Record Store Day Comes Early This Year as Record Stores Celebrate Black Friday

If you're reading this blog, it's likely you frequent a record store, and there are several good ones in the area to choose from.  But, if you didn't realize that purchasing music online is a mild sin, and if your record store of choice is the iTunes store or Amazon.com, you might be out of luck finding the perks that certain local brick-and-mortar shops will have on Black Friday this year.

The folks behind Record Store Day, a national holiday that works in tandem with artists to bring business back to actual record stores, are putting on a national Black Friday Record Store Day celebration. As such, they'll have about 50-some-odd exclusive releases that will only be available at participating stores.

Previously unreleased material, rarities and collectibles from Dr. Dog, Beastie Boys, The Black Keys, Fear, Kings Of Leon, Nirvana, Pinback and many more will all be available nationwide local record stores, of which North Texas has several.

Good Records, CD Source, Mad World Records and Forever Young Records will all be participating in the event, each in their own way. Good will have performances from Tracy Shedd and Graceful Exit. CD Source will also have live performances from bands that have not yet been confirmed.

While Bill's Records isn't officially participating, they've mentioned that all records will be 75 percent off for the rest of the year, and $100 gift certificates will cost only $75.

So, don't waste your money buying flat screen televisions at Walmart. Get to one of these stores, and give your money to some local small businesses that always have great, undiscovered music on hand, and some surprisingly dependable stoners behind the counter.