If you haven't been out to a local record store today, it's not too late! Today is Record Store Day (RSD) and for all who are unaware, it's a day where record labels and bands coordinate to have special releases and events at local record stores to encourage people from buying their music locally and tangibly. I don't think there is anything wrong with downloading mp3s or anything, but the experience you get from going to a record store, sifting through albums and perhaps picking up something that looks like it might be interesting is one that all music fans should experience.

If for some reason you can't get out today, bookmark that link above because there is a RSD every spring and now they have started one on Black Friday as well.


For 2013, the big news was that Third Man Records was re-releasing The White Stripes 2003 album, Elephant. Third Man has been putting out special releases for RSD for several years and even though this is an amazing release, this is the least they have put out on RSD since they started doing it. They have been re-releasing previously out of print White Stripes singles up to this point, but I believe the next singles to come out are Elephant era, so this makes sense.

Elephant is a monumental album in my personal story and it was pretty popular with other people too! Haha. Do you remember that Grammy's where the front runners for album of the year were this album and OutKast's Speakerboxxx/The Love Below? And The White Stripes blew away the whole show with a performance of Seven Nation Army/Death Letter (even though they didn't take home the album of the year grammy)? No? Check yo self:



And here is a taste of Ball and Biscuit on the second disc:



Unfortunately, Elephant was the only thing I picked up this year. There were a few other things that I thought about getting when looking at the list of releases (available on the RSD website), but they were either too expensive for my taste or they weren't available at the stores I went to. I was thinking about getting the NOBUNNY boxed set of 7" from Love Visions, the Best Coast 7" would have been nice. Oh, and that Shangra-La's Walking in the Sand! That would have been nice. But to be honest, I wasn't hurting for anything but Elephant, which is silly because I already own the album on vinyl - see intro post! I just dig this album a lot and always, always support Third Man Records, even though they don't need any of my help with sales!