Record Store Day: 8 Shops To Check Out Around Greater Milwaukee

MILWAUKEE, WI — Music lovers across the Milwaukee area will have no shortage of places to visit when Record Store Day rolls around on Saturday.

Several stores around the metro area are participating in the one-day celebration of the nation’s nearly 1,400 independently owned brick-and-mortar record stores.

This Record Store Day comes about a year after longtime Wisconsin vinyl-chain, The Exclusive Company, announced plans to close. Since then, new and independent shops have sprouted up across the greater Milwaukee area out of the Exclusive Company's former locations.

Related: End Of An Era: Exclusive Company To Close After 66 Years In Wisconsin

Since the first Record Store Day in 2008, the event has turned into a celebration of record store owners, the artists whose releases are featured and the customers looking for rare titles and hard-to-find 45s.

The stores’ promotions are as independent as their businesses are, but with a range of genres and artists to fit any groove.

Here are record stores around greater Milwaukee to check out:

• Lilliput Records at 1669 North Farwell Avenue in Milwaukee.
• Bullseye Records at 1627 East Irving Place in Milwaukee.
• We Buy Records at 904 East Center Street in Milwaukee.
• Acme Records at 2341 South Kinnickinnic Avenue in Milwaukee.
• Rush Mor Records at 2635 South Kinnickinnic Avenue in Milwaukee.
• Volta Records at 5026 South 74th Street in Greenfield.
• Vinyl Vault Records at 275 West Main Street in Waukesha.
• Stardust Records at 106 South Main Street in Theinsville.

For several years, according to promoters, 60 percent or more of records released on Record Store Day have been from independent labels and distributors, according to recordstoreday.com.

The 2023 Record Store Day release list includes new releases and re-releases of old classics, and are available on vinyl, CD or both.

Local Record Store Day celebrations often include performances, cookouts, body painting, meet-and-greets with artists, parades, DJs spinning records and record releases on independent labels.

On the first Record Store Day, Metallica spent hours at Rasputin Music in San Francisco meeting fans. As Record Store Day has grown, thousands of artists, whether internationally famous or from your neighbor’s garage, participate in local events. The first “Record Store Day ambassador” was Jesse “Boots Electric” Hughes (Eagles of Death Metal) in 2009.

Other ambassadors have been Joshua Homme (Eagles of Death Metal, Them Crooked Vultures, Queens of the Stone Age), Ozzy Osbourne, Iggy Pop, Jack White, Chuck D, Dave Grohl, Metallica, St. Vincent, Run The Jewels, Pearl Jam, Brandi Carlile, Fred Armisen and Taylor Swift.

Some cities have declared Record Store Day an official holiday. Among them are New York City; Los Angeles; Las Vegas; Boise, Idaho; Charleston, South Carolina; and Raleigh, North Carolina.

Related:

Waukesha Record Store Changes Its Name But Keeps Same Vibe

Exclusive Co. Employees In Greenfield Trying To Preserve Record Store

Greenfield Exclusive Company To Remain Open After Finding Buyer