record store day: 2012.

Nancy and I hit up some places for Record Store Day today. First, we stopped at The Exchange right off of the Brown/Red Line. We just walked in, took a peek around, saw some Record Store Day releases and then kind of walked out. They didn’t have what Nancy wanted. Next, we went downtown to Reckless Records in the Loop. I assumed they’d be out of a lot of stuff and that there would probably be a line to get in. I was correct about both. There was a line, although it quickly shrank and they were out of everything we wanted except the Metallica release. I bought myself one even though Nancy didn’t get anything she wanted. We wandered back outside and I started calling some places to try to find the record that she wanted and we eventually made our way back north.

We went back up into Lincoln Park and made our way towards Dave’s Records. I stopped to stare at what was in my favorite pawn shop’s window and then we turned and saw the huge line for Record Store Day. Not cool. I really wasn’t keen on standing in a line so I told Nancy to go get in line and I’d check out the goods at the pawn shop.

After a while I got bored with that and ventured back outside. There really wasn’t anything to keep me interested in the pawned merchandise this time so I just hung out in there parking lot for a little while. I was calling more places, texting Naners and even called upon Dave to help us out. Dave was no help in the end, although it was good to talk with him a little bit. After a few more rounds of texting with Nancy and her asking me to go to another store I finally started walking back towards the train. She was still outside standing in line. Shit’s starting to look grim to me. She’s after The Misft’s “Walk Among Us” record and so far it’s not been found anywhere.

I eventually got to Groovin High Inc. and asked if he had any of the Misfit’s records and I was quickly met with a “no.” He told me he ordered about 30 and got maybe 6. Not cool Record Store Day organizers. Not cool at all. Anyway, he was out of anything I really wanted (didn’t even receive ANY of the Ringworm records, even though he ordered them) and so I just picked up Metallica’s “Ride The Lightning” and made my way back towards Dave’s Records to meet up with Nancy.

While on the train back Nancy tells me she’s inside. Then she texts me and says she just saw somebody walking out with the record she wanted. Finally I get one more text while waiting for the train saying she got one of the records. Good for her. I really didn’t think she’d get one and I didn’t want to be the only one with some fun in the day. We met up and then headed downtown to Fado for some lunch.

As always, everything about the meal was delicious. We split a plate of Fish & Chips for our main course, washed down with a wonderful Guinness and then we had the brownie to top it all off. So good. We’ve been meaning to get in there and have that meal for a while (since she landed her job) and it was well worth the wait.

Next we walked over to Todd’s office and had a quick listen of our records. Nancy was nervous to open her records because it had 3 variations that she could have ended up with. They printed 1250 red, 1250 blue and 500 clear. Obviously she wanted the clear. Not that we are selling it or anything but it would just be cool to have the “rare” one of the bunch. Well, she opened her’s up nice and slowly, like Charlie in Willy Wonka and inside was the clear record! Awesome stuff. Made the whole trip even more worth it. Anyway, we then plopped the thing onto the turntable and got to listening. The Misfits was short and sweet and loud. We also listened to some of the Metallica stuff and it’s always a welcome noise in my ears.

It was a good day all around really. It was definitely the most fun we’ve had on a weekend day that I’ve encountered in a while. The organizers and the stores that carry these releases really need to get their shit together though for the upcoming years. Be a little more fair in the releases and the stores should put up signs or something saying what releases they’ve sold out of. To stand in like for almost 2 hours and get nothing would be a very sour pill to swallow. Luckily we just didn’t have to worry about that this year.

Tags: 2012, Chicago ILLINOIS, Dave's Records, groovin high inc, Lincoln Park, Metallica, Pawn Shop, reckless records, Record store day, Records, The Misfits, Vinyl