The Thrill of the Pick!

Record Store Day is full of Limited Editions and Colorful Grabs on Black Friday

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The greatest and grandest of all holidays is nearly here! That’s right, I’m talking Record Store Day. On November 29^th we celebrate the second RSD of the year (the first was on 4/20).   This is the day where music lovers and vinyl collectors’ line up outside their favorite record shops for exclusive pressings from their favorite artists. RSD was created to celebrate the culture of independent record stores, not owned by big corporations. By partnering with musicians to release exclusive pressings of records, this day encourages music nerds and those self-acclaimed black circle spinning sycophants (me included), to show up and support their favorite wax pushers instead of shopping at big box stores. 

Record Store Day was created with a nod to “Free Comic Book Day”. Its inspiration came from an independently owned record store ownership meeting in Baltimore. Founded officially by Michael Kurtz, Eric Leven, Amy Dorfman, Carrie Colliton, Brian Poehner, and Don Van Cleave, Record Store Day was established in 2007 in celebration of individual artists. Packed with performances, special appearances, and meet-and-greets, Record Store Day celebrated everything musical while upholding the individuality of each store. 

“One of the most incredible things I personally experienced along the way was having David Crosby grab my arm and say, ‘Keep doing what you are doing. It’s so important.’” — Michael Kurtz 

Above all else RSD, like this site, is about community.  A chance for us to gather and share our love of music and of course, grow our collection with rarities and limited editions. Not only that, but to support our friends at our favorite hangouts, the local record shop.  We want those places to live and to grow with us.  I find myself seeking solace and cathartic escapism every time I go picking new discs.  My fingers flipping through the plastic sheathed albums as my eyes dart back and forth, hoping to find that title I’ve been obsessing over.  That sense of quest for me is much like that of any other collector or hobbyist, I suppose.  The want is the drive that makes this day so thrilling.  There are only so many of these productions pressed, so the race is on.   

We stand outside in the elements, hours before opening.  We have done our due diligence by studying the lists provided by the record companies and artists of what will be available. We scroll through endless posts on social media platforms to see who has what and when.   

One of the thrills before the shopkeeper invites you in is standing side by side with a fellow enthusiast and chatting about what they are looking for, and why it means so much to them.  I am that.  I am the interested party.  However, most stand stoic and silent, as not to tip their hat and have that precious jewel plucked from their reaches. They are mapping their route and sharpening their elbows if physicality is needed. 

RSD’ s lineup of releases for its annual adjunct Black Friday event on 11-29-24 has been announced.  More than 150 titles are being dropped that day — most of them limited-edition vinyl exclusives — the most sought-after titles are from artists including Noah Kahan, U2, Olivia Rodrigo, Billie Eilish, Kacey Musgaves, The Beatles and Pearl Jam. Hip-hop releases include titles from Ghostface Killah, Cypress Hill, Snoop Dogg, Too $hort, Raekwon, MF Doom, Bobby Shmurda, Keith Murray and Souls of Mischief. 

I’ll be in Huntsville, Alabama to see what’s going on at Black Rose and Vertical House record shops. It’ll be my 10^th year in a row awaiting the chime of the door swinging open. Hopefully I’ll be close enough to hear it.  Happy hunting to all I hope you get the playlist you deserve. 

Here is a breakdown on a few of those limited releases: 

Noah Kahan: “Town Hall (Stick Season Collaborations)” 
(15,000 copies on “tiger eye brown” vinyl) 
This LP contains all eight tracks that were released as duet-enhanced digital bonuses to his smash album “Stick Season (We’ll All Be Here Forever)”: “Dial Drunk” with Post Malone, “Call Your Mom” with Lizzy McAlpine, “She Calls Me Back” with Kacey Musgraves, “Northern Attitude” with Hozier, “Everywhere, Everything” with Gracie Abrams, “Homesick” with Sam Fender, “You’re Gonna Go Far” with Brandi Carlile, and “Paul Revere” with Gregory Alan Isakov. 

U2: “How to Re-Assemble an Atomic Bomb” 
(20,000 copies on black-and-red marble vinyl) 
U2 already broke the news earlier of this “shadow album,” a collection of 10 songs taken from the original recording sessions for the 20-year-old “How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb,” some previously released and some newly found in the vault, all of course being released for the first time as a standalone album. This stand-alone LP will only be available for RSD, but you can also find it as part of a nine-LP set coming out on Nov. 22. 

Billie Eilish: “Hit Me Hard And Soft (Isolated Vocals)” 
(25,000 copies) 
Hope you like — really, really like — Eilish’s voice… but who doesn’t?… as this alternate version of her latest album includes nothing but. Hardcore fans may already own this as a digital download that was briefly sold exclusively on her D2C store, but this is the first and only physical edition, exclusively for RSD Black Friday. You’ll be able to distinguish it from the original album release in your collection with its inverted version of the album cover. 

Olivia Rodrigo: “Guts Spilled” 
(30,000 copies, on red-and-purple marble vinyl) 
This two-LP set already came out in a different vinyl color and packaging via her webstore, but this will be the first chance for most fans to pick it up. It combines the original “Guts” album with the bonus tracks that originally only appeared secretly on different variants. The RSD version will be in a gatefold jacket with a purple sleeve, pressed on red and purple vinyl. A subsequent edition is expected to be released to retail next year, but with different packaging. 

Kacey Musgraves: “Deeper Into the Well” 
(5000 copies, on green vinyl) 
This RSD exclusive vinyl pressing includes the seven bonus tracks that were released in August on a deluxe digital edition of her “Deeper Well” album — plus, tantalizingly, a “20-minute woodland sound experience.” These songs are not otherwise available in a physical format. The packaging includes “green eco-vinyl and clear slip-sleeve packaging made of recycled materials.” The fresh song titles: 
Ruthless, Little Sister, Flower Child, Superbloom, Perfection, Arm’s Length and Irish Goodbye. 

Pearl Jam: RSD Song Of The Year “Waiting RSD Song Of The Year – For Stevie (Live)” b/w “Wreckage (Live)” 
(12,000 copies, on black vinyl) 
Pearl Jam, bless their hearts, are patron saints of RSD who don’t let a single semi-annual event go by without an exclusive release. This 12-inch includes a fold-out poster to augment two 2024 live tracks previously unavailable in any physical format. 

Jane’s Addiction: “Imminent Redemption” 
(2,500 copies, on black vinyl) 
Will the two tracks that Jane’s released so far from its reunion sessions be the only tracks from that would-be album to ever come out, now that the band has apparently broken up? Who knows, but you can take what we got of the reunion on this 12″ with an inner sleeve containing art and handwritten lyrics. “Some copies are signed by various band members,” presumably inked in a pre-fisticuffs era. 

Other notable releases include: 

• Angelo Badalementi – Music From Film And Television (LP) 

• The Beatles – “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” b/w “I Saw Her Standing There” (7″ vinyl) 

• Big Brother & The Holding Company – Live at the Grande Ballroom Detroit; March 2, 1968 (2xLP) 

• Big Freedia – Hitz Vol. 2 2010-2020 (LP) 

• Biohazard – Mata Leão (LP) 

• The Byrds/Buffalo Springfield – Live at the Monterey International Pop Festival (2xLP) 

• Circa Survive – Descensus (LP) 

• Cypress Hill – Live at Rock im Park 1999 (LP, CD) 

• Dead Prez – RBG: Revolutionary But Gangsta (LP) 

• The Doors – Live in Detroit (4xLP) 

• Earl Sweatshirt – Feet of Clay (5th Anniversary Edition) (LP) 

• Echo & The Bunnymen – “The Killing Moon” (12″ single) 

• Echo & The Bunnymen – “Silver” (12″ single) 

• The English Beat – Special Beat Service (2xLP) 

• Garbage – copy/paste (LP) 

• Jerry Garcia – Electric on the Eel: August 29th, 1987 (3xLP) 

• Jimi Hendrix – Songs For Groovy Children: The Fillmore East Concerts (LP) 

• Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady – Reno Road: Unreleased tracks from the ’60’s (unreleased pre-Jefferson Airplane material: 2xLP, CD) 

• Gaslight Anthem – Live at Park Ave (15 Year Anniversary) (10″ EP) 

• Ghostface Killah – Set The Tone (Guns & Roses) – RSD Picture Disc Edition (2xLP Picture Disc) 

• Grateful Dead – Veterans Memorial Coliseum, New Haven, CT 5/5/77 (4xLP) 

• Helmet – Betty (2xLP) 

• Lamb of God – Ashes of the Wake Live (2xLP) 

• MF DOOM – Operation: Doomsday 25th Anniversary (2xLP, longbox CD, cassette) 

• The Minus 5 – Down With Wilco (LP) 

• Joni Mitchell – Hejira Demos (LP) 

• Modest Mouse – Baron Von Bullshit Rides Again (LP) 

• Morphine – B-Sides and Otherwise (LP) 

• Stevie Nicks – “The Lighthouse” (7″ single) 

• Raekwon – Immobilarity: 25th Anniversary Edition (2xLP) 

• Rage Against the Machine – Democratic National Convention 2000 (EP) 

• Ramones – Greatest Hits (LP) 

• Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, Boys Noize – Challengers (LP) 

• The Rolling Stones – Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out! (LP) 

• Todd Rundgren – Todd Rundgren’s Utopia (LP) 

• Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson – From South Africa To South Carolina (2xLP, CD) 

• Slaughter Beach, Dog – Live At The Cabin (2xLP) 

• Snoop Dogg – Live at Forest National 2005 (2xLP) 

• Cat Stevens – Saturnight: Cat Stevens Live In Tokyo (LP) 

• Sun Ra – Lights on a Satellite: Live at the Left Bank 1978 (2xLP) 

• Sunn O))) – Black One (Deluxe Edition) (2xLP) 

• Tegan and Sara – So Jealous (20th Anniversary) (2xLP) 
• Thievery Corporation- The Richest Man In Babylon (2xLP)

• Various Artists – The Elephant 6 Recording Co. (LP) 

• War – The Vinyl 1977-1994 (5xLP) 

• Wolves in the Throne Room – Black Cascade (15 Year Anniversary Edition) (LP) 

• Jay Worthy & Larry June – 2 P’z In A Pod (LP) 

See the full list of Black Friday exclusives here.