - Feel Good Hit of the Summer 10" pic disc
REM - Chronic Town (blue vinyl)
Ramones - Ramones Mania - 2LP Split Colored Vinyl (ltd to 1000)
Rodriguez - Inner City Blues / I'm Gonna Live Till I Die 7"
Rolling Stones - Plundered My Soul 7"
Arthur Russell - Calling Out of Context - 2LP (ltd to 2000)
Sex Pistols - Great Rock N Roll Swindel - 2LP 180G gatefold (ltd to 2000)
Soft Machine - Live at Henie Onstad Art Centre 1971 (2LP; limited to 150 UK, 350 USA)
Sonic Youth - Confusion is Sex 180g white vinyl (ltd to 1500)
Sonic Youth - EVOL - 180g pink vinyl (ltd to 1500)
Sonic Youth - Hits are for Squares 2LP
Soundgarden - Hunted Down / Nothing to Say 7" (ltd to 3000)
Joe Strummer - Global A-Go-Go 2LP (ltd to 1200)
Joe Strummer - Streetcore (ltd to 1200)
Superchunk - Misfits and Mistakes 7" autographed pic disc (ltd to 500)
Tegan and Sarah - AOL Sessions CD - (ltd to 2000)
Them Crooked Vultures - Mind Eraser, No Chaser 12"
TV On the Radio - Dear Science
Velvet Underground - Live 1969 Vol 1 - 180g (ltd to 1500)
Velvet Underground - Live 1969 Vol 2 - 180g (ltd to 3000)
Tom Waits - Mule Variations - 2LP 180g and print (ltd to 3000)
Wilco - Kicking Television, Live In Chicago - 4LP 180g (ltd to 1000)
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Skeletons 7"
Yeasayer - O.N.E.
Neil Young - Heart of Gold / Sugar Mountain 7"
Various Artists - Stars of Goldwax 7" (OV Wright, James Carr and the Ovations; ltd to 1000)
Various Artists - Fragments from a Work In Progress 12" (Blonde Redhead, The Big Pink, Gang Gang Dance, Ariel Pink, Tune Yards; ltd to 2010)
Various Artists - SP20: Casual Nostalgia Fest CD (Key performances from Sub Pop's 20th Anniversary Bash; ltd to 3000)