• Gavin Sheehan

Record Store Day Multiplies
For vinyl-heads and other collector's-item stans, Record Store Day is a giddy, holiday-like time of year. Records have regained some popularity in recent years, and no doubt that trend comes in large part from small-time record stores and their resilience. Record Store Day was born from a need to promote and support these small shops and their record-loving efforts by driving the sales of limited releases only available at those shops. This meant (and still means) that if you wanted your favorite artist or band's limited-edition songs, their kooky compilation of covers or rare b-sides album, you'd have to head over to your local shop on Record Store Day to snag a copy. This year, the exclusivity of participating in Record Store Day is perhaps even more real, in all aspects of life beyond record collecting. Instead of one big day of sales, Record Store Day nationwide will be a staggered event, allowing small record shops to keep crowds under control. There will be three drops, extending into October—perhaps good news for those who wish Record Store Day lasted all year long. The first drop date is Aug. 29, and record shops accept requests beforehand so they can stock up on what customers want, and not the stuff they don't. So go ahead and view the list of drops online—from Cheap Trick to Charli XCX, Phillip Glass to Pink Floyd—and look up a record store near you. Stores in Taylorsville, Sandy, Ogden, Cedar City, Price, Orem and Provo are all participating—along with SLC's own Sound and Vision Vinyl, Diabolical Records, Randy's Records, The Heavy Metal Shop and Memento Mori—either in August, or later on Sept. 26 or Oct. 24. Go to recordstoreday.com for more info.

Craft Lake City Logs Online
Craft Lake City is one of the defining festivals of the summer, featuring all things local, from artisans, to food and drinks vendors and from techie STEM innovators to humble local musical performers. This year features a huge shift, in that they're moving every aspect of the festival online, and they're throwing it down—there will be online shopping experiences for the vendors, online streaming of performances by artists and ways to connect with local food vendors as they migrate around the valley. If anything, at least SLC locals can enjoy all the spoils of this most diverse summer festival without the push and pull of the busy crowd, virtually through the festival site at their own leisure. Virtual festival-goers not only gain access to the vendors, but also the online performances, which will go on live throughout the festival weekend starting Aug. 7-9. The lineup is as bulky as ever, with 47 artists and bands slated to play, and includes a good mix of genres, from the DIY rock of bands like Breakfast in Silence and Worlds Worst, soloists like Rocky LaVoie, Israel West and Jacob T. Skeen, and groups like the Zivio Ethnic Arts Ensemble. This is one great way to not only get access to tons of local vendors (there's never been a better time to support your fellow locals) but to sit back, relax and enjoy the music of so many great local artists from across the valley. Go to craftlakecity.com for info on how to enjoy the fest, and for dates, times and ways to stream performances.

Shit Jewelry Plays With Format
Initially launching at the beginning of the pandemic as a way for local musicians to keep playing shows, at least virtually, Shit Jewelry has evolved into a more open-format sort of catch-all for musical experiments in a certain part of the local community. On shitjewelry.com. there are recordings of most recent past live-streams, but also one-of-a-kind videos like a 14 minute long set by Breakfast in Silence, innovatively filmed in a way that makes a stylistic tool out of social distancing. At times lead singer Ash Bassett sings in their signature tough-and-huff style from behind a mask, while one bandmate plays guitar from behind Bassett's body—a closeness that's enviable for any viewer. Otherwise, the video rotates between balcony spaces, with whipping wind to accompany the band's emo convulsions, and as they perform the songs "Naked Spins," "Call Your Grandma," "Mold Mansion" and "Vagrancy's Contagious," the scenes filmed outside get darker and darker, as if much was filmed in one day. More recently, Shit Jewelry is also playing host to an experimental collection of submitted ambient songs—some by well-known local artists like Picnic at Soap Rocks or Aureoles, and others by more unfamiliar names. All follow the theme of "furniture music, kankyo ongaku, the quarantine situation of the titular novel, and grasping for some means of relaxation during a stressful time." The collection, a rebours 1, is up on shitjewelry.com and all streaming platforms, soon to be followed by a second installation in a rebours 2 and its own guidelines, which can be found @shit.jewelry on Instagram.

• KSM Entry by Anderson Safre

KSM Music Opens up Songwriting Competition
The hot, pandemic-ridden summer is no reason to stop being creative, as many local musicians already know well. But whether you're a professional songwriter or not, KSM Music in Logan has an opportunity for you not only to flex those imaginative muscles alone or with your band, but to get something cool out of it, too. The 10th Annual KSM Songwriting Competition is moving to an online format—to few people's surprise, I'm sure—which will allow for more participants to post their songs to the Soundfactory Musician's Gathering Place Facebook group page. In the past, only solo artists were allowed to enter their original songs to the competition, but now KSM has opened it up to full bands as well. The only rules that remain in place as usual are that entrants must be residents of Utah or Idaho, with proof of residence, and that the song must be an original composition and family-friendly (no swears here, folks). All genres are welcome, and their page already shows many different kinds of solo and duo artists, some with a guitar or even with a violin. The original July 25 deadline has been extended to Aug. 14, so there's even more time to enter—and you should, since first, second and third place prizes include, respectively, a Teton Acoustic Guitar, an Ernie Ball Dream Bundle and a $50 KSM gift card and accessory pack. All entries will be judged by KSM staff first, with the top 20% of entries then passed on to Soundfactory teachers and other approved local artists. Don't miss out on this chance to show your stuff online, and maybe even win some very IRL prizes in the end.

• Excellence Concerts Live Stream w Jazzy Olivo

Local Binge: Excellence Concert Series
One of the many consistent local livestreams comes to us weekly via the Excellence Concert Series, which showcases local talents in the realms of classical, jazz and acoustic music to name just a few areas of their curation. Operating since 2005, Excellence has since presented more than 800 concerts for free since they moved to the stage at the Gallivan Center in 2011. Anyone wandering around downtown in the summer probably heard a hubbub when passing by and saw couples swinging and dancing to the rousing traditional tunes. Now, they've moved the series online, undeterred by the loss of fresh air and communal revelry. Still free and accessible as ever, the one big change is that every live streamed musical session is saved online for later viewing if you can't make the live performance time. Recent performances include Beethoven Cello Sonatas with cellists from the Utah Symphony and Ann Cullimore Decker, the Jazz Vespers Quartet, Melinda Kirigin-Voss, Perfectamundo and Mariachi Sol De Jalisco. Upcoming August performances are TBA at press time, but in the meantime, check out what's up on their site and dig into some of SLC's most talented musicians on excellenceconcerts.org.