Whether or not you think Record Store Day is just another day in your lifelong commitment to your local independent retailer or indeed a reason to celebrate and stock up on exclusives, or, merely a token gesture, the fact is, there will be hundreds of special releases flooding into Canada’s independent record stores for the fifth annual Record Store Day tomorrow. We asked a handful of stores across the country about their most anticipated releases and in-store plans. (Turns out not everyone is into it.)

Store: Back Alley Music
Location: Prince Edward Island
Record Store Day in-store events: Back Alley will be serving cake (!) and refreshments, have additional vinyl deals, giveaways, and live music from Two Hours Traffic‘s Liam Corcoran, as well as English Words, and Colour Code.

Owner Pat Deighan as well as Nathan Gill share their top-sought releases:

Pat Deighan
1. Karen Elson, Milk and Honey seven-inch
2. Luna Romantica LP
3. Mastadon/Feist Feistodon split seven-inch
4. Lee Scratch Perry, Blackboard Jungle Dub triple ten-inch
5. T-Rex, Electric Warrior box set 6 x 7″ box set
6. Uncle Tupelo vinyl box set 4 x 7″

Nathan Gill
1. Lee Hazlewood, The LHI Years LP
2. Arctic Monkeys, R U Mine seven-inch
3. Ryan Adams, “Heartbreak A Stranger/Black Sheets Of Rain” seven-inch (Bob Mould covers)

Store: Backstreet Records
Location: Fredericton, NB
Record Store Day in-store events: Lots of local bands will be playing: Redwood Fields, The Squaredance Kid, The Shorty Tubbs, The Ray Finkles and Motherhood, along with Woodstock, ON native J.J. Ipsen and Vancouver’s Octoberman who are on tour and doing us the favour of an afternoon show before playing at The Capital, “our city’s best night spot,” says manager Eric Hill.

1. Leonard Cohen, Live In Fredericton EP. “[This is] one of the items that is most interesting to our customers, because, well, it was recorded here…live in Fredericton.”

2. Various Artists, Smugglers Way seven-inch flexi box set. “Domino’s flexi/zine compilation with five coloured flexi-discs stands out as pretty unique entry to this year’s line up.”

Store: Taz Records
Location: Halifax, NS
Record Store Day in-store events: “Taz will have live music practically all day,” says Jimmy Donnelly, manager/co-owner. The line up is: Rich Aucoin, Rose Cousins, Al Tuck, Jon McKiel, Christina Martin and Dale Murray, Nerd Army, Matthew Grimson, and Jay Crocker.

1. The Black Keys, El Camino 45rpm version, which inclues a “giant poster and a bonus seven-inch single.”

2. The Pharcyde, Bizarre Ride II seven-inch Singles Collection. “It includes unreleased tracks, a poster and a 120-piece puzzle!”

Store: Zulu Records
Location: Vancouver, BC
Record Store Day in-store events: Live performances throughout the day from Hannah Georgas, Damian Jurado, Siskiyou, and No Sinner. Plus a special Record Store Day beer from local R & B Brewing Co., “Zulu RSD Brew,” ticket giveaways, celebrity DJs, and way, way more from the sounds of employee Melanie Coles’ exuberant e-mail.

1. Destroyer, Rubies on red vinyl. Includes a “giant poster and a bonus seven-inch single. Destroyer has always been a staff favourite at Zulu so for those of us who missed it on vinyl the first time we are excited for a second to chance to pick up this classic album, and on ruby red vinyl!”

2. Lee Hazlewood, The LHI Years on Light in the Attic records, which will “no doubt go fast, as Lee Hazlewood is another shop favourite.”

3. The Cleaners From Venus, Cleaners From Venus Vol. 1, a box set of three records, flyers, pins, and more.

Store: Sloth Records
Location: Calgary, AB
Record Store Day in-store events: “We usually don’t have the space for anyone but customers on RSD, as the store gets far more packed than usual,” says Sloth employee Devin Friesen.

1. Medicine, The Buried Life / Shot Forth Self Living LP reissues, plus The Sound of Medicine box set
2. Mclusky, Mclusky Do Dallas LP reissue
3. Pussy Galore, Feel Good About Your Body EP reissue
4. Various Artists, Sacred Bones Presents: Todo Muere Vol. 2
5. Various Artists, Eight Trails, One Path Three Lobed Recordings compilation

Store: Cheap Thrills
Location: Montreal, QC
Record Store Day in-store events: None, and manager Guy Lavoie has his own perspective on the event:

“Unfortunately, the nature of Record Store Day is that labels announce their special (limited) releases and distributors and stores can never get the copies they ordered. Often we get no copies at all. Customers try to pre-order but we can’t guarantee that we’ll get the amount ordered. This disappointment is somehow supposed to be helping record stores?

The whole program is badly thought out. It’s as if it had been designed by a clueless major label desperately looking into the abyss of CD sales. By trying to enshrine records store as “Ye Olde Vinyl Shoppe” and dangling goodies before unsuspecting buyers then starving the distributors and stores, it guarantees failure.

In one recent case, the Canadian exclusive distributor of a label received 40 copies of a Record Store Day release for the whole country. A release for which we had five special orders and could have sold another 10. We got none. That’s 15 people who are going online to Discogs, GEMM or Ebay where so many of these releases end up.

There may be a few interesting RSD releases but if they actually cared about record stores they would just put catalogue titles at decent prices all year long. Is that so hard?”