Record Store Day 2021 will be one for the books on June 12 & July 17th as the Reggae-Rock community will celebrate new vinyl drops & re-issues courtesy of Sublime, Slightly Stoopid, Dirty Heads and Pepper.
These releases will be exclusive to your local participating record store. This means that you wont be able to immediately buy online and once the brick & mortar locations sell-out, that’s when the records typically get resold at a premium on Discogs, Ebay or misc. vinyl Facebook groups. If you’re not familiar with Record Store Day, you can search out your local participating record store by going to RecordStoreDay.com.
There’s no saying how many copies each store will get of each record — One store might have 1 of Dirty Heads, 5 of Slightly Stoopid, 10 of Sublime, and 2 of Pepper. Some stores may not get any copies of 1 or more of these albums, so try to plan ahead.
Read the break-down on each Release below — Remember that Record Store Day 2021 is June 12th & July 17th. You will be able to buy Sublime, Dirty Heads & Pepper on June 12th. Slightly Stoopid’s vinyl drop will be available July 17th.
Reggae-Rock’s 2021 Record Store Day Releases
Sublime – Sublime Meets Scientist & Mad Professor Inna L.B.C.
Round One:
Scientist Dubs
1.) Caress Me Down – Español Dub (Scientist Mix)
2.) Garden Grove Dub (Scientist Mix)
3.) Santeria Dub (Scientist Mix)
Round Two:
Mad Professor Dubs
1.) Hong Kong Phooey Subliminal Dub (Mad Professor Mix)
2.) April 19, 1992 (Miami) Dub (Mad Professor Mix)
3.) Pawn Shop Dub (Mad Professor Mix)
The Sublime Meets Scientist and Mad Professor Inna L.B.C. will be available on opaque yellow Vinyl & CD with 6400 copies of the vinyl and 3,000 copies of the CD made available. Six Sublime songs are remixed by legendary dub pioneers Scientist and Mad Professor and if you’re unfamiliar with who Scientist & Mad Professor are, I’ll let Sublime’s very own Miguel Happoldt explain:
“The best two students of King Tubby were Scientist and Mad Professor. It was the music we loved. If Brad was with us now, he would have woken up and thought he was dreaming knowing there was a Sublime dub record with these legends. Of all the dub masters in the world, Scientist and Mad Professor were two of the biggest influences. Scientist taught me to thoughtfully arrange the music with the faders and to clear a space for the effects to live in. Mad Prof had great arrangements, but is untouchable for radical effects, keeping mistakes, and the sounds of machines taking on a life of their own.”
All of the songs being remixed, except for “Hong Kong Phooey”, are from Sublime’s infamous self-titled release. “Hong Kong Phooey” is actually a cover of the late 70’s, early 80’s animated cartoon series of the same name. Sublime’s cover was initially released in 1995 on the Saturday Morning (Cartoons Greatest Hits) Compilation, so its a bit of an under-the-radar release of Sublime’s and one we didn’t expect to make the cut. Needless to say, this song has us the most intrigued & excited to hear of the 6 listed.
The albums artwork is by the iconic Tony McDermott whose art has graced some of the most classic dub albums of all-time — Go check out his cover art for Sly & Robbie’s Dancehall Attack or Scientist’s Scientific Dub.
This is a connection that I’m surprised hasn’t happened sooner and one we hope gets a sequel, should it be received warmly by fans. We’ll find out on June 12th when it first becomes available.
Watch: Sublime – Hong Kong Phooey (Official Music Video)
Slightly Stoopid – Live At Roberto’s TRI Studios
Fans have been clamoring for this session to get the wax treatment for sometime now. This was a 31 song, two set acoustic and electric performance of some classic Slightly Stoopid right at the time they first started collaborating with Don Carlos. This was lighting caught in a bottle for timeless enjoyment and on July 17th, it’ll be available on vinyl for the first time.The live recording took place on Sept 13th, 2011 in what could be best described as your classic MTV Unplugged type setting with guest appearances floating in and out of the massive 31 song set-list. Such guests include Karl Denson, Ivan and Ian Neville of Dumpstaphunk, Don Carlos, and Bob Weir of Grateful Dead as the session was hosted by Tommy Chong. TRI Studios is actually Bob Weir’s studio and this album was originally released as a Limited Edition DVD / 2 CD set that included behind the scenes rehearsal footage along with a rare interview of the band moderated by Mr. Chong, himself.
This will be a 4xLP Vinyl release on July 17th as it’s reported that a limited edition of 2,000 copies were made and distributed for Record Store Day. You’ll get to hear such songs as “Lazer Beam” & “Wiseman” with Don Carlos, “I Know You Rider” and “Baby I Like It,” while Karl Denson drops some sax on “Closer To The Sun”.
Watch: Slightly Stoopid – “Wiseman” (ft Don Carlos) [Live at Roberto’s TRI Studios 9/11/13]
Dirty Heads – Phanntoms of Summer: The Acoustic Sessions
There are fans & vinyl collectors out there who discovered Dirty Heads solely because of the demand and value behind this record. Originally released in 2014, only 500 copies were made and quickly became a must have among Dirty Heads fans. Over the last 2-3 years, fans in reggae-rock really dove into the vinyl culture of collecting records. Fans who were just starting their record collection quickly wanted a completest set of their favorite bands available discography.This album has been so elusive to fans that there have been reports of the first pressing of this record going for as high as $1,000 on Discogs with confirmed sales of the vinyl going for as much as $800 in various Facebook groups. Keep in mind that this vinyl is 7-years-old so the condition in which these copies were available and resold weren’t always in the most pristine, mint condition.
Of course the demand for this vinyl didn’t fall on deaf ears as its now seeing its first re-pressing and its a big one — 4,000 copies have been made on white opaque vinyl to be available when doors open on June 12th at participating record stores.
Watch: Dirty Heads – “Sloth’s Revenge” (Official Music Video)
Pepper – In With The Old
For as much as Pepper’s Kona Town album is beloved by fans, and rightfully so, In With The Old never received as much credit as it should have and after 16 years, it’s finally getting repressed on vinyl courtesy of their own Law Records.In With The Old came out 2 years after Kona Town but sat in the latter’s shadow because not long after In With The Old was released, Pepper’s first hit single from Kona Town, “Give It Up,” started to get picked up with major radio play. So instead of promoting their new album In With The Old, marketing went back to Kona Town to support the popularity “Give It Up” was receiving at the time. So I never felt this album ever got its proper platform of recognition despite it being a classic start-to-finish record.
There were only 500 pressings of In With The Old when it was released in 2004 via Volcom Entertainment. A copy of the first pressing of the vinyl sold for about $300 as recent as January 2021 on Discogs. This time, Pepper is repressing the album on Red Vinyl, limited to just 1,000 copies that will find new homes come June 12th, 2021.
Songs like “Ashes,” “Love Affair,” “Use Me,” “Your 45” and more will have more opportunities to be heard on wax. What really sticks out to me about this album was how much influence you can hear from The Police & The Clash, resulting in a timeless reggae-rock record that sits nostalgically ahead of its time while paying tribute to the genre’s predecessors.
Watch: Pepper – “Ashes” (Music Video)
Related Links:
Record Store Day
Sublime Website
Slightly Stoopid Website
Dirty Heads Website
Pepper Website
Article By: Mike Patti
