Planning Record Store Day? Here’s What Not to Miss

Here's what you need to know for Record Store Day tomorrow (April 18th), as independent record stores across Australia and New Zealand pull out all the stops.

Now in its 18th year globally, Record Store Day has become a cornerstone of the physical music revival, transforming record shops into temporary live venues and reinforcing their place at the centre of local music culture.

Stacked programs of performances, appearances, and signings are coming to stores across both countries over the course of the day, while several local artists are releasing special RSD vinyls.

Among the most ambitious of the day are Hermitude, who will undertake a monster mission of visiting eight record stores in NSW in 24 hours in celebration of their new LP EIGHT, journeying from the top of the Blue Mountains to Bondi on Sydney’s coast. Some stores will have them performing live, while others will be unveiling limited edition lathe cut vinyl raffles.

Joining Hermitude at one of the stores - Bondi Records - is Egoism in support of their RSD release, Trust Me. They'll also pop into TITLE store for a set, while egg-punks Media Puzzle will take over Badlands Vinyl off the back of their RSD release New Racehorse.

In Victoria, country diva Queenie will perform at Desert Highways and Rocksteady Records sharing sounds from Nat Pavlovic, Merpire and more. Soundmerch will continue their trend of day-long live music with sets from Public Figures, Owelu Dreamhouse, The Antics, The Gnomes and more, while Sensible J and Immy Owusu will perform live at Bar Open.

Northside Records will hit heavy again, with live performances from Kee’ahn, Mokomokai, and Steppers, plus an exclusive signing from the one and only Baker Boy. Over in Geelong, Popcultcha Records will feature live sets from The Vasco Era, Saint Ergo, and Winksy.

Elsewhere, Tasmania’s Suffragette Records will host an intimate performance from Naomi Keyte, who will play songs from her album Milk, Paper, Gold; Adelaide’s My Dead Grandpa will have live DJs spinning tunes all day; and Echo and Bounce in Queensland will host Das Druid and Bradley Zero.

A heap of local favourites - like Empire of the Sun, Spacey Jane, Holy Holy, and more - will also have special releases available to purchase.

To find what's on in your area, see here (Australia) or here (New Zealand).