RECORD STORE DAY: Line-worthy 2013 Picks
1. As an Athens transplant, I am obligated by law to mention the R.E.M. Live in Greensboro CD. Pick it up, but CDs aren’t the exciting part of RSD – wax on, wax on.
2. Life’s a beach! Surfer Blood’s new single Demon Dance / Slow Six on not uni-, not duo-, but TRI-COLORED VINYL! Lawd have mercy.
3. RSD is giving us two Brendan Benson releases: Diamond / Good to Me (1997 demo) 7” and an Upstairs at United duet with Willy Mason. Good to us indeed!
4. In the continuing adventures of awesome artists recording live at United, Smoke Fairies are releasing their Upstairs At United12”. Make sure to either continue or start your UAU collection with this gem!
5. Willie Nelson, Snoop Lion, Jamey Johnson, and Kris Kristofferson sing “Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die” on a green 7”. Read that one more time. The kings of hash singing about wanting to be cremated into joints. Again, on GREEN vinyl. The novelty alone makes this a sound purchase.
6. For the indie punk rock fanatics out there, we have good news: a Thermals demo collection on 7”, an exclusive Titus Andronicus 12” release, and the new Phoenix single Entertainment 7”on grey vinyl. What else do we have to say?
7. New Los Straitjackets and Freddy Cannon in the form of The Sox Are Rockin’ / Red Sox Nation 7”. Nothing will make your jukebox jump more than that. Unless you’re a Yankees fan.
8. We’ve been feeling funky lately. We bet you have too. Good thing Eli ‘Paperboy’ Reed is releasing WooHoo / Call Your Boyfriend. And, oh, what’s that? A Fitz & The Tantrums Out of My League 12”? Cue guttural James Brown expression of excitement!
9. It wouldn’t be right to have Jack White assume the RSD ambassador position without some Third Man goodies. Check out Pujol’s Deep Cuts colored vinyl, and of course a re-release of the seminal Stripes Elephant on red vinyl. So pretty!
10. Americana is the only thing: get your painted desert on with a live Calexico LP, Spirtoso, previously only available on tour; get your old dirt road on with a Jason Isbell/Elizabeth Cook split 7” and an Avett Brothers and Randy Travis CMT Crossroads split.
11. Speaking of the crossroads, live cuts from blues guitar phenom Gary Clark Jr., on limited edition colored 12”. This one’s worth waiting in line for.
12. More bluesy goodness: Black Keys / Iggy & The Stooges No Fun side by side split colored vinyl – the kings of proto punk and the inheriting princes of blues rock, together in color.
13. It’s a good year for classic rock. There’s a non-bootleg acetate Velvet Underground & Nico 33RPM on green vinyl. There’s The Band’s deluxe reissue of The Last Waltz in triple-LP, 180 gram form, with a 12 page booklet. And how punny: Cream is releasing a deluxe Live at the Royal Albert Hall set on cream-colored vinyl. Haha. Get it?
-Kelsey Butterworth
