Wayne Coyne Calls Record Store Day a 'Strange Phenomenon'

Saturday is National Record Store Day, the day when music junkies can gorge on zillions of special vinyl releases and catch special in-store appearances at hundreds of shops around the world. One of Record Store Day's most auspicious releases is a vinyl of the Flaming Lips' psychedelic punk version of 'Dark Side of the Moon,' which features Stardeath and White Dwarfs, Henry Rollins and Peaches.

"Who would have imagined that you'd need a Record Store Day? Back in the day, every day was record store day if you go to a record store. Now it's a very strange phenomenon -- 'ooh there's one day where you go to the records store,'" Lips frontman Wayne Coyne tells Spinner.

The Lips frontman laughs at the suggestion that for some people, Record Store Day might be the only time they visit a record store. "I don't know if it's gaining in popularity. There is a segment of the music-buying population out there that will buy vinyl and all that sort of stuff. But as far as revenue, it's a small segment. I don't know if it can make anybody rich anymore," he says of the good old vinyl album. "If you like it, you should do it as a nice little thing. That's just the way it's gone -- everybody's just downloading things now or buying stuff at Wal-Mart."

Coyne doesn't say that with any judgment or regret in his voice. "When I was really young, that would be how you saw music anyway," he says of the national chain superstores like Target, Best Buy and Wal-Mart. "You'd go Christmas shopping to JC Penney and there'd be a select few records that you could look at. It became weird because little by little, it got to be there were record stores that had everything. But, of course, onlines have changed that because they have everything. If you are a music lover, you have to have a computer. It's a great thing; it makes music available to everyone."

"It's a strange world," he adds thoughtfully, "but it's a good world I think."