RSD 2014: Record Store Day Is Upon Us

If you follow anything relating to local music stores, you’re probably already well aware, but if you don’t and you’re not: tomorrow (Saturday, April 19th) is Record Store Day. It’s grown from its somewhat humble beginnings to be a bona-fide event, and that’s a damn good thing, because yes, your local record store needs love. And Record Store Day is all about celebrating that besieged institution, as well as the people who frequent it.

I’m not going to go through everything that’ll be available tomorrow, but you can find the official-shmofficial list of Record Store Day exclusive releases over on the Record Store Day site. Plus, there’s extra, store-specific stuff for sale at every participating store, so your best bet is to (durrr) hit as many as you can.

Cactus Music has a nice lineup of music throughout the morning/afternoon, with Wally Farkas (who you may remember from his former life in Galactic Cowboys, and who’ll reportedly be doing “45’s played on classic record players,” which should be interesting) and Clint Broussard (of KPFT‘s Blues in Hi-Fi show) doing DJ sets and then up-and-coming electro-pop hero {Bagheera} doing his thing after. Plus lots of contests and free coffee, so y’know…

Then there’s Heights Vinyl, which has some full-on band action during the afternoon & evening, with {The Journey Agents} and {Shotgun Funeral}, among others, plus beer from Karbach Brewing Co. Their actual site’s out-of-date, so check the Facebook event page for the schedule.

Don’t forget Midtown haunt Sig’s Lagoon, either — I recently got to introduce the 4-year-old to the place, his first-ever actual record store, and he loved it — or transplanted record shop grandaddy Vinal Edge, or Montrose icon Sound Exchange. No word on any special event-type stuff from those folks, but they’re awesome and well worth a visit anyway.

That’s about it for now — get out there early tomorrow, y’all…