A week from today is Black Friday in the United States. The Friday after Thanksgiving has traditionally been a day for big sales at stores to kick of the Christmas shopping season.
The folks at Record Store Day celebrate by having their own Black Friday themed event. Much like the regular Record Store Day, they put out exclusive vinyl releases that are sold exclusively at independent record stores. The event tends to not be as large as the regular Record Store Day in April but I can still find gems when digging through the list to add to my wish list. This year’s Record Store Day Black Friday list isn’t the most exciting set of music I’ve seen, but there are still items to look forward to. This week’s pick will be highlighting the records I’ll be looking for on Black Friday.
This is also a good time to note that there will not be an additional PPP next week because of the Thanksgiving holiday. It’s also the time of year where my picks slow down as the holidays ramp up. You can expect at least two more picks in the month of December: my annual holiday themed playlist as well as my favorite records of 2025. Beyond that, missives will be irregular. Expect things to scale back up to the usual pace in January 2026.
Happy Thanksgiving!
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Record Store Day Black Friday Releases
Here are the top five records I’m hoping to scoop up next week.
Slo Burn - Amusing the Amazing
Slo Burn was a short lived band fronted by former Kyuss singer John Garcia. He formed the group soon after Kyuss split up and it definitely has a similar vibe and style to the former group.
Amusing the Amazing was their only release, a short four-song EP that was never released on vinyl until now. Every song on it is killer though. I especially like “Pilot The Dune” and “July” which have trademark Kyuss style riffing with interesting twists and turns. The Chris Goss production gives the whole thing a heavy punch.
This is probably the Record Store Day release I’m looking forward to the most.
Albert Ayler & Don Cherry - Europe 1964
This is a massive 4LP Box set that explores an interesting time in both saxophonist Albert Ayler’s and trumpeter Don Cherry’s careers.
At this point Don Cherry was already a longtime member of Ornette Coleman’s band. But he joined Ayler and the band that played on Spiritual Unity (Gary Peacock on bass and Sunny Murray on drums) on a trip to Europe in 1964.
While in Copenhagen they recorded the essential Ghosts album. This box set includes material from the Ghosts recordings as well as live concerts and radio sessions from the era.
Larry Coryell & The Eleventh House - Rivera ’76
While this isn’t the “classic” Eleventh House fusion lineup (that included Steve Kahn and Alphonse Mouzon among others) this is still an interesting release. This is the Aspects version of Eleventh House that played more jazz funk than mathy fusion. Despite that, there is little out there from this era of Larry Coryell (especially live) so I’m looking forward to hearing how they attack the material in a festival setting.
Charlie Haden - Live at Jazz Record Mart
When I lived in Chicago I used to love going downtown on the weekends and spend way too much time in the Jazz Record Mart. It was a huge record store that, as the name implied, focused solely on jazz music. It was run by Bob Koester who also ran the local jazz and blues label Delmark Records. Unfortunately the downtown Chicago rent became too costly and the store closed in the mid 2010s.
Before that Jazz Record Mart was the place to be for music fanatics like me! They also regularly held in-store concerts such as this one by bassist Charlie Haden in February 1988.
It is Charlie Haden playing solo bass with no other musicians. Truly a solo concert! Along with Haden’s own compositions he also plays the Charlie Parker tune “Ornithology” and Ornette’s “Lonely Woman”.
Dwight Yoakam - And Then I Wrote…
I love the early 90s Dwight Yoakam albums. This Time and Gone were in constant rotation for me back when they were new. He was playing a fantastic fusion of Bakersfield country and rock at that time. It didn’t hurt that this was also the era where guitarist Pete Anderson was involved in the songwriting and arrangements of the material. Dwight’s music has never been the same since the falling out between them.
This box set includes the aforementioned albums along with If There Was a Way , the record that came out before them. It also includes an additional record of rarities. I cannot wait to finally have all this incredible music on vinyl!
