Record Store Day 2013 Guide

April 20, any stoner will tell you, is the unofficial marijuana tokers' holiday, but in 2013, it falls on the third Saturday of April, and that means it's also Record Store Day, the annual celebration of local and independent brick-and-mortar record stores. RSD was started by Michael Kurtz and Carrie Colliton in 2008, and every April since, store owners, labels, DJs, artists and fans have come together to celebrate indie music’s natural habitat.

Just how do they celebrate it? Mostly with the release of vinyl: lots of rare, limited-edition and exclusive vinyl. Record Store Day 2013 is the biggest yet, with something like 400 releases -- discs by everyone from Brooklyn shoegazers A Place to Bury Strangers to singer-songwriter ZZ Ward -- planned specifically for April 20.

Releases fall into three categories: Record Store Day Exclusives, which, as the name implies, are exclusively available on RSD at participating stores an will not be sold anywhere else in the same format ever again; Record Store Day Limited Run/Regional Focus Releases, which also are exclusively available on the day of at some participating outlets, but in quantities so extremely limited that they can’t be found at all stores; and Record Store Day First Releases, which are offerings that are being released for the first time on April 20 at RSD retailers, but will be available in the same format at other outlets at a later date.

Given all the exclusives, limited runs and firsts, there are too many releases to wrap your head around, so to help out, we've come up with this Record Store Day 2013 guide -- a list of our 10 favorites. Trust us, there's a ton of other great offerings -- check out the entire Record Store Day releases list here -- but the following promise to be both must-have collectibles and great spins.

Begin With A Place To Bury Strangers

Categories: Original Features