RSD

Record Store Day 2026 preview: 1990s rock, alternative & country

Robert Ham Ned Lannamann

Robert Ham, Ned Lannamann

— 18 min read
Cover art for Weezer, Iris DeMent, Jeff Buckley, Blur, and David Bowie.

Record Store Day 2026 fast approaches, and we at The Vinyl Cut are doing our best to prepare you for this blessed event. Today, that means a rundown of the reissues of albums from the 1990s that we think you should add to your shopping basket on April 18. It’s another wonderfully motley bunch, including some folk and country classics, a sliver of grindcore, and whole mess of rock and alt-rock. And, once again, we have a small breakaway section of non-US RSD releases that we are praying our local shops had the wherewithal to import.

If you’re looking to catch up on what we’ve covered so far, here’s a handy rundown of our previous RSD previews:

covers for Jeff Buckley, Steely Dan, and David Bowie albums

Jeff Buckley: Live à l’Olympia [Legacy]

Paris’s legendary Olympia Hall has hosted many historic performances since opening in 1893, including Édith Piaf’s three-month run in 1961 and the Beatles’ residency in January 1964, just before they popped over the ocean to pay Ed Sullivan a visit. Jeff Buckley—no stranger to the occasional Piaf cover—performed there on his Grace tour in 1995 and said the show was the best of his career. Buckley’s private cassette of the show was released as a CD in 2001, and now it comes to vinyl for the first time. The set includes covers of MC5’s “Kick Out the Jams” and Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir,” as well as an extra track taken from a separate performance of Buckley and qawwali singer Alim Qasimov at France’s Chaise-Dieu festival of sacred music. Despite the compromised audio, this is promising to be one of the top sellers of this year’s RSD, as the youths seem to have really taken to the elastic-voiced Buckley, and his stuff on vinyl remains at a premium. NL

Steely Dan: Alive in America [Rhino]

The studio rats of Steely Dan took their pristine guitar lines and silky-smooth electric piano licks off the road for good in 1974, refusing to tour even as each of their studio albums outsold the last. When Donald Fagen and Walter Becker reunited in 1993, they decided to make the Dan a live outfit once again, relishing the challenge of replicating their many years of studio perfectionism in front of paying crowds. As such, 1995’s Alive in America became Steely Dan’s first-ever live album; while it made for a nice souvenir, it’s sort of a perversely wrongheaded way to immerse oneself in the Steely Dan experience. Perhaps that’s why its existence appealed to Fagen and Becker. Since it was released in the ’90s, Alive in America was never issued on vinyl—until now. Its re-release for Record Store Day will be the primary reason you will see countless balding men with ponytails lining up outside independent record stores in the early morning hours of April 18, arguing about whether Steve Gadd’s drum performance on “Aja” was recorded in one take or two. NL

David Bowie: Excerpts from Outside; Hallo Spaceboy [Rhino]

If the Bowie catalog has an overlooked masterwork, it could very well be 1995’s Outside. Reuniting Bowie with Brian Eno, Outside is a dense science-fiction concept album that doubles as a noir mystery and a commentary on the contemporary art scene, with bizarre spoken-word interludes from each of the main characters (Bowie plays them all). But it also contains songs like “The Motel,” “The Hearts Filthy Lesson,” “Strangers When We Meet,” “Hallo Spaceboy,” and other tracks that rank close to the top of any Bowie fan’s best-since-Scary-Monsters list. When the sprawling Outside was first released on vinyl, it was trimmed down from 75 minutes to 50 in order to fit on a single piece of wax. That original LP configuration is reproduced for Record Store Day, with unique edits of several tracks, half-speed-mastered at AIR Studios and pressed on clear vinyl. A reissue of the “Hallo Spaceboy” 12-inch, including the Pet Shop Boys’ remix of the song, comes as a separate release on pink vinyl. It includes a previously unreleased remix from Bomb the Bass’s Tim Simenon to bait Bowie completists. Those devils. NL 

covers for Blur, Art of Noise, and Dinosaur Jr albums

Blur: Live at the Budokan [Parlophone/Warner]

Previously only available on CD in Japan and the UK, 1996’s Live at the Budokan is a fantastic document of Britpop quartet Blur playing a spirited gig at the Tokyo sports arena during their tour in support of 1995’s The Great Escape. As you’d expect, the setlist leans heavily on that album, but the band work in plenty of material from their breakout, 1994’s Parklife, and even slip into the mix a version of their debut single, 1990’s “She’s So High” (though that track was recorded at their tour stop at NHK Hall). The album is getting its worldwide vinyl debut as a 2-LP set pressed on red wax and packaged in a lovely gatefold sleeve. RH

Art of Noise: The Seduction of Claude Debussy [Demon]

Released in 1999, the final album by UK electronic jesters the Art of Noise was pitched as the soundtrack to an unmade biopic on the French composer Claude Debussy. As this was the same group responsible for cut-and-paste classics like “(Close to the) Edit” and duets with Coke spokesperson Max Headroom, the finished album is a lot stranger than that logline suggests. The band wound Debussy’s melodies into hip-hop breakbeats and drum-and-bass workouts and invited folks like pop singer Donna Lewis, actor John Hurt, and New York rapper Rakim to contribute. Previously only available on CD and MiniDisc, the album gets its vinyl bow with remastered audio courtesy of Phil Kinrade at AIR Studios and a quartet of previously digital-only bonus tracks. RH

Dinosaur Jr.: Live in Hollywood 1991: The Green Mind Tour [Cherry Red]

The live tracks included on Cherry Red’s 2-CD expanded reissue of Dinosaur Jr.’s monolithic 1991 sludge-pop masterpiece Green Mind were recorded circa June 1991 at the Hollywood Palladium. It’s not a great-sounding recording, and the source is somewhat in question—folks aren’t even quite sure what date it’s from—but it remains a necessary document of a crucial period in the Dinosaur Jr. timeline, and J Mascis’s guitar sounds as humungous as ever. Now it comes to clear vinyl for Record Store Day, so you can pick up a copy in the morning and spend the rest of the day rattling your neighbors’ windows. NL

covers for Sonic Youth, Verlaines, and Muffs albums

Sonic Youth: Diamond Seas [Geffen]

In the mid-’80s, Canadian composer John Oswald developed “plunderphonics,” a sonic concept that makes new music out of pre-existing recordings. His work wound up pissing off many of the copyright holders of the songs he messed with, but it did land him plum gigs like mining the live archives of the Grateful Dead for an album called Greyfolded that was built from over 100 live performances of “Dark Star.” Oswald has been given a similar assignment for this RSD First release. The 12-inch features two 20-minute pieces made from live performances of “The Diamond Sea,” the epic-length closing track from Sonic Youth’s 1995 album Washing Machine. Oswald opted to use only recordings of the band’s gigs from 1995 for the piece on Side 1, which likely includes their headlining sets at that year’s Lollapalooza, and recordings from 1996 for Side 2. RH

The Verlaines: Ready to Fly [Schoolkids]

After nearly a decade of working with Flying Nun Records, New Zealand post-punk band the Verlaines decided to take a shot at some kind of worldwide success, signing with LA-based Slash Records. It wasn’t entirely an ideal fit, but it did result in a killer pair of albums that found the band’s leader Graeme Downes writing bombastic guitar pop songs in the style of Dinosaur Jr. and Superchunk. A remastered edition of one of those LP’s, 1993’s Way Out Where, was given an RSD reissue in 2024, and this year sees the band’s follow-up, 1994’s Ready to Fly, getting the same treatment for its first-ever vinyl release. The audio for this RSD release has been remastered by Frank Arkwright at Abbey Road and it arrives in stores on opaque blue vinyl. RH

The Muffs: Live at Fort Apache [Omnivore]

On tour in support of their 1994 album Blonder and Blonder, LA pop-punk trio the Muffs made a stop at Fort Apache Studios, the Boston recording house run by producer Gary Smith and a collective of engineers and musicians. But instead of laying down some new tracks, the group played a live set for a small batch of fans and the folks listening in on alternative rock station WFNX. It’s a hypercharged performance that showcases the perfect kiss-off growl of frontwoman Kim Shattuck and the matchless chemistry that made the band’s albums so much fun to listen to. Omnivore, the label that has been keeping the Muffs’ major-label albums in print, brings this live recording to the masses in a limited pressing on yellow wax. RH

covers for Pavement, Slint, and Weezer albums

Pavement: Perfect Sound Forever [Matador]

Pavement’s third EP, 1991’s Perfect Sound Forever, pointed the way toward the slapdash brilliance that was to come with the following year’s full-length debut album, Slanted and Enchanted. The EP contains short, shard-like songs that rank among the Stockton, California, band’s early best, like “Angel Carver Blues/Mellow Jazz Docent” and “From Now On,” alongside abstract squalls of noise and feedback, making for the perfect bite-sized primer of the Pavement experience. The EP has been repressed as a 10-inch, replicating the original Drag City release, although this time it comes on white vinyl. Collectors with limited shelf space should be advised that all 11 minutes of Perfect Sound Forever also appear on the Pavement compilation album Westing (by Musket and Sextant). NL

Slint: Untitled (Albini rough mixes) [Touch & Go]

With some studio time available after an artist no-showed, Steve Albini invited in one of his favorite bands, the Kentucky post-rock outfit Slint, to record some songs free of charge. They laid down two dynamic instrumentals spotlighting tightly coiled guitar work from David Pajo and Brian McMahan and the fearsome wallop of drummer Britt Walford. Albini gave tapes of rough mixes of the tracks to both the band and Touch & Go Records head Corey Rusk. It was that cassette that convinced Rusk to release the band’s 1991 album Spiderland. Those earlier tracks were eventually properly mixed and mastered and were released on an untitled 1994 10-inch record issued after Slint had broken up. This new release lets fans hear what Rusk heard back in 1989 with the first-ever vinyl pressing of Albini’s rough mixes. RH

Weezer: 1192 [Ernest Jenning Record Co.]

This is the earliest studio recording of LA power-pop band Weezer, recorded in November 1992. Lost for many years, the tape was rediscovered by bassist Matt Sharp, who eventually left the band to pursue his other band the Rentals. This Weezer demo tape—containing early versions of future hits like “Say It Ain’t So” and “Undone” and featuring original guitarist Jason Cropper—has been newly remixed and kept in the analog realm all the while, as this Record Store Day vinyl is cut directly from the new analog mixdown. The demo was meant to attract record-label attention, and it apparently worked, as the band got signed to DGC Records and released the Blue Album in May 1994. As far as what happened to Weezer after that, no one knows for sure. NL

covers for London Suede, Ween, and Third Eye Blind albums

The London Suede: Coming Up at the BBC [Demon]

Suede (or the London Suede as they are forced to be known as here in the US) is celebrating the 30th anniversary of their album Coming Up in a novel way for Record Store Day. Instead of a new vinyl pressing, the British glam rock group is recreating the running order of the original LP using versions of the songs broadcast on BBC Radio. That includes a batch of tunes from their 1997 headlining appearance at the Reading Festival, which aired on Radio 1, and versions of songs recorded for Evening Session and The Graveyard Shift, the weekday program hosted by Mark Radcliffe and Marc Riley. RH

Ween: Europe “1990” [Rhino]

This triple-LP set contains some very early Ween, recorded in Europe after the release of their debut, 1990’s GodWeenSatan: The Oneness and during the prolific era that led up to 1991’s The Pod. The first LP is a studio session recorded on Christmas Day in Eindhoven, Netherlands, while the other two LPs capture a live show recorded in Basel, Switzerland, in either December 1990 or January 1991 (no one can remember for sure). Dean Ween says it was the best Ween show ever, leading one to wonder why it hasn’t been released until now. Since Ween fans have bottomless thirst for brown, expect this to disappear from the racks with great speed. NL

Third Eye Blind: Rarities and First Drafts [Rhino]

Did you know that instead of “do-do-do,” the chorus of “Semi-Charmed Life” originally went “tweedly-deedly-dee”? Just kidding. Or am I? Only one way to find out. NL

covers for John Prine, John Wesley Harding and Dada albums

John Prine: Found Dogs [Oh Boy]

Before his death of complications from Covid in 2020, John Prine was America’s songwriter laureate. Last year, his 1995 album Lost Dogs + Mixed Blessings was treated to its first-ever vinyl release, as well as an expanded CD reissue. Those CD bonus tracks make up this Record Store Day release, with a few previously unreleased tracks added in for good measure, and it provides an alternate overview of Prine’s Lost Dogs era. It should be a treat to hear stripped-down and acoustic versions of some of that album’s tunes, as Prine always hits hardest when he’s at his most unadorned. NL

John Wesley Harding: Here Comes the Groom (Deluxe) [Blind Owl]

Long before his well-regarded career as a novelist, Wesley Stace borrowed a stage name from his favorite Dylan record and wrote hyper-literate folk-pop songs in the vein of Elvis Costello and Billy Bragg. Those catchy tunes and his charming stage presence got Stace plenty of attention in his native UK and eventually scored him a deal with Sire Records, the label that issued his 1990 debut studio album, Here Comes the Groom. Produced by former Modern Lover Andy Paley, the record is a winning collection of power pop suffused with tart lyrical wit and some rhythmic oomph courtesy of bassist Bruce Thomas and drummer Pete Thomas, both of the Attractions. In spite of Stace’s still-strong fanbase, the album has been out of print on vinyl since its 1990 release, which makes the deluxe reissue hitting stores on Record Store Day especially welcome. The 2-LP set features the original album, three tracks from the 1989 EP God Made Me Do It, and six tracks recorded live in Ireland in 1990. RH

Dada: El Subliminoso [Real Gone Music]

The intelligent pop-rock of Los Angeles band Dada got a good amount of notice with their 1992 debut Puzzle and its attendant single “Dizz Knee Land,” but by the time of Dada’s third album, 1996’s El Subliminoso, most of that attention had drained away to the grunge and alternative rock of the era. Meanwhile, their label, Miles Copeland’s IRS Records, was on its last legs, all but sealing El Subliminoso’s fate. It’s a shame, as it’s a clever collection of neo-psychedelic pop and left-of-center rock with sophisticated production, layered harmonies, and inventive arrangements. Following the success of last year’s RSD reissue of Puzzle, here’s the first-ever vinyl version of El Subliminoso, stretched out to three sides of vinyl with a fourth side of bonus tracks. NL

covers for Jayhawks, Iris DeMent, and George Jones albums

The Jayhawks: 2 Meter Sessions [Charly]

This disc slaps together two different sessions from Twin Cities alt-country band the Jayhawks that were recorded in Amsterdam for the Dutch music radio and TV show 2 Meter Sessions. Side 1 comes from a 1997 acoustic session, recorded while the band was doing the promotional rounds for their Sound of Lies album; the set includes an extended take on Hollywood Town Hall’s “Sister Cry.” Side 2 was recorded in 2000 during the more pop-forward Smile era and includes five tracks from that album. The LP comes with a signed postcard and a link to an archival video interview with band members Gary Louris and Marc Perlman. NL

Iris DeMent: The Way I Should [Yep Roc]

Iris DeMent’s third album, 1996’s The Way I Should, finds the calico-voiced songwriter adding a political edge to her lyrics, with songs that dealt with sexual abuse, Vietnam veterans, and the American religious right, which sucked back then almost as much as it sucks now. It was DeMent’s most complex work to date, expanding her plain-sung country folk to include traces of her gospel upbringing and a more aggressive rock edge from the Nashville musicians, including Delbert McClinton, Earl Scruggs, and Chuck Leavell; Mark Knopfler also played dobro on a track. Apart from an extremely limited white-label promotional pressing, the album has never been on vinyl before, so for its 30th anniversary, a precious few 1000 copies have been pressed to “summer sky” colored vinyl, featuring mastering by Mike Westbrook of Material Mastering in Durham, North Carolina. NL

George Jones: Cold Hard Truth [Rhino]

You could say the ’90s is when country music started to go wrong (I blame Chris Gaines), but all through the decade, the true-blue originals were still keeping the home fires burning. George Jones was chief among them, releasing his 54th(!) studio album Cold Hard Truth and showing all the soul-patched Nashvegas imposters how things were done. The album is both tender and tough, with yearning ballads and no-nonsense two-steppers shepherded by Jones’s whiskey-calloused voice. Cold Hard Truth may best be remembered for being the album that came out directly after Jones’s infamous 1999 DUI, but that incident seems to have sharpened his focus and motivated him into delivering his best work in decades. And true to the classic country albums of the ’60s and ’70s albums, the damn thing isn’t even a half-hour long. This is its first time on vinyl. NL

NON-US RELEASES

covers for Robert Forster, Gentle Waves, and Chills albums

Robert Forster: Danger in the Past; Calling from a Country Phone [Needle Mythology]

When the Go-Betweens dissolved in 1989, the Australian band’s co-leaders Grant McLennan and Robert Forster didn’t wait for the dust to settle before embarking on their respective solo careers. While McLennan jumped into a new band with the Church’s Steve Kilbey, Forster found himself in Berlin, working on his first solo album 1990’s Danger in the Past with members of Nick Cave’s band, the Bad Seeds. The musicians met Forster where he was at, adding a country-tinged backdrop to his literate lyrics and unbothered singing. By the time Forster made his second album, 1993’s Calling from a Country Phone, he had returned to Brisbane, collaborating with the members of a local group called C.O.W., which stood for Country or Western. As such, the band brings a little bit of choogle and twang to Forster’s devilishly catchy pop tunes. Both albums were remastered and reissued on vinyl in 2020 by Needle Mythology, the label run by former music critic Pete Paphides and are now being repressed outside the US for Record Store Day. RH

The Gentle Waves: The Green Fields of Foreverland [Cooking Vinyl]

During her time as a member of Belle and Sebastian, Isobel Campbell crafted an album of mostly soft, thoughtful pop released in 1999 under the name the Gentle Waves. The 10 songs on the LP weren’t a huge sonic departure from her then-day job, but that may have been inevitable considering Campbell used her Belle and Sebastian bandmates as her backing group throughout. But it is an unfettered delight to hear Campbell’s breathy vocals leading every track rather than waiting for her one showcase song. Released originally on Scottish label Jeepster, the debut Gentle Waves album is getting a limited run reissue on gold vinyl outside the US. RH

The Chills: Sunburnt [Fire]

After both London Records and Slash Records withdrew their support for Soft Bomb, the fantastic 1992 album by the Chills, the New Zealand band’s creative force Martin Philipps was left adrift. The group split up and Philipps soldiered on back home, playing with his friends in the Clean and the occasional solo gig. He eventually put together a new lineup of the Chills with plans afoot to record a new album in England. But when the rest of his bandmates couldn’t get their visas sorted, Philipps went on his own, working with a pickup band consisting of XTC’s Dave Gregory on bass and Fairport Convention’s Dave Mattacks on drums. The resulting album, 1996’s Sunburnt, is a dour delight, with Philipps wrestling with his tortured spirit and the fears of a new romance to the tune of gently floating dream pop. Originally credited to Martin Philipps & the Chills, Sunburnt is being reissued with new artwork and pressed on appropriately sunny orange wax. RH

covers of Primal Scream, Napalm Death, and Epic Soundtracks albums

Primal Scream: Echo Dek [Commercial Group]

In addition to the 1987 EPs release dropping on Record Store Day, Primal Scream is also re-releasing Echo Dek, the 1997 LP that finds the group light-years away from their jangle pop beginnings. The disc is made up of dub remixes of tracks from the group’s fifth album Vanishing Point, produced by On-U Sound founder Adrian Sherwood. The original tracks were galaxy-brained to begin with, but Sherwood’s hands on the knobs and tape delay takes them all to another dimension entirely. Previously only available as a 7-inch box set, Echo Dek gets its first 12-inch vinyl release on RSD on red and black marbled wax. RH

Napalm Death: Harmony Corruption [Earache]

The only consistent aspect of Napalm Death is the grindcore band’s inconsistency. The UK group has undergone many, many lineup changes since forming in 1981. For example, by the time they went to Florida to record their 1990 studio album Harmony Corruption, Napalm Death was on its fourth vocalist, seventh guitarist, and second drummer. This iteration of the band was one of its strongest, with vocalist Barney Greenway growling his way through each unrelenting track and the dual guitars of Mitch Harris and Jesse Pintado creating an impenetrable force field of speedy riffage. The necessity for this new blue-and-red color variant escapes me, as Harmony Corruption was reissued as recently as last year and has been kept consistently in print by Earache Records. Is that going to stop me from grabbing a copy if the non-US release shows up in my local shop? Of course not. RH

Epic Soundtracks: Debris [Glass Modern]

As a member of Swell Maps, Epic Soundtracks (born Kevin Godfrey) was a key player in that post-punk group’s ragged, experimental sound with his splashy drumming and love of random noisemakers. But on his own, Epic’s music became far more straightforward and heartfelt. The few albums he made in the years before his untimely passing in 1997 were thoughtful chamber-pop gems, given the occasional spike of discordance via contributions by pals like Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo, J Mascis, and former Birthday Party member Roland S. Howard. That dissonance is largely missing from Debris, a compilation released in 1995 on German label Return to Sender. The majority of the songs are solo recordings by Epic that showcase his love for fellow singer/songwriters like Harry Nilsson and Van Morrison. Only issued on CD at the time, the collection is getting pressed to wax for the first time for Record Store Day. RH

OTHER 1990s REISSUES OF NOTE:
Dog’s Eye View: Happy Nowhere [Sony]
Electronic: 1996 Remixes 1999 [Rhino]
For Squirrels: Baypath Road [Y&T]
Junkie XL: Saturday Teenage Kick [Real Gone Music]
Mike Peters of the Alarm: Feel Free [Twenty First Century]
Billy Squier: Tell the Truth (Deluxe) [Flatiron]
Sugar: File Under Easy Listening: The Singles Collection [BMG]
Jerry Jeff Walker: Navajo Rug [Jerry Jeff Walker]
Brian Wilson: Imagination [Rhino]
Various: Drive-Thru Records: You’ll Never Eat Fast Food Again [Drive-Thru]

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