How to Celebrate Record Store Day in Michigan

Saturday is Record Store Day and a number of Michigan stores and a variety of artists are participating this year.

The event was conceived by Chris Brown back in 2007 and founded by Eric Levin, Michael Kurtz, Carrie Colliton, Amy Dorfman, Don Van Cleave and Brian Poehner as a celebration of the unique culture surrounding over 700 independently owned record stores in the USA, and hundreds of similar stores internationally.

The day is one that sees the independently run stores come together with artists to celebrate the art of music in a variety of different ways.

Special vinyl and CD releases and various promotional products are made exclusively for the day and hundreds of artists in the United States and in various countries across the globe make special appearances and performances.

Metallica officially kicked off Record Store Day at Rasputin Music in San Francisco on April 19, 2008 and Record Store Day is now celebrated the third Saturday every April.

This year's Record Store Day features a number of commercial releases from artists including A Day To Remember, AC/DC, Bruce Springsteen, Death Cab For Cutie, Flogging Molly, Green Day, Lady Gaga and Rush.

In Michigan, platinum-selling rock band My Chemical Romance kick the celebration off on Saturday in Grand Rapids at Vertigo Music where they will be doing an in-store signing before they perform at the Orbit Room on their 2011 World Contamination tour.

The first 100 fans who visit Vertigo Music when they open Saturday morning at 11 a.m. and purchase a copy of the band's exclusive Record Store Day 7'' picture disc or a t-shirt will get a wristband to come back and meet the band at 4:30 p.m..

The 7" disc features the tracks "Na Na Na" and "Zero Percent".

Vertigo Music will be celebrating all day with a family-friendly party featuring live bands, DJs, and food, drink and sale pricing storewide.

Not too far away in East Lansing at Flat Black & Circular, Lansing's own, The People's Temple, will be playing an exclusive acoustic set for shoppers.

Also in East Lansing at the Record Lounge, there will be a Jamming For Japan benefit show

Local artists will be making music across downtown East Lansing while simply asking for donations for Red Cross relief efforts in Japan.

Collection jars will be at The Record Lounge's new location, on Division behind State News, and at each of the venues, which include Espresso Royale, Biggby and Marriott Plaza.

Green Light Music in Kalamazoo will be offering a number of deals and prizes to those who get to their store early.

UHF Music in Royal Oak will also be offering deals and live performances all day including Ryan Allen, The Octopus, Dennis Coffey and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr..

For more information on all of the events across the country visit the official Record Store Day website at http://www.recordstoreday.com/Home.