It’s Record Store Day Today (4/16), What Was Your Favorite Long Island Record Store? 

Remember the thrill of walking into that cool local record store back in the day? There was always somethin’ rockin’ and loud pumpin’ through the shop, the clerks were the hippest kids around, and the customers all looked like folks you wanted to hang out with. Share a favorite record store memory with me and read Dream Theater’s Mike Portnoy’s reminisence of Long Island’s Slipped Disc Records, it’s really cool…

Growing up a rock and metal fan on Long Island in the 70's and 80's was very different than it is today. There were no chain stores like Virgin and Tower and of course no internet mail order services like Amazon. The only way to pick up albums were to shop at your local "mom and pop" record stores....

In the late 70s, it was always easy to find the latest releases from my favorite bands....Led Zeppelin, The Who, Kiss, Pink Floyd, Queen, etc were all readily available at any record store. But in the early 80's, as I discovered more "underground" metal bands like Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Motorhead, Accept, Mercyful Fate, Loudness and Raven (from reading my imported copies of Kerrang), there was no place in small town Long Beach, Long Island to find the latest records from these bands I was reading about. Then I discovered Slipped Disc Records in Valley Stream, Long Island. They not only carried the albums from these bands, but also the 12" singles with bonus tracks, the t-shirts, the imported live videos and anything else that existed! When the American thrash scene was beginning to erupt around 1983, I could always count on Slipped Disc to carry anythings I was looking for from bands like Metallica, Anthrax, Slayer, Exodus, Testament, Flotsam & Jetsam, Death Angel and Nuclear Assault.

Taking the train there every Saturday was the highlight of my week! And on the day I received my drivers license, the very first place I drove to was Slipped Disc to pick up Metallica's Ride The Lightning album which was released that VERY day! (The imported version of course!) Now in 2008, the world is a very different place...the aforementioned chains and online stores have made it very difficult for the mom and pop stores to compete. In fact, my beloved Slipped Disc just announced it will be closing its doors for good. So let's hear it for people like Mike from Slipped Disc and all of the independant store owners that have helped shape the metal scene for the past 25 years. Without them, a lot of us may not have existed....(Or at least have been as metal as we are!)

- Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater)