If you haven’t already, you might want to check the first volume of IRC’s Record Store Day 2011 Music Guide, featuring a lot of great suggestions for limited editions vinyls that you want to get your hands on if at all possible this Saturday.
First things first, you might want to check out the official list of record stores participating in RSD, whether your in Nebraska or California, Texas or Minnesota. Make sure to check back late on Friday or early on Saturday for the final, and huge, volume three to our special RSD guide.
So, as work continues on Volume Three, we wanted to make this second volume all about the wonderful number of cover songs that are coming on especially for RSD 2011. Some were already featured in volume one, including the tribute album to Guided By Voices and Beach Fossils and Wild Nothing split single vinyl featuring two covers of The Wake.
First up, RSD will see the release of a special 12-inch vinyl EP compilation of Franz Ferdinand covers from artists like the soon-to-be-disbanded LCD Soundsystem, Debbie Harry of Blondie, Stephen Merritt of Magnetic Fields, and others who take a stab at covering FF songs, many of them from the Scottish band’s 2009 LP, Tonight.
We can only hope that there will be a MP3 (maybe FLAC as well?) rip of the compilation that we can eventually get. It just wouldn’t make sense if there wasn’t.
Live Alone (Franz Ferdinand cover)LCD Soundsystem
It’s a big week for hard-core Foo Fighters fans. In addition to the release of one of the band’s best album ever this week – Wasting Light – the Foo Fighters are also releasing a vinyl of cover songs called, Medium Rare. The 12-inch, 120-gram vinyl comes with covers of Husker Du‘s “Never Talking to You Again”; The Wings “Band on the Run”; Prince‘s “Darling Nikki,” plus previously unreleased covers of Thin Lizzy‘s “Bad Reputation” and the Zombies‘ “This Will Be Our Year.” If you can’t grab the vinyl release, you can buy the MP3 download version here.
“Band on the Run” (Paul McCartney & Wings) – Foo Fighters from Medium Rare
Note: You can watch, for a limited time, the Foo Fighters‘ Late Night special nearly two-hour live show with the band playing Wasting Light in entirety, as well as some of their new covers. Apologies to vegans and others who find the inclusion of the cover art to Medium Rare a bit disturbing – we do not intend to offend anyone, but at the same time, it would be a disservice for us to censor the cover image as well. Hope that makes sense :)
Special RSD Covers from Deerhoof, Xiu Xiu, The Decemberists, Clinic, Dennis Coffey
In an interesting collaboration, Deerhoof and Xiu Xiu are releasing a 2,000 split seven-inch orange vinyls on RSD with Jamie Stewart of Xiu Xiu singing Deerhoof’s “Almost Everyone, Almost Always.” Greg Saunier of Deerhoof takes on Xiu Xiu’s “Dear God, I Hate Myself.” Here’s the original Xiu Xiu track.
“Dear God, I Hate Myself” (Xiu Xiu) – Greg Saunier of Deerhoof
You can beat that special release on RSD by The Decemberists will sell out fast. The band are releasing a vinyl limited edition of the new Live At Bull Moose EP. In true RSD fashion, the EP was recorded in January at the Bull Moose record store in Scarborough, Maine. The EP contains six songs from The King Is Dead. The EP also includes a cover of the Louvin Brothers‘ “If I Could Only Win Your Love,” complete with a slide guitar. The track as also a hit for Emmylou Harris way back in 1975.
The Decemberists – If I Could Only Win Your Love (The Louvin Brothers cover) by Cover Me
Clinic will drop an EP of cover songs, Ladies Night, featuring covers of songs by Cilla Black, Man Parrish and the Seeds and Audrey Hepburn.
The Deftones will release a 12-inch vinyl of cover songs, including tracks from B-sides or CD import singles. The band covers The Smiths, The Cure, Duran Duran, The Cars, The Caridgans, Drive Like Jehu and Sade.
Dennis Coffey, the widely regarded guitarist, is dropping a new album of heavy Motor City funk that features a number of cover songs featuring collaborations with a line-up of musicians, including Kings Go Forth, Mayer Hawthorne, Paulo Nutini, Mick Collins (The Dirtbombs). This is also a cover of Parliament‘s “All Your Goodies Are Gone” by Mayer Hawthorne is one of the album’s highlights. There will be a special limited seven-inch vinyl featuring a remix by Steinski.
Covers from Green Day, Manchester Orchestra, Toadies, Superchunk and Coliseum
Green Day will drop a seven-inch vinyl cover of Husker Du‘s “I Don’t Want to Know If You Are Lonely.” The B-side will include the original from Husker Du. Manchester Orchestra will drop a vinyl cover of Built to Spill’s “The Plan” on the B-side with the A-side featuring MO’s new single, “Simple Math.” While LCD Soundsystem may no longer be, Texas band Toadies will issue a cover of LCD’s “Someone Great” on seven-inch vinyl, and Superchunk and the hardcore rockers Coliseum will drop a split seven-inch vinyl featuring covers of The Misfits‘ “Horror Business” and “Bullet,” respectively.
“I Don’t Want to Know If You are Lonely” (Husker Du) – Green Day
Ty Segall Covers T. Rex; Of Montreal does Buffalo Springfield
The indie band Ty Segall will release a 12-inch clear vinyl featuring six raw retakes on Marc Bolan‘s (T. Rex) joyous shimmering symphonic dementia and cool-ass 70s glam pop rock, tapping into T. Rex‘s feral and lusty sing-along allure. The vinyl will also come with a download code.
The release will only be available at Goner Records stores, TS shows, while the MP3 version will be available for an indefinite amount of time.
Some of the covers include “Fist Heart Mighty Dawn Dart,” “The Slider” and “Salamanda Palaganda.”
Ty Segall: “Fist Heart Mighty Dawn Dart” (T. Rex Cover) by alteredzones
The wacky Georgia musical collective, Of Montreal, will drop a seven-inch vinyl cover of Buffalo Springfield‘s “Expecting to Fly.” The band are admirers of Neil Young (who founded Buffalo) having covered “Harvest Moon” for the 2010 Haiti relief.
“Expecting to Fly” (Buffalo Springfield) – Of Montreal from RSD vinyl
As they prepare for the release of their interesting concept album, the band Fu*ked Up will drop a compilation of fictional U.K. punk bands from the main character, David’s, hometown. Fictional band names include the silly British non-existent bands like Crown and Criers, Redstockings, Wonderer.
The RSD-only compilation, David’s Town, will unfortunately be limited to 500 pressings, so it’s going to be a hard one to get your hands on. As we’ve said with so many of the limited edition vinyls, we can only hope that many RSD releases will eventually be available in MP3 format, CD or another vinyl release, so that everyone has a chance to hear these great special releases.
You might want to refresh this page later as we add more material and songs as they’re discovered, as well as the video review of RSD 2011 releases, and the mega-mix guide to our top RSD releases.