Record Store Day 2019 is Saturday, April 13th
The list of exclusive records available for Record Store Day 2019 has been unleashed! Many fans will be lining city blocks around their favorite independent record stores during the wee hours of the morning on April 13th hoping to score titles from some of their favorite artists. Most are limited releases with many featuring tracks not available elsewhere.
Let’s get things started with Pearl Jam, who has been named Record Store Day 2019 Ambassador. The Seattle grunge rockers are releasing a vinyl edition of their legendary Live At Easy Street CD. Not only was this set recorded live at a record store in Seattle, the audience was made up of staff from record stores across the country.
Next is Prince who was devoted to his local Minneapolis record stores. He has two titles on this year’s list: a vinyl release of His Majesty’s Pop Life/The Purple Mix Club and the truly sought after The VERSACE Experience: PRELUDE 2 GOLD, a cassette release never commercially released, but given out at Versace’s 1995 Paris Fashion Week show.
U2 is releasing The Europa EP, a new three track EP featuring an exclusive new mix of previously unreleased material from U2’s recent eXPERIENCE + iNNOCENCE Tour: Charlie Chaplin’s electrifying speech from the movie The Great Dictator (1940) underscored with a mash-up of Songs Of Experience album track “Love Is All We Have Left” and 1993 classic “Zooropa,” leading into a performance of “New Year’s Day” recorded live in Dublin on 5th November last year. There will also be two “Euro”-tinged remixes: St. Francis Hotel’s mix of the original album version of “New Year’s Day” and Jon Pleased Wimmin’s Euromantic mix of “Love Is All We Have Left.” The EP cover art is a Chaplinesque homage to the Europe-themed artwork of U2’s 1993 album Zooropa and features the figure 130, in celebration of Chaplin’s 130th birthday which falls on the April 16th.
RSD is releasing its very own mini turntable, the RSD3, in 2019. Several 3″ records will be released to coincide with it including the Foo Fighters “Big Me,” and two blind box series from Epitaph Records and Third Man Records. Third Man Records is also releasing an exclusive TMR Triple Inchophone 3″ player available at both its Nashville and Detroit locations. Third Man is also offering an exclusive box set of six 3” records containing selections from the White Stripes singles back catalog that have not been previously available on 3″ record (only available at Third Man Records storefronts), as well as four additional label selections, available in mystery sleeves only at RSD participating record stores around the world.
A compilation, In The Garage: Live Music From WTF With Marc Maron, is a collection of lovely intimate performances from the podcast, which brought together a team that included Marc, folks from Newbury Comics, Fingerprints, Tito’s HandMade Vodka and is available on their first Record Store Day record label. This compilation with music from Ben Harper and Charlie Musselwhite, Karen Kilgariff, Jason Isbell, Dave Alvin, Eels, J Masic, Aimee Mann, Melissa Etheridge, Margo Price and Nick Lowe benefits the amazing organization Musicians on Call, who know something about the beauty of the intimate performance—they bring musicians to hospital facilities to bring a little joy to patients across the country.
Collaborations run strong too, as Anderson Paak teams up with Busta Rhymes for a single, Mark Ronson and Miley Cyrus get physical with their hit “Nothing Breaks Like A Heart.” Take a trip back in time to a classic cassette from Craig Mack and the Notorious B.I.G. and if posthumous collaborations count, the group that came together when Queen’s Brian May and Foo Fighters’ Taylor Hawkins fleshed out a track left by Beach Boy Dennis Wilson. And while there are usually some David Bowie treasures to be found on Record Store Day, the single celebrating the celluloid collaboration of Bowie with Marlene Dietrich in Just A Gigolostands out.
Elvis Costello and The Imposters will release the tidy Purse EP that brings together the songs Costello has written with some of the best songwriters in history, including Paul McCartney and Johnny Cash. Some other exclusive releases include Steve Earle, Pink Floyd, Elton John, Joe Strummer, Gorillaz, Rolling Stones, Devo, Aretha Franklin, Charlie Parker, Greta Van Fleet, Courtney Barnett, John The Martyr and Soccer Mommy and more. Queen is reissuing “Bohemian Rhapsody” as single LP with its original B-side “I’m In Love With My Car,” along with a picture disc edition of the Bohemian Rhapsody soundtrack. Brian May also has a solo single of “New Horizons” that will be available. Two of the most well known albums ever released get a fresh look on RSD: Bob Dylan’s Blood On The Tracks — The Original New York Test Pressing and John Lennon’s Imagine (Raw Studio Mixes) give fans a new look at beloved music.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the legendary Woodstock and it’s celebrated with releases of sets from Janis Joplin, Sly & The Family Stone, Canned Heat and a 3 LP Mono release of the original Woodstock soundtrack — exactly as you would have heard it from the loudspeakers in August 1969.
See the full list.
