"Every Saturday should be Record Store Day!" The Twilight Sad look forward to this year's celebration of all things vinyl

The official ambassador for this year's Record Store Day (19 April) will be Public Enemy fornt-man Chuck D., it was revealed last week. In a statement to press, he observed how record stores could act as a "school and a passport" for young music fans. "In this age where industry has threaded the music sound with virtual sight and story I am honored to be called upon to be Record Store Day Ambassador of 2014," he commented. "With the masses, neck bent into their smartphones, let all of us music lovers GPS our way into a reality that is the Record Store. It's worth a great try, let's do this."

He also remarked on the central role of DJ culture in modern music, saying: "Over 27 years and 93 countries visited, as a professional lead vocalist of the RAP group Public Enemy, I don’t go one single day without emphasizing that the genre of hip-hop is spawned from DJ culture. The founding members of Public Enemy were, and still are, DJs. The tool and fuel for DJs has forever been recordings. And where these recordings have long connected, with pros and fans alike, have simply been The Record Store, the connection point of listener and the recording."

Having run for seven years, Record Store Day has become an annual, worldwide institution, with leading figures from the music world picked each year as the official ambassadors – last year's celebration of all things vinyl was led by Jack White. Chuck D. brings a revolutionary perspective to his stewardship of the 2014 event: "The record store made musicians listen beyond themselves," his statement continues. "It both complemented and supplemented the radio, in fact the best radio stations in the past followed the vibe of the record stores of their regions, thus growing and nurturing each other. The fans and listener had everything to gain."

As in 2013, high-profile bands, up-and-coming artists and legacy acts long broken up are keen to get in on the Record Store action, with several already announcing exclusive releases, limited edition reissues and rarities, and special surprises for the big day. A group of artists, which includes Spiritualized, Youth Lagoon, Mutual Benefit, Jesu and Beach House have recorded an album, Space Project, for Fat Possum, inspired by the 'sounds' recorded by the Voyager space probes – these sounds are representations of electromagnetic fluctuations in planetary magnetospheres. Worms is Youth Lagoon's contribution. 

San Francisco metallers Machine Head will release a limited 10" vinyl with two new songs, Killers & Kings, and a cover version of Ignite's Our Darkest Days. Their fellow San Franciscoans, Thee Oh Sees, will follow up last year's Floating Coffin with a new album, Drop, ro be released on Record Store Day. Last week, they shared a track from the album, Floating Eye.

Post-rock ensemble Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra will also have a release out on 19 April - their limited edition 12" will feature all-new material. "We just finished recording a Record Store Day 12-inch, and that'll be out through Constellation," the band's Efrim Menuck tells Exclaim! "We recorded it over the holidays. And then, probably in the springtime, there's a long EP that we just finished recording. We've actually been writing a lot of stuff." Read our own full interview with Menuck from issue 100 of The Skinny here.

Conor Oberst, whose new solo record drops in May, will release a limited edition 7" on Record Store Day featuring a new album track, Hundreds of Ways, and an outtake from the album sessions, Fast Friends. Maryland rock group Clutch will also release a 7" featuring the track Run, John Barleycorn, Run. Surfer Blood will be releasing an alternate version of last year's album Pythons, with a rawer, more punk feel.

There have been a few very tasty reissues announced for this year's event as well, with Elastica's 1995 self-titled classic getting a much-deserved new pressing on vinyl, the first since its release. The record label handling the reissue, Kanine, will also be dropping a compilation titled Non-Violent Femmes, featuring female-fronted bands including Speedy Ortiz, Eternal Summers, Bleeding Rainbow, Beach Day, Tashaki Miyaki, Is/Is, Beverly, TEEN, Joanna Gruesome, Flowers, and Beaches; and a limited, colour vinyl run of Fear of Men's forthcoming debut Loom. Australian punk legends the Hard-Ons will also see a reissue of their 1986 single Girls In The Sweater on 7", acknowledging the Sydney trio's lasting influence.

And finally, Skinny favourites The Twilight Sad will be reissuing a repackaged deluxe version of their debut Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters – an album we definitely believe is due a broader critical re-examination, as the band prepare to release their as-yet-untitled follow-up to the storming No One Can Ever Know. We recently caught up with the band's singer James Graham at Mogwai's Castle of Doom studios, and asked what he thought about the significance of Record Store Day. 

"I love it – we've tried to be part of it every year, if we've had something we can release on that day," Graham tells The Skinny. "I think every Saturday should be Record Store Day. I still buy music on vinyl when it comes out. I enjoy buying records – I just wish everybody else did! I love collecting records. I love the smell of them, I love having one in my hand. Coming from someone who makes records and buys records, knowing all the hard work that goes into making one – the money, the time, the effort... I put everything into making a record. So to know that there is a day when people will go out specifically to buy that record, or any record... I will wholeheartedly promote that." You can read our exclusive interview with Graham in full in a forthcoming issue. 

We'll keep you posted as more Record Store Day releases are announced – rumours of a possible covers album from Jack White's Third Man label, and other tantalising suggestions, are beginning to circulate. As soon as those rumours become reality, we'll let you know!