Third Man Records is excited to share its full slate of Record Store Day 2019 offerings. Topping the list is the Third Man Triple Inchophone 3″ record player, available alongside a new 3″ box set of The White Stripes singles. Third Man will also be releasing a 2xLP 180 gram black vinyl version of Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band’s Trout Mask Replica, as well as Griot Galaxy’s Kins LP in limited “liquid darkness” vinyl. The latter two LPs will be available in participating record stores on Record Store Day 2019 (Saturday, April 13), while the Triple Inchophone turntable and White Stripes box set will be available only at Third Man’s Nashville and Detroit storefronts.
TMR Triple Inchophone Turntable & White Stripes 3″ Singles Box Set
Available at Third Man Nashville & Detroit Storefronts on RSD
3-inch records were originally released and marketed for a short time in Japan in the early 2000s, just before the worldwide re-birth of vinyl began to take hold. The White Stripes produced eight singles on 3” record in 2005 alongside an Inchophone turntable. The highly coveted vinyl records —only available on the Get Behind Me Satan tour (with the exception of “Denial Twist” which was and remains only attainable as a personal gift from Jack White) — go for top dollar in the secondary market.
Fast forward to 2019, the idea of resurrecting the format stemmed from a trip to Japan when representatives of Record Store Day met the only factory that used to make these “8ban” records and as such the RSD3 Mini Turntable by Crosley was born with its special edition Third Man Records Triple Inchophone, available at Third Man Records Nashville and Detroit storefronts on Record Store Day. Third Man Records is happy to use the rebirth of this format as a welcomed excuse to release an exclusive box set of six 3” records containing selections from the White Stripes singles back catalog that have not been previously available on 3″ record (only available at Third Man Records storefronts), as well as 4 additional label selections, available in mystery sleeves only at RSD participating record stores around the world.
The six new White Stripes singles available in the box set are “Let’s Shake Hands”, “Lafayette Blues”, “The Big Three Killed My Baby”, “Hello Operator”, “Lord, Send Me an Angel” and “Conquest.”
The four Third Man Records artist singles available in blind boxes at participating RSD record stores are: The Raconteurs “Store Bought Bones”, The Dead Weather “Be Still”, Jack White “Love Interruption” and The White Stripes “Candy Cane Children.”
The previous singles for sale in 2005 are “Top Special,” “Hotel Yorba,“ “Blue Orchid,” “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground,” “The Hardest Button to Button,” “Fell In Love With A Girl,” and “Seven Nation Army.”
Captain Beefheart – Trout Mask Replica 2xLP 180-gram Black Vinyl
Available at participating RSD record stores
Trout Mask Replica is a touchstone in the history of recorded music. The mix of dada absurdist blues and previously unexplored experimental avenues has long been praised as one of the greatest albums of all time. As so eloquently put by John Peel, “If there has been anything in the history of popular music which could be described as a work of art in a way that people who are involved in other areas of art would understand, then Trout Mask Replica is probably that work.”
In full partnership with the Zappa Family Trust and to celebrate the relaunch of the seminal Bizarre label imprint, Third Man Records is proud to release Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band’s Trout Mask Replica.
Out of print on vinyl for nearly ten years, this remaster was helmed by industry legend Bob Ludwig and cut by the estimable Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering. Utilizing crystalline-quality safety masters kept in the Zappa family vault for decades by the trustworthy Joe Travers, the audio here is positively glorious. Every last skronk breathes full life into the room. Every twisted guitar figure uncurls onto paths previously unpaved. Every last bark and howl shines resolute through the vast emptiness of your mind.
Previous countless Trout Mask Replica repressings used scans of scans of scans of the cover image, but the original Cal Schenkel cover photo has been tracked down and reproduced here at its clearest — its resolution from the original release in 1969. If you’ve only ever seen a jpg online or fuzzy, smeared-looking CD issues from the 90’s, be prepared to be wowed by the fully engaging spectrum this iconic image casts. This 2xLP is pressed on heavyweight 180-gram black vinyl for that full-on frenetic feeling.
Griot Galaxy – Kins Limited Edition LP
Black/white splatter “Liquid Darkness” vinyl, available at participating RSD record stores
Griot Galaxy is a “secret” jewel of Detroit’s avant-garde jazz history – until now. That is to say, they will always be a jewel of Detroit’s avant-garde jazz history, their deeply passionate music a testament to experimentation, freedom, and blackness. But with the long-awaited reissue of their first album, the hard-to-find Kins, the secret is out.
Griot Galaxy doesn’t strictly begin with Kins. It begins with visionary bandleader and saxophonist Faruq Z. Bey’s musical and political awakening in the late ‘60s, when the 1967 Detroit Rebellion was tearing Detroit apart and Coltrane’s untimely death was devastating the jazz community. Kins, recorded in 1981 and originally released in 1982, is a masterstroke of creative Detroit jazz. The freeness of the playing is anchored by a serious propensity for rhythm, evident in the way its members layered their collective backgrounds in bebop, funk, reggae, and other styles within the expansive possibility of sonic expression. And all but 200 or so copies of the original 2000 pressed were unintentionally trashed.
Griot Galaxy’s willingness to push boundaries was as affectionate as it was fearless. Kins is Detroit’s post-Coltrane, high-on-Sun-Ra bridge into the ‘80s. They certainly weren’t the first to experiment with polyrhythms, odd meters, and tonal scales beyond the traditional concepts, but it was in part the combination of Shahid and Tabbal’s previous experience with Sun Ra, as well as Tabbal’s experience with one-time Arkestra trumpeter Phil Cohran, that allowed the group to blossom. Donning silver face paint and spouting poetry on stage, the group gained notoriety for both impressive musicianship and theatrical proto-Afrofuturist flourishes as they played all over town, including Cobb’s Corner, a jazz bar in the Cass Corridor.
We’re lucky that lead engineer Ron DeCorte saved the original master tapes, from which these recordings came. Although most of the wider world didn’t get a chance to experience the wonder of Griot Galaxy at the time, we will gloriously, happily, gratefully take what we can get now.
