Record Store Day is like my own personal Christmas, except I buy myself presents, and the only fat guy in funny clothes is me. For those of you who don't know (which knowing the readership of this thing is no one), Record Store Day is that one magical day a year when bands put out super limited releases that are only available in independent record stores. So basically, it's for huge nerds to make themselves feel good about owning rare music in these precious few years we have left before the only way to buy music is online at iTunes.

Record Store Day was this past Saturday, and I was in Detroit, so I had Des pick me up some things. For CD's, I got a couple live albums from Manchester Orchestra and RX Bandits, and Weezer's "Raditude...Happy Record Store Day," which at five songs long (a song featuring Kenny G, a song featuring Sara Bareilles, a Green Day cover, an acoustic Buddy Holly, and a live Pinkerton song) is infinitely better than the actual Raditude. Then I got a John Lennon singles bag, which features better packaging than music, a 7" where Bon Iver and Peter Gabriel cover a song of each other's, a cool little two song Ted Leo 7" with two unreleased B-sides from the new album, a live Jimi Hendrix album, and a 7" from Against Me! that features an acoustic version of I Was a Teenage Anarchist that makes me think this new album is going to be very very polished and hook-heavy.

The best and most interesting release I got was The Mountain Goats DVD version of The Life of the World to Come. The CD was on my top 10 albums list last year, and this DVD features just John on the piano or guitar and playing the album in the auditorium of the school that he went to as a kid. It's a really cool idea, and the packaging is great, featuring a paragraph by John describing each song. During the song Matthew 25:21, one of the most emotionally devastating songs I've ever heard, his voice cracks with tears at the end, and it's really something special.

I think iTunes and the internet have killed music buying. You can get anything you want with a click of the mouse from basically any band. There's a special place in my memory for the years I spent hunting out the music that I found myself liking. I used to hunt out compilation CDs and find bands that I liked, then send off mailorder cards to the label with a money order, then waiting three weeks and finding a package filled with CDs.

I don't think I can explain it, but I can remember the feel of the packaging, the smell when I ripped it open, the sight of those CDs filling it up. I liked the stamp in the corner that told me that someone at this little record label personally filled this thing up with the music I wanted, stamped it, and wrote my name on it with a Sharpie. I felt a connection to music then. The search for new bands was exciting and difficult. The music was sent from a label that really cared - sometimes I would get a note thanking me for checking them out. Now I get on Lala and listen to everything in the world, then get on Amazon, buy whatever I want, and a week later get that standard Amazon box. It's much easier, but it's not the same. I honestly don't think kids from now on will be able to feel the connection that I felt back then to the music. Back then you really had to try to be into music that isn't popular. Now you just have to like the clothes.