Record Store Day is Saturday, April 18

This Saturday is the ninth annual Record Store Day, the national celebration of independent music sellers, and St. Louis record stores will be doing their part, not only selling special limited-edition new releases but also offering various other promotional activities and in-store performances.

Yr. humble StLJN editor once again will taking part in some of those activities as one of the "guest DJs" spinning records in-store at Vintage Vinyl in the U City Loop. I'll be taking over the store's DJ booth for an hour starting at 4:30 p.m., playing jazz, blues, funk, soul and more, with a high probability of some recordings from St. Louis musicians being in the mix.

In addition to the lineup of visiting record-spinners, drawn from the local music scene, the festivities at VV also will include live bands performing all day outside the store, free coffee and donuts in the morning, free beer (for those of legal drinking age), and more. You can see a complete schedule of events here.

Over in Webster Groves, Euclid Records also will be doing it up big, with live bands and comedians both on Friday night and all day Saturday, plus coffee, beer, doughnuts, BBQ from Highway 61 Roadhouse, and so on. You can see their band schedule and more details here.

Down in the Grove, the all-vinyl Music Record Shop will present five bands next door at the Demo, and local vendors such as Urban Chestnut Brewery, Rise Coffee and the Gramophone will be offering food and beverages. Other area music retailers taking part in RSD event include CD Reunion, Reunion Revolution, Slackers, and V-Stock.

You can see the complete list of Record Store Day special releases here, and a searchable list of all participating stores nationwide here.