Tag: Record Store Day

Categories
Vinyl

Vinyl love: Blur “The special collector’s edition”

(Vinyl Love is a series of posts that quite simply lists, describes, and displays the pieces in my growing vinyl collection. You can bet that each record was given a spin during the drafting of each corresponding post.)

Artist: Blur
Album Title: The special collector’s edition
Year released: 1994
Year reissued: 2023
Details: RSD 2023 reissue, 2 x LP, Light blue translucent

The skinny: Long gone are the days when I would set the alarm to wake up early, drive downtown, and queue up in a massive line at one of my favourite independent record stores for a chance at purchasing one of that year’s Record Store Day exclusives. In fact, there have been some years in the last handful where I haven’t even ventured out at all and instead, tried and generally succeeded at tracking down some of the exclusives online. This year, though, I decided to head out for the festivities* in person, albeit arriving at the respectable hour of 11 am, instead of 7:30 am, when the employees at the store I chose to visit opened up early to a ridiculous amount of waiting customers. I had my own eye out for a couple of the special releases and yesterday, found one of the two at Compact Music, and so after flipping through the rest of that store’s wares on the racks**, I returned home satisfied with my limited participation. Then, last night, I gave Blur’s “The special collector’s edition” a proper spin for the first time and quite enjoyed it. Originally released as a Japan-only release back in 1994, this b-sides collection, from what I would consider the best period of one of my favourite bands, featured some tracks with which I was already familiar*** but others that I had never at all heard before. For even more fun, the artwork plays upon magazine pull out adverts for collector’s edition memorabilia that I always though no one ever purchased. Twenty-four hours and two full spins later, I am still quite pleased with my Record Store Day purchase.

Standout track: “When the cows come home”

*Unlike last year when I went out a day afterwards and still found what I was looking for.

**And finding a non-RSD exclusive to bring home with me.

***Including the above tune, a hidden track on the CD copy I had of 1993’s “Modern life is rubbish”, and one of my favourites on that particular album.

Categories
Vinyl

Vinyl love: The Rolling Stones “Hot rocks 1964-1971”

(Vinyl Love is a series of posts that quite simply lists, describes, and displays the pieces in my growing vinyl collection. You can bet that each record was given a spin during the drafting of each corresponding post.)

Artist: The Rolling Stones
Album Title: Early tracks
Year released: 1971
Year reissued: 2021
Details: RSD2021 drop 2 exclusive, 2 x translucent yellow vinyl, OBI strip, 2 8.5 x 11″ lithographs, limited to 7200 copies

The skinny: Yesterday, I posted about a Rolling Stones Record Store Day exclusive I was handed for free back in 2019 and today’s feature is a (definitely not free) exclusive that I purchased on this year’s second drop a couple of weeks ago. “Hot rocks 1964-1971” was a compilation that was released 50 years ago and was my own introduction to some of the band’s great early work. I bought a copy of it on cassette with my own money as a teenager because I recognized a few of the song titles from listening to oldies radio while riding in the family car with my parents. Well, after years of listening to this cassette, almost to the point of wearing it out, I knew all of these tracks intimately. I’m pretty sure I still have the cassette in the basement somewhere but with nothing to play it on, adding the record to my vinyl collection became something of a mission for me. I had seen it in shops before but had passed it over and then, regretted doing so. When I saw it announced as an RSD exclusive this year, it became my only target. I won’t lie, it wasn’t cheap. But the colour is lovely, the pressing is sweet, and the lithograph reproductions are a nice touch. And oh yeah, an OBI strip!

Standout track: “Sympathy for the devil”

Categories
Vinyl

Vinyl love: The Rolling Stones “Early tracks”

(Vinyl Love is a series of posts that quite simply lists, describes, and displays the pieces in my growing vinyl collection. You can bet that each record was given a spin during the drafting of each corresponding post.)

Artist: The Rolling Stones
Album Title: Early tracks
Year released: 2019
Details: Black vinyl, RSD2019 exclusive, available for free at certain stores

The skinny: Brace yourselves. I’m kicking off a two-part Vinyl Love weekend, both posts showcasing a couple of Rolling Stones items obtained on two separate Record Store Days. Return to Analogue pressed this disc specifically for Canadian independent stores in 2019 and it was made available for free at select locations on Record Store Day that year. It just so happened that one of these stores was Ottawa’s The Record Centre and because I was one of the first handful of customers to make a purchase, I went home with this record. “Early tracks” is a compilation of tunes from some of The Rolling Stones’ earliest recordings, all twelve songs from 1964. Many of these are actually covers of R&B standards, including the only one of these recordings that I had heard before: “Time is on my side”. It is an album that I likely wouldn’t have put down money for but for free, I definitely didn’t refuse it.

Standout track: “Time is on my side”