Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, is the busiest shopping day of the year and now the organizers of Record Store Day are getting in on the action. The Black Keys, Soundgarden, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and dozens of other acts are contributing limited edition vinyl collector's items to hundreds of independently owned record stores around the country as part of the "Back To Black" sale event on Black Friday (November 25th).
Among the items that will be available are Soundgarden's Live On I-5 Before The Doors Soundcheck EP, the Beastie Boys' Hot Sauce Committee Part Two Deluxe Edition, a limited edition 12-inch vinyl single from the Black Keys featuring two songs from their upcoming El Camino album, a four-LP box set from Kings Of Leon called The Early Vinyl and a red vinyl, double-LP edition of the Red Hot Chili Peppers' classic Blood Sugar Sex Magik.
According to Loudwire and Audio Ink, more offerings include a vinyl singles box set from the Beatles, plus items from Nirvana, Type O Negative, Dream Theater, Bob Dylan, the Who, the Doors, All That Remains and more.
Not all stores will stock all items as each outlet will decide what it wants to carry.
Record Store Day, which takes place in April, was founded in 2007.
The Black Friday campaign was launched to "remind folks that locally owned, independent record stores . . . are a great place to celebrate the holidays, do a little gift-shopping (for yourself or others), support your community, and maybe pick up something really special," according to a press release.
As if things couldn't get any weirder around the Metallica camp, Deadline.com reported over the weekend that the band is looking to self-finance its own feature film, which may be shot in 3D. The group has hired Hollywood producer Charlotte Huggins, who worked on the recent Brendan Fraser hit Journey To The Center Of The Earth, to develop the project for them, but there's no indication as to whether this will be a concert film, a documentary or a dramatic feature.
There's also no word on whether this new movie project might be connected to Lulu, the band's conceptual collaborative album with Lou Reed, which arrives in the U.S. on November 1st.
Metallica's previous foray into filmmaking was the 2004 documentary Metallica: Some Kind Of Monster, which chronicled the near-breakup of the band during the turbulent making of 2003's St. Anger album.
The group has also allowed its music to be used extensively in the documentary Paradise Lost: The Child Murders At Robin Hood Hills, the first of three films that eventually led to the exoneration of three men, known as the West Memphis Three, wrongfully accused of murdering three boys.
Metallica also allowed its music to be used in this year's dark comedy Hesher, and contributed the original song "I Disappear" to the soundtrack of the movie Mission: Impossible 2
Pearl Jam's career-spanning documentary Pearl Jam Twenty will make its broadcast premiere Friday night (October 21st) at 9:00 p.m. on PBS's American Masters series. The film, which was first shown last month at the Toronto International Film Festival, is director Cameron Crowe's comprehensive look at the band's two-decade existence from its roots in Seattle to its present-day status as one of rock's most beloved bands.
Guitarist Stone Gossard said at a press conference that Crowe's dedication was the main reason the film got made: ["Cameron's interest in doing it was the biggest inspiration. I don't think we would have taken this thing on, had it not been all the pieces that fit together. I think Cameron just being open to the task of looking through all this footage and seeing if there's a story to be told or what's the right story to be told -- once we knew he was involved, then we just sort of trusted that it was going to be okay."] SOUNDCUE (:18 OC: . . . to be okay.)
- Pearl Jam Twenty will arrive on Blu-ray and DVD the following Tuesday (October 25th).
- The movie is compiled from more than 1,200 hours of rarely and never-before-seen footage, over 24 hours of recent interviews with the band, as well as live footage of concert performances.
- In addition to the film, the band's ongoing celebration of its 20th anniversary has included a two-day festival last month, a coffee table book and deluxe reissues of several early albums.
- Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament recently told Rolling Stone that the band is halfway through the recording of its 10th studio effort, which will be out in 2012.
SIDE NOTES
Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready is auctioning off an autographed Gibson Flying V and vinyl reissue of Vs. to benefit the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America (CCFA) Team Challenge. The CCFA is a non-profit, volunteer-driven organization dedicated to finding the cure for Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. The auction is spearheaded by the Wishlist Foundation, a fan-based, non-profit, grassroots organization dedicated to supporting Pearl Jam's charitable and philanthropic goals. Find information on both auctions and make a bid on the Wishlist Foundation eBay Page.