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.

Rise Against is releasing its new record on October 7 via DGC Records. We’ve got the new single “Re-Education (Through Labor) and it’s pretty much the Rise Against you’ve grown to love. Melodic hardcore with a little more balls than your run-of-the-mill punk band. The record is produced by big Bill Stevenson who the band toured with a few years back. Tour dates are after the jump.

Brian Head Welch’s new album debuted on Billboard’s “Top 200 Albums” chart at #63. There are way too many people in this world going full retard and buying this crap. He’ll be at Vintage Vinyl baptising his followers on September 26.

Bleeding Through (begat by XthrowdownX) is dropping “Declaration” in two weeks. The band recorded a video for one of the songs, but I don’t have a clue who is going to play it. I’ve spent the last few months trying to find a rock show on one of the big video networks and have failed miserably. Some idiot named Steven has a rock show on Fuse and it sucks balls. I don’t know who gave Death Cab for Cutie the right to call themselves a rock band. I guess some idiot name Steven.

Oh, and The Alternative on VH1 Classics is now called 120 Minutes. But here’s the catch, it’s not 120 Minutes. I was hoping it was old episodes chronicling the history of alternative rock (particularly the golden age of Grunge). Instead it’s just redundant Depeche Mode videos sandwiched between Smiths double shots. Not bad, but not 120 Minutes. Louis Largent, where are you?

For those in the UK, go check out the London Tattoo Convention. Jesse Lee Denning from Invisible NYC is going to be curating a show of paintings spotlighting worldwide tattooists who also dabble with canvas work. The best part is that the work is said to be affordable.” Whatever that means. Check it out September 26 to 28 at Tobacco Docks.
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