For years Black Friday has been the day for Christmas shopping.  I never get everything I want or need on that day but I usually end up getting a good start on where I need to be.  Oddly, I usually buy more things for myself on Black Friday than I do for others.  When it comes to buying things for myself, I’m actually really good at it.  For the past couple of years, another event has compounded Black Friday into an uber event that only further rips my wallet and bank account to shreds:  Record Store Day.  Combining the two events for me is like relocating Disneyland to the strip in Las Vegas while handing out free ecstasy tabs and buckets of $50 gambling chips.  Too many choices.  BluRay players for $50 or Velvet Underground Acetate?  $3 jackets or White Stripes 45-inches?  It’s not fair.

I picked up 11 releases.  Three of them…I didn’t even go into the store having any interest in…but when I was there in the moment, I bought a Wanda Jackson rarities disc…and I freaking love it.  I want to take Wanda Jackson out to a nice dinner with wine and tiramisu.  It was an impulse buy.  I feel in love with the album cover and the smile on Jackson’s face.  That kind of love of music doesn’t exist anymore.  It’s more important to be popular than to be good.  No longer can you just be a fan of the art form and take a chance on a 6-song EP of demos and outtakes for $16 and be absolutely infatuated.  This is what makes me a fan.  Standing in line for hours to buy something I didn’t even know I wanted…that makes me a fan.  Sitting in front of a record player flipping over records after one song…that makes me a fan.  Sitting by the TV waiting to see what new outfit Justin Bieber wore to PF Chang’s…makes me want to shoot my eyes out.

Record Store Day continues on.  The lines keep getting longer.  The releases keep getting better.  And the record industry keeps blaming internet downloading for ruining their industry.  Weird.

Here are the 11 Best Songs By Crystal Castles:

1. Not In Love w/ Robert Smith (II – Big Day Out Deluxe Version)
2. Vanished (Crystal Castles)
3. Celestica (II)
4. Crimewave (Crystal Castles)
5. Lovers Who Uncover w/ the Little Ones (Lovers Who Come Over)
6. Suffocation (II)
7. Untrust Us (Crystal Castles)
8. Year of Silence (II)
9. Pap Smear (II)
10. Knights (Crystal Castles)
11. Violent Dreams (II)