Tomorrow is the third Saturday in April, which means that independent record stores across the world will face an influx of limited-edition vinyl, avid fans, and rabid audiophiles. With myriad releases hitting shelves, we’ve provided you with some of our most anticipated picks to make Saturday’s shopping (relatively) quick and painless.
Record Store Day exclusives
In March 2010, Animal Collective and visual artist Danny Perez collaborated on a massive multimedia experience at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City titled Transverse Temporal Gyrus. For the first and only physical release, the music for this installation — both pre-recorded and live — has been compiled into a collage, made available on 12-inch vinyl exclusively for Record Store Day. Coinciding with tomorrow’s release, a website has been designed that will recreate both the sights and sounds of the original installation.
A clear winner for this year’s most anticipated WTF? release, Mastodon and Feist are going toe to toe, each covering one of each other’s songs. The metal dudes take on Feist’s “Commotion,” while the indie songstress provides her own rendition of “Black Tongue.”
If you want a piece of Feistodon, you better get there early; these ultra-limited, ultra-buzzed-about puppies are going to go fast.
DJ Food / The Amorphous Androgynous: The Illektrik Hoax (Ninja Tune)
The Amorphous Androgynous — otherwise known as The Future Sound of London — has prepared a monstrous remix of DJ Food’s “The Illektrik Hoax” as part of a three-track 12-inch, which will be available on multicolored splatter vinyl.
As a bonus, it includes a download card for additional remixes.
Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros: One Love to Another (Vagrant)
This exclusive release includes two never-before-released tracks: “One Love To Another” and “A Note To The American Democrat.”
Matt Chamberlain / Company 23: Company 23 (Yanki Arc)
Drummer/producer Matt Chamberlain has a new solo electro/acoustic project called Company 23, and its first release — marked by influences from Ennio Morricone, Melvins, and krautrock — will be distributed as part of Record Store Day.
Built to Spill bassist Brett Nelson offers up his own interpretations of nine Dinosaur Jr. classics, re-sung by Dinosaur Jr. vocalist J Mascis.
The Flaming Lips: The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends (Warner Bros.)
The Flaming Lips has recruited a bunch of its friends and musical heavyweights to join the band on recording new songs for its Record Store Day release. Collaborators range from Lightning Bolt to Ke$ha and Biz Markie to Prefuse 73 to Nick Cave to Erykah Badu.
Heavy Fwends will be available in a two-LP set complete with custom jackets.
Brooklyn pianist/composer Marco Benevento is joined by a vocalist for the first time ever on This Is How It Goes. Taking the honor will be Kalmia Traver of indie-dance outfit Rubblebucket. The record also includes an instrumental version of the same track, in case words aren’t your thing.
Instead of kicking everyone out of The Polyphonic Spree, Tim DeLaughter decided to start a new band: Preteen Zenith, along with former Tripping Daisy band-mate Philip E. Karnats.
Its first release, Rubble Guts and BB Eye, is available tomorrow on 180-gram colored, swirled vinyl, along with a copy on CD-R format.
Side-by-Side Series
An old-time string band, Carolina Chocolate Drops, covering a hip-hop classic. Sweet.
This release will be available on seven-inch “Coke-bottle green” vinyl.
Mastodon / The Flaming Lips: A Spoonful Weighs a Ton (Warner Bros.)
Mastodon pays homage to The Flaming Lips on this split seven-inch, covering “A Spoonful Weighs a Ton,” a track off the Lips’ classic 1999 album, The Soft Bulletin.
This record comes in a pretty little package with baby-pink vinyl.
Fiddler/singer-songwriter Sara Watkins takes on an Everly Brothers classic, “You’re the One I Love,” with help from Fiona Apple.
This seven-inch split is available on olive green, blue, and black splatter vinyl.
This split pairs the MC5’s famous hit “Kick Out the Jams” with South Bronx break-beat DJ Afrika Bambaataa’s lesser-known 1986 cover.
The seven-inch comes on white vinyl with a gnarly red splatter.
Reissues / now available on vinyl
Not to be confused with †‡† (Ritualz), Deftones singer/guitarist Chino Moreno‘s new band ††† (Crosses) joins tomorrow’s festivities with the release of Option / Telepathy, featuring a track from each of its two EPs, EP † and EP ††.
“Do Ya Thing” was released this February as part of Converse’s “Three Artists, One Song” series, but the 13-minute track is resurfacing tomorrow on one-sided 10-inch vinyl.
Coinciding with the second weekend of Coachella, newly reunited Refused is re-releasing its timeless hardcore classic, The Shape of Punk to Come: A Chemical Bombination in 12 Bursts.
The album will be released in a colored, two-LP set with a poster.
Influential Chicago post-rock outfit Tortoise is re-releasing bits of its history: its first two seven-inch singles, Lonesome Sound and Mosquito, both released in 1993.
A staple of Victory’s hardcore heyday, Snapcase is treating its fans to a re-release of its best album, Progression Through Unlearning, which has been out of print for five years.
Exclusive to Record Store Day will be limited-edition colored vinyl.
Icelandic post-pop-rock heavyweights Sigur Rós released Hvarf-Heim in 2007 as a compilation album comprised of previously unreleased tunes, B-sides, and live acoustic recordings. Now the album will be available in a two-LP set on 150-gram multicolored vinyl.
Iggy & The Stooges: Raw Power (Sony Legacy)
The proto-punk classic gets a deluxe treatment, on 120-gram vinyl with a booklet, but most importantly it includes the David Bowie original mix and the 1997 Iggy mix. Do you dare to compare? If there’s a Stooges record worth owning in multiple versions, this is it.
Uncle Tupelo: No Depression, Still Feel Gone, and March 16-20, 1992 (Sony Legacy)
One might argue that neither Wilco nor Son Volt were ever quite as magical as this punk-turned-country trio from southern Illinois. Owning these three albums on vinyl just seems like a must for anyone tracing the emergence of alt country, or cow punk, or whatever you wanna call it.
Box sets
Tomahawk — the brainchild of The Jesus Lizard’s Duane Denison and one of Mike Patton’s myriad projects — is releasing its first three albums as part of a special box set tomorrow. But the box includes room for one more: Tomahawk’s upcoming fourth album, due out later this year.
LA-based alternative-hip-hop group The Pharcyde is releasing a singles collection as part of an extravagant box set, which includes two CDs, seven-inch singles in full-color jackets, detailed liner notes, vintage Pharcyde photos, a poster, and a 120-piece puzzle of its debut album’s original cover art.
Buyers beware: you may not be the only one screaming “Oh, shit!” upon opening.