It's Record Store Day! This is the fifth year independent record stores in the U.S. and Europe have banded together to celebrate the ritual of browsing and shopping for physical recorded music in a brick and mortar store. Last year, more than 700 U.S. stores participated. This year the event has expanded, though some stores may not be "official" RSD stores and therefore may not carry the special, limited-edition RSD albums — more than 200 — being released today.

Record Store Day started out as a celebration of "the art of music" but has gradually skewed toward vinyl. Though RSD has been a boon for stores — it's now by far the biggest sales day of the year — the glut of new releases has created problems. Many stores can't get as many copies as they would like of limited-edition releases or, conversely, get stuck with unsold vinyl that — unlike CDs — is nonreturnable.

That said, there's lots of fun to be had out there today. Here are reviews of three, just-released vinyl albums. Please see accompanying list of local stores participating in RSD and their live events.

Devo, 'Live 1981 Seattle' (Booji Boy Records)

Devo's "Live 1981 Seattle" double vinyl LP is a total new-wave nostalgia trip — four sides loaded with such manic musical treats as "Whip It," "Going Under," "Girl U Want," "Super Thing," "Jocko Homo" and "Gates of Steel."

The previously unreleased album was pressed from a cassette recording of the group's November 1981 "New Traditionalists" show at Seattle Center Arena (now the dormant Mercer Arena), an event promoted by Albatross Productions (a ticket stub is reproduced on the back cover).

Sound quality is impressive considering the available technology.

Those born after the Reagan era may regard this concert as ancient history — the Dead Sea scrolls of live, new-wave recordings — but youthful energy infuses every groove — "like Caucasian James Browns on marching powder," as the band's Gerald V. Casale says in the liner notes.

The double album comes with two black-and-white, suitable-for-framing posters of the band in all of its bespectacled, lacquered-hair, new-wave glory.

Gene Stout,

Special to The Seattle Times

Branford Marsalis, 'Four MF's Playin' Tunes' (Marsalis Music)

Saxophonist Marsalis can be an intimidating player, but this double album by his quartet (with new drummer Justin Faulkner) is remarkably warm and approachable. Seeming to have channeled Sonny Rollins' joy and playfulness, Marsalis begins on soprano sax with a lively calypso by pianist Joey Calderazzo, luxuriates in a swelling ballad by bassist Eric Revis, then, stuttering (also Rollins-wise), deliberates with Faulkner over an appropriately minimalist "Teo," by Thelonious Monk.

Marsalis burrows ferociously into his own, rhythmically challenging "Endymion" then rises to romantic heights on the standard "My Ideal," suggesting an unbroken line back to Coleman Hawkins. With a title nodding to the great soprano sax man Sidney Bechet ("Treat It Gentle"), Branford's soprano seems to say, "Come on in, the weather's fine in saxophone land, and I'd like some company."

Ironically, given the nostalgia about the expansive documentation space once afforded by vinyl LPs, the album has no liner notes and — for all the space devoted to artful photographs — not one of its four gatefold sides lists the names of the players!

Paul de Barros,

Seattle Times jazz critic

Shabazz Palaces, 'Live at KEXP' (Sub Pop)

"Live at KEXP" is four dreamlike songs by the acclaimed Seattle hip-hop duo, pressed to purple vinyl in a unique partnership between Sub Pop Records and radio station KEXP 90.3 FM — two local alternative-music institutions. Shabazz principles Ishmael Butler and Tendai Maraire recorded it live on the KEXP radio/web stream with "Street Sounds" host Larry Mizell Jr. on June 28, 2011.

Tweaking songs from their crucial "Black Up" album, they added watery effects on Lazaro's microphone during "A Mess" and crooning from Maraire on "Free Press and Curl." In general, there was looseness, with extra electronics here, extra percussion there, but it's all very nuanced and focused. The result is a partial reveal of what the group is currently doing across America and Europe on tour, tickling speakers with mbira and wrecking them with mega-bass, rapping in poems and racking up rave reviews. Leif Podhajsky designed the cover and sleeve art — coiled snakes, crossed spears and a woman with upside-down eyes.

Andrew Matson,

Special to The Seattle Times