Well, it looks like the weather gods are laughing at Houston again, and have decided to ring in iFest with a good round of drenching rain. So if you'd prefer to remain indoors, don't forget Saturday is Record Store Day - there's even a Web site. Be a good consumer and help out your neighborhood music merchant, won't you? Here's what they've got going on:

Cactus Music (2110 Portsmouth): The mood at Cactus is positively post-coital these days after it got the stamp of approval from none other than Little Steven Van Zandt. The king of the Underground Garage stopped by Cactus the day after last week's Bruce Springsteen show, and upon walking in immediately pronounced it "a great fuckin' record store."

In person, Van Zandt is pretty much the same as on the radio or the Sopranos, relays owner Quinn Bishop. He spent more than an hour in the store, happily posed for pictures with employees (including Bishop, above), dropped a good bit of coin (the Kinks, Little Walter) and even Twittered about Cactus when he left. Steven has to buy music on tour, Bishop said, because there are no record stores left in New York City. Shame.

So what's Cactus doing for Record Store Day? Read on...

Like the other participating merchants nationwide, Cactus will offer a dozen or three Record Store Day exclusives (see that Web site for the full list): Wilco's Ashes of American Flags DVD, live CDs and LPs from Pavement, the Derek Trucks Band, Iron & Wine and Gaslight Anthem, and 7-inches from Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Decemberists, Sublime, Whiskeytown, Jenny Lewis, the Smiths and lots more.

Performing in the store will be Houston power-pop upstarts the McKenzies, rockabilly vatos the Octanes and, on loan from Austin, Centro-Matic mastermind Will Johnson, who will also open his exhibit of baseball-player paintings (Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, etc.), "Disguised Combat, Long Haul, No Steroids: Ed. 1." in the Record Ranch when he gets done playing.

Plus contests, giveaways, throw-ins and, if you present a receipt from another participating RSD merchant, 15% off your entire purchase. Who might those be? Funny you should ask...

Sig's Lagoon (3710 Main) is offering 50% off all used vinyl.

Vinal Edge Records (13171 Veterans Memorial Dr.) is opening early at 9 a.m., having a raffle for a $50 gift certificate, buy one get one free on used CDs and 7-inches and has six new crates of "fresh used vinyl." (?) The first 50 customers get a free Best of '08 CD and 10% off their orders.

Sound Exchange (1846 Richmond) thinks "every day should be Record Store Day." Hear hear!