Record Store Day: A Top 10
A Top 10 of Record Store Day releases taking in: New Order, Joy Division, The Wicker Man, Alfred Hitchcock, Fontaines DC, Low, The The, Nick Cave, Pulp, Clint Mansell, and Chris Bell.
Fontaines DC - Live at Kilmainham Gaol, inner gatefold. RSD 2021. Photography on the release is credited to Colm Moore and Renaud Monfourny. It doesn’t state which of the two took this amazing photograph. The photograph of the inner sleeve is however by Paul McDermott ;).
The Colourfield and Life Without Buildings. Photographs by Paul McDermott.
Saturday was the 17th year of Record Store Day. I did what I always do - I avoided the queues. I do partake though, I always have. I strolled into Spindizzy on Sunday and lo and behold the two records on my RSD “wantlist” were in the bins. I lucked out. Sorted!
I picked up a 2xLP reissue of The Colourfield’s masterful debut album Virgins and Philistines on lovely yellow vinyl. The second disc collects various singles and B-Sides.
The other record I was after was the first vinyl release of Life Without Buildings’ live album, Live at the Annadale Hotel. Rough Trade released the record on red vinyl. Originally released on CD back in 2007 and recorded five years earlier in the Annandale Hotel, Sydney, on 14 December 2002 towards the end of the Scottish band’s career. “We never planned to make a live album,” said Will Bradley, the band’s drummer, in 2010. “We had no idea that the Annandale gig was being recorded. But I’m glad that somebody did it.”
I still maintain that the band’s one and only album, 2001’s Any Other City, is one of the best albums released this century so I was thrilled to pick up their only other LP release.
Lots of people give out about RSD.
I get it, the prices are high, and major labels can press ridiculous limited edition records and clog up pressing plants for months in the process.
But each to their own.
In Spindizzy on Sunday, over twenty-four hours after they opened their doors for RSD 2025, the place was still busy and buzzing. I think that’s a good thing.
Here’s a rundown of my Top 10 Record Store Day releases:
10. Clint Mansell featuring Kronos Quartet
Requiem for a Dream
(Nonesuch Records)
RSD 2016 - 2xLP
The first vinyl release for Mansell’s soundtrack for Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem For A Dream (2000). This was a limited edition of 5,000 copies packaged in a heavy gatefold sleeve. Side 4 contained an all new remix suite. A gorgeous release.
9. Pulp x Soulwax
‘After You’
(Rough Trade Records)
RSD 2013 - 12”
They’ve just released ‘Spike Island’ but that track doesn’t touch the last new music they released. This banger was produced by LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy and saw Jarvis and co. remixed by Soulwax. It marked their first new release since 2001’s We Love Life album. ‘After You’ came in a die-cut sleeve and the B-side label features the classic Rough Trade design. ‘After You’ was originally recorded as a demo for We Love Life. Pulp returned to the studio in November 2012 with James Murphy to complete the song and it was first released as a free download on Christmas day 2012.
8. Chris Bell
‘I Am the Cosmos’/‘You and Your Sister’
(Omnivore Records)
RSD 2018 - 7”
Released for Record Store Day 2018 and limited to 1,300 copies this single from Big Star’s Chris Bell was issued in a gatefold sleeve with a printed insert. The hype sticker declares: “The classic single! New pressing in gatefold sleeve with liner notes from Car Records founder Chris Stamey.” The single was originally released in 1978 and then reissued by Rhino in 2009. Like many, I first heard ‘You and Your Sister’ when it was covered by This Mortal Coil on their 1991 album, Blood.
7. The The
The The - ‘Giant’/DJ Food featuring Matt Johnson - ‘Giant’
(Sony Music)
RSD 2014 - 12”
DJ Food’s reworking of ‘Giant’ originally appeared on his 2012 album, The Search Engine. It was paired with the Soul Mining original for Record Store Day 2014 in a limited edition of 2,000 copies.
6. Fontaines DC
Live at Kilmainham Gaol
(Partisan Records)
RSD 2021 - LP
Recorded in Kilmainham Gaol on 14 July 2020 for an Other Voices lockdown livestream. The recording was pressed for a US RSD 2021 release, limited to 3,500 copies. Its US release meant that it was only available online, postage and packaging prices pushed this beyond my reach, but I picked up a mint secondhand copy in Dublin in 2023 - score! The LP is packaged in a beautiful gatefold sleeve (photographed at the top of the page) with sleevenotes from historian Donal Fallon and includes a printed inner sleeve and a single-sided poster. The tracklisting includes songs from Dogrel and A Hero’s Death.
5. Low/Shearwater
‘Stay’/‘Novacane’
(Sub Pop Records)
RSD 2013 - 7”
A split 7” for Record Store Day Black Friday 2013 limited to 3,500 copies. Low do a version of Rihanna’s ‘Stay’ and Shearwater do a version of Frank Ocean’s ‘Novacane’. Low donated money raised from sales to Rock for Kids and Shearwater donated to the Southern Poverty Law Center. Mimi and Alan’s duet on ‘Stay’ is a masterclass.
4. Death Waltz 7” Triple Pack
(Death Waltz Recording Co.)
RSD 2013 - 3 x 7”
Death Waltz do this kind of thing really well. I’ve a few other releases from the soundtrack specialists - Antoni Maiovvi’s Yellow; Steve Moore’s Horror Business; Clint Mansell’s In the Wall and Johan Söderqvist’s Let The Right One In - all beautifully packaged. In 2013 Death Waltz went all in and produced three amazing split 7” singles featuring 6 cult TV themes. The singles came in die cut sleeves and were accompanied by beautiful art prints from Sonny & Biddy (aka We Buy Your Kids).
Charles Gounod - ‘Alfred Hitchcock Presents’ / Jack Marshall - ‘The Munsters’
Marius Constant - ‘The Twilight Zone’ / Harry Lubin - ‘The Outer Limits’
Alexander Courage - ‘Star Trek’ / John Williams - ‘Lost In Space’
3. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
‘The Mercy Seat’
(Mute Records)
RSD 2010 - 12”
I have a copy of the original 7” (photographed below) but I couldn’t let this beautiful record pass me by. Pressed on white vinyl with a gold-embossed electric chair on the cover, we’re treated to four versions of Cave’s masterpiece split across two sides of the 12”: The original Tender Prey version of ‘The Mercy Seat’ is backed by three other versions: ‘The Mercy Seat’ (Acoustic Version) recorded in May 1989 at Hansa and originally released as part of a bonus CD/7” for The Good Son entitled Acoustic Versions from Tender Prey; ‘The Mercy Seat’ recorded live at The Royal Albert Hall on 19 and 20 May 1997 and ‘The Mercy Seat’ (Live At The Tate) recorded at The Tate Gallery, London on 23rd May 2003.
Do we really need four versions of ‘The Mercy Seat’?
Yes, that’s the whole point of RSD - over the top releases.
2. Magnet songs from The Wicker Man
‘Willow’s Song’/‘Gentle Johnny’
(Silva Screen)
RSD 2012 - 7”
Like Death Waltz, Silva Screen also specialise in film soundtracks and also do this kind of thing really well. Over the years Silva Screen have issued some really beautiful RSD releases including their 7” singles with themes from Don’t Look Now and The Godfather (photographed above), but nothing tops their RSD 2012 7” release of two songs from the soundtrack to The Wicker Man. In a limited run of 500 copies in gorgeous yellow vinyl we’re treated to two of Paul Giovanni’s songs performed by Magnet.
1. New Order/Joy Division
‘Ceremony’/‘In a Lonely Place’
(Rhino Records)
RSD 2012 - 12”
This Record Store Day 12” was limited to 800 copies and contains both the New Order and Joy Division versions of the same songs: ‘Ceremony’ and ‘In a Lonely Place’. The Joy Division tracks are from rehearsal sessions, and ‘In a Lonely Place’ had never before been released in this full length version. This 12” goes for stupid money now - a copy is on sale on Discogs at the moment for €270. I’m still after a copy of the first green sleeve - it’ll show up in time.
And Finally…
Sound It Out
(Glimmer Films)
RSD 2011 - DVD/7”
“Like a mint pressing in a bargain bin Sound It Out is a rare find,” is how The New York Times described Jeanie Finlay’s superlative documentary about the last surviving record shop in Teesside. Sound It Out was the official film of RSD 2011. Glimmer Films produced a limited edition gatefold 7” containing a DVD of the film and a four track blue vinyl 7” featuring four songs from the soundtrack: Das Wanderlust - ‘Pyramintro’; The Chapman Family - ‘Sound of the Radio’; Saintsaviour - ‘When You Smile’; and Detective Instinct - ‘Witches Birdies’
“It tickled me at the time, made me sad sometimes and even shocked my senses a bit,” wrote Michael Kurtz, co-founder of Record Store Day, about Sound It Out. “A film that is as much about what it means to be human as it is about a record shop.”
Tom Butchart, the owner of Sound It Out Records in Stockton-On-Tees and the star of Finlay’s documentary, sadly passed away in June 2023. Finlay and John Doran (the Quietus) pay tribute to Butchart here.
Sound It Out is available to rent or buy here. If you’ve never seen it, you’re in for a real treat.
