Record Store Day 2012 - my take...

Another Record Store Day comes and goes. Mixed feelings - it's a massive gouge, plenty of overpriced 45's and stuff that really is of marginal value and couldn't be sold other than on a promotional day like this. Some things of value, some hidden gems. But overall, there is little that would be missed if it never came out, yet, the flipside is that RSD puts a huge amount of profit into indie retailers pockets (and, sadly, Ebay record scalpers) and as that helps sustain retailers that often struggle financially and are swimming upstream against the tide, I can't complain and jump in there happily with my hand in my pocket.

I picked up most of the Sundazed singles. Sonically they are outstanding, musically, The Blues Project is awesome and the B-side is even better than the A-side, the Beefheart is good but pretty early, inessential and not fully formed Beefheart, The Byrds is well done but inessential, the Chocolate Watch Band and Blues Magoos are essential and are stompers. The Gene Clark is really a Byrds thing and is really good. The Paul Revere is missable.

The Mastodon/Flaming Lips single is excellent, the Mastodon/Feist less so, mostly due to the rather lightweight Feist, not helped by a really shitty pressing. The non-album B-side to the Paul Weller single is a great track, very worth having. Less so the B to the Springsteen single. Blitzen Trapper return with a good 45 offering, the Black Angels single is not really all that great, although the RaRaRiot split is. And so it goes...all the way to the two Small Faces singles, which are simply stupendous sounding, coming as analog cuts from true, long unused original masters - Tin Soldier has never sounded so good. The Clash London Calling 45 is rather poor value, the 2012 remix is no great revelation, and the instrumental version on the B-side a curiosity at best.

The revelatory 45 set of RSD 2012 comes from Light in The Attic, following last year's excellent Wheedle's Groove box with this years Flipside Of Stax box, a great set of long forgotten, yet absolutely revelatory Stax and Volt singles, beautifully pressed and presented with original labels and a very high quality booklet, containing a rare current interview with founders Jim Stewart and Al Bell. Should still be very easy to get a copy at your local.

The major box set of RSD 2012 must be the Tomahawk box. I haven't listened to Mit Gas in many years, awesome a record though it is, and here on vinyl it, and the other two Tomahawks albums in the set, sounds fabulous and is a good pressing. I got mine for under $50, a true bargain for 3 LPs. This is what makes Record Store Day worthwhile.

Picked up Spot the Pigeon, the Genesis EP on Audio Fidelity. Sounds really amazing, and the songs are good - very good actually, in ways better than anything on Wind & Wuthering, the sessions they come from. At the same time, I can hear why they weren't included on Wind & Wuthering - they don't fit that album conceptually, and would have made it a much different record. Lyrically they are at times inconsistent, but overall, great stuff and indicative of a stronger direction Genesis could have taken as they were concurrently heading in a poppier direction.

Seem that the 'hot' title this RSD was the Phish 3 LP set. I had it in my hands, and was tempted, even though I have never been able to 'get' Phish. Nice looking package though, but I passed - probably could have recouped a lot of my RSD investment by selling it on Ebay, but I never want to be one of those people.

I did get the usual Grateful Dead offering, though, well done and fairly priced, this time it is a continuation of the '72 live series, a single disc containing one performance of Dark Star spread over two sides, intelligently cut to be a continuous experience. Very good sounding, pressed at RTI in not their top quality, very worthwhile to Dark Star aficionados.

Likewise, mclusky's Do Dallas is one of those under the radar RSD treats - this is a seminal underground record, punkish, punchy, off beat and very lyrically offbeat, makes God Save The Queen sound like a stupid pop record. One to get.

Dinosaur Jr's Electronic Anthology is a marginal pressing that takes a bit of work to get quiet, these reworking of Dinosaur Jr tracks is actually very good and this is a record worth having.

Vanguard reissue Joan Baez (Farewell Angelina) and This Is Buddy Guy, both seminal records, both sounding very good and well pressed.

Sony brings out Forever Miles, an anthology of tracks from the various Miles CD box sets that have never appeared on vinyl before. I was going to pass, but got roped in by the interesting track selection, I'm glad I did as it is really very good, sounds pretty good, and is well pressed. Worth seeking out a copy.

The Flaming Lips are kind of a RSD staple, and "The Flaming Lips and Heady Fweinds" is a two LP set of tracks from various collaboration over the past year and a bit. 4 of the tracks have been previously issued on 12" 45's, the rest are new to this set, making it very worthwhile if your head is into where the Lips are these days, which is further out there than ever into 4:20 day territory, I love it and this is a great RSD release. Should be super easy to find for cheap as tons of these were pressed - don't buy on Ebay unless you are one of the dumber members of the 1%.

A few other odds & ends, like a Velvet Underground "Loaded" on pink vinyl that sounds ok, but not super, the source material is not great to begin with. Haven't been able to track down what looks to be an awesome Steven Wilson record.

That's it until the more dubious side of RSD hits on Black Friday.