Your favorite people in the world, record-store clerks, will be testing their musical trivia knowledge tonight at EMP Museum‘s Record Store Showdown, a game-show-like event that’s part of the EMP Pop Conference and Record Store Day. KEXP host of The Roadhouse program, Greg Vandy, will MC this contest of wits, with employees from Everyday Music, Sonic Boom, Spin Cycle, and Easy Street competing. (By the way, Vandy will be signing copies of his newly published book [written with Daniel Person] 26 Songs in 30 Days: Woody Guthrie’s Columbia River Songs April 16 at Easy Street.)
Conceived by EMP’s Audience Development Programs Producer and former Everyday Music staffer Anna Kronzer, Record Store Showdown is the culmination of her long-held desire to determine which local records stores staff “the biggest music nerds,” as she put it in an email interview. Connecting the contest to the Pop Con “seemed a natural fit and crossover since that audience is filled with the experts of the field. I also wanted to celebrate Record Store Day in some way, but specifically in a way that honors the hard-working and endlessly knowledgeable record store clerks”
The Showdown will consist of six rounds, with an extra one added if there’s a tie. Kronzer explains that “Each round has a specific category of varying levels of difficulty. All the categories are top secret until the event, as I don’t want any of the teams to know them ahead of time and have a leg up on the competition. (But I can say that I’ve been writing all the trivia for the past few months and it has been the most fun project ever.) Each team competes in every round. Teams can have up to six people on them but only three active players per round. Each team has a buzzer. Once one team buzzes in it locks out the others from buzzing. The buzzers came with software that tracks the scores, so there won’t be any question as to who the winner is. All teams will get some pretty great prizes. The winning team’s prize pack is worth about $650.”
Before and after the contest and between rounds, team members will be DJing, and Kronzer says that audience members will also have the chance to compete. In addition, there’ll be food and drink specials from 9 pm-11 pm and “swag.” Record Store Showdown also coincides with KEXP’s grand opening to the public, which runs from 12 pm to 9 pm and will feature performances by DoNormaal, Deep Sea Diver, David Bazan, and Strand of Oaks.
