Free beer! Free live records! Not-so-free records! For most of today’s music listeners, attaining music is a non-issue. Online stores such as iTunes, online libraries like Grooveshark or Pandora, and various other less legal means have made music all too available over the Internet. And while this accessibility to music is definitely a great thing, there is still something about a record store—something about digging your way through row after row of unknown album covers just to find that one Beach Boys B-side you’ve been hunting down for so long—that just can’t be replicated by electronic means. That unique record store allure is what will draw hundreds of St. Louisans to Vintage Vinyl this Saturday.

This Saturday, April 21, is the fifth annual Record Store Day, an event that is best described as the Black Friday of independent record stores. Each year on Record Store Day, staggering numbers of musicians get directly involved with hundreds of record stores across the country, through in-store live performances and one-day limited edition record releases. Washington University’s friendly neighborhood record store, Vintage Vinyl (located on the Delmar Loop), is going to be involved with Record Store Day in a big way. Vintage Vinyl will feature dozens upon dozens of limited record releases by an extremely robust lineup of artists, which includes such big names as Arcade Fire, Arctic Monkeys, Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie, Katy Perry (no, really), Lana Del Rey, The White Stripes (R.I.P.), and countless other bands and solo artists, as well as several little oddities (The Breakfast Club Soundtrack, anyone?). A full list is available on the Record Store Day website.

If none of those limited releases catch your eye, or even if you don’t own/have no interest in ever owning a record player (turntable record players are sold in-store), that’s no reason to avoid Record Store Day; this is by far the biggest day of the year business-wise for Vintage Vinyl, so besides these limited releases, the store will be jam packed with all sorts of other hot records, CDs, cassettes, posters, T-shirts and more.

To encourage shoppers to lighten their wallets on some choice records, Vintage Vinyl will be serving free Schlafly beer in-store all day long. For the underage record enthusiasts, Vintage Vinyl will also be providing free Monster Energy drinks, since caffeine is basically a young man’s alcohol. There are also sure to be a few freebies floating around (last year I scored a sweet bottle opener and a compilation record that I still haven’t opened). In between the deals and the drinks, there will be hours of live music to keep the Record Store Day party rolling. St. Louis native bands (Rough Shop, Alley Ghost, City of Takers, and Dear John), several guest DJs, and NorCal psych rockers Sleepy Sun will all convene on Vintage Vinyl to serenade the LP-loving crowd throughout the day. Sleepy Sun, who has toured with such bands as Arctic Monkeys and The Black Angels, released its third album “Spine Hits” just this past week.

The live music is scheduled to run from the store’s opening at 10 a.m. until around 6 p.m., but Vintage Vinyl will remain open (and most likely packed) all of Saturday until Record Store Day comes to a close at midnight. But don’t come strolling in at 11:55 p.m. expecting to nab one of those limited edition White Stripes records. Some of the more popular special record releases can sell out quickly, so come out early, shop around, and spend your Saturday just enjoying the music. It’s like Ian Gillan, lead singer of legendary rock band Deep Purple, once said: “Buy real records in real shops, or I’ll come ’round your house and scream at your mother.” Powerful stuff.