Our city’s record stores are doing Black Friday

Aux 33 Tours’s Record Store Day window, April 2013. Photo by Cindy Lopez
 
The unsettling American ritual of post-Thanksgiving panic-shopping has crossed the border. Tomorrow, local record stores will be selling vinyl releases that have been pressed exclusively for the Black Friday edition of Record Store Day, an annual international springtime event that packs the brick and mortar shops with collectors trying to scoop up limited edition records.

Being primarily an American thing, the Black Friday RSD generates fewer exclusive releases — see the complete list here — and, according to one store owner I spoke to, has largely fallen under the radar for the past two years here in Montreal. (By contrast, see what went down locally at last spring’s RSD here.)

So here’s what to expect tomorrow. As is always the case with Record Store Day, the shops order the releases that are most appealing to their clientele, but rarely if ever receive the quantities they ask for as the material is spread out among as many shops as possible. As per the RSD code, product can’t be reserved for clients — it’s all first come, first served. All participating local businesses will be keeping their normal hours (till 9 p.m., opening times vary). The following stores, arranged by neighbourhood, will be selling exclusive Black Friday RSD material:
 

Plateau

Aux 33 Tours
1373 Mont-Royal E.

Beatnick
3770 St-Denis

L’Oblique
4333 Rivard

L’Oblique will also offer additional specials on regular stock in-store, and is the only local shop to have booked bands for the event, namely Ariane Zita (7 p.m.), Panache (8 p.m.) and an opener TBA (6 p.m.).

Sound Central
4486 Coloniale
Sound Central, which specializes in heavy music but has also ordered some of the more mainstream RSD releases, have added a “buy one, get one free” sale on the side, applicable to all (non-RSD) seven-inch singles, cassettes, CDs, VHS tapes and DVDs, with 65 per cent off all product with orange tags.
 

Mile End

Phonopolis
207 Bernard W.

Sonorama
260 Bernard W.
 

Downtown

Cheap Thrills
2044 Metcalfe, 2nd floor

Atom Heart
364 Sherbrooke E.

Happy record shopping! ■