VIDEO: FISTFUL OF MERCY "THINGS GO 'ROUND"

Yesterday was Record Store Day, and hopefully some of you went to record stores, and bought some cool exclusive Record Store Day stuff, as well as some albums that you've been wanting to get for a while.

Fistful Of Mercy put out a 7" single with their cover of The Velvet Underground's "Pale Blue Eyes." The B-side was "Things Go 'Round," recorded live at the SiriusXM studios.  I actually was one of the camera people on that shoot, so I thought I'd share the video.  It was a huge thrill to be in the studio for this. Ya'll know what a huge Ben Harper fan I am: this was the first time I ever saw him play bass.

I'd love to see the band release some of their other covers: when I saw them at the Apollo Theater, they also did Bob Dylan's "Buckets of Rain" and, in one of the highlights of the night, PJ Harvey's "To Bring You My Love." Ben has a new album coming out next month, but I look forward to seeing him with Dhani Harrison, Joseph Arthur and Jessy Greene (she should be a full-fledged member! - I think she will, once again, tour with the Foo Fighters when they hit the road) in the future.

HEY, IT'S RECORD STORE DAY THIS WEEKEND!

Well, if you've been reading No Expiration, you know I love record stores, and more than that, I love rare tracks and B-sides. That's why Record Story Day is so cool! It encourages people to go into record stores, which has been such an important part of so many peoples lives.  I'm not saying that the decline of the record store is as tragic as, say, an animal facing extinction.  But it is a bummer that lots of kids have never known the thrill of going to a record store, thumbing through the racks, finding that hard-to-find record, or even finding something they've never heard before.  Yes, there were ornery record store clerks everywhere from the small indie store to Tower Records (see: Jack Black's role in High Fidelity), but there were also really cool people working at record stores, too, who could lead you to great music you might not have known about.

As for me, I'll be in class all day Saturday at NYU (a marketing class - interesting for sure, but not as much fun as going to record stores) and that night I'm seeing Chris Cornell's solo acoustic show in Montclair, New Jersey. And there aren't really any good record stores near me, anyway. But if there's one near you, do take advantage of it. You can learn more about Record Store Day at their website (you can find out where the closest record store to you is, and see a list of exclusive releases).  And if you're on Twitter, why not Tweet about your Record Store Day experiences (use the hashtag #rsd11, and follow them at @recordstoreday).  I'll tell you what, if I had my way, I'd head to Nashville to go to the Third Man Records store: Jerry Lee Lewis is performing there that day, and in true Third Man fashion, they're going to have t-shirts (limited edition, of course) promoting the show. Check this out below... how cool is that?

THIS WEEKEND: RECORD STORE DAY

Today on The Morning Jolt with Larry Flick on SIRIUS XM OutQ, I talked a bit about Record Store Day. It's this Saturday! If you go to a record store, there will be exclusive releases by The Rolling Stones ("Plundered My Soul," one of the unearthed songs from the upcoming Exile On Main Street reissue), Bruce Springsteen ("Wrecking Ball"/"The Ghost Of Tom Joad (live)" featuring Tom Morello) and a Courtyard Hounds/Jakob Dylan split 7". Blur recorded a brand new song for the event, their first new song in years. So go to a record store and buy something!
UPDATE: Check out this list of all of the exclusives being offered.

"RACONTWOERS" PLAY THIRD MAN RECORDS FOR RECORD STORE DAY

Record Store Day is coming up this weekend. The coolest place to spend it will be, unsurprisingly, Third Man Records in Nashville. The "Racontwoers" will be playing the store. It's the two guys from The Raconteurs who aren't in The Dead Weather. Guitarist/singer Brendan Benson and drummer Patrick Keeler will be playing some Raconteurs songs. That's pretty cool. I know that when Brendan does his solo tours he stays away from Raconteurs material (I think Jack White doesn't want anyone crossing projects: he only plays White Stripes songs with the Stripes, Raconteurs songs with the Raconteurs, etc). And supposedly Brendan didn't work with Patrick on his solo album so that it wouldn't be similar to the band. which seems a bit unfair: White works with bassist Jack Lawrence in Dead Weather!

Meanwhile, I just got a cool new package from Third Man.  It's a double LP including all the singles that they're released this year, including songs by The Dead Weather, Mildred and The Mice, Rachelle Garniez, The Dex Romweber Duo, Wanda Jackson, The Black Belles, Jack White solo and more. I thought that that would be the latest V.I.P. package, which would have bugged me as (a) it's supposed to be an LP, a 7" and a shirt and (b) most V.I.P. members probably bought all of these on 7" and (c) that means it isn't "exclusive." But Third Man says the next package will be an LP of songs recorded on The White Stripes 2007 tour of Canada, but they will mostly be songs not included in the Under Great White Northern Lights documentary/soundtrack. The 7" will be two unreleased Raconteurs demos, and the t-shirt will be a Dead Weather shirt that will "blow minds."

SOUNDGARDEN 7" FOR RECORD STORE DAY

Just got an email saying that Soundgarden will be putting out two of their early songs, "Hunted Down"/"Nothing To Say" as an orange vinyl 7" for Record Store Day, which is April 17, 2010.  Soundgarden also is offering a live download of "Spoonman" from their 1996 tour.  In the email, they point out that they recorded a bunch of the shows from that tour but haven't mixed them yet. Cool stuff.

STEVE ALBINI'S DREAM RECORD STORE

Steve Albini isn't really known for his sense of humor, but he uses humor to make a great point about why record stores are important in this Record Store Day advertisement in The Chicago Reader. 

TOMORROW ON OUTQ: PRINCE, PETE TOWNSHEND, BOB MOULD AND RECORD STORE DAY

After a week off from The Morning Jolt with Larry Flick on OutQ, I'll be back tomorrow (Wednesday) morning at 9 am ET. Up this week:

Prince's triple album: Lotusflow3r, which is sort of a guitar album, MPLsound, more of a dance thing, and Elixr, the debut by his protege, Bria Valente. Bria is kind of like Sade but not as good. As for the two Prince discs, like most Prince post-Diamonds and Pearls, you have to sort of search through an album to find the gems. It's like that.

Rachel Fuller Presents In The Attic: a 2 CD/1 DVD set you can only get at Best Buy, but it is a bargain at $11.99. As I mentioned, it was recorded at Rachel and boyfriend Pete Townshend's "In The Attic" shows, at small venues during off nights on The Who's tour. It features Pete doing some Who classics solo, Pete dueting with Lou Reed on some Velvet Underground classics, and younger artists like Ben Harper, Rachel Yamagata and Joe Purdy (who I discovered from this set), often backed by Pete.

Bob Mould's new album, Life and Times. I don't always love Bob's stuff lately, but this seems like a cool album. Mould is also writing an autobiography, which should be interesting: Husker Du were on SST during an incredible era, his band Sugar almost got huge, he was a writer for WWE, he's just done some cool stuff.

And finally, Saturday is Record Store Day!

AMOEBA RECORDS PRESENTS "WHAT'S IN YOUR BAG?"

I've heard a lot about the great record store Amoeba, but I've never been there. It may be a bit too snobby/hipster for me, but we can all agree that cool independent record stores are great. Their web site has this cool feature, "What's In Your Bag?" where musicians talk about what they bought that day.  This one with Dave Grohl is pretty cool.  And don't forget to support independent record stores on Record Store Day. 

MORE RECORD STORE DAY NEWS

The official website of Record Store Day has a list of exclusives that will be available, which includes a Ben Harper 10" (with an unreleased track, "Spanish Red Wine"), a Bob Dylan 7" (two tracks recorded when he played Bonnaroo, "Down Along The Cove" which was on a Bonnaroo album, and "Dreaming Of You" from Bootleg Series Vol. 8), a Bruce Springsteen 7" with "What Love Can Do" from Working on a Dream and "A Night With The Jersey Devil," 7" singles from Jane's Addiction and Heaven & Hell, The Stooges, The MC5, Slayer, The Smiths and Sublime, and a split 7" by Elvis Costello and Jenny Lewis.

It's interesting that Record Store Day, which is April 18, comes just weeks after the biggest record store in the world (I think), the Virgin Megastore in Times Square, is closing (I think it actually closes Monday). They've been having a clearance sale, so of course I went to check it out. Even with 40% off of CDs, it was surprisingly untempting: that's because they charge 50% too much for CDs. While walking through the store, I had the chorus to Radiohead's "Just" in my mind ("You did it to yourself..."). By the way, Radiohead has an exclusive release for Record Store Day as well. Support independent record stores: if you don't live near one, you can still order something from their websites, I often order from Newbury Comics.

RECORD STORE DAY '09

Record Store Day is coming again! It's a cool day to celebrate record stores -- so many of us have gotten so much enjoyment from hanging out in record stores (particularly indie ones) and it's good to support them. This site has a list of artists who are doing indie store exclusive releases in honor of the holiday. It doesn't say what the releases will have, only what artists are doing exclusives. Bruce Springsteen is doing a 7" single (nice touch after the Walmart best-of debacle), Bob Dylan is doing a 7", Tom Waits and Lucinda Williams are doing a split 7" and Elvis Costello and Jenny Lewis are also doing a split 7".

APRIL 19 - RECORD STORE DAY

It's probably no surprise that I'm a big fan of record stores. Yes, I love the iTunes store, and I frequently use Amazon.com. But nothing takes the place of a cool record store, and sadly, there are not many left. April 19 is Record Store Day, though, so support your local (or not local) indie retailer.  As for me, I don't actually live near any indie record stores, sadly. But I recently started buying full CDs from Newbury Comics, one of the few record stores who are currently thriving.  

Lots of record stores are planning in-store performances, meet-and-greets and big sales for that day. Amazingly, the mighty Metallica is going to be performing at Rasputin Music in Mountain View, California. 

In other "record" news, apparently at a panel at the South By Southwest convention, there was a discussion on vinyl making a comeback. In fact, someone from Sony was talking about re-issuing the label's catalog on vinyl.  That's hard to imagine. I think vinyl still is the best sounding format. But I think in this mp3 dominated world, people don't care as much about fidelity as they do about having thousands of tracks at their fingertips.  But good luck to them: if they want this to have any effect, though, they can't charge ridiculous prices.