On Saturday (April 19th) hundreds of independently owned music stores across the country will celebrate Record Store Day. On this day, participating stores will be celebrating the culture and unique place that they occupy both in their local communities and nationally. Check out what events your local record store has planned here and use this ace opportunity to pick up those deleted Smiths singles and original, not re-released (underlined) Frank Zappa albums that you’ve been after!

Perhaps realizing that he’s released zero albums so far in 2008, Ryan Adams has seemingly announced his retirement from blogging. However, Adams decided to quit his blog by revealing some rather fun facts about himself, including:

1. I never dated Alanis Morrisette. But she is very nice.
2. I never dated Winona Ryder, but she is my friend and I will always love her.
3. I never KICKED OUT anyone from a concert and I seriously could give six shits about Bryan Adams or that song.
4. I used to take drugs and drink but I never did that when I was wrirting.
5. I am not catholic nor baptist. I am quietly converting but by the books, to a much older and less mystic religion..
6. I have only dated 5 women in my life.
7. I used to want to get married. Now I don’t care anymore. I hope I die alone and under a lot of work.
8. It is almost two years since I have been sober.
9. I hate HATE country music.
10. I never intended to be a songwriter. I just wanted to be a writer and a visual artist and in a metal band.
11. I am going deaf.

That’s the Cliff’s Notes version, anyway. For Adams’ full elaboration on his farewell facts, check out his blog.

MP3:
Ryan Adams - “Everybody Knows”

Just who exactly are the 128 bands playing Coachella this year, collectively? As one big amalgam, what are they? LA Weekly’s music blog, Play, has crunched all of the data on the bands scheduled in the music fest’s 2008 lineup and cranked out some interesting charts and graphs. (Don’t you just love when Excel spreadsheets and indie rock overlap?) The results are a revealing look at Coachella’s artists based on gender of lead singer, ethnicity of artists, YouTube hits, Pitchfork ratings, Country of origin, region of the US from which the act hails, etc.

Contrary to yesterday’s British reports and an endorsement from Sir Paul McCartney, Amy Winehouse has sadly quashed speculation she is secretly writing the title track for the upcoming Bond film Quantum Of Solace. Finding someone to sing the title track is going to be tricky. What rhymes with “Quantum of Solace”?

If you dug the videos of The Last Shadow Puppets’ stripped-down performances from earlier this week, you’ll definitely be interested in adding the audio version of their acoustic set to your playlists. These two tracks, “The Age Of The Understatement” and “My Mistakes Were Made For You”, are from TLSP’s aforementioned visit to Avatar Studios in New York earlier this year.

MP3s:
The Last Shadow Puppets - “The Age Of The Understatement (Acoustic)”
The Last Shadow Puppets - “My Mistakes Were Made For You (Acoustic)”