As many of you know, Saturday was Record Store Day, or as I heard several people call it, “Christmas for hipsters.”  I’ve been to Record Store Day in the past, but this year was the first time I decided to really do it – get up early and try to get my hands on some of the more limited of the limited releases.

I arrived at my favorite local record store, Cactus Music, at 8:15 AM.  Though the store wouldn’t open until 10 AM, there was already a healthy line.  The first several people in line had already been there for 12+ hours, having camped overnight in front of the store to secure their position.  I’d estimate I was somewhere between the 50th & 60th person in line.

Despite the early hour, everyone seemed to be in a good mood, no doubt in part to the free coffee from Katz and the breakfast pies from Oh My Pocket Pies.   The line continued to grow as it got closer to opening, with around 250 people in line by the time the store opened.

Rather than the Black Friday free-for-all many stores do, Cactus has people come up to a table and give them your list.  If they’ve got it, you can have it.  That means you’re less likely to get lucky and snag something super rare, but it also means you’re less likely to experience any kind of hair-pulling, elbow-slamming behavior.

I got most of the releases I was hoping for, but of course there were a few I missed out on.  Here’s my finds:

What I Got: 12″s

• Destroyer - Destroyer’s Rubies

• Grace Potter & the Nocturnals – Live at the Legendary Sun Studios

• Public Image Ltd - One Drop EP

• Refused - The Shape of Punk to Come

• Shabazz Palaces - Live at KEXP

• Sigor Ros - Hvarf-Heim

What I Got: 7″s

• Deerhoof / Of Montreal - Stygian x} Bisection

• Feist / Mastadon -  “Commotion” b/w “Black Tongue”

• Florence + the Machine – “Shake It Out” b/w “Shake It Out (The Weeknd remix)”

• M83 – “Mirror” b/w etching

• Oberhofer – “”Away From U” b/w ”Runaway” (Kanye West cover)

• Xiu Xiu / Dirty Beaches – “Always” b/w “Tu Ne Dis Rien”

What I Missed

• Arcade Fire – Sprawl II: Cactus actually had this one, but my up-too-early brain forgot to ask for it.
• Beach House –  ”Lazuli” b/w “Equal Mind”: Expected this to be a hot item, so I wasn’t surprised I didn’t get it.
• VA - Pretty in Pink Soundtrack : Cactus only had a few, so I missed out, but I might have a friend that got a hold of it.

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All in all, I got a ton of amazing vinyl (and spent far too much money in the process).  But the reality is, record store day isn’t just about us – it’s about the record stores that provide us not only records, but a community of music lovers.

And…record store day is also about free stuff!  Check out the tote bag I got:

Inside were a bunch of cool stuff, but the best – except of course the pink Madonna bracelet – was the 2012 Sub Pop sampler, Terminal Sales Vol. 5: Mixed Nuts.   The CD features tracks from a bunch of great Sub Pop artists, including Beach House, Shearwater, Shabazz Palaces, Memoryhouse, and THEESatisfaction.  If you didn’t snag one of these, there’s good news.  You can stream the songs below via Soundcloud: