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We crudely divide Record Store Day releases into half-a-dozen camps—carefully preserved reissues which celebrate original album art on the 12" format (Cold Fact by Rodriguez), 7" packages that opt for the throwback graphic treatment (loads of them), wholely unique packages for any of the above (Malkmus and Friend's Can cover album, Dan Deacon's Konono No 1 cover, numerous picture discs or the Lemonheads/Misfits "Skulls" record) and lastly, the over-the-top box set treatment (Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Bonobo 10" box set for the North Borders and the Flaming Lips' Zaireeka). Those four categories pop up in our survey of visually exciting RSD offerings for 2013. A fifth category might be just flat-out great non-official RSD offerings from folks like the Numero Group (Hüsker Dü, Codeine, etc.) who pull out their big (graphic) guns for the occasion. And a sixth might be for non-record visuals such as Jack White's recording booth or the Ryan Duggan tote bag that Chicago's Saki is stocking for the first lucky RSDers. We're not taking any chances—we're hitting the ATM and setting the alarm tonight.

Record Store Day is April 20, 2013.

Numero Group Record has a pop-up shop in Chicago's Logan Square for RSD.