The Audio Necromancer’s Notes on RSD Eve
Shelves, Static, and the Songs That Find Us Again
I. Shelves That Hum When the Lights Are Out
The CD shelf still remembers what I forgot.
Early pressings from Japan.
Peel-off price stickers half-erased.
A voicemail from a Japanese grocer announcing the arrival of TEA.
A jewel case cracked from too many trips to the radio station.
I bounce a remaster. But what I’m really doing is translation.
Not from analog to digital—
But from memory to form.
II. The NAS Glows Like a Shrine
2.3 TB of tagged uncertainty.
FLACs that never sounded quite the same twice.
MP3s mislabeled in 2005, beloved all the same.
RealAudio fossils that survived eight OS updates.
Each file a bookmark in a story I half-remember,
half-imagine.
III. Tomorrow, the Mausoleums Open
Record Store Day is a ritual economy.
The clerics behind the counter don’t choose the sacred texts,
but they shoulder them.
Outside, the queue coils early.
Plastic sleeves tucked under jackets like talismans.
The myth of perfect sound forever still purring at the edge of desire.
We know the box set is a tomb.
But we enter it anyway.
Hoping it sings.
IV. The Clerics and the Queue
They’ve seen it all:
- The Discogs panic.
- The midlife completist.
- The teenager praying for a pressing that validates their vibe.
They smile through it.
They play the game.
Because this is the one day the shelves speak louder than the stream.
V. The Prize
We only ever bought one RSD record.
A 10" EP by Gravenhurst.
Can’t even recall the year.
But “The Prize”—
that we remember.
We listened to it again the other day,
and we both teared up.
Not every track is a relic.
Some are reunions.
Some are spells that still work.
VI. Playback Loop (for the Living)
We remaster not to perfect the past,
but to let it breathe again.
To hear the breath between notes.
To feel the rust flake off the gears of memory.
There’s no great musical mausoleum like a box set.
But a single song, heard at the right time—
That’s resurrection.
Postscript: Box Set of Horrors (A Record Store Day Dungeon Crawl)
For Necromancers, Crate Divers, and Clerics of the Format
Dungeon Type: Deluxe Mausoleum
Suggested Party Level: Mid-30s to Late 60s
Terrain: Crate stacks, high-fidelity pitfalls, limited emotional armor
Trap: The Sticker of Rarity
Trigger: Seeing “LIMITED TO 500 COPIES”
Effect: Induces immediate scarcity panic. Roll WIS save to resist purchase of something you don’t actually like.
Random Encounter Table (d6):
- Former college DJ holding five copies of the same indie 7" “just in case.”
- TikTok teen asking if they have The Caretaker on reel-to-reel.
- A Discogs reseller disguised as a chill dad.
- A clerk with a soul-deep sigh, alphabetizing “Misc. Soundtrack (RSD Only)”
- A memory of a mixtape you can’t find—plays faintly on the store speakers.
- Yourself, holding the same LP you swore not to rebuy.
Boss Fight: The Oversized Box Set
HP: 200
Attack: $120 MSRP, Bonus DVD, Booklet with essays you’ll never read
Weakness: You already own the original CD and the reissue.
Reward (if defeated): Free shelf space. Inner peace