Record Store Day has always been an annual holiday for me, the equivalent of Christmas in many ways, when vinyl obsessives wait in front of their local record store early in the morning, always a Saturday, to purchase exclusives that are typically limited editions, reissues and other rarities that, when they’re gone, they’re gone.
But, this year, due to the dreaded Covid-19, RSD has been quite the different beast, cancelling the usual day in April that music fans usually celebrate for what are being called Drops, with the last weekend of August, September and October acting as smaller days of vaunted record purchasing.
Last Saturday was the second Drop and while each one might have had a smaller selection spread out over the three different months, it has also been a blessing for people like me on a tighter budget, able to treat ourselves to more records over time instead of missing out and only getting the copies desperately needed that one day.
My favorite local record store, Guestroom Records, 3701 N. Western Ave., is operating under strict health guidelines including face masks and hand sanitizer, as well as instituting an appointment-based system, where fans will sign up for a certain time to come into the store and shop, well before opening, as early as 9 a.m.