I may have spent one too many drinks celebrating the Penguins victory at Wingharts before heading off to Millvale for Attic Records midnight opening. By the time I arrived the line snaked the length of the block and around the corner. A great indicator of the success of Record Store Day 2012 and relative disappointment because I feared I was destined to miss out on some of the best releases. While I lost a few near the top of my wish list, this encouraged me to stumble into a few records I wouldn’t have normally picked up. Here’s my haul.
Animal Collective, Transverse Temporal Gyrus
In 2010, Animal Collective and visual artist Danny Perez put on an installation called “Transverse Temporal Gyrus” at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City. The music on this 12″ is a mixture of the music recorded for the installation and live tracks recorded at the Guggenheim. It’s raw Animal Collective with broader creative liberties. RSD Exclusive.
Arcade Fire, Sprawl II / Ready to Start 12″
Remixes of two songs from The Suburbs. I’m not in love with the remix of “Ready to Start” because it feels like the original, just extended by some synth and beat, but the refashioned “Sprawl II” makes this one a keeper. RSD Exclusive. Here’s a video of the Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains) remix. Just a great track.
[tube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehruYglx9LM[/tube]
Leonard Cohen, Live at Frederickton LP
Live Leonard Cohen tracks are always a treat. Quite frankly I haven’t listened to this one yet because I’m sure it’s fantastic. I never promised cutting edge journalism here, folks.
Shabazz Palaces, Live at KEXP 12″
Listened to all these tracks on KEXP. Shabazz is such a raw, innovative hip-hop act and these live recordings from KEXP distill their talent to the essentials. Highly recommended. RSD Exclusive. Video from the session. I’ve just been a huge fan of theirs since I first heard a stream of the record. And it just keeps getting better. They have a shot at becoming a Tribe Called Quest-type game-changer for the genre with a few more releases like their debut.
[tube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOvu0wGSBho[/tube]
Childish Gambino, Heartbeat 12″
A great Donald Glover/Childish Gambino track (my favorite on the album at least) with some solid remixes on the B-side on some sweet red vinyl. I am a goddamn sucker for colored vinyl.
Of Monsters and Men, Into the Woods EP 10″
I’m a pretty big fan of these Icelanders… so an exclusive RSD yellow vinyl with a previously unreleased track made it an easy grab. Even better that unreleased track, a down tempo bit of melancholy, doesn’t seem out of place. Fans of the band should find copy. And/or listen here to your heart’s content.
[tube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCD6BxlHarY&feature=player_embedded[/tube]
Bill Evans, Live At Art D’Lugoff’s Top Of The Gate 12″
This was the #1 want at the top of my RSD shopping list. I was quite relieved to find perhaps the last copy at Attic Records. My favorite jazz pianist. The tracks on this album were recorded in Greenwich Village in 1968. They were just recently discovered, digitally remastered and pressed on 180-gram blue vinyl. The full recordings will be released in a 3LP box set later this year. I found a nice video about the show on the label’s website.
[tube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=innDU9rCf0Y&feature=player_embedded[/tube]
Foster the People, “Broken Jaw” / “Ruby” 7″ and Jukebox the Ghost, “I Love You Always Forever” 7″
If you like Foster there’s little to dislike, though the tracks both just feel like excised cuts from their full-length that were lacking in some fashion. To cover up the weaknesses, they threw some synth into the mix. It’s kind of a catch all, really. Fix and ailing song? Add synth. Need to remix a track for a b-side? Add synth. I like synth so it’s a good rule.
I’d forgotten about this 7″ Jukebox single until I stumbled across it at the checkout. These are the oddities that really make me love Record Store Day. I’m not kidding. Jukebox covers the saccharine Donna Lewis pop song smash “I Love You Always Forever” and they take enough initiative to make it their own without shoehorning indie angst into the mix, you know, to make it edgy. The biggest surprise wasn’t that I thoroughly and guiltlessly enjoyed the Donna Lewis cover but on the b-side, Jukebox also includes their inspired cover of New Order’s “Temptation.” The track had been released previously on a limited edition version of Let Live & Let Ghosts so it’s not a new find, but merely a very pleasant surprise.
[tube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hExfe9mSzTg[/tube]
Afrika Bambaataa/MC5, “Kick Out the Jams” 7″
Mastodon/Flaming Lips, “A Spoonful Weighs a Ton” 7″
Run DMC/Carolina Chocolate Drops, “You Be Illin'” 7″
The Side by Side series of discs offer a coupling of covers. Some of them are new recordings, some old (as in the Afrika Bambaataa and MC5 disc). I was unable to snag a “Feistodon” (Feist covering Mastodon and Mastodon covering Feist), which was a bummer because it was really the only release of its kind. I was happy to find the southern fried cover of Run DMC’s “You Be Illin'” and impulse bought both the Mastodon/Flaming Lips (pink vinyl!) and the Afrika Bambaataa/MC5 (tie-died-looking vinyl!). And it would have been easy to give in to a few more of these.
The Pharcyde, Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde Singles Collection Box
The Pharcyde on vinyl is crucial enough. Then add unreleased remixes. Colored vinyl. A poster. A CD of those unreleased tracks and a puzzle. Oh… and it does this:
[tube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GP3n0GcnwuE[/tube]
