Music lovers, be on the lookout this Black Friday as Record Store Day, in its classic style, rolls out some truly incredible titles to celebrate RSD Black Friday, the beginning of the holidays, and the glory of shopping at independents with “weird kooky little shops” around the country on November 25.
I mean, right around this time in 1999, Joe Strummer marched into Music Millennium, Portland, Oregon’s long standing jewel, and rocked through a 5-song set of intimate acoustic takes on “Junco Partner,” “X-Ray Style” “Island Hopping,” “The Road to Rock N Roll,” and “Trash City.” The soundboard recording, Music Millennium’s first ever release for RSD Black Friday, pressed to vinyl and appropriately titled Joe Strummer Live At Music Millennium, continues the ongoing celebration this year of what would have been Strummer’s 70th birthday.
We always say, “Once An Ambassador, Always A Friend”, and our past Ambassadors are showing up! The list of releases includes the long-awaited vinyl debut release of Record Store Day 2015 Ambassador Dave Grohl’s Dream Widow, the album whose recording started it all in the Foo Fighters’ comedy-horror film Studio 666. 2018 RSD Ambassadors Run The Jewels take their RTJ4 album, invite some friends to help them spice it up and give us the double CD CU4TRO, all new music with a Latin American vibe. RSD 2012 Ambassador Iggy Pop also has a little international flavor on his release Apres, which comes on CD and vinyl, and that flavor is French… in the tunes he covers and the language he croons them in. And we’re even starting on the next generation: Ottto, the face of SoCal’s new thrash metal scene, will mark their vinyl debut with the RSD Black Friday title Locos Live in Venus, featuring Ty Trujillo, son of Metallica bassist (and ¼ RSD 2016 Ambassador) Robert Trujillo. (You’ve heard Ty before, playing guitar on “Master of Puppets” in the instantly iconic Stranger Things scene.) Ottto will celebrate by performing live on Black Friday at Fingerprints in Long Beach, CA.
Both Billie Eilish and The Weeknd show their support for local record stores and create brand new artwork versions of their respective Happier Than Ever and Dawn FM albums. Silversun Pickups create a whole new band, teaming up with Butch Vig for SSVU and a single that references both David Lynch and Suzanne Ciani (and that’s just the song titles!)
The Doors finally release the fabled studio outtake “Paris Blues” –the last known unreleased studio recording– as the title track to a new blues-themed vinyl compilation. And those whose wish was for The Cure picture disc series to get to their biggest selling album, can consider that WISH granted. Albums from Fountains of Wayne, Smash Mouth and Soul Coughing see their first ever vinyl releases, as does Low Budget High Fi Music from Madlib, one of the prolific producer’s Madlib Medicine Show Series titles.
Madonna follows her #1-charting hits collection with the limited edition 40th Anniversary 12” for the single that first got everyone to the dance floor, her very first: “Everybody”. Martha and the Vandellas throw a literal Dance Party, Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga get us dancing Cheek to Cheek Live, Goldfinger’s Hey Destiny jumps things around a little and Lullabye Renditions of Blink-182 settle everyone in for lights out.
The film Moonage Daydream may put some new David Bowie fans on your gift list, and there are two titles to make them happy: a candy-cane swirl 12” of the now-classic duet with Bing Crosby, “Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth” and the Next Day Extra EP, featuring various album outtakes and remixes from Bowie’s The Next Day album, including a ten-minute opus by LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy.
There will be some lovely jazz highlights in record stores this RSD Black Friday, with Mingus and Monk both popping up on the List, along with the first two releases from Deep Digs, a new label started by “The Jazz Detective” Zev Feldman: Emerald City Nights Live At The Penthouse (1963 -1964) and (1965 - 1966) capture pianist Ahmad Jamal as only Jazz Detective packages can.
Box sets are easy to wrap up, and there’s a nice selection on the list this year. Rival Schools box up their United By Fate album with all the b-sides, acoustic tracks and a hardbound book, in a limited, numbered linen case. Fleetwood Mac combine the individual Alternate albums that are a favorite of Record Store Days past into both vinyl and CD box sets, and all the Jerry Garcia vibes of a past November night on Pure Jerry: Coliseum, Hampton, VA, November 9, 1991 box set.
Fans of the RSD3 mini-turntable get some new sounds to spin on it’s 3” deck with a series of 3” singles featuring Czarface (“The Czarlacc Pit”) and Czarface with MF Doom (“Nautical Depth” and “Mando Calrissian”). Beck takes another mini-spin as well with his second 3” single, “It’s All In Your Mind,” as part of the 20th anniversary of his much acclaimed Sea Change album.
We haven’t even gotten started, but you can find more details on these and other titles on the RSD Black Friday List, along with artwork and participating stores at recordstoreday.com
About Record Store Day
Record Store Day, the organization, is managed by the Department of Record Stores and is organized in partnership with the Alliance of Independent Media Stores (AIMS), the Coalition of Independent Music Stores (CIMS) and promotes independent record stores year-round with events, special releases and other fun things.
Record Store Day, the global celebration of the culture of the record store, takes place annually.
Record Store Day Sponsors:
ADA, Andover Audio, Crosley Turntables, Dogfish Head Brewery, Furnace Record Pressing, Glowtronics, InGrooves, Music Business Association, MVD Entertainment, The Orchard, Redeye Distribution, Sony Music, ThinkIndie, Traffic Distribution, URP Distribution, Vans, Vinyl Styl, WMX
