Record Store Day ’22 Haul

For a music lover, someone who loves Record Store Day and looks forward to it every year, my track record is abysmal — I’ve only ever actually gone out for it twice, almost always because of work. After COVID, I, like so many others, was very antsy to get out and enjoy the actual experience of the day.

I went into Record Store Day ’22 with a different strategy than in the past. For starters, my previous Pittsburgh staple, Dave’s Music Mine, has since closed. My one and only Pittsburgh Record Store Day outing started there — my second outing was in State College — and if something got swiped up before I made it, I made my way down to the South Side and then into Monroeville to visit The Exchange. This year, I had my eye on a different store and a different starting point and kind of decided to do the opposite. I’d start at CD Warehouse in Greensburg, make my way into Monroeville, and end in Pittsburgh. That way, I’d most likely encounter fewer crowds, which not only meant greater chances of scoring everything on my wishlist but also made me a little more comfortable with COVID still looming. For similar reasons, I decided not to line up early but instead to arrive shortly after the store opened. That and I just didn’t want to line up outside. Some may say it’s part of the experience, but I prefer the thrill of the hunt, not the wait.

The store opened at 8, and I arrived around 8:15. By then, there wasn’t a line outside, but there was a small group of about 10 people patiently waiting their turn at the racks in the back of the store — including a “What’s everyone in line for?” visitor — generally quiet but making some idle chitchat, particularly with an employee (owner? manager?) stationed near the front. The subject of the Taylor Swift release came up — he mentioned, and I agreed, that he thought her involvement drew out people who normally wouldn’t participate, citing a large number of calls in the days leading up to the event. Part of the fun of Record Store Day is that releases are limited and stores don’t know how many copies of any given release they’ll get. The word is that stores were requesting up to 100 copies of Swift’s release and only got 10. It wasn’t on my list, but by the time I got in line — again, 15 minutes after opening — they were gone, as were a few other releases people in front of me asked about.

I combed the shelves for what I had my eye on, excitedly amassing a small but formidable stack. In the end, I snagged everything I wanted — two releases, Gerard Way and Sweet, were pushed back until the June backup date.

So no big drive across multiple stores in multiple cities. Just one stop — plus a coffee run.

See you in June!