Record Store Day at Fond Object, Grimey's and The Groove, 4/19/14

Word spread quickly through the Internet on Friday that the first Record Store Day patron — a vinyl fan with the inspired Twitter handle @majorbummin —

He, along with his like-minded fellow record nerds and nerdettes, would go on to spend 18-and-a-half hours in a line that would eventually stretch around the corner, then around another corner.

As much as we admire the dedication required to sleep outdoors for the best crack at the more than 600 exclusive records produced for this year's Record Store Day, The Spin ain't got time for that. Instead, we opted for an uncharacteristically early rise, waking up at the ungodly hour of 7 a.m. on a Saturday to brave not only Jack White's record-setting RSD festivities over at Third Man Records, but also the crowds at Fond Object, The Groove and, of course, Grimey's.

We arrived at Fond Object early enough to double-fist cups of coffee and participate in the customary vinyl feeding frenzy, which peeled exclusive LPs off the walls like a squad of post-apocalyptic looters. Within an hour, the (relatively) small crowd of 40 or 50 just about cleaned Fond Object out of their carefully curated batch of RSD releases, leaving a steady stream of stragglers to pick through the LPs stocked from co-owner Jeff Pettit's personal collection.

Several hundred dollars and an indeterminate amount of belly rubs for Dottie the Shop Pig later, Fond Object kicked off the day — which also marked their first year anniversary — with JP1, a stripped-down version of Joey Plunket's JP5. No longer sporting a pompadour that always made us certain we were in store for psychobilly freakouts, Plunket opened the day with a handful of solo power-pop jams that would've made Paul Collins proud. Plunket was clearly a little nervous about being up there on his lonesome — “These songs make a lot more sense with a band,” he joked mid-set — but he pulled it off admirably.

We arrived at Grimey’s — which, as it is every year, was extremely packed — just in time to catch the back end of John Oates’ set. Oates, along with long-time partner-in-crime Daryl Hall, is a newly inducted member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. After Oates’ set, we did some wandering ‘round the premises. On our way to the used records and books in the gravel parking lot behind Grimey’s Too, we couldn’t help but feel a gravitational pull sucking us towards the caravan of food trucks set up across the lot, so we eventually caved and scooped up some Jeni’s Ice Cream. Shout out to the baby we saw in sound-proof headphones while waiting in line. Other highlights from Grimey’s were Promised Land Sound and PUJOL, the latter of whom played a lot of new material from their upcoming record, KLUDGE.

We bounced over to The Groove for a change in scenery just in time to catch Murfreesboro psychedelic punks Mouth Reader, whose hand-cut, mouth-shaped single Cult easily beat out the competition for coolest-looking record of the day, and White Reaper, a Louisville-based trio of post-punks that recently signed to Polyvinyl. Both were unknowns, but won us over quickly — with a noisy cover of Devo's “Uncontrollable Urge” and a Jay Reatard-inspired set of hook-laden rock 'n' roll jams, respectively. Bonnaroo-bound locals Blank Range followed shortly after, with more of the roots-inspired rock that we've come to expect. The gravelly ballad “Roommate's Girlfriend” capped off the set and reasserted itself as a perennial fave.

After taking the temperature of the crowd — which seemed unanimous in their plan to catch the tail-end of Fond Object's party after Bully — we bounced a bit to a rare set by electro-pop outfit Nudity, who emerged briefly from recording their debut LP for a quick set of synthy fuzz pop in The Groove's backyard. We timed our escape well enough to grab a beer behind Fond Object and catch Promised Land Sound's final tunes of the evening. We've lauded PLS's Gram Parsons-inspired '70s country rock in the past, but seeing them outside as the sun began to set is the ideal way to take in Promised Land's country-rock throwback charms.

Booking it over from Grimey's after playing for throngs of fans earlier in the day, PUJOL set up for a set of new and old tunes that involved swallowing far fewer feathers than the last time we caught them, headlining the opening night of Freakin' Weekend. Making sure to hit the A and B sides of his album-teasing RSD single "Circles" — which we hear sold out just about everywhere — while doling out crowd-pleasers like “Black Rabbit” and “Mayday,” PUJOL was on point as usual, even without the claustrophobic crush of the average PUJOL gig.

And then, as the sun disappeared under the treeline, Misfruits arrived onstage with a fist in the air. Turbo Fruits didn't go the whole nine and sport corpse paint and devil locks for the occasion of their headlining Misfits covers set, but Jonas Stein otherwise makes for a convincing Glenn Danzig substitute. The Froots ripped through classics like “Last Caress,” “We Are 138” and “Attitude,” which sent the crowd into a frenzied mosh pit that consumed most of the lawn behind Fond Object. It was a righteous, fist-pumping catharsis to a long day of buying records and drinking beer in the sun. We've heard a lot of complaining about the corporatization of Record Store Day, but shit y'all, we had a hell of a time on Saturday — even without being forced to buy limited-edish 311 reissues.