In advance of Record Store Day 2023 — for which we WNXP DJs recommended some sweet special releases — I also wanted to celebrate the year-round brick and mortar meccas for audiophiles on #ThematicStatic. Name some of your best finds and the indie shops where you found ’em! Hear the full show (👇🏼) and pipe up with requests for the next theme, songs about cities, on our socials @WNXPNashville!
#ThematicStatic Playlist – 4/20/23
Kinks – “Picture Book” – Zach said he got an amazing and underpriced copy of The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society at In Your Ear Music Emporium, a shop in Sylva, North Carolina.
Bloc Party – “Helicopter” – I picked up this compact disc after playing the hell out of the songs on college radio. Shoutout to my first real indie record store home, Papa Jazz in Columbia, South Carolina. The years I lived within walking distance were tough on a student budget, but #noregrets about buying music. Ever ever ever.
Cake – “Rock and Roll Lifestyle” – Mike B. found a special yellow vinyl copy of Cake’s Motorcade of Generosity at McKay’s just west of downtown, and for a great price, too.
Kendrick Lamar – “King Kunta” – Straight from the ‘gram, Justin Barney said:
Six months before they officially printed it on wax, Rush Mor Records in Milwaukee had a bootleg of Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly, and it was such a flex at that time.
Record store memory from Midday Host Justin Barney
Magnetic Fields – “I Don’t Believe You” – This 2004 album, on which all songs begin with the letter “i,” just got the Record Store Day treatment in 2023 and maybe you can still find a copy at a store across Nashville! (Here, again, is the full RSD23 list.)
Waltel Branco – “Tema De Zorra (Popcorn With a Feeling)” – A favorite record store score of mine is this sick compilation of James Brown covers, including this one from Brazilian composer Branco, who passed in 2018.
Camera Obscura – “Tougher Than The Rest” – David said about this Springsteen cover he got on a record last year in Franklin:
I picked up the Making Money collection of rarities and B-sides by Camera Obsucra at Luna Records, dedicated to the memory of the band’s former keyboardist Carey Lander. My request is for anything from this amazing Scottish band, but if you can source it, the cover of “Tougher Than The Rest” off this record is an absoulte killer.
David on Instagram
Def Leppard – “Photograph” – Yes, yes, your radio is tuned to the music discovery station WNXP. But Jon’s very first vinyl purchase was Def Leppard’s Pyromania and how sweet it is to be reminded of discovery from our youth!
José González – “Head On (Miss Grit Remix)” – A former #RecordoftheWeek from our favorite Argentine-Swede, remixed by other WNXP favorites like Miss Grit, is an official RSD23 release on vinyl!
The White Stripes – “Let’s Shake Hands” – My best RSD memory of all is actually not my own, but a dear friend’s, which was recounted via voice memo for this show. Paula met Bruce in line at Third Man on RSD 2011 and handed him $20 to pick up the 7″ release of this tune on her behalf, since she had to leave for a wedding. They reconvened later that week to exchange the vinyl scores, soon began seeing way more of one another on purpose, and then celebrated their own nuptials a few years later. 😭
Carl Story & His Rambling Mountaineers – “Listen To Your Radio” – Another compilation I nabbed at a local record store was one called Hit Parade of Bluegrass Stars and I loved playing this crackly bastard on the turntable in-studio for ya!
Caribou – “Hendrix With Ko” – Nick told us on Twitter that he scored Canadian producer Dan Snaith’s CD Up in Flames at Grimey’s with Snaith’s former artistic moniker, Manitoba, on the cover instead of Caribou, which is how it’s now packaged. Here’s a cool live version:
B-52s – “Rock Lobster”– I’ve now bought this CD used and the vinyl record new at two different indie stores in Nashville, years apart. When you love a band you want ’em on all formats, right?