Most Anticipated Record Store Day Releases

Click here for a list of stores near you participating in Record Store Day 2013

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“Who would have imagined that you’d need a Record Store Day? Back in the day, every day was record store day if you go to a record store.  Now it’s a very strange phenomenon — ‘ooh there’s one day where you go to the records store,” Wayne Coyne mused to Spinner three years ago.

Since then, Record Store Day has only become more of a phenomenon, as Coyne and his fellow Lips have become its unofficial “ambassadors.”  The band became the stars of the music-lovers holiday in 2010 with the vinyl release of The Flaming Lips and Stardeath and White Dwarfs with Henry Rollins and Peaches Doing The Dark Side of the Moon.  They followed that with 2011’s Heady Nuggs: First 5 Warner Bros. Records and last year’s Heady Fwends (a collaborative double LP featuring Ke$ha, Bon Iver, Tame Impala, Yoko Ono and others) and “A Spoonful Weighs a Ton” “baby pink” split 7″ (with metal titans Mastodon covering the song for the B-side).

On Record Store Day most bands reissue classic albums on vinyl or create limited edition 7″s – like the Lips and Stardeath’s split single with The Black Keys in 2009 (tying into Warner Brother’s Covered: A Revolution In Sound comp and book by re-invented Madonna’s “Borderline,” and Captain Beefheart’s “Her Eyes Are a Blue Million Miles”).  Since 2010 however the Lips have raised the bar by releasing special multi-vinyl sets and entire, new albums!

This year the Lips are releasing perhaps their most ambitious set yet: Zaireeka – the album  infamously issued in 1997 on four CDs designed to be played simultaneously using four separate stereo systems – re-released in a deluxe 4 vinyl package.  Yes, that requires four record players to hear in full.  It’s not a new idea – the group’s visual media expert George Salisbury mentioned it on their message board several years ago – just one of the least likely of the Lips’ many far-fetched schemes to actually become reality.  “You want to be in the here and now thinking about the future and not the past,” Coyne explained to Spin.com earlier this year. “Luckily, the Flaming Lips have been around 30 years this year and part of our time is spent constantly and luckily revisiting these older records.”

This year’s “official ambassador” for Record Store Day however is – the man who has done more in the last decade to change the public perception of vinyl than arguably anybody else – Jack White.  In February recordstoreday.com’s announcement rationaled: “Owns a record store. CHECK. Heads a record label. CHECK. Makes all kinds of records. CHECK. We can think of no one better [than Jack White] to fly the flag for Record Store Day 2013, can you?”

As ambassador, Jack is reissuing the White Stripes’ Elephant for its tenth anniversary, and hosting performances by Karen Elson and Mark Watrous at his Third Man Records store.   Jack is also unveiling the Third Man Recording Booth, “a refurbished 1947 Voice-o-Graph machine that records up to 2 minutes of audio and dispenses a one-of-a-kind 6″ phonograph disc to the user. Whether it be a song, a message to a lover, an audio postcard or just the curiosity of a process that has mystified so many folks for ages.”  This will be the only booth of its kind currently “operational and open to the public.”

Read more about this “arcade staple through the middle of the 20th century and famously used by Martin Sheen’s character in the film Badlands” and Third Man’s “custom-printed envelopes and postage stamps” and “photo booth” “to make it extra special” here and here.

“In one of my final acts as Record Store Day ambassador,” Jack White (half-joking) declared, “I encourage everyone who comes to the Third Man Record Store in Nashville to be able to hear themselves on a vinyl record, and maybe even mail it to someone they love.  Actively venturing to your local record shop is one of those honors and privileges in this life that we just shouldn’t take for granted. Certain beautiful experiences can only happen in the environment of a record store and I just thought that nothing could drive that point home more than a one-of-a-kind machine that lets you not only record your own vinyl record, but send it to anyone, anywhere in the world to share a song, poem, or private message with.”

Founded in 2007, Record Store Day has rapidly grown to be a much-anticipated annual tradition for music fans and vinyl collectors.  This year there’s over 350 releases – compared to just 10 at the first event in 2008.  Annual vinyl sales have risen in each of the last five years, outpacing digital sales growth in 2012 with a 17.7% increase (4.55 million units total according to Nielsen SoundScan via Billboard).  “Phish reissuing Lawn Boy, that’s a big deal to fans,” Record Store Day co-founder Michael Kurtz previewed to USA Today. “Paul McCartney’s original promotional recording of Maybe I’m Amazed is meant to be a gift to fans.” Record Store Day isn’t limited to records though – there’s also special CDs and cassettes.  In all, 7 million units (mostly vinyl) are expected to sell this  Saturday.

Below is a list of the four dozen most anticipated releases.  Complete details for all special releases and live performances hosted by participating shops (Feelies, Quasi, Wavves, Ghosty, Matt and Kim, Pissed Jeans, Silversun Pickups, Paramore, etc) are here and here.

• Bat For Lashes: “Laura” b/w “Marilyn” (Vogue Love Songs Sessions) 7″ – recorded for Vogue’s “Love Songs” series
• Beak>: “0898” b/w “Welcome to the Machine” 10″ – bonus cut from >> b/w Pink Floyd cover previously issued on a MOJO magazine compilation
• Marco Benevento “Invisible Baby” – fifth anniversary release, first time on vinyl
• Best Coast: “Fear of My Identity” 7″ – two new songs (with frontwoman Bethany Cosentino dad Ricky on drums
• Big Star “Nothing Can Hurt Me” 12” – limited 2-LP 180-gram colored vinyl of the soundtrack to the forthcoming documentary; all previously unissued versions of classic Big Star songs; download card included
  
• Billy Bragg “No One Knows Nothing Anymore / Song of the Iceberg” – new songs
  
• The Black Keys/the Stooges: “No Fun” split 7″ – The Stooges’ original and The Black Keys’ cover, on tye-died orange vinyl
• David Bowie: “The Stars (Are Out Tonight)” b/w “Where Are We Now?” 7″ – The Next Day cuts on white vinyl
• David Bowie: “Drive-In Saturday” 7″ picture disc – Aladdin Sane single special re-release
• Built To Spill “LIVE” – classic 2000 live album from 1999 “Keep It Like A Secret” tour on double vinyl
  
• Cake “Sheep Go To Heaven b/w Jesus Wrote A Blank Check” – new live recordings
  
• Captain Beefheart “Frank Freemans Dance Club” 12″ – recorded live in 1968 by John Peel
  
• Gary Clark Jr. “HWUL Raw Cuts, Vol. 2″ 12” – “When My Train Comes In” live and studio cut
  
• Country Joe and the Fish “I Feel Like I’m Fixin To Die” – 12″ summer of love classic re-mastered from original tapes
  
• Cream “Royal Albert Hall May 2-3-5-6, 2005” – LP box set recorded during 2005 reunion
• Dan Deacon: “Konono Ripoff No. 1″ 7” – “The Dan Deacon America Instagram contest” winner designed the cover
• Bob Dylan “Wigwam” – a pair of previously unreleased recordings from the Self Portrait sessions: “Wigwam” (demo) and the “Thirsty Boots”
  
• Brian Eno/Grizzly Bear: Nicolas Jaar remix 12″ – two recent album cuts, both remixed by Jaar.  Grizzly Bear are also 12″ re-issuing their 2004 debut album, Horn of Plenty
• Roky Erickson “Mine Mine Mind b/w Bloody Hammer” – psych swirl vinyl
  
• The Fall: “Sir William Wray” 7″ – alternate versions of tracks “Sir William Wray” and “Hittite Man” from forthcoming album Re-Mit
• Grateful Dead “Rare Cuts & Oddities 1966” – first time on vinyl, only known version of Jerry singing “Promised Land”
  
• Half Japanese: Half Gentlemen/Not Beasts – four-LP box set with debut LP, 1977 Calling All Girls EP, unreleased tracks, a poster, a 32-page book, and more
  
• Jimi Hendrix “Hey Joe b/w Stone Free” – classic UK 45 available in US as 7″ vinyl for first time
  
• The Hold Steady: “Criminal Fingers” b/w “The Bear & the Maiden Fair” 7″ – Both unreleased
• Hüsker Dü: “Amusement” 2×7″ – 1980 7″ plus “Writer’s Cramp” b/w “Let’s Go Die” from the same sessions
• Iron & Wine: “Next to Paradise” b/w “Dirty Ocean” 7″ – both unreleased
• Jandek: Jandek Vinyl Box Set – 1978’s Ready For the House, 1981’s Six and Six, and 1982’s Chair Beside a Window
• Daniel Johnston “Fun” – never before released as 12″ vinyl
  
• King Crimson “Going Schizoid With King Crimson: Collectables Set” CD – graphic novel, poster, t-shirt, sticker and killer live set: 1. 21st Century Schizoid Man (Live in Central Park, NYC 1974) 2. I Talk To The Wind (Live at the Marquee. 1969) 3. Larks’ Tongues in Aspic: Part 1 (Live at the Beat Club, Bremen, 1972) 4. Ladies of the Road (Live at Jacksonville, 1972) 5. The Sailor’s Tal
  
• Stephen Malkus and Friends: Can’s Ege Bamyasi 12″ – Can’s 1977 album covered in full live last year; on green vinyl with a Japanese resealable mylar bag

• Mercury Rev: Deserted Songs – outtakes and demos remastered from original sources, pressed on white and clear vinyl; with rare photos and new liner notes by Jonathan Donahue and Grasshopper.  “As we pulled these Deserted Songs to the surface,” Grasshoper writes, “whatever had been holding us hostage cracked and withered in the blistering power of this music, and these songs allowed us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time… It is the magic of the vibrating universe; the music of the ‘Angels’.”
  1. Piano vs. Telephone (Home Cassette Demo)
  2. Pick Up, If You’re There (Nickel B. 1998 Remix)
  3. Endlessly (Tascam 8-Track Reel to Reel Demo)
  4. A Soft Kiss (For Waking Up) (Home Cassette Demo)
  5. Tonite It Shows (Tascam 8-Track Reel to Reel Demo)
  6. Looking Back Now, I Can See (Unreleased Mix)
  7. Opus 40 (Early Rough Version)
  8. Hudson Line (Early Rough Version)
  9. Judging By The Moon (Cassette Tape Player Demo)
  10. Goddess On A Hiway (1989 Home Cassette Demo)
  11. Night On Panther Mountain (Unreleased Mix)

• Thurston Moore & Loren Connors “The Only Way To Go Is Straight Through” – 12” culling together two collaborative performances – The Stone / Public Assembly
  
• Phoenix: “Entertainment” 7″ – their latest single with their Korean single on the flip
• Public Enemy: Planet Earth 12″ picture disc – greatest hits re-recorded to celebrate their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction
• Public Image Ltd.: “Public Image” b/w “The Cowboy Song” 7″ – PiL’s debut UK 7″ never previously available in the U.S.; exact reproduction of iconic original 1978 sleeve
• Pulp: “After You” 12″ – a new song recorded with James Murphy, plus two remixes of it
• R.E.M.: Live in Greensboro CD – Five-track EP recorded during at 1989 concert featured on forthcoming Green reissue; patch from that tour included
• Ty Segall: Ty Rex 2 7″ – sequel to 2011’s T. Rex covers Record Store Day EP; “Cat Black (The Wizard’s Hat)” and “The Motivator”
• Shearwater and Sharon Van Etten: “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” 7″ – Stevie Nicks/Tom Petty cover with new song “A Wake for the Minotaur” on the flip
• Elliott Smith: Either/Or outtakes 7″ – four outtakes: “Alameda” (alternate version), “Ballad of Big Nothing” (alternate vocal), “Angeles” (alternate version), and “Punch and Judy” (other version)
• Superchunk: “Void” b/w “Faith 7” – both new
• Titus Andronicus: Record Store Day 12″ – “Still Life with Hot Deuce and Silver Platter” with two new songs: “(I’ve Got A) Date Tonight” and “The Dog”

Follow Record Store Day updates (such as Spinner’s New York RSD Meetup with prizes including Floyd’s ‘Dark Side’ on 180-gram vinyl, Paul Simon’s ‘Graceland’ box,  a $50 gift certificate and more) all day April 20th at twitter/TheFutureHeart.