Rememeber Record Store on Black Friday

Next Friday, obviously, is the biggest brick-and-mortar retail sales day of the year, and the folks at Record Store Day have decided to try and get you on the door with a Black Friday promotion of their own. Although not on par with the blowout Record Store Day holiday that occurs every spring, independent record store across the land will have many great exclusives available -- from Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, Wilco and the Rolling Stones, to name a few -- but I thought I would share my top three must-have purchases I plan to pick up between leftover turkey sandwiches.

1. Nick Lowe & His Band
"Go 'Way Hound Dog" b/w "(I've Changed My) Wild Mind"
Side one of the 7" and 10" single is a live take taken from his appearance at Chicago's Old Town School of Folk Music. Yep Roc gives us a brief sample of both songs below.



2. Brendan Benson
'Upstairs at United, Vol. 1'
The vinyl-only 12" EP (at 45RPM) has four covers recorded live on August 16th, 2011, direct to quarter-inch tape upstairs in the historic United Record Pressing party room. It comes in a custom jacket, stickered and enclosed in polybag. Here are the tracks:
Side A
1. Candidate (David Bowie)
2. Strangers (Kinks)
Side B
1. Beyond Belief (Elvis Costello)
2. Love Story (Randy Newman)

3. Crowded House
'Intriguer Live: Start To Finish'
This is a two- CD/one-DVD set chronicling the band's last tour, in support of their sixth studio album, 'Intriguer.' I was fortunate enough to see their Seattle-area stop and can vouch that they sounded great. The 50-minute DVD is a roundup of the best songs (as chosen by Neil Finn) from their first performance stop, Aukland, New Zealand on April 8, 2010. The CDs are of the final show from Denver on Sept. 9 of the same year.