Record Store Day turned out to be a huge success in Northern New Jersey this past Saturday. I woke up early to head out in search of some limited vinyl records, only to get a call from my friend Josh that Vintage Vinyl had already been pillaged and that the place was pretty packed.

So I decided to find Scotti’s Records, an old CD store I use to visit for Ticketmaster tickets (back before the Internet). Record Store Day’s Web site was down so I put all faith in my GPS and it actually found one of the stores in Summit, NJ.

Luckily, the place was pretty well stocked with some of the exclusive gems, including the first Bad Religion 7-inch, the Slayer psychopath red 45, an Elvis Costello 7-inch, a Jenny Lewis duet with Costello, the Sonic Youth/Beck split, and the Gaslight Anthem live 10-inch. I also snagged the reissue of The Misfits’ “Walk Among Us” on 180 gram vinyl (not a special release, but still pretty cool).

We eventually made it to Vintage Vinyl, but there was no parking and the place had a line out the door. I caught the final few chords of Willie Nile covering “Sheena is a Punk Rocker” before running out as throngs of emo fans made their way to the stage for an upcoming Mayday Parade performance. It was great seeing the place teeming with vinyl entusiasts and kids willing to spend money on actual physical music.

Sure, I never scored the Tom Waits and Leonard Cohen exclusives, but the joy of seeing the record stores that filled me with so much joy as a kid actually making some cash was more than worth it.

I’ve been a little quiet about the upcoming Record Store Day, but as April 18 quickly approaches, I’m going to be ramping up coverage of the event. For those that don’t know, Record Store Day was the brainchild of a group of vinyl enthusiasts that strive to keep independent music retailers from crashing and burning in the wake of the collapse of the major label record industry.

In the last few years, I’ve watched as dozens of local record shops have closed their doors, including Let It Rock, Crazy Rhythms, as well as a handful of non-descript used vinyl stores. I’ve been lucky enough to still have a handful of big shops like Vintage Vinyl within driving distance, but it is getting tough to hunt down new records.

I won’t lie, I steal music off the Internet. If I don’t know the artist, but have some vague curiosity about the band, I will hunt down the record on some random Spanish or German blog site and download it. If it sucks, it gets delegated to my iTunes discount bin. But if it’s good, I make every effort to buy the record (preferably on vinyl) from a local indie retailer or directly from the band if I catch them on tour.

I’m sure I’m partially responsible for the downfall of the music industry, but I’m also pretty certain that a large number of today’s youth are following the same tactic: Support what’s good, ignore what’s not.

In less than a month, hundreds of indie record stores are going to be selling dozens of limited release records from bands like Slayer and the Gaslight Anthem. Find a shop on the list, drive over to a local shop, and spend some money on some good music.