Recs with Merritt: Record Store Day is upon us yet again
Recs With Merritt. // Art by Cassondra Jones
Records with Merritt is Marion Merritt’s vinyl store in Westport [1614 Westport Rd] with partner Ann Stewart. As a staple in our community for nearly a decade, we’ve partnered with Merritt for a new monthly column, where the tastemaker shares her picks for the best wax releases to look forward to grabbing, divided by release date.
Here’s Marion Merritt’s rundown of the best offerings at this year’s Record Store Day, which hits this Saturday.
In 2007, while the US economy was in a recession, a group of vinyl enthusiasts wanted to find a way to help independent record stores stay open and thrive. On April 19, 2008, the first Record Store Day was launched to offer limited, special edition vinyl releases only available to certified independent record stores.
On April 23, 2023, the 16th Annual Record Store Day wonderment begins. This year’s titles include not only vinyl releases, but also CDs and a few cassettes.
For those new to the vinyl world, the releases are limited pressing, titles have been out-of-print for years, different colored variants of well-known releases, and may include unreleased, never heard tracks.
With some titles having a limited run of 300 to 500, to be divided between hundreds of Record Stores, RSD is a treasure hunt that will take pre-planning and understanding store rules. Please visit www.recordstoreday.com for the complete, printable PDF list and description of the releases. If you find your favorite titles are extremely limited, you may want to think about arriving at your destination as early as possible to secure your place in line.
At Records with Merritt, our first customers usually arrive and start lining up around 4am. We will open our doors at 7 a.m. and close at 7 p.m.
Our shop admits five shoppers, at a time, for a more orderly browsing experience. RSD is a first come, first served day, and we limit the purchases. We will provide coffee, drinks and breakfast snacks, music, laughs, and fun.
The most anticipated and highly sought-after release is Taylor Swift’s folklore: the long pond studio sessions. But from the rest of the list, here are just a few titles that we are excited to see released:
Originally released in 1995, the debut album from singer-songwriter Poe was certified gold just a year later. The title track “Hello” has been a part of our soundtrack since 1995.
Terry Callier — Hidden Conversations
Callier, a singer-songwriter, who could not be put in any category nor genre, grew frustrated with the business of music and retired much too early in the 70s. By demand, he came out of retirement in the 90s, cementing his cult status with his own unique, genre-busting style.
David Byrne — The Complete Score from The Catherine Wheel
The Catherine Wheel is David Byrne’s musical score commissioned by Twyla Tharp for her dance project, which premiered September 22, 1981 in New York City.
Brownout — Brownout Presents: Brown Sabbath Vol. 1
Brown Sabbath is the alter ego of Austin-based Brownout. We find Brownout diving deep into the catalog of Heavy Metal Masters, Black Sabbath. Remaining true to the darkness, bombast, and fuzz of Sabbath’s sound, Brownout reinvents the music with their trademark flavors of Latin-Funk and Psychedelic Rock.
Charlie Parker — Afro-Cuban Bop: The Long Lost Bird Live Recordings
Kansas City’s own and one of jazz’s greatest saxophonists, Charlie Parker’s RSD release will be an in-depth sampling of his experiments in Afro-Cuban fusion. A dizzying group of supporting musicians joins Parker. The recordings were captured in the late 1940s and early ’50s at such storied venues as Carnegie Hall and Birdland in New York.
This release is a set of rare, early Hüsker Dü live recordings featuring original flyers and artwork.
Dirty Projectors and Björk — Mount Wittenberg Orca
How exciting to be able to listen to an expanded edition of the long out-of-print Mount Wittenberg Orca LP; Dirty Projectors’ critically acclaimed collaborative album with Icelandic legend and RWM favorite, Björk.
