Record Store Day is an international, vinyl holiday that elevates the visibility of small record shops by giving them access to exclusive records, featuring hundreds of new releases this year. As always, everything is limited, and not everything will be available at every store, but… This year’s Record Day Exclusives include Johnny Cash, Courtney Barnett, Miles Davis, J Dilla, Jimi Hendrix, The Kills, Led Zeppelin, Lou Reed, Taylor Swift and more. To help you on your sonic journey, LEO put together this handy list of stores participating in Record Store Day. If we left off any, please let us know.
Better Days Records 1765 Bardstown Road | 2600 W. Broadway, No. 104 With two locations, Better Day Records East and West feeds your vinyl addiction with stacks and stacks of vinyl — plenty of LPs, 45s, 12-inch singles, cassettes and CDs. The store boasts on Facebook that “the vaults will be opened and more private goodies from The Benman's stash,” will be available.
The Great Escape Louisville 2433 Bardstown Road You now The Great Escape for its comic books (or its comic book reviews and recommendations in LEO), but the store also has a sizable vinyl collection. To celebrate Record Store Day, the shop is hosting a Spring Thunder Concert and Art Show. You’ll find the exclusive releases, records on sale for 25 cents and coffee and cookies from Please & Thank You. In the back parking lot, from 11 a.m.-3 p.m., you’ll find art by Yoko Molotov, Ben Sears, Steven Bowman, Cameron del Rosario, Dylan Chadwick, Blake Sims, David Soards and the Louisville Cartoonist Society; and live music by Tycoon$ of Teen, Pleasures of the Flesh, Doctor Zero and Corey James and Tyler Martin.
Guestroom Records Louisville 1806 Frankfort Ave. Guestroom Records is celebrating all day with an afterparty. You’ll find the exclusives and over 500 used LPs; specially-designed T-shirts, Against The Grain Brewery’s collaboration beer, Listening Party Pale Ale; and live vinyl sets by a rotating set of DJs who include White Reaper, Rmllw2llz and Night Visions Radio.
After all that madness, join the crew of Guestroom for an Afterparty at Nachbar. The Guestroom staff will be playing their favorite Record Store Day exclusive vinyls all night, so even if you didn’t get that one vinyl you were looking for, at least you can party to it. And a portion of the proceeds from both events go to Girls Rock Louisville.
Matt Anthony’s Record Shop 2354 Frankfort Ave. As the name suggests, this shop is run by veteran DJ Matt Anthony (who can be heard on 91.9 WFPK). So let Anthony and his staff help you on your quest for exclusives, and for every $50 spent there, you get a $5 gift certificate to the shop.
Underground Sounds 2003 Highland Ave. Underground Sounds is airing out all of its back stock for this special occasion. The store will have nearly 600 records for 99 cents apiece and nearly 500 CDs for 99 cents each. The store is also opening extra early, at 8 a.m., so if you’re really set on finding a certain vinyl, you might want to make this your first stop.
