I won’t bore you all with why I have been absent of late but it involves computer woes that hopefully are behind me. I was going to do a round up of this weekend’s shows (and I still might) but I wanted to spotlight some of the releases for Record Store Day, which is happening this Saturday.
The Feelies (who have seen a couple of their old albums reissued by Bar/None recently and are working on a new one) will put out an EP of covers called Uncovered. It features their previously unreleased commercially renditions of “Seven Days” (Bob Dylan), “Take It As It Comes” (The Doors), “Dancing Barefoot” (Patti Smith), and “Bar Stool Blues” (Neil Young). In more covers news, ABKCO will give the first US release to The Animals’ Animals Tracks EP, which back out abroad in 1965. This EP’s covers are Chuck Berry’s “How You’ve Changed,” Ray Charles’ “I Believe to My Soul,” Shirley & Lee’s “Let The Good Times Roll” and Big Maceo Merriweather’s “Worried Life Blues.”
Yep Roc has a trio of RSD releases: an Eli “Paperboy” Reed single that comes with a cool vintage-looking sleeve, a big 4-LP vinyl boxset of the Canadian instro band, Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet (familiar to all Kids In The Hall fans) and a new 45 from the always-good-to-hear-from Fleshtones.
Merge is reissuing a compilation of Superchunk’s early singles Tossing Seeds (Singles 89–91), while the archival label Tompkins Square is putting out Beyond The Confession, which finds Kid Millions from the band Oneida re-interpreting the work of micro-cult guitarist Harry Taussig.
Rhino’s releases include Buddy Guy & Junior Wells: The Criteria Sessions (12-inch 180-gram vinyl), Ethan Hawke with The David Braid Quartet: My Funny Valentine b/w I’ve Never Been In Love Before (from the Born To Be Blue film that is well worthy checking out), Son Volt: Live At The Bottom Line 2/12/96 (2-LP set on 180-gram vinyl), Allen Toussaint: Live in Philadelphia 1975 (12-inch 180-gram vinyl) and Nuggets: Hallucinations – Psychedelic Pop (2-LP set on 180-gram purple marbled vinyl swirl).
They have something big for Monkees fans (10-LP set on various color vinyl The Monkees: Classic Album Collection) and something smaller: (The Monkees: Saturday’s Child 7-inch Monkees logo-shaped picture disc). Plus their contributions to the Side By Side Series include Willie Nelson / Uncle Tupelo: Truck Drivin’ Man (Live), Albert King / The Paul Butterfield Blues Band: Born Under A Bad Sign (7-inch bone inside swamp green vinyl) and Warren Zevon / Flamin’ Groovies: Werewolves Of London (7-inch picture disc).
Tom Petty fans can thank Warner Brothers for having a Mudcrutch black vinyl 7″ showcasing two new songs “Trailer” and “Beautiful World” are from their forthcoming album as well as Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers’ Kiss My Amps Live Vol. 2, which holds deep tracks, hits, and handpicked covers recorded live during Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers’ 2013 tour.
WB will also put out a 3-LP version of Emmylou Harris’ Wrecking Ball includes the original Daniel Lanois-produced album, remastered, along with several bonus tracks first released on the 2014 three-disc Nonesuch reissue of the album.
I also looked over Amoeba’s massive list (that you can find online) and found titles like Lucinda Williams’ Just A Little More Faith & Grace, Big Star’s Complete Columbia: Live At University Of Missouri 1993 (2LP), Creedence Clearwater Revival’s 1969 Box Set (3LP/3 7″s/3CD), Jay Farrar’s Sebastpol (2LP White Vinyl) and a blue vinyl release of All Aboard The Blue Train With Johnny Cash, There are a pair of Langhorne Slim releases (When The Sun’s Gone Down and Live at Grimey’s) as well as two from Alejandro Escovedo (2-LP Gravity and 2-LP Thirteen Years). On the singles front, there are a couple of items from punk’s early years: Pere Ubu’s 30 Seconds Over Tokyo b/w Heart Of Darkness and the Ramones’ Judy Is A Punk (the lost 1975 demo versions).
You can find the full list of their offerings online.
I’m sure there are many more worthy releases to mention but this should be a good start for RSD shoppers.
