Princeton Record Exchange (PREX) will be celebrating the 10th annual National Record Store Day on Saturday, April 22.

Record Store Day’s purpose is to celebrate the culture of the independently-owned record store, and it has been growing in popularity every year. On this day, hundreds of limited-edition titles are sold exclusively at record stores like Princeton Record Exchange, and special music events are held all over the country. 

This year’s slate of releases features a wide spread of genres. Classic rock and indie-rock comprise the majority but there are also rap, soul, jazz, techno, country, folk, metal titles, and more. These pieces are often on color vinyl, are numbered, on heavy 180-gram vinyl, or otherwise different from the standard issues.

Some of the highlights include: Bruce Springsteen’s Hammersmith Odeon London ‘75, a four LP box set; Grateful Dead’s P.N.E. Garden Auditorium, Vancouver, Canada 7/29/66, a two LP set from their first tour outside the country; Pink Floyd’s Interstellar Overdrive, a 12” single featuring an unreleased 15-minute mono mix from 1966; and U2’s Red Hall Mining Town, a 12” picture disc of an unreleased Steve Lillywhite remix.

On the quirkier side, there is a reissue of avant-garde composer Moondog’s classic self-titled 1969 album on white vinyl; Ken Kesey’s The Acid Test, originally released in 1966 in a pressing of less than 500; and a Star Wars 40^th anniversary edition Crosley Cruiser turntable. A complete list can be found on Record Store Day’s web site.

As part of the celebration, there will be free coffee for the first 50 people in line courtesy of D’Angelo Italian Market.

Dogfish Head beer, the “official” beer of RSD, has a special release for the day, Beer to Drink Music to ‘17. That will be featured, along with other Dogfish Head brews, at nearby pub The Alchemist & Barrister starting at 3 p.m., and at Public liquor store where there will be a tasting from 4 to 6 p.m. Posters and swag will be given away at those locations and the store.

To cap off the day, Princeton local favorite Chris Harford and His Band of Changes will have an in-store show at 6 p.m.

The store opens at 10 a.m., but customers line up much earlier than that to maximize their chances of getting the rarer titles. Last year, several hundred people were waiting at opening. There was a real sense of fun and camaraderie as like-minded folks came out to support the store and hope for their top picks of the limited titles. With the ever-increasing base of vinyl fans out there, Princeton Record Exchange trusts the 10^th annual Record Store Day will be the biggest yet.

Princeton Record Exchange is located at 20 South Tulane Street in downtown Princeton.