First, a little note: we’re bringing tiny back! This year we’re introducing our own turntable, the RSD3, and it is an adorable little thing. Of course, if you’ve got a 3” turntable, you need some 3” records, and we’ve got those two. A Foo Fighters 3” record, (ironically, it’s “Big Me”), and two blind box series from Epitaph Records and Third Man Records hit the shelves on April 13. (With more to come, for the cutest little record collection you’ve ever seen).
We’re always asked what we’re most excited about, and this year, we can say we’re looking forward to the release of In The Garage: Live Music From WTF With Marc Maron, a collection of lovely intimate performances from the podcast, which brought together a team that included Marc, folks from Newbury Comics, Fingerprints, Tito’s HandMade Vodka and us—for the first release on our own Record Store Day record label. Best part? This compilation with music from Ben Harper and Charlie Musselwhite, Karen Kilgariff, Jason Isbell, Dave Alvin, Eels, J Masic, Aimee Mann, Melissa Etheridge, Margo Price and Nick Lowe benefits the amazing organization Musicians on Call, who know something about the beauty of the intimate performance—they bring musicians to hospital facilities to bring a little joy to patients across the country.
Other than that, we’re always psyched about any title that ties back directly to a record store or artists we know are record store lovers. Our 2019 Ambassadors Pearl Jam certainly fit the bill—and their RSD 2019 contribution is the vinyl release of their legendary Live At Easy Street CD. Not only was this set recorded live at a record store in Seattle, the audience was made up of staff from record stores across the country (who says there are no perks of the job?) Our beloved PRINCE was devoted to his local Minneapolis record stores, and he’s got two titles on this year’s list: a vinyl release of His Majesty’s Pop Life/The Purple Mix Club and the truly sought after The VERSACE Experience: PRELUDE 2 GOLD, a cassette release never commercially released—but given out at Versace’s 1995 Paris Fashion Week show. Ooh la la! Jeff Tweedy spent some time working at a record store himself, and he’s got a spot on the list with an entirely new album, Warmer. Recorded during the sessions for his latest album, Warm, this companion album for Record Store Day is ten brand new songs.
Collaborations run strong too, as Anderson Paak teams up with Busta Rhymes for a single, Mark Ronson and Miley Cyrus get physical with their hit “Nothing Breaks Like A Heart”, we revisit a classic cassette from Craig Mack and the Notorious B.I.G. and if posthumous collaborations count, the group that came together when Queen’s Brian May and Foo Fighters’ Taylor Hawkins fleshed out a track left by Beach Boy Dennis Wilson is pretty cool. (Brian May is everywhere this RSD: his other band has a reissue single of that song that will never be a hit— “Bohemian Rhapsody”, with its original B-Side “I’m In Love With My Car”; a picture disc of the Bohemian Rhapsody soundtrack: and he has a single all his own.) And while there are usually some David Bowie treasures to be found on Record Store Day, the single celebrating the celluloid collaboration of Bowie with Marlene Dietrich in Just A Gigolo stands out.
Musicians love music just as much as we do, and some of them use RSD as a chance to take on their own favorite songs. Erykah Badu and James Poyser take Squeeze’s “Tempted” down another road, Swervedriver bring the shoegaze out in classic tracks from the Byrds and The Supremes, Motorhead’s love of the Ramones is evident on their RSD 2019 7” release, High On Fire give Celtic Frost and Bad Brains some attention on the flip side of their brand new single, and Weezer tops them all with their full covers record The Teal Album (guess what color that vinyl is?).
Elvis Costello and The Imposters release the tidy Purse EP that brings together the songs Elvis has written with some of the best songwriters in history, including Paul McCartney and Johnny Cash. Some other names on a lot of ‘Best of All Time’ lists are also on our RSD 2019 list, including Steve Earle, Pink Floyd, Elton John, Joe Strummer, U2, Gorillaz, Rolling Stones, Devo, Aretha Franklin, Charlie Parker and more. Two of the most well known albums ever released get a fresh look on April 13: Bob Dylan’s Blood On The Tracks—The Original New York Test Pressing and John Lennon’s Imagine (Raw Studio Mixes) give fans a new look at beloved music, while newer artists like Greta Van Fleet, Courtney Barnett, John The Martyr and Soccer Mommy are here for that musical discovery side of record stores.
And of course, this year marks the 50th anniversary of that magical time out on Yasgur’s Farm, and the Record Store Day 2019 list highlights that with releases of the sets from Janis Joplin, Sly & The Family Stone, Canned Heat and a 3 LP Mono release of the original Woodstock soundtrack—exactly as you would have heard it from the loudspeakers in August 1969. (Oh, and for good measure, a release that visits Green Day’s set from that second Woodstock.)
More information on these releases and SO MANY MORE can be found on recordstoreday.com
