Mile Long Records in Wheaton to celebrate Record Store Day

WHEATON – For music lovers, Record Store Day is like Christmas.

The day – which is April 21 – celebrates the culture surrounding independent record stores nationwide. Mile Long Records, 350 W. Front St. in downtown Wheaton, will open at 10 a.m. – two hours earlier than usual – with exclusive releases. The store primarily deals in vinyl, both new and used.

This is the store's fourth year of participating in Record Store Day. Mile Long Records opened in 2014.

For those who arrive early, the store will be handing out numbered wristbands to ensure their place in line.

"We pass out wristbands so people don't have to hang in line all night long," Mile Long Records owner Michael Paeth said. "Right now, the plan is to come out around 3 a.m., and if there's people out, hand out wristbands. Last year, people came out at 11 p.m. the night before to get a low number on a wristband. I think if we didn't hand out wristbands at 3 a.m., those people were just going to wait in line all night. They're just going to camp out."

He believes this year's Record Store Day will also generate interest.

"There's a lot of good titles, so I think that the turnout is going to be good," the Wheaton resident said.

Vinyl records have been making a comeback in the last few years. Paeth attributed the resurgence in a large part to Record Store Day, which was first held in 2007.

"Record Store Day has been the driving force of the resurgence of vinyl, without a doubt," he said.

His store will be selling such collectible items as colored vinyl records along with LPs that have extra tracks on them.

"A great example of that is the band The National," Paeth said. "They have an album called 'Boxer,' and for Record Store Day, that same album is being sold, but [done] live. That's just a really good example of the type of release that comes out on Record Store Day. And once they are gone, they're gone."

For Paeth, a vinyl record offers the best listening experience.

"I bought into CDs just like everybody else did, and I converted most of my vinyl to CDs when I went to college," he said. "And I noticed right away that I was becoming slightly disconnected to music. It wasn't the quality of the music, it was just I didn't like the way it sounded. But I was still believing what I was told, that CDs sounded better. I know that totally to be untrue now."

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If you go

WHAT: Record Store Day

WHERE: Mile Long Records, 350 W. Front St., Wheaton

WHEN: 10 a.m. April 21

INFO: milelongrecords.com, facebook.com/milelongrecords