On the Beat: Swift album, Record Store Day make for big weekend for Lincoln music lovers (2024)

On Friday, Taylor Swift’s “The Tortured Poets Department” is slated for release online and in record stores. Slated is the operant word, at least for Lincoln stores, which hadn’t received the much-anticipated 11th album from the world’s biggest musical star.

“I think it's going to show up Thursday, but I don’t know for sure,” First Day Vinyl’s Travis Mannschreck said Tuesday. “They’re shipping it today. We might do a midnight sale for this on Thursday. That will be a last-minute call."

Another big release, Pearl Jam’s “Dark Matter,” is a certainty to be in stores Friday — “That’s two pretty different groups of people who’ll be coming in looking for those,” Mannschreck said.

If Swift’s album makes it to Lincoln by Friday, it and the Pearl Jam record will set up one of the biggest weekends ever at local record stores. Saturday is Record Store Day, the annual celebration that brings dozens of new releases to independent stores (you’re not going to get them at Target, Walmart or Barnes & Noble).

“This definitely is going to be our biggest one,” said Lincoln Vintage Vinyl’s Chad Breasseale. “I’ve ordered the most stuff ever for a Record Store Day.”

Some 16 boxes of records are stacked behind the counter at the store and “we’ll be getting more tomorrow and Thursday,” Breasseale said, attributing his increased ordering to a larger-than–usual number of titles being offered and, more importantly, a better, more appealing selection that generated lots of requests from customers.

At the top of the request lists at both First Day Vinyl and Lincoln Vintage Vinyl is the split 45 of Olivia Rodrigo’s “Lacy” and Noah Kahan’s “Stick Season” — “that’s going to be the one I think,” Mannschreck said of the most in-demand release of the day.

The vinyl issue of Kahan’s 2021 album “I Was/I Am” is also expected to put people in line outside the stores early Saturday morning.

The other most requested releases at First Day Vinyl are by At the Drive-In, Chappell Roan and Paramore, this year’s Record Store Day ambassadors.

At Lincoln Vintage Vinyl, the most requested list includes releases by Sabrina Carpenter, Fleetwood Mac, The Doors, The Jerry Garcia Band, Grateful Dead, The Hives and Lil Uzi Vert. Pearl Jam also is getting into the Record Store Day act with a colored vinyl variant of “Dark Matter,” which Breasseale said won’t be around for long Saturday morning.

Now in its 17th incarnation, Record Store Day was created in 2007 to support brick-and-mortar stores, which were rapidly dropping out of sight with the growth of file-sharing and streaming, by offering exclusive releases of vinyl albums, EPs and 45s along with special versions of records.

The stores also offer specials on used vinyls and CDs, creating additional sales that have helped keep the record business going for close to two decades.

“That’s crazy to think it's been going on that long,” Breasseale said. “We’ve been doing it every year since I opened (in late 2017). It’s the biggest day of the year, every year.”

Lincoln Vintage Vinyl, 908 N. 70th St., will open at 7 a.m. Saturday. First Day Vinyl, 7301 S. 27th St., will be open at 9 a.m. Lefty’s Records, 2776 South St., and Backtrack Records, 1549 N. Cotner Blvd., are also Record Store Day participants.

Pro tip here: If you’re looking to get your hands on a specific record, especially those listed as most requested, get in line early at the stores. Those records will be out of the store and on turntables in the first hour or so after the stores open.