In case you haven't heard or read about this, this Saturday we'll be taking part in the 6th annual Record Store Day, which is actually being held across the globe. For some info on what it's all about -- although you can pretty much assume what its motivations are -- check out www.recordstoreday.com

WE WILL BE OPENING AT 9 A.M. SATURDAY

We will be open until at least 9 PM and on Sunday we will be open from 12 PM until 7 PM.

Last year was awesome and the enthusiasm for RSD seems to grow every year with even more tons of releases coming out that day that are limited this year. From the measly 10-20 releases the first year it has now ballooned into over 350 releases. We've participated every year and have tried to grow with it as well, and this is the third year that we've been the only shop in Charlotte taking part. This means we had to consider some things that before we wouldn't have even thought about, and it gives us a new opportunity to make new friends and customers with folks that normally would have gone to some other store across town.

Now, what does this mean for you? Well, over the past week we've been receiving tons of freebie goodies to give away in honor of Record Store Day. If you stop by on Saturday, we'll have a bag full of free stuff for you. It's first-come, first-serve, so if we're out of them by the time you get here, we're sorry. So try to make it earlier rather than later. These includes free 7"s, CDs, posters, buttons, stickers, magazines, etc.

We will also have lots of new stickers to give away, and the first 100 customers will get a free Lunchbox T-shirt (until we run out of your size). We are picking them up on Friday and will post some pictures then.

ALSO there are Record Store Day EXCLUSIVES for sale only at participating indie stores. These are almost all very limited in nature, and in many case we did NOT get that many or as many as we ordered, so be ready. There were way more labels participating this year so there are bound to be some things I didn't even know about as well. We're trying our best to get everything though, but sometimes things slip through the cracks and with this many releases we had to budget ourselves a bit as well. There are also a bunch of UK ONLY releases - we will have very few of the UK releases and cannot get most. A lot of people keeping asking since there are some nice ones, but most are for UK stores only.

There is an extensive list of the releases coming out here. I encourage you to read it and maybe even print it out to make a checklist so you don't forget something in the excitement of it all.

Due to the extreme rarity and high demand of the DAVE MATTHEWS BAND 4xLP box set (limited to 500), we are holding a silent auction with all proceeds above cost going to Urban Ministries of Charlotte. They help clothe, feed and house many of Charlotte's homeless each year. 

List of 2013 RSD releases:

downloadable pdf | view list on website

From the RSD website:

"THEY’RE HERE! The thing a lot of you are looking forward to, of course, are the special pieces coming to your favorite record store on April 16. Here’s a list of them, one you can print out, check off and take to your local record store. We’re doing things a little differently this year, so you’ll see a few different categories here:

RECORD STORE DAY RELEASES These are titles that are only being released for this day. These are true Record Store Day Exclusives.

“WINDOWED” RELEASES These are titles that will only be available in record stores on Record Store Day, but will someday be available to other retailers down the line.

REGIONAL/SMALL RUN RELEASES These are titles that are being released only to a certain region of stores, or have such a small run or distribution that the majority of participating stores will not have access to them. We feel it’s important to include these releases and celebrate the spirit in which they are released.

And remember: LIMITED EDITION, BABY. A lot of these titles have limited runs. You may not get your hands on all the pieces you want. Your STORE may not get their hands on all the pieces they want. That’s the nature of limited releases. But that’s what makes them so exciting! "

You can also view the list as a webpage with pictures of the releases here.

To try to keep things more civil and manageable again this year, we're going to have someone at the door so that 100 people don't try to cram in the store all at once. We are trying to make things run as smooth as possible and hopefully keep waiting to a minimum. This system worked well last year and is the fairest way we can think of.

ALSO, we will be having a drawing for a $50 gift certificate to be drawn on Saturday night. We will also be giving away an autographed Snoop Lion record. 

AND IN ADDITION TO ALL OF THIS...we're going to bring out as many posters (and trust us, we have billions of them) & whatever else we can find to give to you. It helps us, it helps you, it helps the world. Ok, maybe not the whole world. But we hope you'll enjoy what you can have.

The only requirement to get all this stuff is to stop by and buy something -- or, at the very least, look around and see if there's anything you want. We appreciate the year-round business that everyone in this community (and beyond) has brought us, year after year. Stop by on this new holiday and get a little something back.

AND most importantly, we are having a Record Store Day Sale. Or you can call it our 6.5 year anniversary sale. Anyhow, here's the deal:

EVERYTHING IN THE STORE IS 15% OFF! - LPs, CDs, DVDs, 7"s, 10"s, books, stickers, patches, everything! Saturday & Sunday only!

****Due to the limited nature of Record Store Day releases, however, those are not included in the sale.****

IN ADDITION ALL USED CDS & DVDS ARE BUY 2 GET 1 FREE! - This is combined with the 15% off.

This sale is for SATURDAY & SUNDAY - so come see us all weekend.

And now for the stinky rules:

-Record Store Day items are limited to ONE PER CUSTOMER PER TITLE. I'm sorry if your cousin in Nantucket doesn't have a record store nearby. We're looking out for locals first, and more importantly trying to discourage Ebay flippers.

-Please do not get mad at me if something is sold out or didn't come in. Several items have already been delayed or cancelled and several others I was never able to find or were so limited that we did not get our orders. It's up to each store owner/buyer to order these things which means we have to hunt them down and also means we have to pay for them up front. Records are non-returnable which means this day is a stressful risk for us that usually works out. Also please realize that Lunchbox Records is small operation. I try my hardest to order what regular customers buy and ask about first, then other items after that, but it's all a guessing game and I'm bound to guess wrong sometimes. We posted a list of everything we ordered earlier on our website and 98% of it we got. Please bear with us and be nice. Hopefully next year we'll have a bigger store (fingers crossed). Rent in Charlotte isn't cheap :(

We won't be having any bands on Saturday (too much stress already and no one really asked), BUT we will be having the awesome band METZ (Sub Pop Records) from Canada playing at 6 PM on Sunday! We are totally stoked on this as it was on most of our best of lists for 2012 and will be a great way to let off some steam from a week of working almost 100 hours!

See you Saturday!! 

Now for my rant...(reprinted from year one of RSD for your convenience)

You're probably wondering what RECORD STORE DAY is anyway? I was at first too. But it's basically a revamped customer appreciation day where hopefully you the customer appreciates us as well and the fact that you live in or near a town that still has independent record stores. I personally don't like to buy things online, but lots of people do. But it's great to know that you can go to a store and browse and stumble on things you never would have thought of or heard of otherwise. You don't get too much of that online. We also do everything in our capabilities to sell you records as cheap as we can. This means buying direct whenever possible and searching for deals and unfortunately not bringing some stuff in because big labels like to give chain stores better deals than the little guy. Our prices for most things we stock are typically $2-$5 cheaper than the big store across town. We don't do sales often because we prefer to make it cheap all of the time. We stock tons of LPs and 7"s because we love the format and when I opened this store the other stores we're still busy trying to kill the format. I believe in independent music and labels and try to stock as much as I can which means a lot of lesser known indie, punk and metal titles.

I've been going to record stores since as long as I can remember, buying my first 7" in 1984 and getting into punk a couple years later. It wasn't until I moved to Atlanta that I had good stores that stocked underground releases and I've been addicted ever since. If I didn't love record stores I wouldn't own one. I'd go get a job that made a lot more money. People come in here a lot and tell me they love the store and it's great, and lots of out of town folks and bands do too. I really have no reference point on that anymore since I'm here seven days a week. There's only 2 other stores that sell vinyl in town, one is oldies oriented and the other banned me for life when I stopped working there and opened my own store. So I never get to go to any other stores and just try to make mine the one I would want to go to. I'm nowhere near that point yet and am working to improve it all of the time. I value people's suggestions and take them seriously, probably a little too seriously. But if you don't tell me what you want I can't read minds. The point of this being that I think the store is pretty good, and there are tons of folks that don't have a decent record store anywhere near them. So hopefully you'll support us. I realize the store isn't for everybody though.

We will continue to sell you lots of records we and you think are cool, and we will continue to have shows in the store as long as I can and bring awesome out of town bands to Charlotte. We are very thankful of those of you that have supported us for the last 7.5 years. And if you've never been here before, please come visit us.

-Scott