Record Store Day Buyer’s Guide

Okay, this may seem really half-assed but today we’re going to piggyback on (steal?) a great article in Goldmine magazine where they rate the best and worst of the exclusive vinyl available on Record Store Day. That’s Saturday, at your friendly neighborhood record store.

You can read the Goldmine story here, but we just want to touch on a couple of their top picks … keep in mind, this is highly subjective. You really ought to check out the complete list of exclusive vinyl available on Record Store Day, and if something really appeals to you then plan to get up early on Saturday and line up outside your local record emporium so you have a better chance of getting your hands on what you want. There will be some music aficinados like you, but there will be a lot of jerks who just want to get hold of this rare stuff so they can put it up on eBay.

Goldmine is salivating most over a Jimi Hendrix 7″ single, “Fire”b/w”Touch You.”  The 45 has an alternate version of “Fire,” which appeared on the West Coast Seattle Boy box set. The real find is on the flip side: “Touch You,”  a previously unreleased 1967 studio recording made by the original Experience during sessions for what would become Electric Ladyland. Very cool, indeed.

The other cool stuff the magazine is anticipating seems mostly to come from vintage acts – a live LP from Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd, unreleased Derek and the Dominos, live Roy Orbison, live Bob Dylan. It’s a record store nut’s dream come true.

A word here, too, about the “lost” single from the 13th Floor Elevators, which we in Houston can partially claim as our own (they cut many of their songs in Houston, at the famed Gold Star Studios). The record available on Saturday is a limited-edition green vinyl 7″ single – “Wait For My Love” b/w “May The Circle Remain Unbroken.” Roky Erickson and the group planned this as the band’s sixth single in 1968 but never released. The two tunes are remixed by ‘Sonic Boom’ (Pete Kember of Spacemen Three & producer of MGMT), and the single will come packaged in an International Artists Records label house bag.

Another choice cut is a complete LP by the Foo Fighters, performing 12 covers including “Band On The Run,” Baker Street,” “Darling Nikki” and others. There are many, many more releases, by the likes of Ozzy Osbourne, R.E.M., ZZ Top, Phish, the Rolling Stones, Pearl Jam and more. The newer crop of artists will be represented by Peter, Bjorn and John, Regina Spektor, The Joy Formidable, Wild Flag and many more. Now keep in mind, these records are going into general release on Saturday and some of ’em may be available after Record Store Day but many are limited-edition releases and will likely get snapped up pretty quickly. Then, on Saturday afternoon, you can find ’em on eBay at double the retail price.

Goldmine singles out a handful of exclusive releases that disappointed them.  One of their offenders is the Bruce Springsteen offering, a 10″ LP featuring “Gotta Get That Feeling” b/w “Racing In The Street,” which will appear on his upcoming DVD Live From The Carousel. The magazine says “The ‘easy way out’ on Record Store Day: selling a sample from an upcoming release. This isn’t a special item for the fans. It’s nothing more than a promotional piece!!” Yeah, but we’ll probably buy this if we can get our hands on it.

Our suggestion to you for Record Store Day: Check out the list of exclusive releases, show up early (before opening time) and know what you want to buy when you get into the store. And please, if you are lucky enough to get your hands on an exclusive release: take it home, remove the wrapper, take out the record and play it. Call your kids into the room and play it for them. Dance if you want, or just listen to the music. Share it, talk about the memories conjured by this great old and new music and let somebody younger listen to it again and again. Don’t be one of those assholes who forces them to go find this stuff on eBay.

Record Store Day official website

Goldmine magazine “Top Ten Record Store Day” vinyl 2011 article

Final thoughts on SXSW: Sorry!

We forgot to mention Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr., shown here during their day party on Thursday.

As Ricky Ricardo used to say to his hapless wife Lucy, “you have some ‘splainin’ to do.” Indeed we do, and we admit some apologies are also in order. First up, we want to apologize to you, dear reader, for leaving South by Southwest (SXSW) two days early. Without going into too many details, let’s just say we had to make the call to throw in the towel quite reluctantly. Even though we were in the SXSW slipstream for barely 24 hours, it was still a fruitful visit.

We didn't see Wild Flag, but we caught OMD in Lance's bike shop!

So, let’s get started. We want to apologize to the band Wild Flag, which we had every intention to see during SXSW. The new quartet’s members have been in a number of bands, most notably Sleater-Kinney and we loved guitarist Carrie Brownstein’s new TV show “Portlandia.” So why didn’t we see ’em? I couldn’t find Mellow Johnny’s Bike Shop, the actual bicycle shop owned by Lance Armstrong. Wild Flag played a show for KEXP-FM in Seattle and we missed it because I’m a terrible navigator. However, I found the place in time to see ’80s synth-rockers Orchestral Maneuovres in the Dark the next day, and I’m glad I did.

Video of a Wild Flag set at SXSW provided by the kind folks at NPR

Also apologies are due to Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr., whom we saw at the Paste magazine day party on Thursday. It’s hard to describe the band’s music, despite the numbing stupidity of its name (which is brilliant, by the way) but let’s just say this Detroit three-piece puts out the least wimpy pop-rock we have heard since, well, never. I heard ’em playing in this place on Sixth Street and walked all the way across the street and actually had to flash my ID to enter and hear this phenomenal music up close. Josh Epstein, singing and flailing on his bass guitar while Daniel Zott kept the beat, cranked out some exceptionally tuneful rock that has me looking online for something more to download. You can start with this one, it’s legal.

MP3: “Nothing But Our Love” by Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr.