Record Store Day is back in 2023 and freshly expanded for its first full year beyond the pandemic.
And this Saturday, April 22, vinyl junkies—and now cassette fanatics—pouring through racks of vintage rarities and newly minted finds during Record Store Day might just get an extra bonus in their bags.
For those shopping at select shops participating in the annual Record Store Day program such as Main Street Music (4444 Main St., Manayunk), Repo Records (506 South St., Philadelphia), Siren Records (25 E. State St., Doylestown), Forever Changes (28 S. Main St., Phoenixville) and Newtown Book & Record Exchange (102 S. State St., Newtown), public radio station WXPN-FM 88.5 has a surprise.
A limited edition, six song track featuring original songs by Philly-area artists will be released exclusively for Record Store Day — free with your purchase at select record stores, while supplies last.
With Dogfish Head Craft Brewery as the radio station’s promotional partner, the new, limited edition album, ‘WXPN Homegrown Originals‘, features six tracks, five of which were recorded at WXPN studios. Contributing to the free vinyl package are local acts Catbite, Snacktime, Riverby Cosmic Guilt, Echo Kid and Sug Daniels.
Philly’s psychedelic country music faves Cosmic Guilt — fronted by harmonists James Everhart and George Murphy, with eight additional members — has honed its sound since their 2019 start by “increasing our abilities to listen to one another and derive strength from each other,” says Everhart. “We’ve really maintained a simple approach to songwriting and orchestration through a rather democratic system. On album one, I brought a lot of the songs mainly complete to the band, but during this cycle, I’m bringing very stripped-down versions of the songs and letting their form and personality come out during rehearsal – I think this allows for greater collaboration and evolution of sound in a very natural way. We are less country and more psych for the new stuff, I’d say.”
As for their WXPN Homegrown Originals contribution, Cosmic Guilt presented a live version of ‘Cautious Lovers’ recorded in the choral loft of an old church, now home to a tattoo shop and design studio, True Hand Society.
“If you listen closely, you can hear the tattoo guns buzzing down in the sanctuary,” said Everhart.
And for the rousing R&B of Snacktime’s ‘I Don’t Give a Damn,’ ensemble co-founder and band leader Sam Gellerstein said that the track, “is about changing your perspective of the things that truly matter to us in our life — a song in three acts, starting with a bombastic and more angry tone, to opening up a more open and thoughtful section, to a triumphant ending. A new version of the song will be released in the future with an expounded-upon version to bolster the meeting.”
Speaking to the Philly FM radio station’s support, Gellerstein was ebullient.
“We are so grateful to our friends at WXPN for their support of the band since the very beginning. They had the debut performance of our live record ‘Sounds from The Street’, live on their Live at Noon series, as well as giving us an amazing opportunities at their yearly XpoNential Festival.”
