It’s just a month away: grandma is boiling the turkey carcass for broth, the TV is playing A Charlie Brown’s Thanksgiving, someone is sneaking one more slice of pie from the kitchen, and strategies for joining the line for Record Store Day Black Friday at Wax Trax are being pondered.
We asked our staff what they would line up for (if they weren’t already working) this Record Store Day Black Friday and they gave us these picks.
Woah! We finally get an official vinyl release for arguably one of the greatest mixtapes of all time?? Back in my day if Wayne decided to rap on your beat that song was no longer yours and this was the peak. Who was the original artist for swag surfing? I forget... but I do remember all the words to the Lil Wayne version! (insert lighter flick noise).
The music video used to scare me as a kid because the puppets are so creepy looking. But now I can have them stare into my soul from this amazing 12" picture disc!
First album from revolutionary producer, writer, performer. Long unavailable on vinyl!
Unlike the standard relationship of albums and live tours we see in most genres, where tours follow the completion of an album and are in many ways its advertisement and a celebration of its completion, the great free jazz albums were discovered in the live improvisations preceding them. For this reason, live recordings of free jazz give listeners an intimate look at how their favorite albums were made. For Albert Ayler's "Spiritual Unity," perhaps one of the most unruly and haunted free jazz albums of its era and my absolute favorite, that album is "Prophecy," which captures an evening in the year before. It has always been an incomplete prophecy of the music Ayler and his trio would find, however, as the original 1975 version cuts out much of that night; but for first time ever, thanks to ORG Music and the Albert Ayler Estate, Prophecy Completed lets us experience the full evening in its original glory.
This is the sourest, most gynecologically challenged album in the Rolling Stones’ vast and often wildly Un-Woke catalog. The 2026 Black Friday reissue of Aftermath presents Mick Jagger at his most swaggeringly obnoxious and Keith Richards at his most venomously inventive, ranging from the petty cruelties of romantic spite to the apocalyptic menace of “Paint It, Black,” as if a bad breakup were sufficient grounds for the end of civilization. And yet I keep listening to it.
Imagine yourself on a mustard yellow shag carpet of a sunken living room, the air is filled with smoke, and this playing on the stereo.
To me, this release is what RSD is all about-- unearthed versions of classic songs we all know and love. Described as a 'shadow album,' these are not mere demos, but seemingly a rough draft of (in my opinion) THE hard rock album of the 1980s. What's not to love?
Cuz it's Joni, obviously.
Hey hey how fun to have some new Monkees demos to listen to :) It's a compilation of a bunch of versions of early Monkees songs, what more could you ask for?
Great collection of Jazz dance floor burners! Beautifully packaged, with each 7" inch on different colored marble wax. Stand out joints, Idris Muhammad - I'm a Believer, Pleasure - Bouncy Lady, & Johnny Hammond - Los Conquistadores Chocolatés. PEACE
You can't go wrong with a classic album. The Beatles are the band that got me into music, so I'm always excited to see new Beatles releases.
RSD Black Friday comes with a list of exclusive releases, only available at independent record shops like ours. We’ll have all the stuff worth getting, along with some fantastic events to keep ya entertained. Click here for more details on RSD Black Friday at Wax Trax the last Friday in November.
1 comment
100% with David Axelrod!
I was going to pass on Earth Wind and Fire but it looks like it hasn’t been repressed in a while.
Soul Latino and Charlie Parker live are must haves for me.