Welcome to Record Store Day: Black Friday Edition! Okay, okay—Black Friday (November 23) is a horrible concept, responsible for making such atrocities as camping in Walmart parking lots, Bumpits, tramplings, and cherry cordials ALL SOCIALLY ACCEPTABLE. But you know and I know that your crocheted pencil warmers and hand-whittled crucifixes are going to take WAY longer than you thought they would, and let's face it... music (music) makes the people (makes the people) come together (yeah).

Since 2010, record labels have produced extra-collectible editions of beloved, often rare releases exclusively for the shoppingest shopping day of the year, giving you the excuse you've been looking for to go nuts at a local record store. Please enjoy a sampling of picks by The Stranger Music Expert Dream Team™—we'll even tell you whom to buy it for!

Scepter Studios Acetate

This is a 1966 demo that was found at a garage sale and released just for you! And other people! The Velvet Underground's haziness paired with the deep mono-drone of Nico is heavenly and drug noddy (nods to buying and being on drugs, see also: nodding out on drugs). Ideal recipient: Anyone whose ears would perk up to hear that this record is on 180-gram vinyl or anyone with beaded curtains. EMILY NOKES

Capitol Rarities

The ever-influential First Lady of Rockabilly (the early, country/rock/hillbilly sort, not the Bettie Page bangs/flaming dice graphics/cuffed jeans, er, style of more recent times), Wanda Jackson's Capitol Rarities showcases six Capitol-era rarities on a 10-inch record. Ideal recipient: Your snazzy aunt who wears white cowboy boots, false eyelashes, and a clip-on ponytail. EN

Dark Energy

This 7-inch features the song "Dark Energy"—a dark and dirgey, Weezer-gone-hoboesque tune off JEFF the Brotherhood's newest album, Hypnotic Nights. Ideal recipient: Your favorite Weezer-loving hobo. EN

Screaming for Vengeance

The best-selling Priest album of all time has turned 30 years old! Screaming for Vengeance is a hits-packed, classic metal album—and by hits, I mean YES, this is the album with "You've Got Another Thing Comin'" on it. The anniversary edition picture disc has a bitchin' 3-D mechanical war hawk on it! Ideal recipient: Appreciators of brutal metal falsetto or anyone whose bones you would like to jump. EN

Incesticide

Well shit, it's been 20 years, and we are still proud as can be of our most famous grunge mumblers, responsible for everything from the Space Needle to Pike Place Market itself (I'm kidding—don't sue me, Space Needle). Incesticide was a compilation album consisting of covers, demos, outtakes, and other odds and ends. Ideal recipient: Your East Coast friends who think Seattle "is just so cute with its quaint little music scene from the '90s." EN

The Afterman: Ascension (Big Beige Demos)

A clear vinyl LP with demos from the band's most recent album, which is a concept album that, according to Wikipedia, "tells the story of Sirius Amory... as he explores the energy source holding together the Keywork... and finds that it is a horrible afterlife for departed souls." Ideal recipient: Your comic-book- loving cousin who thinks chiptune is the only way nerds can rock. MEGAN SELING

Live at Sun Studios

One side of this 7-inch is the song "I Want Your Love" from the band's latest record, Women & Work. The other side is "Nights Like These," aka the saddest sad-bastard song ever written. Splurge on a good bottle of whiskey to go with it, and you've got the perfect gift. Ideal recipient: Your recently dumped buddy who wants to spend the holiday season drunk. MS

Hallelujah

Jesus Christ, why would you give this song as a gift? "Here, friend, listen to this and open a vein while crying your face off." Unless you want blood on your hands, make sure the giftee is emotionally stable enough to handle it, or at least stuff their stocking with a bottle of Prozac, too. Ideal recipient: A Leonard Cohen–loving ex. MS

Bad Reputation

A clear vinyl LP that comes with a bonus CD and features kick-ass songs like "Doing Alright with the Boys," "Do You Wanna Touch Me (Oh Yeah)," and "Shout," as well as some live footage from '83 and '98. JOAN JETT 4-EVER. Ideal recipient: A tween who needs to kick that Taylor Swift habit. MS

Live at Winterland (5/30/1971)

Dude, the Dead were on fire in '71, proving why they became known as the ultimate American jam band. All music herein has never been released in any format. Score! Ideal recipient: Duh, a Deadhead—or anyone striving to get an A+ on the electric Kool-Aid acid test. DAVE SEGAL

Abba Zaba/Yellow Brick Road

Early, raw, garage-psych Beefheart is some of the best Beefheart. This rare 45—with Ry Cooder on guitar, and in mono!—contains two oddball earworms that still sound infectious 45 years later. Ideal recipient: Your weird uncle who lost all of his vinyl in a mudslide 30 years ago or people who think Beefheart's just about feral scree. DS

Forever Changes

Both silky and gritty, Forever Changes is the greatest orchestral psych-pop album ever. This reissue of the LA band's 1967 peak comes with a bonus 7-inch featuring an unreleased edit of "Alone Again Or." Ideal recipient: Somebody curious to know what the Summer of Love sounded like without it being filtered through typical baby boomer lenses. DS

You Turned My Head Around: Lee Hazlewood Industries 1967—1970

One of the wryest, driest, slyest singer/songwriters ever to hit the Top 10, Hazlewood also ran a label (LHI) and produced the rare singles (including one by Ann-Margret!) collected in this box set on genius reissue label Light in the Attic. Ideal recipient: Appreciators of skewed country pop and acid folk and all Hazlewood fanatics (why aren't you one yet?). DS

Bangarang

Brostep's favorite whipping boy drops an EP whose title is a Jamaican word for "hubbub" or "disturbance." The record's actually a more nuanced take on dubstep than usual for Skrillex, almost on the M.I.A. circa Maya tip. Ideal recipient: Anyone who can enter a Hot Topic without rolling his/her eyes or vomiting and tweens looking to lose their EDM cherry. DS

The Biz Never Sleeps

Remember when mainstream hiphop had a sense of humor? Remember when a male rapper could admit that his looks were not the best, his bank account was not fat, and he had a hard time getting girls? This was the time of Biz Markie—a talented NYC rapper with almost no ego and no gats to blow the domes off niggas giving him beef. He just rapped and pleaded for things he wanted: "Oh, girl, you got what I need. But you say he's just a friend..." Those were the days. Ideal recipient: That neighbor who's been building a half-pipe in his backyard for the last year. CHARLES MUDEDE

Sketches of Spain

When you listen to this amazing record, it will bring joy and sorrow to your heart. Joy because it is so perfect, so accessible, so masterful, so glorious, so rich, so moving. Recorded in 1959, we hear Miles Davis at his best—it's hard to believe that a decade later, all of this genius went to the grave. And this is where the sorrow comes in. It's true: Davis abandoned this artistic majesty to become what the jazz critic Stanley Crouch called "a funky chicken." Ideal recipient: A coworker who has mistaken Kenny G for jazz. CM

Reservoir Dogs Soundtrack

The "Madonna speech" in Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs? It's on this record. So is the "Let's Get a Taco" dialogue. Chilling with these and other dialogues are a couple of cool tunes—most notably "Stuck in the Middle with You" by Stealers Wheel. Ideal recipient: Your Quentin Tarantino–obsessed nephew. CM

WHERE TO BUY

These neighborhood record stores are participating in RSD on Black Friday—obviously every record store will not be carrying every single item released for the occasion, so call ahead. But stop by anyway! And remember to be extra nice to whoever is working.

Bop Street Records
2220 NW Market St
297-2232

Sonic Boom Records
2209 NW Market St
297-2666

Everyday Music
1520 10th Ave
568-3321

Platinum Records
915 E Pike St
324-8032

Porchlight
1515 14th Ave
329-5461

Spin Cycle
321 Broadway E
971-0267

Zion's Gate Records
1100 E Pike St
568-5446

Holy Cow Records
1501 Pike Pl, Suite 325
405-4200

Swerve
1535 First Ave
382-6151

Jive Time Records
3506 Fremont Ave N
632-5483

Silver Platters
9560 First Ave NE
524-3472

Easy Street
20 Mercer St
691-3279

Silver Platters
701 Fifth Ave N
283-3472

Another Record Store
9433 Rainier Ave S
725-4462

Radar Hair & Records
2724 First Ave S
402-4549

Neptune Music Company
4344 Brooklyn Ave NE
632-0202

Easy Street
4559 California Ave SW
938-3279

Rubato Records
4710 California Ave SW
933-6030

For more Record Store Day info, 
visit recordstoreday.com