Visit record stores for ‘Back to Black Friday’ limited releases
The days of heading to shopping malls on Black Friday and fighting over the latest toy or gadget du jour or deal of the century on a toaster should be pretty much obsolete these days with the Internet providing no real motive to venture out. Still, there are masochists who want to subject themselves to the madness, but there should be a pretty good reason to do it.
The folks behind the annual Record Store Day occasion each April have made the day after Thanksgiving about something much more appealing than the chain stores with a minievent dubbed “Back to Black Friday.” It’s one more example of organizers working year-round to shine a light on the independent businesses in local communities that sell us records and other music-related things that make us sing.
Not surprisingly, there are labels, artists, managers and distribution companies who feel the same way, and collectively they’ve put together a list of titles for the season that are available at participating record stores. They come out on Black Friday, but may be available at record stores throughout the rest of the year, because record stores are the best place to go when you’re filling out or filling in a holiday wish list.
This season, here are some of the titles Rock Music Menu is recommending for readers to keep an eye out:
U2, “The Blackout” single
“The Blackout” marks the first physical release from U2’s eagerly awaited new album, “Songs of Experience,” due later this year. The 12” includes both the original album version backed by an exclusive remix by the band’s longtime collaborator, Jacknife Lee.
Sun Records singles
In 1952 a record label started in a bustling Tennessee town. They were fond of acoustic tile, storefronts, and the color yellow. Founder Sam Phillips produced recording sessions and music that generally moved people. Their output couldn’t be pigeonholed to any one genre, releasing everything from country, rock and roll, gospel, bluegrass, rockabilly to the blues.
Sixty-one years later, Jack White’s Third Man Records, in a similarly bustling Tennessee town and believing in many of the same ideas mentioned above, entered into partnership with the legendary Sun Records to reissue titles from their catalog on the format they were best known: 45 rpm 7” singles.
For Record Store Day Black Friday, Third Man will be reissuing three classic singles from the Sun catalog: Carl Perkins’ “Blue Suede Shoes” b/w “Honey, Don’t!,” Johnny Powers’ “With Your Love, With Your Kiss” b/w “Be Mine, All Mine,” and Earl Peterson’s “Boogie Blues” b/w “In The Dark.”
Paul McCartney LPs
Eight releases from Paul McCartney will be getting the black vinyl treatment, along with extremely limited editions on 180 gram colored vinyl. The titles available are “McCartney” on red vinyl, “McCartney II” on clear vinyl, “Tug of War” on blue vinyl, “Pipes of Peace” on silver vinyl, “Ram” on yellow vinyl and the Wings’ albums “Band on the Run” on white vinyl, “Venus and Mars” on red and yellow vinyl and “At the Speed of Sound” on orange vinyl.
The Stooges, “Raw Power”
If there’s ever been an album that lives up to its title, this is it. The high-octane bombshell is a searing, endof-the-world death platter, home to such proto-punk frontal assaults as “Search and Destroy,” “Shake Appeal,” and “Your Pretty Face Is Going to Hell.” This high-definition limited red vinyl edition of a true primal rock ’n’ roll beast features the legendary 1973 Columbia Records mix and includes its Mick Rock photo-adorned inner sleeve.
High Times Magazine, “Smoke Signals”
After 43 years as a juggernaut media company covering the world and culture of cannabis, High Times is expanding into music, joining with independent record stores nationwide on Black Friday to promote its first release, a 12-song compilation called “Smoke Signals: Songs from the Mother Plant.” The compilation features artists such as Damian Marley with Stephen Marley, Big Gigantic with Waka Flocka Flame and Action Bronson.
Boris & Earth, “Live at Third Man Records”
Japanese experimental metal greats Boris and Washingtonian drone metal stalwarts Earth shared a bill in the Third Man Records Nashville venue the Blue Room on August 1, 2016, and each band’s set now get their own vinyl release. These two bone-rattling sets, recorded live to tape, exemplify the magic that only the Blue Room can provide.
Tori Amos, “Y Kant Tori Read”
Four years before dropping her stunning, emotionally laid bare solo debut “Little Earthquakes,” Tori Amos fronted a poprock outfit called Y Kant Tori Read, who released their self-titled debut in 1988. The synth-pop heavy effort tanked, and for nearly three decades has been unavailable. Rhino Records released it with little fanfare back in September, and now for Back to Black Friday it’s being made available as a limited edition of 6,500 copies on 140-gram orange vinyl and 6,000 copies on CD.
Dimebag Darrell, “The Hitz” EP
It’s being stressed that this five-song release from the late-Pantera guitarist is not anything to do with his former band. Instead, it’s touted as 4-track demos which he was working on independently that are now being released in their original, skeletal form. Limited to just 6,000 copies, it comes on 12-inch 140gram black vinyl.