Ah yes. Record Store Day. That fake holiday that doesn’t give, but instead, takes. It’s coming again this year, and pandemic be damned, they are going ahead with the traditional April 23rd time frame. None of the periodic “drops” throughout the year that minimized virus transmission. Nope, it’s back to the “piranha feeding frenzy” of a table with a mass of undulating, Amoeba-like humanity clustered around it, desperately trying to grasp their selected release with their flailing limbs. Yeah. I know that sounds more romantic than it is, but I’m an old softie.
After several years on not bothering, I had to admit that the last two RSD events were particularly nice at my local emporium. There were three items I wanted. I got them with a minimum of fuss. And had it been that civil in the years immediately prior, I might have not studiously avoided the day for so long. So what is it that piques my interest this year? A few things on the US list seem interesting.
RSD USA
Blondie: Sunday Girl 2×7“
Here’s something different from Blondie. Their single “Sunday Girl” in an atypical [for America] 2×7″ with four different versions of the song on each side. Two of them unreleased live takes.
Purchase factor: interesting, but no
David Bowie: Brilliant Adventures CD EP
Gasp! My heart!! A RSD release on the unhip CD format?! I need to buy this on principle! Four loose tracks from the “Outside” sessions, so they’re unrelated to the live series of albums that irritated countless Bowie fans a while back. And two live tracks with Bowie and Mike Garson doing a benefit in 1995. Yes sir!
purchase factor: if I see one
David Bowie: Toy CD EP
A second Bowie EP with alternative track versions that didn’t make it to the “Toy” extravaganza released in January. And three radio session tracks previously only available as DLs.
purchase factor: if I see one
Camera Obscura: Making Money US LP
B-sides + rarities from the gorgeously winsome Scot band’s time on 4AD. I still need more of their music. Seeing them live was a gift.
purchase factor: holding out for CD
Echo + The Bunnymen: B-Sides + Live [2001-2005] 2xLP
Here’s an interesting look at a very specific Bunnymen era given a little love on wax. I’ve not heard a peep out of EATB since their eponymous album in the 80s, but one day…
purchase factor: admire from afar
Erasure: NeEP 12″/DL/CD
Here’s something wacky from Erasure. A new 12″ EP with four cuts no on their latest album but from the sessions. Then, there’s a CD in the sleeve with remixes of the tracks. You also get a high-res DL of the 12″ tracks not on the CD. Weird.
purchase factor: impulse buy if I see it [depends on price]
Frankie Goes To Hollywood: Altered Reel LP
More sweepings from the ZTT editing room floor with cassette versions of “Relax” and “Two Tribes” on wax for the 1st time. Released on June 18th due to the Vinyl Bubble.
purchase factor: Waiting for that ZTT Hard Drive of GOD™
Kid Creole + The Coconuts: Fresh Fruit In Foreign Places CD
Wow! A new issue of this which I have needed for…forever. On LP or CD, thanks! Buy anything August Darnell ever recorded, basically.
purchase factor: I may get an old used CD of this if they’re cheaper
Johnny Marr: Spirit, Power + Soul 12″
A Vince Clarke remix of the track from Marr’s new “Fever Dreams Parts 1-4” album. The B-side is “Human,” straight from the album by the looks of it
purchase factor: there’s no “there” there. Maybe if it had a non-LP B-side, like earlier Marr 7″ers.
Lou Reed: I’m So Free The 1971 RCA Demos LP
Now this looks pretty cool. Post VU/Pre-Bowie demos of early Lou Reed material. Possibly lacking in the distinctive Lou Reed “branding” and all about the songs.
purchase factor: If I see one, I’ll buy it
Simple Minds: 5×5 Live 3xLP
Simple Minds world-straddling 2012 live album where they only played their best material form the first six albums on LP [colored red, white + blue] for the first time. Great to have this back in print as this was THE Live Simple Minds album to own. Shocked to see this over in The States.
purchase factor: Already have the CD! Ixnay on the inylvay!
Ultravox!: Live At The Rainbow 1977 LP
We’ve posted about the DL of this material before, so given that UMG are being stingy with the CDs, of course we will be buying this! The next best thing to have.
purchase factor: If I buy nothing else, I’m buying this! Mail order if I have to. From flippers!
Next: …Across The Pond
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Post-Punk Monk 
I wouldn’t mind hearing this – not sure I need to OWN it, however: https://recordstoreday.com/SpecialRelease/14666. I’m also interested in the two Nico releases, but I’m not going to wait in line for anything this year.
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Jeremy Shatan – You’re so right there! I can’t be bothered to wait on lines. Especially in a pandemic where the 5th wave is peaking in Asia and Europe right now. It’ll be here just I time for RSD ‘22! I want more Nico on CD. Would pass on LPs.
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I hate RSD. I’d love that E&TB B-Side collection, but wouldn’t go anywhere near out of my way for it. The Bowie stuff, however, I mean “Oustide” outtakes? PLEASE… oh I could POSSIBLY get it only on ONE day *IF* my local store happened to get a copy? Fuck this. I don’t have the time, I have kids volleyball games to get to and dance lessons to shuttle around for. This whole thing makes me avoid record stores.
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postpostmoderndad – I hear you. If it went away I’d be happier. Twitch capitalism makes me anxious. Especially when they play dirty with things I actually would desire. I hate “Outside” but mainly for the conceit and those groaningly awful “acting” interludes. Some of the songs outside of the album context are pretty good, so maybe…
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It’s gratifying to see that Fresh Fruit in Foreign Places is receiving a CD reissue. I’ve long been meaning to investigate the work of Kid Creole and the Coconuts further since hearing their contributions to the great Mutant Disco compilation (via the expanded double-CD version). This will finally push me to correct my procrastination. I’ll be curious to see how this edition differs from the earlier European Island/Universal and U.S. Wounded Bird versions. From checking the Rainman Records site, it appears that their release will not contain the bonus tracks from the I/U version. Hopefully there’ll be liner notes, photos, and other goodies to compensate for the lack of bonus tracks. The whole New York mutant disco (a label coined by Simon Reynolds, I believe) scene is one well worth exploring to see how disco plunged back into the underground and emerged with a more musically expansive palette, at least in the U.S. My favorites of that whole scene would have to be ESG, Pulsallama, Liquid Liquid, Lizzy Mercier Descloux, Defunkt, and Cristina.
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Zach – My takeaway is that anything August Darnell has recorded has value. I buy anything that comes nearby enough to grasp and enjoy it. My hope is that the 2022 “Fresh Fruit In Foreign Places” is mastered kindly from master tapes. Many of the new ZE CD pressings of the 21st century are not. Wounded Bird are often thin on the liner notes, but they never brickwall the releases. And Simon Reynolds was a zit-faced student when ZE Records coined the term “Mutant Disco” with their crucial 1981 compilation of the same name.
ZE Records | UK | 1981 | ISSP 4001
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*slaps self on forehead* One of the perils of typing late at night is that one is prone to not paying 100% attention to what he/she is writing! Of course, mutant disco was coined by ZE Records. I just recall first seeing that term used by Simon Reynolds in his stellar Rip It Up and Start Again when I was discovering this period of music. Being 33, all of this great music is secondhand to me, but I’m as passionate as anyone who experienced it back in the day.
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