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Music News: Record Store Day 2019 releases - our top picks

Record shopping at Coachella, 2018.
Record shopping at Coachella, 2018.Rich Fury/Getty Images for Coachella
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by Jade and Jay Gabler

April 11, 2019

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Record Store Day is coming up this Saturday, so Jay and Jade each pick their favorite releases vinyl (and cassette) fans will be able to get their hands on. Also, we talk with Record Store Day co-founder Carrie Colliton, who talks about how the event got started and shares some of her favorite RSD memories.

Jay's top picks

Bob Dylan, Blood On The Tracks — Original New York Test Pressing

Last fall on the podcast, we talked about Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks box set, which fueled the fires of fans who think Bob should have left well enough alone after wrapping initial sessions in New York, before heading to Minnesota to re-record some cuts with a band of local session players. Now, those purists can have their very own version of the test pressing created using only materials from the NYC sessions. It's an exact copy of one of the most widely-bootlegged recordings in Dylan's catalog.

Sugar Hill Records 40th Anniversary Box Set

My next pick is more of an investment financially, but it's hard to imagine any vinyl DJ — either pro or amateur — who wouldn't want a collection of six 12" singles from Sugar Hill Records. As an '80s kid, when I hear the word "rap" I still think of the Sugar Hill Gang, and there literally is no "Rapper's Delight" remix that's long enough for me, so 12 inches just feels like turntable ante.

Prince, The VERSACE Experience: PRELUDE 2 GOLD

My third pick is one of those I feel like you've got to grab if you see it, whether or not you're a fan of Prince...or Versace. It's actually a cassette, a replica of The VERSACE Experience: PRELUDE 2 GOLD. That's a tape Prince made just as he was becoming The Artist Formerly Known as Prince, a lead-up to his Gold Experience album handed out as swag who attendees of Versace's Paris Fashion Week show in 1995. It will take you back to a more innocent time...if that's something you can really say about a tape with tracks like "Pussy Control" and "Billy Jack Bitch."

Jade's top picks

X-Ray Spex, I Am a Cliché

The punk band from London weren't prolific — they only released five singles and one album — but their staunch feminism, iconic fashion sense, and wild howl would influence the future Riot Grrrl scene. Now you can get a pink and green day-glo double vinyl. This is one of the extra-exclusive releases: only 500 copies will be released. The new compilation will feature both studio versions and an early 1977 live recording of songs from the Roxy Club in London.

Boy Meets Girl: Classic Stax Duets

Stax Records was the Memphis label that was home to artists like Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes, and the Staple Singers. The label was influential in the creation of southern soul and Memphis soul music, and 50 years ago released a compilation called Boy Meets Girl, which paired Stax male and female artists for a set of classic duets. This reissue of the album also includes two rare duets of "Private Number," one by William Bell and Judy Clay, and another from Dusty Springfield and Spencer Davis (this version was previously only available on an out-of-print mid-80s Takoma Records album).

Modest Mouse, "Poison the Well"

The last album from Modest Mouse, Strangers to Ourselves, came out in 2015. Now with a tour with the Black Keys on the way, there's some new music from the Washington band. The first songs will be available on Record Store Day via a psychedelic triangular vinyl single for "Poison the Well" and a secret b-side.


Audio sampled in podcast
Jahzzar: "Comedie" (CC BY 4.0)
X-Ray Spex: "Oh Bondage, Up Yours"
Dusty Springfield and Spencer Davis: "Private Number"
Modest Mouse: "Poison The Well"
Bob Dylan: "Simple Twist of Fate"
Sugar Hill Gang: "Rapper's Delight"
Prince: "P. Control"
Jesse Spillane: "Ruffling Feathers" (CC BY 4.0)