Record Store Day Black Friday exclusives: local releases of note

No longer content to occupy merely one Spring Saturday each year, Record Store Day has joined the national consumer blitzkrieg that is Black Friday with a slate of special releases out Nov. 23. The Record Store Day site has unveiled its catalog of releases, featuring big-name buzzbands (The Gaslight Anthem, Mayer Hawthorne, JEFF the Brotherhood), choice reissues (Miles Davis, Captain Beefheart, Joe Strummer, Mayhem), and a few head-scratchers (who needs the entire Incubus catalog on vinyl?) on a variety of exclusive (and “exclusive”) platters. But before you get to poring over the list, circling everything on your wish-list, we’ve filtered for regional relevance.

Band of Horses – Sonic Ranch Sessions: Mirage Rock & Relly’s Dream (Columbia)

Band of Horses - Mirage Rock & Relly's Dream

This “exclusive” 7-inch collects two tracks previously released as bonus cuts on the CD version of Band of Horses’ recent Mirage Rock. But, this is the first time they’ve been pressed on vinyl, so there’s that.

Tyler Ramsey – “Raven Shadow” b/w “Black Pines” (Tompkins Square)

Tyler Ramsey - Raven Shadow

The Band of Horses goes old-timey on this 78 rpm 10-inch single, which pairs “Raven Shadow” and “Black Pines,” both instrumental acoustic numbers. Ramsey also appears on the Tompkins Square compilation Imaginational Anthem Vol. 4, which is included in a Black Friday-excludive six-CD box set with the other five volumes and a bonus disc of Nashville guitarist William Tyler, recorded live.

Toro Y Moi - So Many Details (Carpark)

Toro Y Moi - So Many Details

As we’d previously reported, Toro Y Moi will preview next year’s Anything In Return with this preview single (which you can stream here). With the A-side all over the Web, though, the real selling point has to be the flip-side remix, which features Odd Future’s Hodgy Beats.

Link Wray – “Big City After Dark” b/w “Hold It” and “Dance Party Pts. 1 & 2″ (Sundazed)

Link Wray - Big City After Dark

Though they’re packaged together as a double 7-inch in a gatefold sleeve, this is an otherwise faithful re-minting of Link Wray’s rare 1962 singles, originally release don the Mala label. (The Dunn, N.C. native and his band originally released “Big City After Dark,” b/w “Hold It” as Ray Vernon & the Raymen.) Wray is often credited with introducing the power chord to rock & roll, and his early instrumental hits are marvels of menacing tone and punk-predicting primitivism. —Bryan C. Reed

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