PREVIEW: Ghost Cult Magazine’s Record Store Day Black Friday 2023 Primer


Buckle up record collectors, music lovers, and hipsters! Record Store Black Friday is upon us! While the list is long, these albums will almost only be available at your local record store, and the process of getting these records varies from store to store, this is a great way to get some rare vinyl to add to your collections. Check out our top picks for this years’ event, and see the entire list below

https://recordstoreday.com/Home

Get the full list of records and find your participating local store, here:

 

Top Picks: 

IwrestledabearonceIt’s All Happening

Details

Event: Black Friday 2023

Release Date: 11/24/2023

Format: LP

Label: Brutal Planet Records

Quantity: 500

Release Type: ‘RSD First’ Release

 

One of the most important albums of the last 20 years and best debut metal albums of all-time. A must pick up for fans. 

 

 

The Bottle Rockets Bottle Rockets (30th Anniversary)

Details

Event: Black Friday 2023

Release Date: 11/24/2023

Format: LP

Label: Real Gone Music

Quantity: 1850

Release Type: ‘RSD First’ Release

 

An essential Americana/Country-inspired rock release and a forerunner of many of their peers that would follow. 

Carter Burwell  – Blood Simple (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Details

Event: Black Friday 2023

Release Date: 11/24/2023

Format: LP

Label: Varèse Sarabande

Quantity: 1500

Release Type: ‘RSD First’ Release

 

The classic 1980s score to the Cohen Brothers neo-noir flick. Burwell would go on to score fifteen more movies by the directing broes in his career. We’ve heard this one early, and it sounds terrific! 

Coheed And Cambria – Live At The Starland Ballroom

Details

Event: Black Friday 2023

Release Date: 11/24/2023

Format: 2 X LP

Label: Legacy Recordings

Quantity: 4900

Release Type: RSD Exclusive Release

With a fan base that snaps up pricey boxed sets and rare product like crazy online, this release of 4,900 limited pieces may not be enough for the best Coheed live album to date.

 

Collective SoulLive At The Print Shop

Details

Event: Black Friday 2023

Release Date: 11/24/2023

Format: LP

Label: Fuzze-Flex Records

Release Type: ‘RSD First’ Release

One of the many special releases hinted at by Will Turpin in our recent interview with him, this is a short but great set of hits and a few deep cuts aimed at die-hards. 

 

The Doors Live In Bakersfield

Details

Event: BLACK FRIDAY 2023

Release Date: 11/24/2023

Format: 2 x LP

Label: Rhino/Elektra

Quantity: 7500

Release type: RSD Exclusive Release

 

If you are a Doors fanatic, this may not impress since there are so many bootlegs out there onj Discogs and eBay. However, Rhino/Elektra takes great care with every legacy reissue and exclusive release, so we suspect this is going to sound great! 

 

The Flaming LipsYoshimi Battles The Pink Robots – Live At The Paradise Lounge, Boston Oct. 27, 2002

Details

Event: Black Friday 2023

Release Date: 11/24/2023

Format: LP

Label: Warner Records

Quantity: 4500

Release Type: RSD Exclusive Release

 

We will forgive the misnaming of one of the most famous venues in Boston music history (it’s The Paradise Rock Club, you jabronis) for this amazing concert. Definitely an important live document of one of the bands’ most crucial works. A must buy vinyl.  

 

Cypress HillBlack Sunday Remixes

Details

Event: Black Friday 2023

Release Date: 11/24/2023

Format: 12″ Vinyl

Label: Legacy Recordings

Quantity: 3100

Release Type: RSD Exclusive Release

Cypress Hill remains as vital today as when their breakthrough album Black Sunday came out 30 years ago. Essential for completists and weed enthusiasts alike. 

 

Gary HoeyHark! The Ho Ho Hoey Hits!

Details

Event: Black Friday 2023

Release Date: 11/24/2023

Format: LP

Label: Surfdog

Quantity: 1000

Release Type: ‘RSD First’ Release

 

A compilation on vinyl for the first time of shred master Gary’s holiday hijinks! 

Napalm DeathFrom Enslavement To Obliteration

Details

Event: Black Friday 2023

Release Date: 11/24/2023

Format: LP

Label: Earache Records

Quantity: 900

Release Type: RSD Limited Run / Regional Focus Release

 

Earache Records has been killing it with their own vinyl reissue series. This is as limited as their routine series so this will be an absolute sell-out. Also, the second album from the band and the last with Lee Dorian and Bill Steer. 

NasI Am… Autobiography

Details

Event: Black Friday 2023

Release Date: 11/24/2023

Format: 2 X LP

Label: Legacy Recordings

Quantity: 4100

Release Type: RSD Exclusive Release

 

Another Hip-Hop classic that makes the mythical mix-tape/demo/rarirties release of the most the most anticipated must-buys in the genre this year. 

SS Decontrol The Kids Will Have Their Say

Details

Event: Black Friday 2023

Release Date: 11/17/2023

Format: 12″ Vinyl

Label: Trust Records

Quantity: N/A

Release Type: Out now

 

OK, we fess up. This is a cheat since this album is out already, but one of the most important documents of East Coast Hardcore ever has come around to be re-pressed on vinyl for the first time since 1982. Also, the band will come together to play a release show at Newbury Comics on Record Store Day Black Friday! No karate in the pit, kids!  

 

Billy Strings“California Sober” Featuring Willie Nelson

Details

Event: Black Friday 2023

Release Date: 11/24/2023

Format: 12″ Vinyl

Label: Reprise Records

Quantity: 5000

Release Type: RSD Exclusive Release

 

Normally, an 12 inch vinyl single or double single-only is a auto-pass for us. However, Billy Strings being a rising star across several genres of guitar nerds/fans and the grand poo-bah of Outlaw Country Willie Nelson, makes this worthy.  

 

U2Under A Blood Red Sky

Details

Event: Black Friday 2023

Release Date: 11/24/2023

Format: LP

Label: Island

Quantity: 7000

Release Type: ‘RSD First’ Release

 

While we are not the biggest U2 fans in the world, their 2023 dominance at the Sphere in Las Vegas, and the importance of this important early nineteen eighties live album, means this album is buy for most fans. For the causal fan, this is an education of when they were briefly a legit “greatest in the world type” of band. 

 

Various Artists Judgment Night Soundtrack

Details

Event: Black Friday 2023

Release Date: 11/24/2023

Format: LP

Label: Legacy Recordings

Quantity: 3150

Release Type: RSD Exclusive Release

 

Neither limited or rare with many pressings to be has online, the movie soundtrack that fully capitalized on Nu Metal’s rise and 2023 return with Helmet/House of Pain, Faith No More/Boo Yah Tribe, Biohazard/Onyx, Sonic Youth/Cypress Hill, Living Colour/Run DMC, and Slayer and Ice-T among other bangers providing the highlights. This is indeed, a key 1990s release worth having on the neat Red vinyl variant.  

 

Various Artists – Punk Goes Christmas

Details

Event: Black Friday 2023

Release Date: 11/24/2023

Format: 2 X LP

Label: Craft Recordings

Quantity: 2600

Release Type: ‘RSD First’ Release

 

Another album we have been lucky enough to preview with an advance LP, if you bought tickets to When We Were Young, miss Vans Warped Tour, or think NOFX is calling it quits too soon, and you love love love Christmas; this is essential. Big time tracks from Yellowcard, All Time Low, and Set It Off, and many others on this one.  

 

Wendy O. Williams Maggots: The Record

Details

Event: Black Friday 2023

Release Date: 11/24/2023

Format: LP

Label: Bfd

Quantity: 1500

Release type: RSD Exclusive Release

 

Not the Punk princesses masterwork, but this Thrahs Opera was an attention grabber when it came out. There is also not an over-abundance of her material on vinyl that sounds great these days, so this is for Wendy-O-philes! 

Rob ZombieLunar Injection Kool Aid Eclipse Conspiracy

DETAILS

Event: BLACK FRIDAY 2023

Release Date: 11/24/2023

Format: LP

Label: Nuclear Blast

Quantity: 2200

Release type: RSD Exclusive Release

 

Rob Zombie’s solo career seems to be riding a wave of late. While his solo albums have been uneven since the early ones, this is one of the better ones, and Nuclear Blast does a great job on vinyl pressings, even if a picture disc is overkill. 

X-COPSYou Have The Right To Remain Silent

DETAILS

Event: BLACK FRIDAY 2023

Release Date: 11/24/2023

Format: LP

Label: Brutal Planet Records

Quantity: 500

Release type: ‘RSD First’ Release

 

Another first time on vinyl and serious contender for best RSD Punk Rock release. What if Reno 911 or Archer were punk bands? Or better yet, what if GWAR made a punk rock side-project with their legendary sardonic humor and chops? This actual GWAR side-project features Dave Brockie (RIP) on a track as well.