Record Store Day (RSD) got its start eight years ago as a way of getting folks excited again about the record store experience, and it’s grown into an international celebration. There’s just something about thumbing through old records, getting turned on to something new and unexpected, and triumphantly leaving with a bag of goodies under your arm. While we don’t miss wrestling with cassette tape packaging, we do stand behind the feeling of ripping the plastic off a new CD or record, something that the RSD organizers are hoping you’ll get a hankering for come April 18.
Monster Music & Music have a full day of RSD pleasures planned, including performances from Los Angeles-based pop band Milo Greene, plus local artists SUSTO, Johnny Delaware, Fowler’s Mustache, Bill Carson, Estee Gabay, and Forty Mile Detour. Over at Cat’s Music, you can catch Level Headed, Sex Wax, Backwards Youth, and Senam Palmer (via satellite). All the live music action starts at noon.
At Monster, you’ll also find a whole lotta grub (Platia, Dashi, and EMS food trucks), in addition to an inflatable wrecking ball (channel your inner Miley), a Pet Helpers adoption clinic and pet food drive, DIY button-making station from SpaceCraft Studios, musical instrument instruction with Girls Rock Charleston, and free pinball courtesy of Charleston Game Rooms.
But the main attraction is, of course, the records. You could spend hours sifting through Monster’s 25-cent used-record bins that will line the sidewalk, but don’t forget to step inside and get in on one of the many exclusive RSD 2015 releases. This year, roughly 450 limited-edition vinyl releases will be available at participating record stores everywhere, and we’re here to tell you about the ones we’re nerding out over the most. For a complete list of RSD releases, go to recordstoreday.com. —Kelly Rae Smith
Record Store Day Roundup
St. Paul and the Broken Bones, Live from the Alabama Theatre
State-shaped 12″ vinyl (Single Lock)
This vinyl is shaped like the state of Alabama. Reread that sentence; I’ll wait while you conjure up that mental image and subsequently freak out. Cool beans, huh? Originally from Birmingham, Ala., St. Paul and the Broken Bones performed at the Alabama Theatre last November, and the set was so special they put it on vinyl — red vinyl, shaped like the state of Alabama (not sure if I mentioned that already). The record includes covers of “Sing a Simple Song” by Sly and the Family Stone as well as David Bowie’s “Moonage Daydream.” We can’t wait to snag this one and watch that baby spin. —KRS
The Zombies, R.I.P. Album
12″ vinyl (Varese Sarabande)
The Zombies’ follow-up to the legendary Odessey and Oracle (1968) should have come in 1969 in the form of the R.I.P. Album, but it was never revealed until decades later. Though many tracks were released at various times on albums like The Best and the Rest of the Zombies and Time of the Zombies, the properly tracked collection never saw the light of day until recently. Last year, R.I.P. Album got a U.S. CD release, and only now has the record been released in the states as originally intended: on vinyl. —KRS
Various Trojan Records Artists, Rude Boy Rumble
12″ vinyl (Trojan Records)
Anyone as obsessed with mod culture as I am has to be over the moon about this new offering from the gods of Jamaican ’60s reggae, rocksteady, and ska, none other than Trojan Records. Rude Boy Rumble is a 12-track collection on 12″ vinyl that was curated by a record store owner himself, Tom “Papa” Ray, a.k.a. The Soul Selector, of St. Louis’ Vintage Vinyl. The compilation features classic tracks from Trojan’s seemingly endless catalog, including songs by Desmond Dekker & The Aces, The Upsetters, and more. —KRS
Metallica, No Life ‘Til Leather
Cassette demo (Blackened)
Despite my typically mellow musical preferences, I’ll always have a soft spot for Metallica. I grew up bouncing around on the bench seat of my dad’s pickup while he’d do a hilariously creepy recitation of the prayer in “Enter Sandman” from the Black Album. A high school fling reintroduced me to the band’s addicting sound via a mixed CD, and it was way too hardcore for my taste. Eventually, I’d just pop it in and skip to “Unforgiven II,” roll the windows down, and speed out of the school parking lot feeling like the rebel that I most definitely was not. While I hold these particular songs close to my heart, Metallica has had a long, winding road full of musical progression and rock variety that extends far beyond my repertoire. This RSD, Blackend Records will re-release the music that established Metallica as one of the founding fathers of thrash metal. Bonus: seven-track No Life ‘Til Leather demo, originally released in 1982, will be in the form of the oh-so-nostalgic cassette tape. —Sarah Eastwood
Ryan Adams, “Come Pick Me Up”
7″ vinyl (Pax-Am)
My high school boyfriend Bubba had a friend who played guitar, and we’d all hang out in the summertime watching the sun go down as he strummed. One of his favorites was Ryan Adams’ “Come Pick Me Up,” from his 2000’s Heartbreaker. The underlying cynicism of this easy-going alt-country track was just starting to make sense to us budding lovelorn teens. For RSD, Ryan Adams will release an alternate take of the song on seven-inch vinyl, while the B-side contains “When the Rope Gets Tight,” a track Adams fans will recognize from his seventh studio album, 2005’s Jacksonville City Nights (titled then “When the Rope Gets Tight (Don’t Fail Me Now”). However, the RSD version is previously unreleased and is part of the forthcoming deluxe reissue of Heartbreaker, coming in late 2015. —SE
J Dilla, “Fuck the Police”
Police badge-shaped 7″ picture disc (Pay Jay)
It’s tempting to look at J Dilla’s “Fuck the Police” as a rejoinder to the rash of killings by law enforcement of black men in the past year, notably in our own city last week. After all, it is, as its title suggests, an upbraid of corrupt cops who conduct illegal searches and plant evidence on blacks. (Example: “Now tell me who protects me from you?/ I got people who buy TECs and weed from you.”) Thing is, Dilla — born James Yancey Dewitt in 1974, and dead at 32 in 2006 — first released the song in 2001, and it’s been out of print since. There’s also a second Dilla RSD exclusive: the “Love” seven-inch picture disc, the A-side of which features Pharoahe Monch spitting over an unreleased Jay Dee beat, featured as an instrumental on the B-side. —Patrick Wall
Run the Jewels, Run the Jewels
12″ vinyl (Mass Appeal)
Most of this Record Store Day-only 12-inch isn’t anything Run the Jewels fans haven’t heard before: “Love Again (Akinyele Back)” was a standout track from last year’s superlative Run the Jewels 2, and “Blockbuster Night, Part 2” was one of its iTunes-only bonus tracks; “Pew Pew Pew” was a bonus cut from the deluxe U.K. edition of the first Run the Jewels. But “Bust No Moves” is brand spanking new, and any occasion for a new song by Run the Jewels — hands down the best rap act going — is OK by me. —PW
Miles Davis, The Prestige 10-Inch LP Collection, Vol. 2
10″ vinyl (Concord)
The trumpeter’s Columbia years yielded his most iconic works, but Miles Davis released some of his first masterpieces on the Prestige label, essentially creating hard bop in a series of all-star recording sessions (with the likes of John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Art Blakey, Milt Jackson, and more) between 1951 and 1954. This second collection — the first was released in November on Record Store Day’s Black Friday — collects the back half of Davis’ 10-album Prestige run. There’s nothing on this record even the most casual jazz fan doesn’t have in his or her collection, but for anyone new to the magic of Miles, it’s a good place to start. —PW
John Prine, September 78
180g orange 12″ vinyl (Oh Boy Records)
I’ve always said that instead of looking for the next Bob Dylan, we should instead be looking for the next John Prine. (The legendary folkie was once himself slapped with the next-Dylan tag.) My feelings on the erstwhile Mr. Zimmerman notwithstanding, Prine is one of the world’s finest and most critically acclaimed songwriters. This disc captures a 1978 concert at the famed Park West in Prine’s hometown of Chicago, backed by an electric band. —PW
William Tyler, Deseret Canyon
Double 12″ vinyl (Merge Records)
William Tyler spent years woodshedding or touring with acts like Lambchop, Silver Jews, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, and Charlie Louvin before breaking away to focus on his own version of instrumental guitar music. Deseret Canyon was Tyler’s first collection of largely solo guitar-based composition, but few people heard it; it was originally released on a small German imprint under the moniker The Paper Hats. Now, Merge Records, the Durham-based label that Tyler calls home, reissues the disc under Tyler’s own name. Fittingly, Deseret Canyon is imbued with immense meditative space of Tyler’s critically lauded recent work, such as 2013’s widely acclaimed Impossible Truth and last year’s excellent Lost Colony 12-inch. (Dig the guest appearance from Lambchop’s ace pedal steel player Paul Niehaus, too.) —PW
Mark Kozelek, What’s Next To The Moon?
12″ vinyl (Badman Recording Co.)
Mark Kozelek’s 2005 reinterpretations of Modest Mouse songs, the long-on-atmosphere-but-short-on-dynamics Tiny Cities Made of Ashes, wasn’t an unmitigated failure, but it was a mostly uninteresting one. Kozelek’s molasses delivery and hushed, lackadaisical intimacy weren’t a good match for Isaac Brock’s over-caffeinated tics, and Kozelek’s skilled fingerpicking didn’t jibe with Modest Mouse’s herky-jerk chord progressions. Surprisingly — or maybe not? — Kozelek’s singular style fits the drastic rearrangements of Bon Scott-era AC/DC covers of What’s Next to the Moon?, originally released in 2001, much better. Cock-rock braggadocio somehow becomes keen introspection, and thunderstruck boogie cedes to delicate Americana. It shouldn’t work, but it does. —PW
Social Distortion, Social Distortion
Translucent blue 12″ vinyl (Brookvale Records)
Lots of bands have tried to combine punk rock aggression and stadium-sized choruses to bring to the masses, but no one has done it more effectively than Mike Ness and company did on their 1990 self-titled third album and major label debut. They did it in larger part by tempering their early hardcore dalliances. And a Ramones-esque romp with a genuine love of roots music (as evidenced by the fiery rendition of “Ring of Fire” featured on the LP) is not to be denied, but the unfettered fist-pumping glee of hit singles like “Ball and Chain” and “Story of my Life” played the role of a powerful gateway drug to a whole generation of punk rockers. The record has a limited run of colored vinyl, which also includes a replica of the original jacket and lyric sleeve, for RSD. —Kyle Petersen
Bob Dylan & The Band, The Basement Tape
180g mono vinyl (Other Peoples Music)
While it’s unclear which of the many, many versions of The Basement Tapes will see a vinyl release on RSD, we know the following: 1) each copy will be hand-numbered and signed by Garth Hudson, organist and multi-instrumentalist mastermind for The Band, and 2) that the mystique and dramatic intrigue of those low-stakes recording sessions in 1967 somehow have come to define an ineffably powerful idea, one coined by Greil Marcus as “the old, weird America.” For fans of American roots music, this is probably the closest you can get to a Bible. Or, perhaps more accurately, a sort of gnostic gospels to Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music. —KP
The White Stripes, Get Behind Me Satan
180g double, colored (one red, one white), 12″ vinyl (Third Man Records)
As the penultimate Stripes album, and one that has the unlucky task of following the career-defining masterpiece Elephant, Get Behind Me Satan plays an uneasy role in the band’s catalog. While upon the album’s release ten years ago, “Blue Orchid” felt like a half-hearted follow-up to “Seven Nation Army,” and the marimba-based ballads that dominated Side A of the LP seemed to pull the plug on the mania that surrounded the band, in hindsight this album, in all of its weirdness, perhaps captured the tentative garage adventurousness and puckish whimsy that will be the band’s defining legacy. Hardcore Jack White fans will want it either for the fact that it is was remastered exclusively and devotedly for vinyl or to simply fill out an already-extensive collection. More casual fans, however, might pick it up for a simple, unexpected reminder of how delightfully unorthodox —and great — this band was. —KP
Various Artists, Darjeeling Limited Soundtrack
180g green 12″ vinyl (ABKCO)
With the litany of elements that distinguish his films — from the almost excessively artful cinematography to the dry wit of the films’ protagonists — there’s not much we don’t love about Wes Anderson. Of course, the scores to his films are just as good, with perhaps no better example than the soundtrack to The Darjeeling Limited. Highlighted by songs from The Kinks, the album keeps a lively yet varied sound, fleshed out with Bollywood-esque tracks by Bengali filmaker Satyajit Ray and other artists. This is the compilation’s first ever vinyl release. —Viraj Naik
Father John Misty, “I Loved You, Honeybee”
Red, heart-shaped 7″ vinyl (Sub Pop)
There are quite a few words we can use to describe Joshua Tillman, a.k.a. Father John Misty. Amongst those words might be disillusioned, at least according to the lyrics of his latest release, I Love You, Honeybear. Misty’s soft, dreamy vocals resonate throughout the album, ruminating deeply on his recent settling down as a married man. His RSD release features the album’s title track, plus an exclusive B-side called I’ve Never Been a Woman” —all on red-colored, heart-shaped vinyl. —VN
Grateful Dead, Wake Up To Find Out: Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale NY 3/29/90
180g vinyl box set (Rhino)
Live shows on vinyl might be the closest thing you’ll get to an in-person sound, and for you Deadheads out there who never made it to a performance, this means a recording from a 1990 show at Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, NY released via a five-LP set. The performance features saxophonist Branford Marsalis alongside Grateful Dead originals, most noticeably, a gray-afroed Jerry Garcia who slays on guitar and vocals. You miss out on this vision (it’s available via a blurry YouTube video), but you’ll be sure to hear the full 21-track setlist with plenty of improv in between. The vinyl box set includes nine sides of music and one side of etching. —Kalyn Oyer
Florence + The Machine, What Kind of Man
12″ heavyweight blue vinyl, metallic copper sleeve (Republic)
The dog days are not, in fact, over. Florence + The Machine is back with two new tracks, one of which is from her forthcoming June release How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful. The blue-colored RSD release is a colorful ode to the album’s title and will feature an A-side of soft intro-turned-steady-angst ballad “What Kind of Man,” which has already been dropped as a single. The B-side offers “As Far As I Can Get,” which looks like it might be an exclusive for this project. —Kalyn Oyer
Against Me!, Osama Bin Laden as the Crucified Christ
7″ colored vinyl (Total Treble)
Against Me! has garnered some attention within the last few years since vocalist Laura Jane Grace came out as transgender and began her transition. The punk-rock band released their latest album Transgender Dysphoria Blues almost a year and a half ago, and now you can pick up a colored 7-inch vinyl that features two previously unreleased versions of the album’s standout track, “Osama Bin Laden As the Crucified Christ.” —Mia Mendez
Gregg Allman, Greg Allman
10″ picture disc (Concord)
Fans of the Allman Brothers Band should be stoked on the Gregg Allman RSD inclusion. Pressed on 10-inch heavyweight vinyl, the picture disc features “Whipping Post” and “I’m No Angel,” both recorded live in Macon, Ga. Side B features classic tracks recorded live at The Fox in Atlanta with special guests Jackson Browne, Vince Gill, and Zac Brown. —Mia Mendez
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