Posts Tagged ‘Record Store Day’

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It’s early it must be time to announce what’s going to be released on Record Store Day Black Friday, which is officially slated for November 28th, 2025. Over 170 vinyl releases have been slated for that most hallowed of days for collectors, so check your budget now.  there are special pressings of classic releases by Prince & The Revolution, Fleetwood Mac, Phil Collins, Led Zeppelin, Talking Heads, Bob Dylan, Alice Cooper and more.

I’ll list as many highlights as I can below, but if you want to see the full list immediately, go here, and scroll down to the “Web” and “PDF” options to see what’s what. Keep in mind that RSD releases are designated as follows: a) Exclusives: These titles are physically released only at indie record stores; b) RSD First: These titles are initially found at indie record stores only, but they might be released to other retailers at a later date at some point in the future (though not always); and c) Small Run/Regional Titles: These releases are either regionally based and sold at specific stores, or have press runs under 1,000 copies.

As many of you already know, the SRPs are never shared ahead of RSD, but they are usually fairly consistent across the board, and typically dependent on the size of the run and relative availability. If you miss getting what you want on RSD proper, prices tend to ratchet upward on eBay, Discogs, and elsewhere on the interwebs.

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The RSD PR team highlighted a few of the titles-to-come they deemed important and/or of note, Highlights of my own. For the Dylanologists of the world, RSD is celebrating the May 1963 LP “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan”, 62 years after its initial release by “re”-presenting the album as Dylan intended that is, and I quote, “before the suits at Columbia Records censored some of the tracks.

At any rate, “The Original Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan” LP comes via Legacy (RSD Exclusive; 13,000 copies), and it includes “Rocks and Gravel,” “Let Me Die in My Footsteps,” “Rambling, Gambling Willie,” and “Talkin’ John Birch Paranoid Blues.” (The latter song is the one that prompted Dylan to walk off the Ed Sullivan Show when Ed wouldn’t let him play it.) some of the “Freewheelin’ tracks also appear on Bob’s Dylan’s upcoming “The Bootleg Series Vol. 18: Through The Open Window, 1956-1963” 4LP box set.

RSD Black Friday also sees the release of a very special Bob Dylan “Masters of War” 7in single, recorded in Alan Lomax’s apartment in 1962. The B-side of this 7-incher will be a conversation Alan and Bob had after the recording . Additional/other RSD releases/announcements get added in right up until the date .

After decades of, er, hard work, Spinal Tap release the “RSD Scalpers Edition” of their “The End Continues” soundtrack album via Interscope (RSD Exclusive; 2,000 copies). In their official parlance, this RSD Black Friday release is, quote, “sure to please the flippers and hardcore fans who must own everything that Spinal Tap releases. ”The Scalpers Edition” includes three additional previously unheard tracks, a “unique” album cover, and a poster. Plus, and this is key, the vinyl itself is pressed on — of course! — 181g vinyl!

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For the more modern-music-seeking out there, RSD Black Friday’s “Billie Eilish Live” EP on Interscope is a special 10in edition featuring live recordings of “Skinny,” “Wildflower,” “Birds of a Feather,” and “L’Amour de Ma Vie,” all culled from Billie’s recent London Palladium show (RSD First; 20,000). Chappell Roan places her latest two songs back-to-back for the first time on her own RSD Black Friday 7in single via Island, “The Island” b/w “The Giver” (RSD Exclusive; 30,000 copies).

Meanwhile, 2025 Record Store Day Ambassador is Post Malone who continues to show his love for indie record stores by offering fans an LP titled “Long Bed” on Mercury/Republic, featuring nine tracks that were previously only available digitally (RSD Exclusive; 5,000 copies).

Sir Elton John — an inveterate record collector in his own right — and 2020 Record Store Day Ambassador Brandi Carlisle performed songs from their collaborative 2025 release “Who Believes in Angels?” (as well as songs from their own respective catalogue’s) for a televised live special, and some of those performances comprise the “Who Believes in Angels? Live at the London Palladium” 2LP set on Interscope (RSD Exclusive; 4,000 copies).

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Also on the master RSD Black Friday list are (again, in their words) “sure-to-be-coveted” vinyl from the likes of The Doors, Rhino will release “Live in Copenhagen, 1968“, featuring a previously unreleased concert in its entirety the legendary band recorded at Falokner Centret in Copenhagen, Denmark on September 17th, 1968. The 2 LP release on crystal-clear vinyl includes both the early and late sets, featuring electrifying performances of “Break On Through (To The Other Side),” “Light My Fire,” and “Hello, I Love You,” among others. Only 5,300 copies will be pressed globally.

An interesting set from Joni Mitchell when she was on Bob Dylan’s “The Rolling Thunder Tour These recordings of her sets from Bob Dylan’s legendary all-star tour were released for the first time last year as part of the boxed set “Joni Mitchell Archives, Vol. 4,” but this is the first stand-alone edition, and many of the tracks were not previously on vinyl.

Brendan Benson, The Rolling Stones, Talking Heads, the Grateful Dead, Prince & The Revolution, Miles Davis, George Harrison, The Flaming Lips, and Led Zeppelin, among many others. All of this vinyl goodness is accompanied by, as the RSD cognoscenti oh-so-aptly put it, “something special that music fans can get only at a record store.”

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, “Live in 24” (1,500 copies) At last, some shaped vinyl — specifically, a paper airplane shaped EP. The four song collection was inspired by the band’s “Flight b741” album and incorporates songs from various live recordings as part of the band’s Bootlegger series.

Those RSD diggers going for deeper dives can seek out the Black Friday offerings from the likes of Jeff Tweedy/Wilco/Daniel Johnston, Bobby Womack, Deltron 3030, Nico, Tangerine Dream, Ramones, David Johansen and The Harry Smiths, 2 Chainz, La Luz, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Sugar, and Warren Zevon, with a live recording, “Epilogue: Live At The Edmonton Folk Music Festival” (2,200 copies)
Zevon’s final concert, recorded August 9th, 2002 at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival, now available for the first time for RSD. It’s on double black vinyl with an etched fourth side, with liner notes from longtime Zevon band member Matt Cartsonis, who accompanied him for the set no one knew would be his last.

along with holiday releases from Kesha and Devo.

Randy Newman, “Trouble In Paradise: Demos” (3,500 copies) Previously unissued demos from one of Newman’s most revered albums, the one that brought “I Love L.A.” — including some that didn’t make the final album, like “Big Fat Country Song.”

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Also a interesting release from Talking Heads, “Tentative Decisions: Demos & Live” (7,500 copies)
Recorded by the trio of David Byrne, Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz when they were students at Rhode Island School of Design and in a college band called the Artistics. In the spring semester of 1974, the band gathered in Frantz’s Benefit Street apartment to record a cassette demo tape, which included future classics “Warning Sign” and “Psycho Killer.” This collection includes this newly discovered material alongside an additional 11 demo and live tracks recorded by the original trio line-up of the band in 1975-76. Unreleased Talking Heads stuff is always some of the first stuff to disappear, as recent-era Record Store Days go, and while 7,500 copies once would have been considered a lot for an RSD exclusive, it no longer is, so pick this one up early .

A few more MM RSD bulletpoints now, zeroing in on some of our fave RSD Releasers, You can always count on Rhino to cover a myriad of requisite RSD bases, and this year they’re serving up 35 exclusive albums from their diverse artists roster. Highlights include LPs from Phil Collins, The Doors, Matchbox Twenty, Joni Mitchell, Son Volt, an archival live set for Van Halen (this time from 1995), in addition to a Rhino Reserve title from Curtis Mayfield (“Curtis“; RSD Exclusive; 2,700 copies), a Devo picture disc, and 12in releases from a-ha, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, and The Flaming Lips, along with box sets from Dwight Yoakam and a special release from Arthur Lee’s band Love “The Album Collection”.

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This year’s RSD selection from archival giants Craft Recordings features first-ever vinyl editions, rare live recordings, vibrant colour pressings, and imaginative new packages that span funk, rock, punk, psych, salsa, soundtracks, holiday jazz, and more.

Creed — “Live in San Antonio” on 2 LP metallic silver vinyl, limited to 4,800 copies globally. Captured November 14th, 1999, at San Antonio’s Freeman Coliseum, “Live in San Antonio” drops you right into the roar of a sold-out Texas crowd as Creed storms through the “Human Clay” era. Newly remastered for vinyl, the set bottles the band’s late-’99 ferocity—Scott Stapp’s baritone cutting through Mark Tremonti’s towering riffs, underpinned by Brian Marshall and Scott Phillips in lockstep. The 13-song sprint balances fist-pumping anthems (“Are You Ready?,” “What If,” “My Own Prison”) with breakout hits (“Higher,” “With Arms Wide Open”) and fan-favourite deeper cuts.

Jazz Dispensary’s latest cinematic caper, “Green Bullets“, a fuel-injected compilation that imagines a lost ’70s heist flick.

Other Craft RSD Black Friday exclusives include Jonathan Richman’s tender “You Must Ask the Heart” finally making it onto vinyl; “Flowers in the Afternoon: Late-1960s Sunshine”, the third entry in Craft’s psych/garage RSD series; the first-time-on-vinyl “Punk Goes Acoustic“, an all-analog cut of Ray Barretto’s salsa landmark “Together“; and two score-lover must-gets: Alan Silvestri’s “The Back to the Future Trilogy” .

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A pair of Warner Records limited-edition first-time pressings of albums by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers and Benson Boone deserve extra attention. Boone’s 2023 “Pulse” EP emerges on electric yellow and bright blue splatter vinyl, and it also includes a 12x24in poster (RSD Exclusive; 6,000 copies).

Meanwhile, Tom Petty &The Heartbreakers’ “The Live Anthology – From The Vaults Vol. 1” 2LP set boasts a foil-stamped number cover, and it appears on turquoise blue vinyl. As you may recall, in November 2009, Petty and Co. released “The Live Anthology”, a massive 7LP box set of live material that encompassed the band’s career up to that point, with a track-list curated by Petty himself. A separate, very limited-edition version of “The Live Anthology” was also released that included a bonus CD with 14 tracks of additional Petty classics, rarities, and covers. These 14 tracks are now being released on vinyl for the first time—and I’m all-in for this one, beyond a shadow of a doubt (RSD First – 7,500 copies for the U.S. market; 11,000 copies total worldwide).

Rhino will release “Fleetwood Mac: Live 1975″, which captures the incredible electricity of the band’s first tour with the legendary line-up of Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham joining Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, and Christine McVie. Recorded 50 years ago at the Capitol Theatre in Passaic, NJ on October 17th, 1975, and Jorgensen Auditorium at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, CT on October 25th, 1975, the album features the band’s at-the-time recent hits “Rhiannon” and “Landslide,” along with some early Fleetwood Mac favourites, including “Hypnotized” and “Oh Well.” Pressed on vinyl for the very first time and limited to 5,000 copies globally.

Led Zeppelin’s classic single “Trampled Under Foot” is being reissued as a reproduction of the original UK 7-inch. The release features “Black Country Woman” on the B-side.

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This year’s RSD Black Friday offerings from Sony Legacy include live performances, soundtracks, and unreleased rarities. Besides the earlier-noted Dylan title and LPs from Cage the Elephant, Danny Elfman, Wilco/Jeff Tweedy/Daniel Johnston, and the intriguingly self-explanatory Lou Reed/Various collaborative offering the “Metal Machine Music: Power to Consume, Vol. 1”,  limited to 2,100 copies. Inspired by Lou Reed’s groundbreaking 1975 noise opus “Metal Machine Music“, this collection assembles a formidable line-up of sonic provocateurs—Aaron Dilloway, Drew McDowall, Thurston Moore, Pharmakon, The Rita, and Mark Solotroff—to explore the outer edges of distortion, feedback, and raw electronic texture. Each artist channels the spirit of Reed’s original manifesto of anti-music, pushing their own boundaries through modular synthesis, tape manipulation, harsh noise, and industrial decay. The result is a visceral, immersive experience that celebrates chaos, confronts structure, and redefines what music can be.

Grateful Dead, “The Warfield, San Francisco, CA — Oct 4 & 6, 1980” (6,000 copies on vinyl, unknown quantity on CD) Two acoustic sets from the Warfield shows in October 1980, celebrating the Grateful Dead’s 15th Anniversary. On 2-LP, 180-Gram Vinyl with Stoughton tip-on jacket. Also available on 2CD. Produced for release by David Lemieux.

Legacy will release Wilco/Jeff Tweedy/Daniel Johnston’s “dBpm 15” on a single red LP, limited to 3,400 copies. Twelve rarities and unreleased tracks highlighting fifteen years of music on dBpm Records. Most available for the first time on vinyl, the set includes a previously unavailable version of “Casper The Friendly Ghost” by Daniel Johnston and Jeff Tweedy, and Wilco’s cover of The Beatles’ “Don’t Let Me Down.”

we also get Billy Joel’s “Live From Long Island” 3LP set with an awful cover that makes it look like one of those Music For Pleasure releases, which highlights his Nylon Curtain tour homecoming concert at Nassau Coliseum on December 29th, 1982,

The Piano Man’s classic Nylon Curtain Tour homecoming concert at Nassau Coliseum newly mixed from the original master tapes and produced by Billy’s longtime live sound engineer Brian Ruggles. Only 1,500 copies will be pressed globally.

Beside those releases, Prince & The Revolution’s “Around the World in a Day: The Singles” is on RSD tap, which celebrates the 40th anniversary of the titular album that was originally released in April 1985. The audio is newly remastered by original mastering engineer Bernie Grundman, with additional mastering by Chris James, and this vibrant 7-incher box set features all four singles from the album (“Raspberry Beret,” “Paisley Park,” “Pop Life,” and the extended version of “America”), plus a brand new exclusive 7in single of the 1985 track “4 the Tears in Your Eyes,” which Prince originally contributed to that year’s “We Are The World” charity album. Each 45 is presented in a unique vinyl coloured vinyl and are presented in their original 7in sleeves in a clamshell box, all featuring elements of the titular LP sleeve that was originally designed by Doug Henders (RSD Exclusive; in a quite-apropos run of 1,985 copies).

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Additionally, Sony Legacy serves up Miles Davis’ “Live at The Plugged Nickel: December 23, 1965 – Set Two“, which is culled from what has long been considered to be one of the most legendary engagements in jazz history. That night saw trumpeter Miles, saxophonist Wayne Shorter, keyboardist Herbie Hancock, bassist Ron Carter, and drummer Tony Williams deliver a masterclass in what’s been described as “controlled volatility, dismantling tradition and reshaping their language night after night.” I’ve also been told that Legacy will reissue the box set containing all seven performed sets of “The Complete Plugged Nickel Sessions” in January 2026 as their first salvo in a year-long Miles Davis Centennial celebration — but first we get this 2LP Black Friday/black vinyl primer that contains over an hour of familiar songs turned inside out, including standards such as “All of You” and “My Funny Valentine” and Miles originals like “So What” and “Agitation” (RSD Exclusive; 5,900 copies).

A strange one is Robbie Robertson, “Filmworks: Insomnia” (1,800 copies) A compilation of Robertson’s music and scores from the films “The Last Waltz,” “Carny” and “Raging Bull,” including a previously unissued track from “Carny.” Jon Burlingame wrote the liner notes. It’s being released in conjunction with Robertson’s posthumously published memoir “Insomnia,” also due this autumn.

Phil Collins will see “12″ers” on vinyl, limited to 3,500 globally as an RSD Exclusive via Rhino. As part of a whole host of celebrations to mark 40 years of Phil Collins’ spectacular third studio album “No Jacket Required, 12″ers” is reissued as a special limited edition six-track EP of extended mixes, with a track list previously only released on CD and one track making its debut on vinyl. The 12-inch remixes are an immersive sonic experience, providing a refreshed and extended look at some of Phil Collins’ most loved solo work.

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B.B. King, “Broadcasting the Blues: Live from Germany & Sweden” (2,500 copies) Two European concerts from 1968 and 1973, featuring Sonny Freeman and the Kingpins, and a full horn section for the Stockholm, all never before released. Derek Trucks is among those contributing to the copious liner notes. 

Award-winning producer Zev Feldman, the “Jazz Detective” himself, is back for Record Store Day Black Friday with four historic, never-before-released albums spanning punk, jazz, and blues from Bad Brains, Bill Evans, Yusef Lateef, and B.B. King. Each title has been restored and mastered from archival recordings, and they are said to offer fresh insight into landmark moments across music history — from Bad Brains’ earliest live shows to unheard Bill Evans trio sessions (RSD Exclusive; 4,000 copies), Yusef Lateef’s spiritual experiments, and B.B. King’s powerful 1968 and 1973 European concerts. These RSD releases underscore Feldman’s curatorial mission to bring lost performances to light and celebrate genre-defining legacies.

The Flaming Lips, “Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots – “Live at the Zoo Amphitheatre, Oklahoma City, August 30, 2024” (4,000 copies) The band performed the album “Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots” live in its entirety at the Oklahoma City Zoo Amphitheatre on August 30th, 2024. The hometown show will be released in a 2-LP, 45rpm colour vinyl format with new artwork by Wayne Coyne.

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Finally, Mack Avenue comes to the RSD Black Friday party with a legendary album from the Strata-East catalogue The Descendants of Mike and Phoebe’s “A Spirit Speaks” on 180g vinyl with audio cut directly from the original master tapes. (Three other classic Strata-East titles from Charles Tolliver & Stanley Cowell, The Heath Brothers, and Cecil McBee will follow on December .)

One of many projects on Strata-East spearheaded by bassist, composer, and arranger Bill Lee (father of legendary director Spike Lee), The Descendants of Mike and Phoebe’s only album, 1974’s “A Spirit Speaks”, enlisted Bill Lee’s brother and sisters — Clif Lee, A. Grace Lee Mims, and Consuela Lee Moorehead — to form a group named in tribute to their enslaved ancestors. Combining elements of jazz, gospel, soul, and blues, among other influences, “A Spirit Speaks” has become one of the most sought-after albums from the Strata-East catalogue — and rightly so (RSD First; 1,500 copies).

Music fans will also be able to purchase Icona Pop and Charli XCX‘s ‘I Love It’ LP, Young Fathers‘ ‘White Men Are Black Men Too (10th Anniversary Edition)’, a 12″ of Faithless‘ hit ’90s single ‘Insomnia’

The full list of releases for Record Store Day Black Friday 2025 has been revealed. Credit: Press

And, with that — happy RSD list compiling, and happy hunting come Friday November 28th!

RECORD STORE DAY 2020

Posted: May 2, 2020 in MUSIC
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Now over three days , over three months. RECORD STORE DAY IS SOCIAL DISTANCING!
2020 is different. So what we’re doing this year is going to be different too.

No one knows what kind of party we’ll all be in the mood for, or able to hold safely, at any time this year, in any part of the world. So we’re focusing this year not on the party aspect of Record Store Day, but on getting the great releases on the RSD 2020 List into your local record store, and then into your collection.

RSD DROPS! Three street dates when titles from The List will be available only at participating indie record stores. We’re working on getting the new version of The List — with new RSD Drops dates — all nice and pretty for you. Look for that on the Record Store Day site on June 1st.

This new plan of action is thought to be a compromise solution that takes into account various territories around the world and the different stages they may be at in terms of managing the pandemic situation.

This is clearly an incredibly challenging situation for labels, retailers and the industry in general and it remains to be seen how it will all work out. By definition, the event has been diluted, and while the end of August seems like a long way away, we have no idea at this stage what social distancing rules may remain in place, wherever we may be in the world. Also, if stock does indeed become available online more quickly, is that likely to be a deterrent to getting out there and queuing up at your local record shop?

The other thing to consider is whether the record labels are still willing to honour their original RSD intentions. They have been sitting on stock for quite a few weeks at the time of writing, and may not be delighted at being told that at least some of their releases can now only happen on 24th October, which is nearly seven months away. There will be a temptation, perhaps, to redesignate releases as non-RSD and get them out into the marketplace much earlier. They could still support the local record shop community by making the releases ‘indie-exclusive’.

Of course, let’s not forget that as well as these three days, there is also the ‘RSD Black Friday’ which apparently is still being planned and on schedule for 27th November. So that’s four Record Store Days in a row in America, which certainly seems like overkill.

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This is a Record Store Day 2020 item. It will be available to purchase from 8am 20th June.

From Kevin…Paris was the first city to really get behind my career as a solo artist. From the first time I played there in 2014 til now, it’s always had an extra spark of magic to it. It’s always the stop I look forward to the most on my European tours as the audience comes with a very unique and kinetic energy, and because of this, so does the band. I had wanted to document this reciprocating fever between us and the crowd for some time now and saw our sold out show at the beautiful Cabaret Sauvage as the perfect time to do so. I also knew I needed to document a night with my new band, the Oh My God Band, which is made up of some of the most talented and tasteful musicians on the planet. And so here and now, in this recording, I have captured the best band I’ve ever played with as well as one of the best crowds I’ve ever played for – all together on a very sweaty night beneath a carnival tent in Paris. xo km

With his four acclaimed solo albums and myriad records of various collaboration, Kevin Morby has become a true musical auteur. Each record possesses its own unique persona and explores intriguing themes and fertile terrain through shifting, focused textures and dexterous, dedicated skill. And now, with the lavish, resplendent, career-best double LP Oh My God , Morby delivers a grandiose director’s cut of his biggest statement to date, epic in scope as well as sound

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Photo of Paul in his London garden.

LIMITED EDITION 50th ANNIVERSARY HALF-SPEED-MASTERED VINYL RELEASED FOR RECORD STORE DAY 2020

In June, 2020 one of the greatest solo debuts in rock history, Paul McCartney’s McCartney, will receive a special 50th anniversary release in a limited edition half-speed mastered vinyl pressing for Record Store Day.

Originally released in April 1970, one month before The Beatles’ swansong ‘Let It Be’, McCartney  saw Paul getting back to basics. Writing every song and playing every instrument (with backing vocals from Linda McCartney), the eponymous album represented a creative rebirth, bursting with new ideas, experiments, playfulness and freedom. Sonically, McCartney’s bare-bones home recording aesthetic imbued the album with an authentic lo-fi spirit, a much sought after sound that continues to retain a contemporary edge 50 years on. In contrast to the professional difficulties that came with the demise of the world’s most iconic band,

Paul was personally enjoying the contentment of family life as a newly married father. In a Q&A released at the time, Paul described the theme and feel of the album as, “Home, family, love.”  This is obvious from the opening notes of Lovely Linda throughout the album, with tracks like ‘Every Night’ and ‘Man We Was Lonely’ musing on how much Paul’s life had improved—and nowhere more poignantly than on the tour de force ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’. Paul’s timeless tribute to Linda would be recognized as one of contemporary music’s great love songs, and remains a staple of Paul’s live set to this day, never failing to inspire tears of joy with its refrain of “Maybe I’m a man in the middle of something that he doesn’t really understand. Maybe I’m a man. Maybe you’re the only woman who can ever help me. Baby won’t you help me understand”.

Linda’s presence is also felt in the album’s iconic artwork: the front cover’s bowl of cherries photographed by her on holiday in Antigua, and the back cover’s portrait of Paul with daughter Mary as a baby, photographed on the family’s farm in Scotland where some of the album was also written. 50 years and counting, McCartney offers an incredible insight into the mind of one of the world’s greatest ever songwriters. The homespun spirit of the album and Paul’s taste for experimentation capture a unique moment in time: The very first steps of an unparalleled solo career that has seen Paul McCartney release decades worth of critically acclaimed commercial blockbuster albums including RAM, Band on the Run, Venus and Mars, Tug of War, Pipes of Peace, Flowers in the Dirt, Flaming Pie, Memory Almost Full, and most recently 2018’s-charting Egypt Station.

The 50th anniversary Record Store Day limited edition of McCartney was pressed from a master cut by Miles Showell at half speed using the original 1970 master tapes at Abbey Road Studios. It was made as a vinyl specific transfer in high resolution and without digital peak limiting for the best possible reproduction.

McCartney Tracklisting:

Side one:
The Lovely Linda
That Would Be Something
Valentine Day
Every Night
Hot as Sun/Glasses
Junk
Man We Was Lonely

Side two:
Oo You
Momma Miss America
Teddy Boy
Singalong Junk
Maybe I’m Amazed
Kreen-Akrore

The day Say Sue Me make a bad record is the day I’ll stop singing their praises, but that day is not today because the indie pop darlings from Busan, South Korea recently dropped it’s just a short walk!, their second fantastic release of 2018. A Record Store Day EP from Damnably, its just a short walk! is made up of four playful covers that showcase the band’s versatility and deep knowledge of guitar rock. Blondie’s “Dreaming” is stretched out into a languid, nearly psychedelic shoegaze droner augmented by vocalist Sumi Choi’s light, airy vocals. “Do You Wanna Dance?” is the sweet, slow dance flipside to the band’s own surfy “I Just Wanna Dance,” from their Where We Were Together LP. “Rockaway Beach” is the sparkling indie pop Ramones cover the world has been waiting for, and, well you really need to hear their Velvet Underground cover. Say Sue Me’s greatest strength is not just their ability to make any song their own, but to make it sound effortlessly fun at the same time.

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‘It’s Just A Short Walk!’ is a limited edition EP of cover songs performed Say Sue Me on a special one-sided transparent 12” vinyl, and released by Damnably Records for RSD 2018. 

1. Dreaming (Blondie)
2. Do You Wanna Dance (Bobby Freeman)
3. Beginning To See The Light (The Velvet Underground)
4. Rockaway Beach (The Ramones)

This Saturday, April 21st is Record Store Day, a day that brings us back to a time when the only way you could hear your favorite artist’s new song was by purchasing it on seven inches of vinyl from your local record shop. That’s exactly how Detroit indie-rocker, Stef Chura, wants us to celebrate the annual homage to vinyl culture. Chura, who released her striking debut album Messes in 2017, is pressing a thousand copies of a new 7″ that includes two songs that didn’t make it onto the LP. Both of the songs – “Degrees” and “Sour Honey” – were produced by Will Toledo of Car Seat Headrest and show Chura’s range in emotion, voice, and musicianship.

“Degrees” is a weighty, haunting rumination on mortality that shifts between delicate verses and a blazing refrain. Chura says that the song was originally a plucky folk song, but Toledo had the idea to take it in a Janis Joplin “Ball and Chain” direction, adding gritty layers of guitar that conjure up the image of towering flames.

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Falling on the opposite end of the spectrum sonically, “Sour Honey” is a stripped-down solo affair that features Chura’s flickering, elastic vocals accompanied by Toledo on piano. The bare, vulnerable sound is an appropriate match for the song’s subject matter – insecurity and hyper self-awareness.  “I wrote that song when I was working at a strip club in Detroit as a cocktail server,” says Chura. “It was about the visceral, super physical feeling of complete embarrassment and humiliation. I think I used to suffer from a lot of social anxiety and miscommunications, and it was just a very cat-fighty atmosphere.”

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The 7″ is a Record Store Day exclusive, which means you’ll only be able to pick it up at your local record store. Chura will perform at Detroit’s Third Man Records in tandem with the release,

When Bruce Springsteen joined English singer songwriter John Wesley Harding on “Wreck on the Highway” in 1994, it would be his only performance of that song in a 20-year span. The audio has been officially out there for years, but this week we’re proud to premiere a video documenting that performance.

The occasion: for Record Store Day, Ominvore Recordings is putting out John Wesley Harding’s first covers album, Greatest Other People’s Hits, which includes that live duo performance as well as Wes’s cover of “Jackson Cage” (he likes The River, it seems). It’s the first time on vinyl for both recordings. Look for the LP at indie shops this Saturday, April 21st.

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In December 2012, three members of Fleetwood Mac cried together, in public, at the memory of something that had happened all of 25 years previously. Singer Stevie Nicks, guitarist Lindsey Buckingham and drummer Mick Fleetwood were doing a round of media interviews to announce the band’s 2013 tour when they were asked about the events of 1987, when Buckingham quit the band following the release of the album “Tango In The Night.” 

Tango In The Night was released on April 13th, 1987. The first single from the album, “Big Love“, was already a Top 10 hit on both sides of the Atlantic, It was their fourteenth studio album, 

Buckingham did not respond directly to the interviewer. Instead he turned to Nicks and Fleetwood and reiterated his reasons for leaving the group at a critical stage of their career: foremost among them, his sense that Nicks and Fleetwood had lost their minds and souls to drugs. 

“What Lindsey said in that interview was very moving,” Fleetwood says. “He told us: ‘I just couldn’t stand to see you doing what you were doing to yourselves. You were so out of control that it made me incredibly sad, and I couldn’t take it any more.’ It was really powerful stuff. This was someone saying: ‘I love you.’ It hit Stevie and me like a ton of bricks. And we all cried, right there in the interview.” 

It was a moment that Mick Fleetwood still describes as “profound”. But even after all these years, his memories of that time in 1987 are still raw. For when Lindsey Buckingham walked out on Fleetwood Mac, he did not go quietly. When Buckingham told the band he was leaving, it led to a blazing argument that rapidly escalated into a physical altercation between him and former lover Nicks, in which she claimed she feared for her life. 

“It is,” Fleetwood says, “a pretty wild story. It was a dangerous period, and not a happy time.” And yet, for all the drama that came with it, “Tango In The Night” was a hugely important album for Fleetwood Mac. It became the second biggest-selling album of their career, after 1977’s 45-million-selling “Rumours“. 

In 1985, Lindsey Buckingham was writing and recording songs for what was planned as his third solo album. Fleetwood Mac had been on indefinite hiatus since 1982, following a world tour in support of their album “Mirage“. In that time there had been solo albums from all three singers: Nicks’ The Wild Heart sold a million copies; Christine McVie’s eponymous album yielded a US Top 10 hit with Got A Hold On Me; but, to Buckingham’s chagrin, his album Go Insane had not made the Top 40. 

There had also been problems for them over these years. Nicks had been treated for drug addiction. More surprisingly, Mick Fleetwood had been declared bankrupt following a string of disastrous property investments. “At that time,” Buckingham later admitted, “the group had become a bit fragmented.” 

By the end of ’85, Buckingham – working alone at his home studio in Los Angeles – had three songs finished: Big Love, Family Man and Caroline. But while he was busy making music, Mick Fleetwood was busy making plans to get the band back on track. 

The wheels had been set in motion when Christine McVie recorded a version of the Elvis Presley hit Can’t Help Falling In Love for the film A Fine Mess – backed by Mick Fleetwood and the band’s other remaining founding member, her ex-husband John McVie. She invited Buckingham to produce, alongside engineer Richard Dashut. 

“It was the first time for nearly five years that we’d all been in a working environment together,” Christine said. “We had such a good time in the studio and realised that we still had something to give each other in musical terms after all.” Mick Fleetwood was more forthright. “The reality,” he says, “is that Fleetwood Mac were intending to make an album. And Lindsey was in many ways pressured into it. ‘Hey, we’re making an album – let’s go!’” 

Buckingham relented, partly out of a sense of duty. “I had a choice,” he said, “of either continuing on to make the solo record, or to sort of surrender to the situation and try and make it more of a family thing. I chose the latter.” What Fleetwood didn’t know is that Buckingham’s agreement was conditional. “I had the idea,” Buckingham said, “that that was going to be the last work with the group.” 

The biggest problem for Lindsey Buckingham was, of course, Stevie Nicks. “I’ve known Stevie since I was 16 years old,” he said. “I was completely devastated when she took off. And yet I had to make hits for her, So on one level I was a complete professional in rising above that, but there was a lot of pent-up frustration and anger towards Stevie in me for many years.”

“He got very angry with me,” Nicks has said. “He tossed a Les Paul across the stage at me once and I ducked and it missed me. A lot of things happened because he was so angry at me.” Buckingham’s frame of mind was not helped by the not inconsiderable success that Nicks enjoyed in her solo career. In 1981, her solo debut, “Bella Donna“, went to No.1 in US. Other hit albums and singles followed. Buckingham’s solo records sold next to nothing. 

For all that, Buckingham threw himself into the album. He either wrote or co-wrote seven of the 12 tracks that made the finished album. He also acted as co-producer with Richard Dashut. And it was at his home studio that most of the recording was done. 

What was unusual about the recording of Tango In The Night was the absence of Stevie Nicks for much of the process. Nicks actually contributed three songs to the album, but was in the studio for only two to three weeks. 

One trick of Buckingham’s, in Big Love, was especially brilliant. For the song’s climax, he used variable speed oscillators on his voice to create the effect of a male and female in a state of sexual excitement – the “love grunts”, as he called them. 

“It was odd that so many people wondered if it was Stevie on there with me,” he said, a little disingenuously. Although there were other great songs on the album – slick pop rock tunes in the classic Fleetwood Mac style, such as Christine’s “Little Lies” and “Everywhere”, and Stevie’s “Seven WondersFleetwood calls Tango In The Night “Lindsey’s album”. But for Buckingham himself, there was a sense that in the transition from solo album to band album, something had been lost. A perfectionist, intensely analytical, he felt that Tango In The Night was too predictable, too safe. 

“She was not hugely present,” Fleetwood says. “I don’t remember why. And I don’t think we would remember. Fleetwood says that he and Nicks were doing more cocaine during the making of “Tango” than when they were recording “Rumours” an album on which they seriously considered thanking their drug dealer in the credits. 

“Certainly, I smoked a lot of pot. But I was never a big user of coke,” Buckingham adds. 

“Actually,” he admits, “it was way worse on “Tango In The Night.” For sure.” 

While Tango was being recorded at his home, he found a way of keeping the two cokeheads – plus assorted hangers-on – at a safe distance.

Lindsey had a Winnebago put in his driveway,” Fleetwood says. “And that’s where Stevie and I would go with our wrecking crew. With me, the party never stopped. It wasn’t until years later that I asked him: ‘What was all that about?’ And he said: ‘I couldn’t stand having you punks in the house. You’d turn up at the studio with people that you’d met from the night before, and you’d start gooning around. You were too fucking crazy.’ Lindsey was never a drama queen, enjoying the 80s drug culture like Stevie and me. It wasn’t his scene.

The drug taking was only one part of the problem. There were other things eating away at Buckingham.

Just as Rumours had done in the 70s, so Tango In The Night defined the soft rock era of the 80s. Perhaps most significant of all, it marked the third coming of the Mac, following the successes of the Peter Green-led blues rock Mac of the late 60s and the Buckingham/Nicks-fronted AOR The the Mac of the 70s. And for Mick Fleetwood, it represented a personal triumph. Mick Fleetwood is not sure it is simple coincidence that Fleetwood’s two biggest-selling albums, “Rumours” and “Tango In The Night”, were made when the band was at its most dysfunctional. “Also,” he says, “I’m not sure I should be so proud of it.” 

While he freely admits that his own drug-fuelled insanity was instrumental in Lindsey Buckingham’s exit, it was Fleetwood who kept the band together once Buckingham had gone. And this was key to the success of “Tango In The Night“. In the 90s, Buckingham re-joined Fleetwood Mac, and, more importantly, made his peace with Stevie Nicks. They have both come a long way since that dark day in 1987: Buckingham now married and a father of three, Nicks happily drug-free. All that remains between them is what Mick Fleetwood calls “the good stuff”. 

“My motto” Fleetwood says, “was ‘the show must go on’. It was almost an obsessive-compulsive desire to not give up. And it worked.”

Katie Von Schleicher is following up her excellent 2017 debut, Shitty Hits, with a 7″ vinyl for Record Store Day. The 7″ will be entitled  “Glad To Be Here/Party Dawn” and released on May 4th via the fine folks at Ba Da Bing.

“On a break from touring this winter I went alone to Maryland, where I am originally from, and made these two songs, taking the gear I’ve very happily accrued since making my album Shitty Hits. I built a fire, I set up my gold drum kit, I saw a ton of stars and felt smushed by silence, and it was lonely, so I made these songs. ‘Glad to Be Here’ is where I find myself right now. ‘Party Dawn’ is tied to Maryland, to my friend and our adolescence. Both are a bridge toward the subject matter of my next record. Back in New York, my collaborator Adam Brisbin (Sam Evian, Jolie Holland, Buck Meek) contributed guitar and bass, and Julian Fader (Ava Luna, Frankie Cosmos, Nadine, Palehound) mixed it.”

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Shitty Hits’, the debut album from Brooklyn-based songwriter Katie von Schleicher wasn’t just a brilliant title, but a great record.