10 Reasons To Visit Your Local Record Store Day On Black Friday
Shoppers peruse the record racks in the Vintage Vinyl record shop in Evanston, Il, one of hundreds of independent record stores around the country where you'll be able to find exclusive material this Friday. Tim Boyle/Getty Images hide caption
Shoppers peruse the record racks in the Vintage Vinyl record shop in Evanston, Il, one of hundreds of independent record stores around the country where you'll be able to find exclusive material this Friday.
Tim Boyle/Getty ImagesAs someone who grew up a few blocks away from the original Tower Records in Sacramento, California, record stores will always hold a special place in my heart, even as their numbers continue to dwindle.
That's part of the reason things like Record Store Day get me so excited. The annual event, which celebrates music and independently owned record stores, returns on Black Friday to take part in the post-Thanksgiving day shopping frenzy.
As with the usual Record Store Day, which takes place in April, hundreds of independently owned record stores across the country will sell a series of special releases commissioned for the event.
So while many will be burning off platefuls of turkey and stuffing waiting in line at the nearest electronics store, you can also spend Black Friday supporting your local record store.
The official release list has dozens of great reasons to head to a record store on Friday. We picked 10 that are calling to us.
10 Reasons To Visit Your Local Record Store On Friday
1. Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings - 'Soul Time!' (CD and vinyl)
Courtesy of the artistSharon Jones' fifth album of with incandescent backing band The Dap-Kings is a collection of rare tracks. Soul Time! sees its official release on Oct. 31, but you can get it more than a week early at participating record stores. (20,000 CD copies & 5,000 vinyl copies available)
2. Iron and Wine, 'Morning Becomes Eclectic' (12" vinyl)
Courtesy of the artistIron and Wine's January studio appearance on KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic, featuring 9 songs from this year's Kiss Each Other Clean and older albums, played live with a ten-piece band, is released on a limited vinyl edition. (3,000 copies)
3. Wheedle's Groove: Seattle's Finest in Funk & Soul 1965-79 (7" vinyl box set)
Light in the AtticThe music scene that came of the Pacific Northwest in the 1960s is most famous for giving birth to garage bands like The Sonics and The Kingsmen, but Seattle had soul and funk too, as this collection of 10 singles in a magnetic flip-top box attests. Compiled by local label Light in the Attic, the set also comes with a poster, 96 pages of liner notes and photos, and digital downloads of the songs. (2,000 copies)
4. Craig Finn - 'Honolulu Blues/Rented Room' (7" vinyl)
Courtesy of the artistThe first taste of the Hold Steady frontman's forthcoming solo album (the Friday Night Lights referencing Clear Heart Full Eyes) balances Finn's patented barroom riffs with a little bit of world-weary rootsiness.
5. The Civil Wars, 'Tracks in the Snow' (10" vinyl)
Courtesy of the artist2011's Americana darlings offer up a pair each of holiday tracks and live recordings. (2,000 copies)
6. Wilco, 'Speak Into the Rose' (10" vinyl)
Courtesy of the artistA limited vinyl pressing contains four songs from the sessions that produced The Whole Love, including two previously unreleased tracks and alternate versions of album cuts.
7. Bob Dylan - 'Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?' (7" vinyl box set)
Courtesy of the artistFour singles originally released during Dylan's hyper-productive 1965, re-pressed by Columbia and collected in a limited box set. The songs include hits from Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde as well as non-album tracks: "Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window," "Highway 61 Revisited," "Postively 4th St.," "From A Buick 6," "Like a Rolling Stone," "Gates of Eden," "Subterranean Homesick Blues" and "She Belongs To Me."
8. Syd Barrett - The Photographs Of Mick Rock (book)
Courtesy of the artistA reissued solo single from the original leader of Pink Floyd ("Octopus" / "Golden Hair") packaged inside a book of photos of Barrett taken by legendary photographer Mick Rock, who recently shot Bradford Cox for the cover of Parallax, his new Atlas Sound album.
9. Janis Joplin, 'Move Over!' (7" vinyl box set)
Anthony Cantone/Courtesy of the artistJoplin fanatics take note. Not only does this box set contain six previously unreleased recordings on 7" vinyl, it comes with the best Cracker Jack prize ever: a temporary tattoo that's a replica of Janis's own ink. (2,000 copies)
10. Beastie Boys, 'Hot Sauce Committee Part Two' (deluxe version)
Courtesy of the artistAn exhaustively deluxe version of the latest Beasties album with pretty much everything you could want: Blu-Ray and DVD versions of the album, a collection of remixes, Spike Jonze's action-figure thriller music video for "Don't Play No Game That I Can't Win" and Fight For Your Right Revisited and a 130-page hardcover book. (5,000 copies available)
