Record Store Day 2012 is upon us. The devoted started lining up at Amoeba Hollywood as early as 2:30 in the morning for a chance at picking up a number of exclusive releases, with doors opening at 10:30 a.m. The line outside stretched around the block all morning, with customers cooling themselves off with Amoeba fans and the Coffee Bean providing free coffee and goodies for those in line.  

Amoeba is silk screening the winning designs of its Record Store Day T-Shirt Contest, and at 1 p.m. Broken Social Scene's Brendan Canning will begin DJing (see a full list of the day's events here). Though some releases have already sold out, a number of high-profile releases were still up for grabs as of 11:15 a.m. (including the much-touted new release from The Flaming Lips, The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends, featuring Bon Iver, Ke$ha and a whole lot more folks in between). There's still time to come in and grab any number of Record Store Day releases. Come in, hang out, buy some records, get a gift bag, get an exclusive T-Shirt, and hang out and listen to DJs spin. (Click here for a full list of releases; check out my picks here.) And if you can't make it out, follow Amoeba on Twitter for ticket giveaways, and check Amoeba.com tomorrow when leftover Record Store Releases will be put up for sale — can't guarantee you'll get what you want, since these things are going, going fast today.

Record Store Day is great for any number of reasons — supporting record stores and the music community, hearing DJ sets from the likes of Broken Social Scene’s Brendan Canning. But in the end it’s all about the exclusive and new releases. Here are 10 picks from the many releases coming out April 21. (Read a more comprehensive list here, and download the full list here.)
 
Animal Collective – Transverse Temporal Gyrus
 
Ripped from elsewhere on the Amoeblog: In March 2010, Animal Collective and visual artist Danny Perez put on an installation called "Transverse Temporal Gyrus" at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City. For the audio, each member of the band made individual sounds and songs. Over the course of two 3-hour performances, the basic tracks were fed into a computer program that randomized the track order, and sometimes randomly combined stems from one track with stems from another. The program also panned the music in various directions around a 36 channel surround sound system that ran through 36 speakers set up from the top of the Guggenheim's ramp to the bottom. The music on this 12" is a collage made consisting of the original tracks, as well as live recordings made inside the Guggenheim before the doors were opened to the public. It will be the only physical format on which any of the music will be released.
 
Plus it’s new Animal Collective!
 
Arcade Fire – Sprawl II
 
Arcade Fire’s Blondie-ish “Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)” was undoubtedly the highlight of The Suburbs and showed the band still has some tricks up its sleeve. The Soulwax remix included here tastefully gives it the dancefloor feel it calls for without just throwing a house beat over the song and calling it a day.
 

Mr. Little Jeans – Runaway (Wavves remix)
 
Mr. Little Jeans’ electro-pop ditty “Runaway” was already a pretty sweet Spring surprise of a song, but the L.A.-by-way-of-London rising star has been remixed by So. Cal. in human form Nathan Williams aka Wavves. I have to say I’m digging this remix even more than the original, and I’m not really a remix guy. Williams slows down and reverbs out her vocals to sound like they’re whispering through seafoam, while adding heavy drums and, I’m gonna say, naughty Nuggets organs. I think I like this remix so much because it’s like a big welcome to L.A., stripping a song of its cosmopolitan cool and washing it in sonic warmth. We’re happy to have you, Mr. Little Jeans.

 

New Beach House song “Lazuli” — I don’t care that they’re not from L.A.
 
Does the new Beach House song “Lazuli” sound like Enya? Do I love this new Beach House song? Does this new Beach House song sound like Enya but is still somehow amazing? Do I love Enya? Do I kind of like Enya sometimes? What is a lazuli? Does Beach House spend a lot of time researching things like rare bright blue stones that sound cool and mysterious for sick song titles? (Preorder the new Beach House album Bloom now! And come to Record Store Day April 21 to buy the "Lazuli" single!)

Desert Daze 
 
Coachella needs me to hype them like I need to hear that terrible Fun. song again (thanks, Chevy!), but there’s still time to make it to Desert Daze, a festival that started yesterday and runs through April 22. Today the biddies at L.A. Record along with Blundertown and Burger Records are throwing a massive show with Bleached, Audacity, Pangea, Lovely Bad Things and so many more L.A. goodies. The show is only a $5 suggested donation. It takes place at a secret location near Dillon’s Roadhouse in North Palm Springs; email moonblockmotel@gmail.com to book a room. (Disclaimer: I have no idea if there are any rooms left available, but email them and find out before it’s too late! Unless it already is.)
 
Highlights from the rest of the festival:
 
Saturday: Moving Units, Gangi, Dante vs. Zombies (ALSO: see them live for free at Amoeba Hollywood tonight at 7 p.m.),
Monday: Allah Las, Driftwood Singers, Pool Honeys
Tuesday: The Fresh & Onlys, Crystal Antlers, Babies on Acid, Henry Clay People (hear their newly released jam “25 For the Rest of Our Lives,” courtesy of Buzzbands.la)
Wednesday: Breakestra, Funky Sole DJs Miles and Clifton
Saturday: Dead Meadow, Spindrift, Dirt Dress
Sunday: Akron/Family, Here We Go Magic, The Entrance Band

Cold Showers – “I Don’t Mind” video
 
Local goodies Cold Showers have a new video of their reverb-tastic track “I Don’t Mind” via Room 205/Incase. The shadowy textures cast across the band members look almost like they’ve been painted and match the dark undertones of their dreamy post-punk. OK guys, we’ve been drooling over you for a while now, it’s time for a full-length.
 

 

Nick Waterhouse – “The Streets Are Ours” (cover)
 
Garagey doo-wop firebrand Nick Waterhouse has been winning hearts here in L.A. for some time now, but his recent SXSW shows have won him a host of new fans. Check out this cover of the Richard Hawley gem “The Streets Are Ours,” for which the word “swoon” was invented, recorded for Aquarium Drunkard’s Lagniappe Sessions. I’m not sure if this would make you want to listen more or less, but “The Streets Are Ours” was once my MySpace song.
 
Pitchfork Yours Truly Vids – Princeton, Nite Jewel, Julia Holter
 
A number of wonderful L.A. artists have been appearing on Pitchfork’s Yours Truly lately. In fact, three of the last four videos are from L.A. artists — indie-pop group Princeton, noir dance songstress Nite Jewel and heady keys maestro Julia Holter, who recently played a kickass show at Amoeba Hollywood. (Check out the latest albums by Nite Jewel and Julia Holter at Amoeba!)

Best Coast’s new Jon Brion-produced album The Only Place is available now for pre-order at Amoeba.com. Not only that, the California-lovin’ title track and first single is available to download. I heard it this morning on KCRW and am pretty pumped about it — everything sounds shiny and shimmery but still straightforward and not too clean, like finding a beautiful ring in the sand.


Free download of "The Only Place" by Best Coast.

The Only Place comes out May 15. Who isn’t excited about this? “Why would you live anywhere else?” After hearing the first track, I can’t wait for summer and I can’t wait for The Only Place.
 
Best Coast plays The Wiltern in LA on May 18th with Abe Vigoda. Go to it!