Opinion: Another year of sales for Record Store Day

This year’s Record Store Day seemed to surpass all the rest. Stores all over the country pushed through another chaotic, yet fascinating day of vinyl sales.

Some of Saturday’s exclusive vinyl releases featured several reissues and many new pieces from all types of artists. The Allman Brothers released “Selections From: Play All Night: Live at the Beacon Theatre 1992” for the special day while Bruce Springsteen released an EP of “American Beauty,” which contained four previously unreleased songs.

The Flaming Lips have always been known to support Record Store Day and this year they once again put together something great for the special day. “7 Skies H3” was released by the band, giving fans a vinyl full of 10 long pieces that were taken from their 2011 project, “24 Hour Song Skull,” which was a multipart song that lasted 24 hours.

Record Store Day is really a day for lovers of music and vinyl to come together to partake in celebrating independent records stores. Paul McCartney once told the Record Store Day officials, “There’s nothing as glamorous to me as a record store. When I recently played Amoeba in LA, I realized what fantastic memories such a collection of music brings back when you see it all in one place. This is why I’m more than happy to support Record Store Day, and I hope that these kinds of stores will be there for us all for many years to come.”

And with all of the wonderful commotion that day, Jack White recorded the world’s fastest record, breaking the Guinness World Record originally set by Swiss polka trio Vollgas Kompanie, who issued a live album in 2008, a day after it was recorded.

According to Third Man Records, White’s first set of 7-inch records for Record Store Day were all recorded, pressed, configured and available for sale within three hours and 55 minutes. He actually was ahead of schedule from what he wished for. White took the stage at 10 a.m. at the Third Man Record’s Nashville headquarters to play an intimate gig to record his album. Two tracks were recorded. First was “Lazaretto,” the title track from his upcoming album and the second was a cover of Elvis Presley’s 1969 “Power of My Love.”

From what I’ve seen, Record Store Day is getting bigger and better. Fans are lined up on the streets hours before the stores open and people of all ages are there anticipating a reissue of an old favorite or something new to enjoy. It’s all about making that connection with the music and helping out the record store.

Even though it’s only celebrated once a year on the third Saturday in April, try to make Record Store Day every day for yourself. Go find your local record store.