Record Store Day Is Saturday! Here’s Why It’s Awesome.

This Saturday is a holiday, did you know? It’s this year’s Record Store Day and for many of us who love music in a physical form, not just as a magic download from the internet, it is something we look forward to all year.

There is no thrill like finding a new record you didn’t know about while browsing in a real-life store. Sometimes it’s just the cover art, sometimes it’s playing while you shop, sometimes an employee turns you on. In a real independent record store, the employees are all there because they love the music – no one is getting rich. Especially these days.

From the RSD website, “Metallica officially kicked off Record Store Day at Rasputin Music in San Francisco on April 19, 2008 and Record Store Day is now celebrated the third Saturday every April. This is the one day that all of the independently owned record stores come together with artists to celebrate the art of music.

Special vinyl and CD releases and various promotional products are made exclusively for the day and hundreds of artists in the United States and in various countries across the globe make special appearances and performances. Festivities include performances, cook-outs, body painting, meet & greets with artists, parades, djs spinning records and on and on.”

Some of the new artists with new releases on Record Store Day this year include:

Jimmy Eat World, King Of Leon, Lady Gaga, Bruce Springsteen, Sonic Youth, Radiohead, Flaming Lips, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Death Cab For Cutie, Rise Against, Foo Fighters, Red Hot Chili Peppers…well, you get the idea.

If you collect music from almost anyone superb there’s a good chance they are re-releasing something old or dropping something new on Saturday and it will be a limited release available only while they last.

There are many in-store autograph and performances planned Saturday too including:

Jerry Lee Lewis, Wendy & Lisa, Foo Fighters. R.E.M., Henry Rollins, Regina Spektor, and many more across the country.

Help keep independent record stores alive this weekend. Here’s the website again. Have fun and I’ll see you there!

Ozzy is this year’s official Record Store Day ambassador. I’ll give him the final word.