Ah Record Store Day. To some it's a day to celebrate the vinyl music hobby where special limited edition copies of records are released. It's a day where you camp out and hopefully talk to some like minded music fans and wax poetic about what release is you're hoping to score. For others is a corporate money grab where unneeded represses flood shops that are barely hanging on and add to the FOMO culture that is unfortunately inherent in the collection game. But like a little girl in the old El Paso commercial once said: por qué no los dos?
Record Store Day (RSD) is as nuanced as my own thoughts on collecting in general (I hate capitalism but love me some kickbacks), but at the end of the day I try my best to only get what I can afford, support my favorite record shops, and share my love for music pressed on vinyl as much as I can.Â
This year's list is interesting. I'm usually of the opinion that if there is at least one thing I really want, it's a good list. I think too many people tend to want a huge lineup of their favorite niche albums ready to pick up on that fateful 3rd Saturday of April. But vinyl collecting is already a niche hobby and expecting that super rare, impossible to acquire private press record from the 70s to get a repressing is well, silly. The same goes for those lamenting the records that don't "deserve" a repress. While I agree they are clogging up the vinyl pressing lines with their less than desirable chaff, it's silly and honestly elitist to just disregard them. That being said, there are always a few confounding releases (which I'll touch on in another post).
Here I'm taking a moment to share my wish-list and maybe even direct people to some gems on this years RSD. Although if I'm honest, this first of many RSD posts is my personal list of release that called to me on first glance. I'm sure that some releases that a skimmed over will end up ranking higher that these, but for now these are the ones I'll be searching out on RSD.
This is definitely one of the more conflicted picks in my list. This at one point was a very sought after RSD release. One that was snapped up quickly upon its release and remained so until a repress came a few years later. Now I'm not opposed to represses especially if they are in a different color (in this case the RSD was maroon and the regular release was plain black). But it does feel weird to see it back on the list, even if it is a hefty upgrade with an extra two sides of music from the film and kitschy karaoke versions. Ugh. But those extra songs, supervised by one of my favorites Brian Reitzel, really do make it a worthy addition to the list.Â
I'm a huge fan of Son Lux, dating back to their early days on Bloomington Indiana label Joyful Noise. The trio of Rafiq Bhatia, Ian Chang, and Ryan Lott released Bones in 2015, their first together as a group as Son Lux was mainly Lott's project previous. This release is a great little collection of re-imagined and expanded tracks from that era of the band, and much like last year's Alternate Forms, gives fans a deeper look at the incredible group. As a Son Lux completionist, this is a must get.
Team Sleep came out at a time where my music habits were finally being cemented. I was listening to everything and anything I could get my hands on on the pre streaming days. Algorithms weren't dictating things just yet and music blogs/forums were my guides. And despite that wealth of information, I had no idea that Team Sleep was a side project of Deftones' Chino Moreno. If anything I was drawn to the album by the album cover and was hooked by the incredible jams on the album. It didn't take too long (but definitely longer than I care to admit) for the Deftones connections to hit, but this is a perfect example of an RSD release: never pressed to vinyl, getting a cool color release, and featuring extra tracks with Mary Timony (!) and Mike Patton (!!!).Â
Ok, I know that when it comes to Parliament records, people want those first or early pressing that all sound like liquid gold being poured straight into your ears (this analogy got away from me). But unless you're willing to shell out hundreds, that's not really an option. This is the first US press since the original (there are foreign presses but those are dubious at best and the alternative titled Rhenium isn't the same), so this is a great opportunity to get the iconic group's debut on vinyl
Dean & Britta - L'Avventura (Deluxe Edition) This is another conflicted one. Years I ago, while Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips were on tour with Luna, I saw that they had listed vinyl copies of their debut album L'Avventura on their website. The album only ever had a single pressing and it was hard to come buy even then, so I grabbed a copy. It's a favorite of mine, standing it's own to the duo's stuff in Luna and Wareham's Galaxie 500 output. So, while I do own a copy, this deluxe edition comes with an additional disc of material that's never been pressed on vinyl. I'm not a variant collector and I rarely double dip. When I do, I tend to give my old copy to a friend or sell it, but this is one of the rare instances (four off the top of my head) where I'll keep both copies because this album is fantastic.