If you’re a music nerd like…well, like ALL of us, then you probably look forward to Record Store Day.

Now in its fifth year of operation, RSD is an initiative that promotes physical indie retail. Those of us who are a certain age fondly remember going to the local record store and flipping through CDs, records, and/or cassettes (although I don’t think you can really flip through tapes.) These places were prime hubs for trading stories about the music we were digging, and it was pretty easy to catch a listen or get a tip about something that you didn’t expect to be turned on to. Also-the people watching in record stores? Priceless.

Places like that are not as abundant as they were 15 or 20 years ago, but they’re still around, and Record Store Day is designed to bring traffic back into those places so we can KEEP them around.

RSD falls on April 20th this year, and record labels across the country are offering hundreds of exclusive titles on vinyl and CD.

The artists represented this year lean, as they typically do, towards the classic rock and indie rock scenes. Artists who have Record Store Day exclusives this year include Album of the Year Grammy winners Mumford & Sons (with a live set.) There are also exclusives from Elliott Smith, Coheed & Cambria, Jimi Hendrix, MGMT (on cassette single!) Pink Floyd and Ra Ra Riot.

Some releases that interest me personally include a vinyl pressing of The Notorious B.I.G.’s Ready to Die, a vinyl version of South Park’s Gay Fish, a live EP from R.E.M., and a 10″ single of new material from Marshall Crenshaw.

Get the full list of releases here (in either a pull-down menu or in handy-dandy pdf form.) See you at the record store!

And look forward to some very special RSD-related content on this site during April!