Wax Trax Doubles Locations for Record Store Day 2024
[DENVER, COLORADO] – On Saturday April 20, 2024, Wax Trax will hold Record Store Day at two locations for the first time in its nearly 50-year history. Wax Trax Broadway Bazaar, which includes a vintage clothing shop, opened on South Broadway late last year. Both the new store and the 48-year old location in Capitol Hill will feature hundreds of official RSD releases and beginner turntable giveaways from Denver’s own Victrola. The 13th Avenue location will feature four excellent Denver Bands, The Tammy Shine (members of Dressy Bessy), Quits, Bad Boy Bug, and Cherry Spit, and the Broadway location will feature DJ Moe Velez, a producer and regular DJ on Denver’s KUVO Jazz radio.
“We like to feature local bands and DJs on Record Store Day as a way to expand the event’s benefit to the local scene,” said Pete Stidman, who co-owns the shop with his father Dave Stidman. (Side note: The 49-year tradition of live music at the store has been threatened by the city’s noise ordinance after one complaint from one neighbor who said they didn’t like punk rock.)
The featured bands:
The Tammy Shine is the solo act of Tammy Ealom, leader of the band Dressy Bessy. Dressy Bessy has been one Denver’s most successful local bands since it was founded in the late 90s, and was part of the Elephant Six Recording Collective with bands such as Apples in Stereo, Olivia Tremor Control and the Neutral Milk Hotel.
Quits, a noise-rock post-hardcore group composed of veteran Denver rockers from Sparkles, Felt Pilotes, Why Planes Go Down and other great Denver bands, are still relatively fresh off their 2023 album Feeling It – in stock at Wax Trax as long as supplies last.
Cherry Spit is a new noise rock outfit featuring Ricardo Bonilla, Cyrena Rosati, Wayde McDonnell, and Jackson Lacroix. Check out their ripping new Demo on Bandcamp or Spotify.
Bad Boy Bug is the alt folk solo project of Lu Walker from Denver Colorado. B.Β.Β Plays raw emotional folk music similar to Kimya Dawson and Sinead O'Connor. B.B.B is releasing new music spring of 2024!
The Cap Hill Wax Trax at 638 E 13th Ave will open at 8am. This location will have the widest RSD selection possible. “Everything worth getting,” said Stidman. “We’ll have the Noah Kahan/Olivia Rodrigo thing, the Team Sleep thing, the 100 Gecs thing, and more.”
Wax Trax Broadway Bazaar will open at 10am at 200 S. Broadway with a slightly more curated RSD selection.
Both stores will raffle off two of recently redesigned all-in-one Victrola turntables, the Eastwood Signature and the Revolution Go. Victrola’s administration moved to Denver in 2021 following the addition of these 2 new models to their lineup. The turntables include Audio-Technica cartridges and double as bluetooth speakers, making them good starter models for people just getting into vinyl.
“We used to warn people away from Victrolas just as much as Crosleys,” said Stidman, “but these newer models actually sound pretty good, don’t skip, and hit a price point that’s about the same as buying 6 new records. All these kids that have vinyl but can’t play it need a good starter model like this.”
Since its founding in 1975, Wax Trax has been a Cap Hill gathering place for the city’s local music scene. Wax Trax’s second location in the Baker neighborhood initially opened as a holiday pop-up on Nov. 10, 2023 and became permanent in early February.
The popularity of vinyl has soared in recent years, accounting for 54 percent of U.S. physical album sales in 2022. Part of this popularity is due to Record Store Day, which was created in 2007 to bring awareness to independent record shops like Wax Trax.
Wax Trax Records is the oldest continuously operating record store in Colorado. Founded in 1975 by Jim Nash and Dannie Flesher, it sold to Dave Stidman and Duane Davis in 1978. In 2021 the second generation of ownership took the helm when Pete Stidman (son of Dave) bought a majority stake. Wax Trax boasts one of the widest selections of recorded music in the state.