There are many things about the date April 20th that are significant and prevalent in society's eye: Hitler's birthday, the anniversary of Columbine, and of course, National Smoke Pot Day, taken from the police code 420, which refers to a marijuana felony. But this year, we get another addition - RECORD STORE DAY. 

I've been collecting vinyl since my college boyfriend bought me one of those portable plastic 80's looking turn tables with built-in speakers and a manual tonearm. And recently, I upgraded my listening situation by investing in a quality amplifier and speakers. Let's just say, my neighbors hate me now. But listening to Sabbath or the Stones or even Neil through the crackled plastic speakers of a traveling record player just doesn't cut it sometimes.

I try and limit myself to a couple LP purchases a month, give or take. Sometimes it's more, like if Fuzz releases a limited run 7'' that I need to own, or Mono Records gets a shipment of original Asian pressings (I recently scored a trippy Master of Reality that's sea green). Record Store Day definitely makes the exception, especially since most of the releases wont be available any other time. 

Which is my only qualm with the idea. I love vinyl. Most people who buy records also love vinyl. It's almost illogical to think that there should only be one day in the year where vinyl is celebrated, and in a way, record companies exploit their fans by saying, here's this super rare pressing of a Pink Floyd 45 that I'm sure you've been dying to covet, but we're only going to release 100 of them, and then spread them out across the country so that you're pretty much fucked when you try and hunt one down.

That being said, most record stores in LA participate in this celebrated day, but make sure you double check that they have what you want before schlepping across town to score your gems. There is definitely a limited amount of each record pressed, and therefore the distribution of each record is small. Last year, the only thing I wanted out of the thousand releases was Bonnie Prince Billy's Hummingbird, specifically because Derek James drummed on the sessions. He's my buddy, and I like to support my friends. I had the flu last year, but I woke up at eight in the morning and walked down to Origami Vinyl (on Sunset Blvd in Echo Park), and they didn't even get any of those that day. So it was pretty much a complete waste of time. 

My favorite shops around town are Origami (because I can walk there), Vacation, Freakbeat, Mono Records, and even Amoeba, the cluster fuck mecca of music that, if you have patience, will consume at least three hours of your precious day. And if you're not into the shoe box meticulously curated feel of other record stores (Origami for instance is the size of a walk-in closet), then you get more space to really enjoy what you're browsing through, if you're there to browse.

Check out everything you need to know about Record Store Day on the website: 
Record Store Day