Record Store Day at The Record Exchange is a lot of things — and this year “a lot” includes a scavenger hunt!

The lucky person to find this White Rabbits Milk Famous milk carton hidden in the store on RSD just might win an all-expenses-paid trip for two to Brooklyn (home of the White Rabbits), courtesy of TBD/ATO/RED!

Only 250 of the milk cartons have been distributed to indie record stores across the country — 249 of them are good for a free White Rabbits download, only 1 is good for the trip to Brooklyn.

NOTE: You must be at least 18 years old to win, so if you’re younger than that, go find a real carton of milk to drink and make your bones stronger and stuff.

Our friends at Rediscovered Bookshop (180 N. 8th St. in Downtown Boise) are offering a sweet deal to all you Record Store Day supporters:

Bring your Record Store Day totebag or wear/bring your Record Store Day T-shirt to Rediscovered and save 15% off your entire purchase Saturday, April 21, and Sunday, April 22!

Like The Record Exchange, the independent Rediscovered Bookshop is locally-owned and operated by people who know their stuff. If you haven’t already fallen in love with their store, go there this weekend after you visit the RX for Record Store Day and get smitten.

They’re here!

One of our favorite things about Record Store Day is the excuse it gives us to produce a new T-shirt, and our custom Record Exchange RSD tees just arrived!

Get yours (in men’s and women’s sizes) on Saturday! In the meantime, check out the RSD prep going on in The Record Exchange Gift Shop!

BUY THE CD HERE

Fans of this Utah synth-rock outfit’s ultra-catchy 2010 hit “Animal” will find much to appreciate about Neon Trees‘ sophomore album Picture Show, which leads with a half-dozen hook bombs right in a row, including the insistent “Everybody Talks” and the crisply propulsive “Teenage Sounds.”

The latter’s title gets at the jumpy new wave vibe of Picture Show. As the band did on its debut, Neon Trees expertly maps the territory separating the Killers, the Strokes and Franz Ferdinand here. Things soften a bit during the album’s second half: The lumpy “Trust,” for instance, wears out its welcome long before the jam section that carries it beyond the six-minute mark, while “Hooray for Hollywood” sports an ill-advised spoken-word passage that recalls Madonna’s “Vogue.”

Still, Neon Trees flex some impressive songcraft here. Picture Show should end up as one the year’s most tuneful rock releases. — Billboard

OTHER NEW CD RECOMMENDATIONS:

Dry the River Shallow Bed
Hank Williams III Long Gone Daddy
Jason Mraz Love is a Four Letter Word
Bob Marley and the Wailers Marley: Original Soundtrack
Maps & Atlases Beware and Be Grateful
Jack Johnson and Friends Best of Kokua Festival 2012
Grinderman Grinderman 2 Rmx
Dragonforce The Power Within
Battles Dross Glop
Horse Feathers Cynic’s New Year
Janis Joplin Pearl Sessions
Spiritualized Sweet Heart Sweet Light
Dar Williams In the Time of Gods
Train California 37
Yann Tiersen Skyline

BUY THE VINYL HERE

An extraordinary debut from Dry the River, a new British-based band who combine a gipsy swagger with tremulous sensitivity and gothic rock drama. They are not particularly fresh-faced and fashionable: five scruffy, tattooed veterans of hardcore and emo bands fronted by a 25-year-old anthropologist and medical school dropout, but they have the stamp of greatness about them.

They are a big canvas band making folk rock; a fusion of the accessible pastoral pop of Mumford & Sons with the epic electric soundscapes of Radiohead. But when he drops to the fragile intimacy of an acoustic guitar, singer Peter Liddle’s choirboy tenor evokes the tender melancholy of Nick Drake while the group harmonies swell with the sacred hush and precision of 16th-century madrigals. The multi-instrumental band can gently rock or pitch in with the messianic melodrama of Arcade Fire.

All these musical riches are naturally connected to the songs, which unwind with flowing melodies and poetic lyrics, shifting and twisting in unusual ways but never straying too far from the kind of chorus that would have Chris Martin humming all the way to the charts. — The Telegraph

OTHER NEW VINYL RELEASES:

Hank Williams III Long Gone Daddy
Grinderman Grinderman 2 Rmx
Jack Johnson and Friends Best of Kokua Festival 2012
Maps & Atlases Beware and Be Grateful
311 Soundsystem
Operation Ivy Hectic
Operation Ivy Energy
Pinetop Perkins Heaven
Sleeper Agent Celabrasion