2nd Annual Record Store Day! - Sat. 4/18

Werd up kiddos. THE 2ND ANNUAL RECORD STORE DAY IS TOMORROW!!! Please go out and support your local independent record stores. This is a fitting lead-in from my last post (thank you for pointing that out in advance Dominic. Go Flyers). With digital and mass market music distributors taking over, the smaller locally owned/operated record stores face big challenges to keep up. THEY NEED YOUR SUPPORT. This is the second annual record store day and there is so much going on I can only give you some highlights. There are countless rare split 7inches, collaborations/compilations, t-shirts, vinyl/CD re-issues, unreleased live material and in-store performances. Please check the official website (http://www.recordstoreday.com/ ) for participating shops in your area. If you live in the northeast here are some Philly/NYC notes on in store performances (I may have missed some so triple check the site):

- Generation Records NYC: BOUNCING SOULS ACOUSTIC!!!!!! (Not sure what that’s going to sound like but it’s the Souls so it should be pretty kick-ass?)
- Other Music NYC: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart and Prefuse 73 (again not sure how this will go live)
- Main Street Music PHILLY: Good Ol’ War (a newer version of CSNY in my opinion...should be cool live)
- AKA Music PHILLY: Smog (thanks Chris B)

RELEASES: Some special releases that deserve highlighting (sorry for the crude format):

Bad Religion
Original EP 7" reissue
colored vinyl; 6 tracks from 1981

Blitzen Trapper
"War is Placebo/Booksmart"
7" - two exclusive tracks w/die cut sleeve

Bruce Springsteen
7" "What Love Can Do"/"A Night With The Jersey Devil"
packaged in clear sleeve with 3x5 photo

Camera Obscura
"French Navy" 7"
7" (RSD exclusive)

Cold War Kids
Live at Fingerprints 5 song EP

Cursive/Ladyfinger
Split 10" picture disc
four songs, two unreleased and two new
Dandy Warhols
Remix CD #2

Death Cab For Cutie
T-Shirt - exclusive design for Record Store Day

Dead Weather
Hang You From the Heavens 7"
Jack White's new band! The debut release from both the Dead Weather and Third Man Records

Depeche Mode
7" "Wrong"/"Oh Well"

Dr. Dog/Floating Action
Split 7"- exclusive

El Grupo Nuevo de Omar Rodriguez Lopez (Mars Volta)
“Cryptomnesia”
Limited Edition Vinyl for RSD (3,000 pieces)

Elvis Perkins
"Lorraine Lookout" 7"
two tracks, one unreleased

Flaming Lips/Black Keys
split 7" "Borderline"/"Her Eyes Are A Blue Million Miles"

Flight of the Conchords
"Pencils In The Wind"/"Albi The"
7" - two exclusive tracks w/die cut sleeve

Gaslight Anthem
Live from Park Ave 10" - 6 tracks

Grizzly Bear
Live on KCRW 7"
two tracks, "While You Wait For The Others"/"He Hit Me"

Gomez
Airstream Driver 7"
non-album b side

Guided By Voices
Hold On Hope LP
Three bonus tracks

Heaven & Hell
7" "Bible Black" / Neon Knights (Live)
Created exclusively for Record Store Day

Jane's Addiction
7" "Mountain Song" / "Standing in the Shower…Thinking"
7" Mtn. Song/Standing In The Shower- Packaged in original replica picture sleeve

Jenny Lewis/Elvis Costello
7" --"Carpet Baggers"/"Go Away"
Never before available in the US

Jesus Lizard
9 x 7" pack
A pack of nine 7"s

Loney Dear/Andrew Bird 7"
split 7" - hand-silk screened covers; tour & mail order item

Mastodon
T-Shirt - exclusive design for Record Store Day

MC 5
7" "Kick Out The Jams"/"Motor City Is Burning"
Packaged in the original rare picture sleeve, first time available since 1969

Metric
"Help I'm Alive" 7" Picture disc
"Help I'm Alive"/"Help I'm A B-Side"

Misfits
Walk Among Us LP
Pressed on 140 gram vinyl

Modest Mouse
7" --"Satelite Skin"/"Guilty Cocker Spaniels"
both tracks are brand new

My Morning Jacket
Celebracion De La Ciudad Natal
CD & 2 x 10" Vinyl - 4-14 Street, Vinyl one time shot. Recorded LIVE in LOUISVILLE

New Order
7" (live) "Temptation" / "Hurt" - as and A&B side.

Neil Young
Sugar Mountain Live at Canterbury House 1968 2LP
The special vinyl package

Oasis
Falling Down Remix LP
Falling Down Remix LP

Pavement
"Live in Germany 1988" LP
unreleased show from 1988

Poison The Well
Six track CD
6 track CD, taken from 2 7" singles that the band sells on the road, and an upcoming 7" single that will be out later this spring

Radiohead
10" vinyl series (see list of titles in NOTES)
THESE ARE BEING RELEASED EARLY FOR RSD: Drill, Creep, My Iron Lung, High & Dry, Fake Plastic Trees, Just, Street Spirit, Paranoid Android, Karma Police, No Surprises, Pyramid Song, 2+2=5

Rivers Cuomo
Live @ Fingerprints CD and CD/DVD Combo

Russian Circles/These Arms Are Snakes
Split !2 - Previously Unreleased songs on Clear Vinyl (1,000 pieces)

Silversun Pickups
Pikul 12"
exclusive release ahead of their new album

Slayer
7" single "Psychopathy Red"
packaged in special X-Files-style, "confidential" packaging

Sonic Youth/Beck
split 7" (RSD exclusive)

Sonic Youth/Jay Reatard
split 7" (RSD exclusive)

Sublime
"Superstar Punani"/April 29, 1992" 7"
7" single with 2 live tracks, first time on vinyl

Taking Back Sunday
7" Carpathia/Catholic (live)

Talking Heads
77 LP [reissue]
Pressed on 180 gram vinyl

The Decemberists
7" "The Rake's Song"/"East India Lanes"
B-side, "East India Lanes" is unreleased

The Smiths
7" "The Headmaster Ritual" /"Oscillate Widly"
Never before available in the US as a 7" single.

The Stooges
7" "1969"/"Real Cool Time"
Packaged in the original rare picture sleeve

Thermals/Thao
split 7" Get Down Stay Down (4 tracks unreleased)

Underoath
T-Shirt - exclusive design for Record Store Day

Wilco
Ashes of American Flags DVD
DVD is released with an exclusive window of two weeks for indie stores and mail order

Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs
It’s Blitz LP
vinyl version of forthcoming Yeah Yeah Yeahs CD

So much I am getting anxiety just looking at the offerings. Really…I’m experiencing shortness of breath.

GET OUT THERE AND SHOW YOUR SUPPORT YA BEAUTIFUL SONSABITCHES!!!!!

ALSO - It doesn’t hurt that the weather on Saturday is going to be (singing) soooooooo sweet. Um in the northeast at least.

Are CD Collections Akin To The Laserdisc?

I have a pretty massive CD collection. I know we are living in a digital age and I have countless gigs of music on my computadora as well but I still take pride in my CD collection. Is that wrong? Should I be hiding these CD towers of power? Every once in a while I like to dig through my collection and whip out old classics and load them into my iTunes. Plus, certain album jackets take me back to certain times in my life. The college ones usually have some weird stains or burns on them as cd often doubled as coasters or cigarette “resters” (while you tossed you darts or launched a ping-pong ball). Any of the REM records I pull out bring back such vivid memories I can’t even tell you. Then I think about all of the CDs that I’ve tossed and sold throughout the years (not many) and wonder of the lost potential. I know my friends often like to browse the collection and say “Whoa…I forgot about this record or this band”. Lately I’ve been re-kindling my love-affair with punky SKA bands from the 90s with such legends as the Pietasters, Mustard Plug, Bosstones, Goldfinger, Stubborn Allstars, Buck-O-Nine, Skankin Pickle, Dance Hall Crashers, Slackers etc. Slackers are still good. See…this is why I have a cd collection. Who’s with me?! (crickets) Anyway, I’m now trying to build a vinyl collection but it’s slow going. I look at my CD collection and feel a sense of accomplishment and security. Which I guess is all that matters but thought I’d put it out to the group. I had a pretty big tape collection in high-school as well often duplicating my CD collection….mainly because I was a pizza delivery guy and music freak combo. I was too cheap to buy a cd player for my car (Suzuki Samurai) or a CD walkman. Sony-Sports bitchaz. Auto-Reverse.