As you might already know, Saturday is Record Store Day, a celebration of and, perhaps for the younger generation, an introduction to independent record stores. (Some blogger types are discussing it here.)

NPR’s All Songs Considered blog recently discussed going all digital, a prospect I’m not ready to consider just yet. I still spend a ton of time in record stores (Stinkweeds and Zia, mostly). For all the convenience digital music offers, nothing beats stumbling on a rare find – maybe a CD single, a 45, whatever – at a record store. That’s not meant to sound all weepy and nostalgic. Sometimes I just enjoy having a tangible piece of the music. After all, the packaging – the art, liner notes, lyrics – is part of the price and part of the vision for the artist.

I curse my CDs and records whenever I move – they get damn heavy – but it’s oddly thrilling to re-sort them (alphabetically, of course). And it’s a joy to see guests look through my CDs on shelves, something they couldn’t do if I kept everything digitally. I love thumbing through CD/record collections of others; how else am I supposed to judge them?

Anyway, without romanticizing this too much, I’m happy for Record Store Day. Check out Zia Records and Stinkweeds for events. Read a story at azcentral.com.

The great Pete Rock discusses independent retailers:

LASTLY: Big thanks to Tim at The Blue Walrus for updating my blog to the newest version of WordPress. I didn’t stand a chance without him.

I have about a couple hours to decide if I’m going to head over to the Tempe Marketplace (sigh) to see MGMT (for free!). (You might recall Rogue Waving playing there, too.)

Before I go any further, can somebody clarify something for me? Do you pronounce the band’s name like the word “management” or do you actually spell out the letters M-G-M-T?

In any event, MGMT’s Time to Pretend EP (2005) was rereleased by Cantora Records. Maybe you should pick it up on Record Store Day (more on that on Friday).

• MGMT | Destrokk

In case you missed it, the Black Angels have a new record, Directions to See a Ghost, coming out May 13. But the album is available in digital format today.

If you want a taste, Directions is being streamed in its entirety via imeem. Like Passover before it, Directions is a slow-rolling, thick fog of fuzz and feedback. Science Killer (on my current Muxtape), with its ominous bassline and well-placed rattle, is a favorite.

It’s pretty cool that Spoon is giving away a bonus mp3 download every month (via), but I don’t think it’s nearly as cool as the fact that the band also is offering a pdf download of a T-shirt iron-on logo.

Seriously, I can’t tell you how many times I don’t buy band T-shirts because they are printed on shirts by a certain company whose idea of XL is totally skewed by the waify proportions of hipster kids. So, thank you, Spoon, for giving me the freedom to select a shirt of my choosing on which I can display this logo. Smart guy, that Britt Daniel.

About that song … yeah, You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb was my favorite off Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, so it’s neat to hear it in its many incarnations. Though I agree with Pitchfork that Spoon calling this version “country” is a bit of a misnomer.

This is also the second demo version of Cherry Bomb to pop up. The other came on the bonus Get Nice! EP and was a little closer to the finished product than this one.

• Spoon | Cherry Bomb (demo)

p.s. Download that iron-on pdf right here.

DON’T FORGET to check out my Muxtape, an unsequenced mix of songs from 2008 I’ve been enjoying thus far. I hope to update it weekly, so why don’t you put that in your RSS reader?