It is 4 a.m. on a Saturday and I am awake. Why?

Because it is Record Store Day. Sports fans have the Super Bowl, record collectors have Record Store Day. It is basically Christmas Day for us.

Saturday, April 13 is a day where special releases come out and vinyl enthusiasts decide to shop local to get their fix, which is far better than trying to grab a record store day release on the eBay aftermarket. This is going to be a chronicle of my 2019 Record Store Day.

Now, this is my third year of doing this but only the second year of waking up at an ungodly hour. The releases I have had my eye on are as follows: Green Day: Live at Woodstock 1994, My Chemical Romance: “The Black Parade is Dead!,” the live performance of their last show as “The Black Parade,” Queen: Bohemian Rhapsody/I’m in Love with my Car 7″, The Wonder Years: Live at Maida Vale and Soccer Mommy: “For Young Hearts.”

It is a long list, but I am not going to shorten it. The two places I will be going for Record Store Day are Redscroll Records and Newbury Comics.

The first stop, and where I was camping out since about 5:45 a.m. was Redscroll Records. They are an independent record store in Wallingford, Connecticut and Record Store Day 2016 is how I found out about them.

Since then, they have helped me add quite a few releases to my collection. It was pouring rain so I ended up sitting the car —Redscroll would not be open until 8 a.m. I got out of the car and stood in line just before 7 a.m. I waited in line and did not get to the tent full of releases until about 9 a.m. As a result of that, I was only able to find the releases from The Wonder Years, Soccer Mommy and Green Day.

Getting the Green Day release was slightly stressful as it was the last one left and someone was digging in the same bin so I was holding my breath seeing if they were going to grab it or not. Luckily I got to get it. I paid for my items and drove to Newbury Comics in Buckland Hills mall and hoped they would have The My Chemical Romance and Queen 7″ releases I was still on the hunt for. Lucky for me, I grabbed the last available copy of each one.

Upon first look I did not think they had either one, so finding the last copy of both was shocking and relieving. Since I was in Newbury Comics, I looked around at their other records and picked up “Morbid Stuff,” a new release by the band PUP and “Youth,” the debut album from the band CitiZen.

The thing about Record Store Day is that the releases usually look pretty cool or have something special about them. For example, the Bohemian Rhapsody 7″ disc is half yellow and half purple. It matches the artwork quite well. Another example is the My Chemical Romance release came with a death certificate, which came with a special edition of the original release back in 2007.

Once I got back home, I went through the goodie bag Redscroll records gave me and came to find it was full of posters, patches, pins, a few random records and a CD. I have yet to listen to any of what was in the bag but I am eager to. Record Store Day 2019 was a success and I cannot wait for next year’s.