The fact of the matter is that I don't have any money.  I'm not going to be splurging on any Record Store Day specials this year.  But I figure I might as well go through the releases just to gawk and gaze, geek at the merchandise, and dream of a world where I could convince a major corporation to pay me to make ugly shoes just so I can afford all of these givings.

You can see the list of this year's Record Store Day releases here






I have a handful of vintage (Duane era) Allman Brothers shows on boot, but not this one.  I'm kind of impressed they could squeeze it entirely onto two LPs.



I think I have these already.  I'm surprised her version of "Smells Like Teen Spirit isn't included, but I guess that was an EP release instead.  Any Tori Amos on vinyl would be great, but especially from her first two LPs.




"Splattered color" vinyl edition.




Box set containing four complete shows.




I still haven't gotten Bjork's new one, Fossora, so the remixes may not be a priority.




Later Blakey, but it looks good.  Comes with a code to download the full five hour recordings from the gig.




I do have a copy of this radio broadcast concert from 1978, but this is the first release on vinyl.




An irresistible pick-up for me, if I could find it, selections from the On The Corner box set on blue vinyl.




3-LP set with booklet.




Hey!  Brian Eno's still making music.




I have a digital copy of Crispin Glover's long out-of-print 1989 album, but wouldn't it be nice to have a colored vinyl copy?




Another one I have on boot, but here in a colored 3 LP set.




Long out-of-print solo album from the Talking Heads guitarist, reissued with a bonus disc of extras.




Hard to find funk classic from 1970.




New York art/jazz experimental skronk.  It was probably available once upon a time somewhere.




Don't judge me.  I'd give this a pretty good gander if I found it.




Super rare 1980 alias LP from Stewart Copeland.  Also have a digitial copy somewhere.  This is on green vinyl.





Already available, but I'd be very tempted to pick this up in clear vinyl.




Oh, are you acting like you're not going to reach for the reissue of Macho Man Randy Savage's hip hop album?




Shaped picture disc single, produced by Augustus Pablo.




These guys had a moment in the mid-90s, and I'm a fan of this album which I once had on CD.  I'd love to pick it up again.




Ennio Morricone soundtrack given its first LP release, on yellow vinyl.




Interesting collaboration, featuring unreleased tracks.




Nothing new, but a great collection.




For all you newfound fans of 1972 Elvis.




Includes bonus disc of rarities.




Reissue of the ultrarare 12" from a pre-WuTang RZA.




First time on vinyl, The Residents' 1992 mashup of their "greatest hits".




Reissue of the rare 1976 collab between Max Roach and Archie Shepp (and Mao?) on brown rice vinyl.




This was a great neo-soul album from the '00s, here on red vinyl.




Another rare mid-70s Archie Shepp, like the one above only previously available in France.




Later Sigur Ros, but I'd still try to grab them on vinyl when I can.  On "sulphuric" yellow vinyl.




Roots and Dub are my two favorite reggae subgenres, and this is a collection of dub mixes of roots reggae from the likes of Lee Perry and King Tubby.








I would be happy to pick up any of these mouth-watering colored vinyl collections from the excellent Soul Jazz Records.




A 10" of mostly live rarities.




A solo 1980 performance.




3 LP set from their 1978 tour.




Bonus disc of rare mixes.




Not sure if this has been commercially released before.




First reissue of Ali Farka Toure's Green since the '80s, on green vinyl.




There's also a special issue of his Woodstock Album but this is the one you want to get.




This Sunn 0))))/Boris collaboration would be a definite pick-up on heavy vinyl.




Mike D of the Beastie Boys collects some rare Brazilian 45s for this 7" box set.


 

Vinnyly, a Final Thread

Btw, as many selections as I picked out, the total release list was about 500, so if there's anything else on there you guys are excited about or want to highlight, I'm all ears.

I'm also a little shocked that I haven't heard any of the 11 albums she's released over the past 20 years.

On another McCartney note, no, I didn't get this super expensive box set.  Even if I could afford it, I doubt I'd be quick enough to scoop one of the 3000 copies before it sold out.  So I got a vinyl rip version instead, so close enough.  It certainly sounds amazing regardless, which I don't know if it's due to the remastering or the audiophile vinyl pressing.

Listening to the A and B sides makes for an interesting run through the McCartney catalogue.  Obviously you get the hits, but it's always disarming to remember just what an oddball he can be with some of his B sides, making for a very eclectic view of his skills and indulgences.  Going through the 70s material is mostly excellent, with only a handful, really, of truly questionable material like "Mary Had a Little Lamb", "I Lie Around", "Country Dreamer", "Sally G".  And even though it was an A side, it's still pretty audacious how anyone could have gotten away with getting the genuinely bonkers-bizarre "Uncle Albert" on steady radio rotation in 1971.  (Seriously, I can't think of any other single from that time to compare it to.)  And it manages to touch on several album deep cuts that were either Bs or failed to chart, such as "Back Seat of My Car", "Love Is Strange", "Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five", "Letting Go", "Magneto and Titanium Man", "Beware My Love", "Arrow Through Me".

Unfortunately, this box set also happens to accentuate what a rut McCartney had in the 80s as well, where the whole thing just stalls into tedium.  I've come to forgive "Ebony and Ivory" over the years but I still don't like to listen to it.  Conversely, I was never a big fan of songs like "Take Me Away" or "No More Lonely Nights", yet here in this context, those songs sound inspiring next to the forgettable likes of "Tug of War", "Pipes of Peace", "We All Stand Together", "Spies Like Us" and pretty much everything off of the abominable Press To Play (the sheer terror of those mid-80s productions can still make me shiver).  Pretty much the only song I'll stand by is "Say Say Say", which still sounds pretty good.  I'll give a nostalgic pass to "Ode to a Koala Bear" and "So Bad" because they aren't so bad when you're nine.

And because of that rut, I'm also stalled out with it, and haven't started the run from Flowers In The Dirt to Flaming Pie yet.  I'm just scared.  Already, I've never been super-psyched about those albums anyway.  Can it be that bad?  Or worse?  Or better?  But probably worse?


 

Every record store Day I am always hoping for a few things that never seem to materialize

Milton Nascimento - Clube de Aquinas

Sonny Sharrock - Guitar or Rock of Ages

Freedy Johnston - I Will Fly

Iris DeMent - Infamous Angel

Boredoms - something, anything

Borbetomagus - Barbed Wire Kisses

And a few others I can't remember off the top of my head

Never happens

There have been two recent vinyl issues of Sharrock's Ask The Ages, although they both go for a median price of $77 and $108 respectively.  The first is a 2LP 45rpm version from Hive Mind Records from 2019, and Island Records (who I guess owns the Axiom catalogue now?) red vinyl from 2021.

I decided to splurge on this pink-marbled bootleg (Coda Records) collecting a few European radio broadcasts from the early Gilmour band.  The sound is pretty good, considering the sources, a little hot at times, some surface noise that is likely radio interference.  But I found it to be more perplexing than I was expecting.  The dates of the recordings are off.  That's probably the result of the fact that my sources are listing the recording dates, and the ones on this sleeve are the broadcast dates.  But there are still inconsistencies.  I already have a boot called Pink Floyd On Air which is supposed to be a comprehensive collection of their 1967-1969 European radio and TV appearances, and there's definitely a possibility that either there was some oversights on that set or that additional recordings have been more recently discovered.  I'm not sure yet.  The lack of information from Coda or on any of the other websites promoting this disc is a little conspicuous.  I do believe that these are genuine 1968 radio recordings (the May 5th Rome broadcast is absolutely confirmed), but I hold out the possibility that these listings are inaccurate.  After listening through the LP once, I'll have to go back and more closely compare these recordings to the others I have, and I think there's a good chance that these are from several different broadcasts throughout the second half of 1968.

A brief example of my dilemma is the song "Flaming".  This was not a song that was frequently performed post-Barrett, and, to my ears, it sure does sound like Barrett here.  Problem is that Syd Barrett did not perform with the band in Paris in 1968.  Maybe they're using the BBC recording from Sept. '67 instead?  But there is also a rare (the only one I'm aware of) version of "Flaming" recorded in Paris from November 1968 with someone else on vocals, and I'll have to pull that version out to determine if this is the one included here.  If so, it would still be mislabled on the sleeve by several months.  Or, who knows, maybe these simply are freshly discovered recordings, and I just happened to pick up some true additions to my collection.

This is kinda funny.  I watch some of these "Vinyl Community" channels, but I don't like most of them.  I just like the vinyl porn.  Anyway, this guy - dereckvon (Dereck Higgins) - is one of the most interesting of the bunch because he has some awesome, eclectic, esoteric tastes that never fail to leave me jotting down unknown names by the end.  Deep stuff.

So yesterday, he mentions how he recently picked up the Herbie Mann LP Stone Flute, from his personal Embryo label, and which has been a favortie of mine for quite some time, not uncoincidentally because it was from the period that Roy Ayers and Sonny Sharrock were in Mann's band.  So I'm inspired to do something I never do.  I comment on a Youtube video.  I say I love the record, and Ayers and Sharrock, and going on a tangent mentioning Pharoah and Alice Coltrane and some of my other favorite Indian-tinged spiritual jazz.  And, free-styling, I say something like "I bet Sharrock's Ask the Ages is right up your alley".  So then, today, dereckvon opens the video with, "Somebody asking me about Ask the Ages....OF COURSE I know Sonny Sharrock!!!!"

Ok, man.  I wasn't trying to step on your toes or anything.  I did think it was also funny that, considering the discussion above in this thread, he then complains that those recent vinyl releases of Ages was too expensive and limited edition for him to have gotten a copy.





Mostly, I think I appreciate Dereck Higgins because he's an actual working musician and can speak articulately about music and music-making.  Which is very rare among these VC folks, the worst of whom betray very little knowledge of even the records they're touting.  Oh, they'll know the pressing, and the guy who mastered the lacquor or whatever, but it's so common when someone asks about a particular song or musician on the record, they'll have to stare at the back cover for a few seconds, "mmmmmmmmmmmmmm....Yep, that's it."  I swear, some of these bastards act like these records might as well be beanie babies or something, just an investment opportunity or bragging rights.
 

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