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Pearl Jam announce five-headed ambassador attack for Record Store Day 2019

By Andy Malt | Published on Wednesday 13 February 2019

Who is going to be ambassador for this year’s Record Store Day? Well, it won’t be just one person, it will be five. It will be each individual member of the band Pearl Jam. Or, to put it more succinctly, Pearl Jam have been announced as ambassadors for this year’s Record Store Day.

Guitarist Mike McCready has been designated to do the actual talking. Here’s some talking he did: “Independent record stores are hugely important to me and have been ever since I was twelve years old. Before I even really knew what they were – there was a certain feeling of ‘this is a dream come true’, and it’s a wonderland and there’s so much to learn in here… and it’s still that way”.

“Support every independent record store that you can”, he went on, showing exactly why he’s considered the band’s foremost talker. “They’re really a good part of society. Know if you love music, this is the place to find it. And it helps people who work here and that’s important, too”.

“And it kind of takes an effort”, he mused onwards. “You have to look for something that you want; you have to talk to people. I had to talk to people to figure out which Aerosmith record to get first or anything back in the day. It’s a place to learn. It’s a place to have fun. And it’s a place to discover new music. Come out on Record Store Day, but also make it Record Store Year”.

No Mike, that’s a whole different event. It’s one day of the year or nothing at all.

RSD co-founder Carrie Colliton adds: “I’ve worked in and around record stores for my entire adult life and feel like I’ve grown up with Pearl Jam because of it”.

Expanding on that theme, Colliton went on: “My early, early advance copy of ‘Ten’ came with me on a free-ranging trek through Europe at an impressionable age, some of my craziest and best midnight sales were for Pearl Jam albums, and any one of their songs makes me think of my favourite record store co-workers”.

Concluding: “This ambassadorship is a natural fit – a band that stays true to themselves and the people who love them, and a form of retail that does pretty much the same thing”.

Well, that’s all swell. Record Store Day is on 13 Apr this year. Here’s a video with a bit more McCready chat: