After 11 years, it's understandable how some view Record Store Day in the same light as going out drinking on St. Patrick's Day. Yet despite the cynical stance many have taken on the April quasi-holiday, it's an event that still underlines the importance of physical music ownership in an era where that's waning even as vinyl sales steadily increase.
Record Store Day, for all its insider baseball foibles, remains a beacon of promise that flies in the face of the idea that nobody buys hard copies of the music they love anymore. There's nothing quite like the ritual of picking away at that vulnerable corner of the cellophane on a brand new vinyl record and hearing the static as you carefully remove the fresh wax from its paper sleeve. The day has also created community among vinyl enthusiasts -- there are curated Record Store Day Crawls across the country (and if you don't want to leave home, Red Bull Radio is airing 24 hours of Counter Intelligence, which spotlights brick-and-mortar vinyl stores across the globe).
And while some may never get past the capitalistic aspects of Record Store Day, here are 25 reasons why it's still very much worth braving the amateur hour element of this coming Saturday.