This year, more than 400 special releases were confirmed for release on both sides of the Atlantic for, what has become, the annual chaotic phenomena known as Record Store Day. This year I was lucky and resolute enough to have saved up my hard-earned dough for the occasion, as well as flog a few unwanted pieces on eBay prior to the big day, in order to raise a few funds. Please note - I don't buy Record Store Day issues to sell online, but merely to listen to them whilst, at the same time, appreciating the work that has gone into some of them. Some record companies really do have vivid imaginations.
Leaving aside the items I couldn't get at my local emporium (the Bowies and the Stones, for example - not fussed, if I'm honest), I've rounded up what I bought, not as a gloat but as a guide to whatever you might still find at your local shop if you try hard enough. Some of the below are still sitting expectantly in the racks!
For the record (ho ho), I traipsed around Surrey for most of my wares, spending the entire Saturday 20th April flitting from one shop to another and turning up some prime gems, even as late as 4.30 in the afternoon. All of which proves that if you have a broad wants-list, it pays not to sit glued to a camping chair, shivering in a sleeping-bag at 3am, with passing piss-heads for company and the flu at the end of it. But it does help, of course.
So, in no particular order are the pick of my bunch.
First up, mainly because I am listening to one of them as I type, are the Domino Recordings reissues of the first four Orange Juice albums. They look as good as they did in the '80s, in particular the debut-album You Can't Hide Your Love Forever which sounds like a band who used to be scratchy and raw but have had cash thrown at them by a 'major'. It has its moments, such as Falling and Laughing (buffed up from its original Postcard incarnation) and Felicity, but also wobbles in places. Better by far is Rip It Up, the big hit-album with the title-track, I Can't Help Myself, Flesh of my Flesh and enough great album-tracks to keep you happy. Follow-up mini-album Texas Fever and the 1984 self-titled final album, both produced by reggae-tastic Dennis Bovell, might have been bigger successes had they not been over-produced in places. The latter is worth having for What Presence, Lean Period and the superb I Guess I'm Just a Little Too Sensitive.
Another key Eighties repress comes in the shape of Jesus and Mary Chain's landmark Psychocandy album, courtesy of Demon Records. Following on from the label's CD re-release program a couple of years back, this limited edition of 1000 copies have been pressed on 'splatter' vinyl (sort of a mauve, red and pink hurl) complete with a facsimile repro of an early gig poster. You know the music - sweet surf-pop dressed up to sound like Velvet Underground on lots of quaaludes, topped off with tap-tap-tap drumbeats and outrageous fright-wig hairstyles. Basically, JAMC were IT for a while and tracks like Never Understand, You Trip Me Up and The Living End still carry an air of saccahrin menace. It pissed all over Darklands anyway.
Comical RSD 2013 release of the year must go to Earache Records for their compilation archly titled The World's Shortest Album. And who am I to argue? 13 tracks by 8 different bands delivered in just 83 seconds and stamped onto a 5" vinyl disc. My trundly old turntable struggled with the concept of having its arm steered two inches further in than usual and thus automatically returned said arm to its resting place. Persistence paid off however and soon I was being submitted to one band uttering "woorrgh", then the same band (Napalm Death, since you ask) going "growwwwllmm" for a bit longer and so on until, after flipping it over, Insect Warfare offered up 13 seconds of a track called Street Sweeper. In fact, given the indecipherable lyrics, the track could have been called Beetroot Shit Pensioner, it really wouldn't have mattered. After issuing the World's Shortest Single (1 second per side) with the renowned Grind Crusher compilation a few decades ago, I would have expected nothing less from the wonderful Earache.
One of the contributing bands on the above is Napalm Death who themselves were honoured with a RSD 2013 in the shape of a 10" entitled Leaders Not Followers. In keeping with their 'stick-it-to-the-man' attitude, the six songs on this red-vinyl release are covers of other like-minded, though not necessarily metal, bands. Dead Kennedy's ubiquitous Nazi Punks Fuck Off and Pentagram's Demonic Possession are perhaps the most inspiring of these, but the whole disc is a worthy barrage of Napalm Death on fire.
I picked up a few classic Seventies releases as well. It was great to get the Broken English Original Mix on vinyl. Favoured by its creator Marianne Faithfull, the mix is warm and less synthesized than the final version and includes a very long version of Why'd Ya Do It, a folkier take on The Ballad Of Lucy Jordan and a less fussy rendering of the title-track. I still don't get on with Brain Drain after all these years but it's a super album nonetheless.
Another druggy album comes courtesy of Velvet Underground. Not strictly a reissue, The Scepter Studios Sessions pulls together rehearsal recordings of tracks from the first album. Some sleevenotes might have been nice (take note Universal Music) but you cannot question how tight VU were on much of this. The versions of Femme Fatale and All Tomorrow's Parties differ only slightly to the originals yet display a subtle resonance from a band destined for (eventual) great things and critical acclaim.
One of my obsessions during the past few decades has been Factory Records and its affiliated labels and artists - not surprisingly, RSD served up some must-haves in this department as well. It's hard to pick the best of the bunch, so I won't because they're all essential in their own way. The newly revived Factory Benelux had two key Record Store Day releases on offer, both of them vinyl issues of new or recent material by two established acts from the label. The Wake came up trumps with the lovely A Light Far Out album in 2012 but it was only available on CD until now - it seems to make more sense on vinyl and is worth seeking out.
Also worth rooting for is the Section 25 7" only release of new song My Outrage. Taken from the band's ace Dark Light album, also on Factory Benelux (sadly only on CD), it's a spiky, spunky slice of rave-tastic electro-pop that sounds like it was made by teenagers, not adults. The flip-side is an exclusive high-end instrumental called Hinterland that ranks as one of their prettier functional workouts Nice Peter Saville sleeve too.
Warners and Rhino have knocked out another 10" single to celebrate their various artists smorgasbord box-set that is Factory Communications 1978-1992. This Volume 2 comes in a gold sleeve with the 'Hearing Protection' imagery and four top-notch tracks such as Otis by Durutti Column and the 12" remix of She's Lost Control. Talking of Durutti Column, their worthwhile A Paean To Wilson album was given a bit of RSD love by Kooky Records. But not just any old love - double-vinyl with extra bits kind of love. The two platters come in a lavish gatefold with download code and a gold-embossed envelope concealing a card repro of the cover photo and the original MIF concert programme of the album's premiere in Manchester. The bastard envelope was tricky to open (super-glued) and the contents were, hmmm, just OK. The music is, however, an odyssey for the ears and ought to be in everyone's household.
Other curios worth seeking out (if you haven't already) are the Strut reissue of the obscure Italian psychedelic disco album Desert, originally released in 1979 by the composers Antonio Vuolo and Elio Grande. It's an odd but triumphant blend of Babe Ruth-style funk-rock and cosmic instrumentals of a high quality. And sticking within the realms of eccentricity, PoppyDisc came up with an overdue vinyl revisit of Joe Meek's left-field I Hear a New World. Charming, perhaps a little bit 'novelty' and a prime example of Meek's vivid imagination (he invented characters to go with the music) - the fact that this was recorded in 1960 only serves to heighten Meek's forward-thinking in producing. Iron and Wine's lovely Ghost on Ghost appeared with a bonus 7" - worth investing in, for sure - while Sub Pop celebrated its tempestuous existence of 25 years with a rather muddled compilation of exclusive and rare tracks by the likes of Peaking Lights, My Disco and Lori Goldston - Sub Pop 1000 is pressed on a marbled light blue vinyl, comes with a black and white fanzine-style book and a download coupon that I haven't bothered to use.
Special mention goes to Bureau B for issuing three white-vinyl 12", esp the one by Lloyd Cole and Hans-Joachim Roedelius, Numero Records ace double 7" of Husker Du's Amusement, O Genesis with an excellent clear-vinyl single by Inspiral Carpets, Facts Are Right by British Sea Power and one of the most beautiful Tom Moulton remixes ever, Heaven n Hell's Watcha Gonna Do on Harmless.
Thanks to Hi-Hi Hangar in Bordon, People in Guildford, Record Corner in Godalming and Sister Ray in Soho for helping the floor-joists in my flat creak that much more.... Thanks also to The Star pub in Godalming for lubrication at the end of a busy day of digging....
Leaving aside the items I couldn't get at my local emporium (the Bowies and the Stones, for example - not fussed, if I'm honest), I've rounded up what I bought, not as a gloat but as a guide to whatever you might still find at your local shop if you try hard enough. Some of the below are still sitting expectantly in the racks!
For the record (ho ho), I traipsed around Surrey for most of my wares, spending the entire Saturday 20th April flitting from one shop to another and turning up some prime gems, even as late as 4.30 in the afternoon. All of which proves that if you have a broad wants-list, it pays not to sit glued to a camping chair, shivering in a sleeping-bag at 3am, with passing piss-heads for company and the flu at the end of it. But it does help, of course.
So, in no particular order are the pick of my bunch.
Another key Eighties repress comes in the shape of Jesus and Mary Chain's landmark Psychocandy album, courtesy of Demon Records. Following on from the label's CD re-release program a couple of years back, this limited edition of 1000 copies have been pressed on 'splatter' vinyl (sort of a mauve, red and pink hurl) complete with a facsimile repro of an early gig poster. You know the music - sweet surf-pop dressed up to sound like Velvet Underground on lots of quaaludes, topped off with tap-tap-tap drumbeats and outrageous fright-wig hairstyles. Basically, JAMC were IT for a while and tracks like Never Understand, You Trip Me Up and The Living End still carry an air of saccahrin menace. It pissed all over Darklands anyway.
One of the contributing bands on the above is Napalm Death who themselves were honoured with a RSD 2013 in the shape of a 10" entitled Leaders Not Followers. In keeping with their 'stick-it-to-the-man' attitude, the six songs on this red-vinyl release are covers of other like-minded, though not necessarily metal, bands. Dead Kennedy's ubiquitous Nazi Punks Fuck Off and Pentagram's Demonic Possession are perhaps the most inspiring of these, but the whole disc is a worthy barrage of Napalm Death on fire.
Another druggy album comes courtesy of Velvet Underground. Not strictly a reissue, The Scepter Studios Sessions pulls together rehearsal recordings of tracks from the first album. Some sleevenotes might have been nice (take note Universal Music) but you cannot question how tight VU were on much of this. The versions of Femme Fatale and All Tomorrow's Parties differ only slightly to the originals yet display a subtle resonance from a band destined for (eventual) great things and critical acclaim.
Warners and Rhino have knocked out another 10" single to celebrate their various artists smorgasbord box-set that is Factory Communications 1978-1992. This Volume 2 comes in a gold sleeve with the 'Hearing Protection' imagery and four top-notch tracks such as Otis by Durutti Column and the 12" remix of She's Lost Control. Talking of Durutti Column, their worthwhile A Paean To Wilson album was given a bit of RSD love by Kooky Records. But not just any old love - double-vinyl with extra bits kind of love. The two platters come in a lavish gatefold with download code and a gold-embossed envelope concealing a card repro of the cover photo and the original MIF concert programme of the album's premiere in Manchester. The bastard envelope was tricky to open (super-glued) and the contents were, hmmm, just OK. The music is, however, an odyssey for the ears and ought to be in everyone's household.
Thanks to Hi-Hi Hangar in Bordon, People in Guildford, Record Corner in Godalming and Sister Ray in Soho for helping the floor-joists in my flat creak that much more.... Thanks also to The Star pub in Godalming for lubrication at the end of a busy day of digging....