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UR020: MTV Unplugged Record Store Day Retrospective (R.E.M., Pearl Jam, Soul Asylum, & more)
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In honor of this year's Record Store Day Black Friday (November 28) and the release of a-ha’s ‘Take on Me 40th Anniversary EP’ featuring their 2017 MTV Unplugged piano ballad version of the iconic classic, I’ve put together a retrospective of every single MTV Unplugged album that’s been released or reissued for Record Store Day over the years. Tune in to hear all about the amazing MTV Unplugged RSD releases from Eric Clapton, R.E.M., All Time Low, Bleachers, Pearl Jam, Die Fantastischen Vier, Bastille, Soul Asylum, and a-ha!
If you dig the show, would like to share your own Unplugged memories, offer up a correction, or connect with the show for any other reason:
- You can email me at unpluggedrevisited@gmail.com,
- You can reach out on Bluesky at @willhodge.bsky.social, or
- You can leave a voicemail (that’ll maybe get played on the show) by dialing 234-REVISIT (234-738-4748)
Recommended![UR019: Fergal Lawler (The Cranberries) [1995 MTV Unplugged] image](https://media.zencastr.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=112,quality=85/image-files/66ea0b235fcf51d2c9a0b7cd/43cbefc3-777c-4d93-9915-92abd82876d2.jpg)
![UR015: Mike Inez (Alice In Chains) [1996 MTV Unplugged] image](https://media.zencastr.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=112,quality=85/image-files/66ea0b235fcf51d2c9a0b7cd/ce95ba92-1808-4cb4-b4f5-2fb578ff7daf.jpg)
Transcript
Introduction to 'Unplugged Revisited' and MTV Unplugged History
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to Unplugged. Unplugged. Unplugged. Welcome to Unplugged.
00:00:14
Speaker
Greetings and salutations. Welcome back to Unplugged Revisited, the podcast that celebrates, critiques, and dives deep and into the last three and a half decades of MTV Unplugged.
October Festivities and Kiss Unplugged Tribute
00:00:24
Speaker
I'm your host, music journalist, pop culture anthropologist, and unplugged obsessive, Will Hodge. Well, happy fall, y'all. I hope everyone had a fantastic October and celebrated spooky season with whatever macabre accoutrements speak most warmly to you.
00:00:40
Speaker
Who knows, maybe you revisited the Kiss Unplugged that premiered on Halloween night, 1995. And of course, rest in peace Ace Frehley, who sadly passed away just a couple weeks ago.
Unique Performances and Feedback: Korn and Cranberries
00:00:50
Speaker
You keep on saying you'll be mine for while.
00:00:53
Speaker
You're looking fancy and like your style. You drive us wild, we'll drive you free. Or maybe you queued up the Korn Unplugged from 2007 because, you know, where else can you catch a surprisingly vibey acoustic nu metal performance featuring background instrumentalists wearing pig, horse, and rabbit masks and get lost in the invitationally eerie sonic mixture of handbells, bowed bass, and glass harmonica?
00:01:21
Speaker
It's falling away from me. It's falling away from me.
00:01:33
Speaker
And my thanks to those of you who gave over an hour or so of your October to checking out my last episode on the Cranberries MTV Unplugged, featuring my interview with Cranberries drummer Fergal Lawler.
00:01:43
Speaker
I not only got some nice feedback and comments across all the various places that shared it, like shout out to the incredible fan community over at cranberriesworld.com, but also my drawn out, over-explained theory about Dreams being the Cranberries sleeper signature hit over Linger and Zombie got some extra bolstering.
00:02:02
Speaker
As one listener let me know that Dreams just recently showed up again in another new television show called The Summer I Turned Pretty, which I guess launched new season just a couple months ago?
00:02:13
Speaker
So my premise stands. Dreams remains undefeated as the Cranberries' quintessential sonic masterpiece.
Record Store Day: Celebrations and Exclusives
00:02:20
Speaker
But now that we're in November, we've got another big holiday on the horizon.
00:02:24
Speaker
One that brings together friends and family and community to celebrate camaraderie, connection, and shared interest that always falls on the fourth week of November every year like clockwork.
00:02:35
Speaker
Of course, I'm referring to one of my absolute favorite holidays of the entire year, Record Store Day Black Friday. What, were you thinking of a different November holiday? The gods of my tribe have spoken. They have said, do not trust the pilgrims, especially Sarah Miller.
00:02:52
Speaker
For those of you who may not be familiar with Record Store Day, it's an incredibly cool bi-annual global event that celebrates and supports independent brick-and-mortar record stores. It actually happens twice a year, once in April, which is the original bigger event, and again in November, the day after Thanksgiving, hence the Black Friday qualifier.
00:03:11
Speaker
The whole purpose of Record Store Day and Record Store Day Black Friday is to champion independent record stores and celebrate the larger global vinyl community. And it's all anchored around a fresh batch of exclusive, limited edition vinyl releases, pressed up by a ton of great artists and labels in mostly smaller quantities, and then distributed to record stores throughout the globe.
00:03:32
Speaker
In turn, certifiably insane vinyl enthusiasts, present company very much included, queue up in early morning lines, for many it's even the night before, and, at least in my case, spend way too much money on way too many records.
00:03:47
Speaker
Haha, I was just testing you. There's actually no such thing as too many records. Seriously though, Record Store Day is a really, really cool event that's been going on since 2008. And even if you're not of the wake up before the sun and take out a small loan to fuel your insatiable vinyl habit persuasion, I can assure you that a couple of my top tier favorite pieces across my entire vinyl collection are Record Store Day exclusives from years past.
00:04:13
Speaker
And some of those are really incredible MTV Unplugged albums by bands that have chosen RSD as the moment to finally release their decades-in-the-making Unplugged albums.
00:04:24
Speaker
In some cases, for the first time before releasing it more broadly, like R.E.M. and Pearl Jam, And in other cases, like, say, Soul Asylum, for the only time, meaning it's never been released in any other format.
00:04:37
Speaker
And that's what today's episode is all about. My retrospective look at all of the MTV Unplugged albums that have ever been released for Record Store Day. And what's cool is, even just talking about RSD in the microcosm of its small batch of unplugged related releases, you get to see many of the cool nuances and variations that can make an RSD release special.
00:04:59
Speaker
It might be a super cool previously unreleased first time ever rarity, or a sonically upgraded repressing of a classic. Or maybe it's a small batch fan favorite release that doesn't necessarily warrant the conventional full scale new album push.
00:05:14
Speaker
And sometimes it's even just bands and labels having some fun by putting out aesthetically unique variants. For example, swanky colored wax, custom shaped vinyl designs, liquid filled records, die cut interactive jacket sleeves,
00:05:29
Speaker
Or, in the case of the Dead Weather's Triple Decker record from RSD 2010, a 7-inch single completely encased within a sealed 12-inch record, where the inner 7-inch contains an unreleased song that can only be heard by breaking into the outer 12-inch record.
00:05:47
Speaker
Which, by the way, if you'd like to pick that one up on the secondary market, just one example from the popular online vinyl marketplace Discogs, at the time of this recording at least, they've got one single solitary copy of the Triple Decker record, and it can be all yours for just shy $1,200.
00:06:06
Speaker
Now, as a big vinyl guy and someone who waited in line at Atlanta's Criminal Records on the very first Record Store Day back in 2008, an episode going through all of the MTV Unplugged Record Store Day releases is something that I've really been wanting to do since before I even launched the podcast last year.
00:06:23
Speaker
But I also wanted to wait until there was a new Unplugged related RSD release to tie it to. And that didn't happen for RSD Black Friday 2024 or for RSD 2025 this past April.
00:06:35
Speaker
And then the RSD Black Friday 2025 list dropped last
Special Releases: AHA and Chris Isaak
00:06:39
Speaker
month. And there it was. Not a full MTV Unplugged album, mind you, but still an MTV Unplugged song on a Record Store Day release, which was good enough for me, my friends. So here we are.
00:06:51
Speaker
The release in question is the seriously cool looking Take On Me 40th Anniversary EP from Norwegian synth-pop gods AHA. The concept for this exclusive RSD release is charmingly novel.
00:07:05
Speaker
It's eight different versions of the band's iconic chart-topping signature smash, Take On Me, one of the most popular and singularly identifiable songs and music videos of the entire 1980s, and it tracks some of the more inventive moments of the song's multi-decade evolution.
00:07:22
Speaker
the original 1984 single, a live take from the 90s, a symphonic variant from the 2010s, all the way up through a brand new 40th anniversary extended version that's exclusive to this brand new release.
00:07:36
Speaker
All pressed up on translucent ruby red vinyl. And naturally, no survey of the various Take On Me evolutionary variations from the last 40 years would be complete without the stunningly beautiful piano ballad version that the band played on their MTV Unplugged episode in 2017. Take Me
00:08:08
Speaker
But I feel like I'm getting a little ahead of myself here. So before we get into AHA's new RSD Black Friday release and the rest of the chronologically ordered MTV Unplugged Record Store Day list, let's take care of a couple cool announcements and more on the other side of this vintage Unplugged commercial break.
00:08:25
Speaker
He rocks. He serves. He picks sand off supermodels. And now he's unplugged. Chris Isaac Unplugged.
00:08:36
Speaker
Premiering Thanksgiving at 6 on MTV. One full hour of The Man, The Band, The Voice.
00:08:47
Speaker
Chris Isaac unplugged. This guy doesn't know the meaning of a bad hair day. Ah, hell, a bad anything day. See there? I did manage to sneak a little Thanksgiving representation into this episode.
00:08:59
Speaker
Okay, two quick announcements. Announcement one. Speaking of vinyl, what do you say we give some away? As I mentioned in my last episode, I partnered with my friends over at Sony to run a contest for the brand new 20th anniversary deluxe reissue of the platinum certified Grammy nominated Alicia Keys Unplugged that originally came out back in 2005.
00:09:21
Speaker
This awesome double vinyl reissue with the three additional bonus songs was just officially released a couple weeks ago, and I'm really excited to get a copy over to a lucky listener. So our winner is, imaginary drumroll, Chris Moon of Minneapolis.
00:09:37
Speaker
Thank you to everyone who entered and congratulations to Chris. I hope you enjoy the new vinyl, which may already be in your hands by the time you're hearing this. And speaking of Minneapolis, make sure to spend Alicia's Unplugged Prince cover a couple extra times for me.
Unplugged Cover Songs: A Tribute to David Bowie
00:10:01
Speaker
Alongside the new 20th Anniversary Alicia Keys Unplugged reissue, this is just another friendly reminder of all the other Unplugged related vinyl that's been popping up over the last month or two, in case you want to pick any of these up.
00:10:13
Speaker
There's Neil Young's Unplugged that was pressed to vinyl for the first time ever in the US as part of his official release series number 6 box set. That came out at the end of October.
00:10:24
Speaker
Of course, the Cranberries MTV Unplugged album, for the first time ever, is coming out this Friday, November 7th, across three different vinyl variants and also on CD.
00:10:34
Speaker
And then, again, as I already mentioned, AHA's Take On Me 40th Anniversary EP, featuring their MTV Unplugged version of Take On Me, is coming out November 28th for RSD Black Friday.
00:10:46
Speaker
That's four new MTV Unplugged-related releases just over the last two months. Plus, some little birdies have let me know about some unplugged albums already being discussed for next year as well.
00:10:58
Speaker
It's so super cool to see all the heightened unplugged activity, and you know I'm lighting all my Natalie Merchant prayer candles that some of my own personal favorites might just get the proper album treatment soon enough. Here we go. This is called Criminal.
00:11:17
Speaker
Let's keep it rolling with this episode's Uncovered. This is a segment where I quickly highlight a couple cool unplugged cover songs all tied around a singular theme. And the theme for this episode is David Bowie.
00:11:31
Speaker
I love David Bowie! As many of you already know, especially since I've mentioned it on quite a few episodes, one of my favorite pieces of random unplugged party trivia is that three separate artists, unbeknownst to each other, all covered Bowie within a single unplugged taping session that took place across November 17th and 18th of 1993.
00:11:52
Speaker
First up, easily the most well-known of the unplugged Bowie covers, especially since it still gets regular airplay on alt-rock radio over 30 years later, is Nirvana's absolutely gorgeous cover, of which I personally will never get tired of hearing, of The Man Who Sold the World,
00:12:10
Speaker
the title track and lead single from Bowie's third album, his, this time, let's invite some electric guitarist to the party, 1970 album of the same name. We're blaster.
00:12:26
Speaker
Next up, we've got Stone Temple Pilots, whose Bowie cover did not appear in their original 94 Unplugged broadcast, but could be found as one of the B-sides to the European import version of their Vaseline CD single that was released the same year.
00:12:41
Speaker
And my teenage thanks again to the defunct media play, who was one of the only spots in my area where I could affordably get import singles in the ninety s This is STP's unplugged cover of the album cut Andy Warhol from Bowie's 1971 art pop informed fourth album, Hunky Dory.
00:12:59
Speaker
Andy Warhol looks a squeal, hang him on the wall. Andy Warhol silver squeal, can't tear them apart at all.
00:13:17
Speaker
This next one comes with a bit of a caveat, and I even called in legendary Unplugged producer Alex Coletti and longtime Unplugged editor John Veazey to help fact check. Over the years, I've read in many places that Duran Duran covered Bowie's TVC-1-5 during their Unplugged taping, but that it was cut from the broadcast.
00:13:36
Speaker
And the mentions are always framed like Duran Duran covered the whole song in its entirety and then just decided not to air it. However, if you actually watch the broadcast, at the very end of a surprisingly awesome, brand new introed, dynamically multi-genre version of Hungry Like the Wolf, you can hear the band just drop in a little snippet of TVC1-5 before properly closing out the song.
00:13:59
Speaker
So my suspicion is that they actually just dropped that little Bowie nod in instead of completely covering the full song, as the story is often reported, and Alex and John pretty much confirmed as such.
00:14:10
Speaker
You know, just short of accessing MTV's Labyrinthian Indiana Jones-esque warehouse archives to source the original tapes. I'm clarifying it, but I'm also counting it. So here's Duran Duran's very briefly, uh, hovering slash nodding to Bowie's TBC-1-5 from his widely celebrated 10th album, stationed a Station to Station.
00:14:50
Speaker
And the final Unplugged Bowie cover, at least to my knowledge, occurred just a couple years later after that curious three Bowie covers in one session taping. This one happened during the 96 season, when Seal took on one of Bowie's darker, heavier numbers, Quicksand, which, just like Andy Warhol, also originally appeared on Bowie's Hunky Dory album.
00:15:11
Speaker
And good grief was Seal seriously up for the task.
00:15:16
Speaker
If I can't explain what you want to know You can tell me all about it on the next part Oh, cause I'm sinking in the quicksand of my thoughts And I ain't got the power anymore There we go.
00:15:37
Speaker
Four super cool unplugged covers that were all... Well, wait, what was today's theme again? That was David Bowie song. Ah, that's right. Thanks, Kurt. Appreciate it. And with that, we've got another Uncovered in the Books.
00:15:52
Speaker
On to today's headliner. I'll start with a little, I guess, mini intersection about Record Store Day's origins, and then we'll get into my list of MTV Unplugged Record Store Day releases, three of which are absolute monster beauties. But you know, no spoilers.
00:16:09
Speaker
So let's kick off this mini intersection with a very brief and not at all exhaustive history of Record
Record Store Day Evolution and Notable Releases
00:16:16
Speaker
Store Day. According to the broad-stroked origin story from Record Store Day's own website, cue the old-timey Victrola music,
00:16:23
Speaker
Record Store Day was conceived in 2007 at a gathering of independent record store owners and employees as a way to celebrate and spread the word about the unique culture surrounding nearly 1,400 independently-owned record stores in the U.S. and thousands of similar stores internationally.
00:16:40
Speaker
The first Record Store Day took place on April 19, 2008. That inaugural year, the small but mighty list of exclusive RSD offerings featured less than a dozen releases, which is laughably quaint in comparison to, say, this year's list from last April, which had over 330 unique titles in the U.S. alone.
00:17:00
Speaker
However, some of the names on that original barely double digits list were some pretty big of-the-moment acts, including Death Cab for Cutie, The Black Keys, and Vampire Weekend.
00:17:11
Speaker
There was even an official Record Store Day promo compilation, Pressed Up, that featured songs from Bruce Springsteen, Patti Smith, Run DMC, Pearl Jam, Rage Against the Machine, and many others that got slipped into your bag for free when you were checking out.
00:17:25
Speaker
Of course, the release that got me out of the house and into an early morning line at Criminal Records on that very first Record Store Day was the exclusive 7-inch single of Supernatural Super Serious with non-album track Airliner on the B-side from my beloved R.E.M.,
00:17:55
Speaker
That first year, some pretty recognizable names also physically joined in to help kick Record Store Day off by actually showing up to record shops and celebrating the event in person, namely Billy Bragg over in the UK and Metallica here in the States. Thousands of music fans queued up, some camping out for days just to get inside this record store. But the pandemonium wasn't for any special deals, just some very special guests. Record stores are They're disappearing, and we want them to stay. bay Area rock legends Metallica have long been outspoken about the role of digital downloads in the music business, going back to the days of Napster and illegal file sharing. Now they're headlining for independent retailers.
00:18:36
Speaker
The next year, 2009, saw RSD achieve an incredibly impressive jump both in the number of record stores participating, from about 300 the year prior to over 1,000 stores in year two, and also in the number of exclusive releases, with the 09 list exploding to over 80 unique titles.
00:18:55
Speaker
Artists like Tom Waits and Slayer showed up for in-store events, and Eagles of Death Metal frontman Jesse Hughes ugg bestowed upon himself the title of Record Store Day Ambassador, an honor that would quickly become an official rotating position, annually awarded by the RSD crew to folks like Jack White, Chuck D., Brandi Carlile, Pearl Jam, Dave Grohl, St. Vincent, and many more over the years.
00:19:19
Speaker
In 2010, RSD year 3, the event continued to skyrocket as the number of participating stores and overall sales both increased by about 40% over just the prior year.
00:19:32
Speaker
I can personally attest to this growth being felt significantly on the ground that year as well. as at this point I was living in Nashville and the ever awesome Grimies was my regular go-to.
00:19:42
Speaker
This was back at their beautiful old 8th Avenue location and I'm pretty sure this was the last year that they did Record Store Day inside the building because that day the increased crowds turned the already tight aisles into a wildly immovable traffic jam that was literal elbow-to-elbow lockdown.
00:20:00
Speaker
In the span of a molasses slow two-hour tiptoe shuffle, I managed to only secure about three records on my list. Thankfully, producer Amanda had joined me for that year's festivities to see what all the fuss was about, and she was hanging out in the car getting my increasingly deflated text messages.
00:20:17
Speaker
REM? Gone. Tom Waits? Gone. Nico Case? Gone. About an hour into the inescapable shoulder-to-shoulder Fire Marshall's nightmare, without me having a clue, she drove over to another record store.
00:20:31
Speaker
Shout out to The Great Escape, where I ended up going for many years after. And she managed to snag literally everything else on my list, plus a few extras, in secret. By the time I made it back to the car with my meager amateur haul of Ramones Mania and that John Lennon single set, she pulled one of those nonchalant, hey, can you grab my purse from the backseat moves?
00:20:53
Speaker
And that's when I saw the huge bag of overflowing vinyl awesomeness that she had managed to score quicker and easier and no doubt cooler than I could ever imagine being. I think she even had time left over to pick us up some coffee and find a better parking spot to wait on me to be mercilessly bodied toward the exit.
00:21:11
Speaker
Yeah, who runs the world indeed. And again, thanks a million times over to her for making sure I got my number one that year, the gorgeous translucent blue reissue of REM's long out of print Chronic Town EP.
00:21:31
Speaker
2010 was also the year that Record Store Day's increasing popularity expanded into a second event, Record Store Day Black Friday, naturally occurring the day after Thanksgiving. While the November festivities remain understandably smaller and often get pegged as playing second fiddle to April's main event, I can say that for me personally, some of my absolute favorite RSD releases, including one of the MTV Unplugged offerings we'll get into here in a bit, have been released during RSD Black Friday.
00:21:59
Speaker
Plus, that one is usually a bit more chill every year, and there's definitely a more laid-back vibe to the early morning lines. So, by 2011, just four years in Record Store Day had quickly matured into the cherished yearly institution it's still operating as today.
00:22:16
Speaker
2011 is also the year that an MTV Unplugged album first showed up on the feverishly anticipated Record Store Day list of exclusive offerings. So let's get into the all-too-short, but still absolutely awesome chronological list of MTV Unplugged Record Store Day releases. 2011 Eric Clapton, Unplugged. So the first entry on this list, while not being one of the hard-to-find represses or first-time-ever rarities, is still notable for both breaking the ice on MTV Unplugged RSD releases and also for using the opportunity to level up the album's fidelity.
00:22:52
Speaker
It was a deluxe 180 gram repressing of Eric Clapton's extremely popular, multi-platinum, multi-grammied unplugged album from 1992, which had already been pressed to vinyl back during its original run, at least in a bunch of international markets.
00:23:08
Speaker
But, this 2011 RSD version represented a couple of the album's first. Once lived a life...
00:23:18
Speaker
I believe it was the first ever US vinyl pressing, and it was the first time anywhere that it was spread out across two discs. Which, because vinyl is a physical medium with fixed sound wave barriers, putting fewer songs on a side allows for a fuller dynamic range, minimizes distortion, and just lends itself to a richer, more sonically expansive overall sound quality.
00:23:41
Speaker
These days, Clapton's Unplugged has been reissued quite a few times across multiple vinyl variants, including a high-def Mobile Fidelity Soundlab Super Vinyl version in 2022, and most recently, just this year in fact, an expanded triple album enhanced edition version that includes many of Clapton's Day Of interview clips as song introductions.
00:24:03
Speaker
But back in 2011, the album had only been repressed once, back in 2008, when it got its first 180-gram upgrade for the European market. So this 2011 RSD pressing was a fairly big deal for stateside Clapton fans, and I think Record Store Day was the perfect venue for its U.S. vinyl debut unveiling.
00:24:23
Speaker
As far as current availability, this specific 2011 RSD pressing of Clapton's Unplugged is pretty easy to find on the secondary vinyl market, and it's usually available for pretty reasonable prices.
00:24:35
Speaker
It also helps that this one got a fairly big pressing, reportedly 3,500 copies. So if you're in the market for this specific variant, it might be the most uncomplicated to acquire of the whole list. 2014 R.E.M.
00:24:49
Speaker
r e m Unplugged 1991 2001, complete sessions. Okay, so this next one on the list is naturally the one I'm most stoked to talk about.
00:25:00
Speaker
And not just because REM is my favorite band. It's actually one of the most unique and more rare offerings that really captures how amazingly cool and special an RSD release can actually be when a lot of thought and intention goes into it.
00:25:13
Speaker
By the sky and sell the sky. Bleed the sky and tell the sky don't fall.
00:25:25
Speaker
So, as you are absolutely aware, since I bring it up in almost every other episode, R.E.M. delivered not one, but two exceptionally transcendent MTV Unplugged episodes.
00:25:36
Speaker
First in 91, recorded on the same day as the stellar Yo! Unplugged hip-hop show, and again 2001, to kick off the Unplugged 2.0 reboot. However, neither episode was ever released as an official album, and the band didn't even squirrel away any of the tracks as b-sides for other singles or anything.
00:25:55
Speaker
Well, to be fair, I should note that we technically did get meager smattering of REM Unplugged songs via the four official Unplugged compilations, which you can go back and check out my ninth episode if you want to dig into what's on all of those.
00:26:09
Speaker
The 94 comp had Half a World Away, the 02 comp had Losing My Religion, the 03 comp had Imitation of Life from their 2001 Unplugged, and the 04 comp had It's the End of the World as We Know It.
00:26:22
Speaker
So, you know, fine. Bye.
00:26:29
Speaker
But all that to say, apart from those four sonic scraps, since 1991, me and my fellow REM fans had been tirelessly clamoring for an official release of their MTV Unplugged, like perpetual Dickensian Parish Boys. Lisa, I want some more. For literal decades, the only way to listen to these performances was via hard-to-find, passed-around MP3 files that had been crudely ripped from old VHS home recordings of the original broadcast.
00:26:57
Speaker
So let's take a look right now at MTV Unplugged with R.E.M. But thankfully that all changed in 2014 when the band finally released both of their MTV Unplugged performances in an insanely cool, definitely worth the wait double album for that year's Record Store Day.
00:27:13
Speaker
And here's just some of the notable features of this one that I think really makes it an exemplary entry and perfectly embodies what can make an RSD release so special. First, as I mentioned, this was one of those feverishly awaited first-time-ever releases.
00:27:27
Speaker
Not a repress, not an expanded edition, just a true, previously unreleased premiere of absolute awesomeness. Second, not only was it a double album of two incredible live performances recorded a decade apart at strikingly different points in the band's career, but they also included every single song they recorded both nights.
00:27:48
Speaker
even the ones that never aired on the original MTV Unplugged broadcast. So not only did the quality of our bootleg MP3s get seriously leveled up, but also the quantity exploded to over 30 songs as well, hence the complete session's qualifier in the title.
00:28:04
Speaker
Third, from a packaging perspective, this initial variant came housed together as a really cool singular 4 LP release with its own special combined 1991-2001 cover art.
00:28:17
Speaker
Once the band saw how huge the response and demand was to this RSD version, they decided to press up more. But they kept this 4LP RSD variant special by doing the mainstream repressings as separate albums, a double LP 1991 version and a double LP 2001 version, each with their own associated but individualized cover art.
00:28:39
Speaker
As far as current availability on this one, If you just want the music, the combined double album CD version is easy enough to pick up pretty much anywhere. But if you want it on vinyl, a few copies of the limited run four album RSD 2014 version are usually always available on the secondary market,
00:28:58
Speaker
But, I don't think I've ever seen them for under triple digits. Just for an example, at this very moment on Discogs, there are less than 10 total copies showing, only 2 of which are in the US.
00:29:10
Speaker
And the cheapest available of the US options is running $300 flat, and that's been open and played. The other is just shy of $700 for an unopened, unplayed version.
00:29:22
Speaker
There are other options between those price points from international resellers, but then you get into the tricky waters of the whole international shipping thing. Long, treacherous shipping journeys with the potential damage of bent corners and split seams, especially with four records jostling around in the album jacket,
00:29:40
Speaker
So, yeah, if the Clapton one marks the easy-to-procure side of the spectrum, this one represents the multiple barriers to entry side, financially, logistically, even availability, as I believe this pressing was only like a thousand copies here in the States.
00:29:56
Speaker
But boy, is it a beauty if you can find a clean, affordable copy out in the wild. 2017, all-time low, MTV unplugged. Okay, it was three years between Clapton and REM, and then another three years between REM and this one.
00:30:11
Speaker
As you can see, things started off a little slow and measured for the marrying together of MTV Unplugged and Record Store Day. But the unofficial partnership was about to pick up a little momentum with the RSD 2017 release of All Time Lowe's MTV Unplugged album.
00:30:27
Speaker
Get your hands up.
00:30:40
Speaker
All Time Low originally filmed their MTV Unplugged episode during that Emmy Award winning TV and online broadcasted mini reboot season of 2009. The same celebrated season that also featured Paramore, Adele, Katy Perry, and a few others.
00:30:58
Speaker
Early the next year, in January 2010, it got released as one of those charming CD-DVD combo albums. And man, can I just say, i really, really love that era of labels combating illegal peer-to-peer file sharing by frequently folding in DVDs to their standard album releases.
00:31:16
Speaker
Since this release only had six songs, instead of a quote-unquote album, technically it was an EP-DVD combo, with some bonus outtakes and interviews on the DVD.
00:31:27
Speaker
But there wasn't a vinyl version of All Time Lowe's MTV Unplugged EP until almost a decade later, when they pressed it up for the first time for RSD 2017. And this was also one of the ones where the band had a little extra fun with the vinyl coloring.
00:31:41
Speaker
as this RSD version kind of mimicked the quasi-black-and-whitish album cover art with a nice black-and-white color pressing. They continued to tweak the color variants for future repressings as well, like the electric blue version for the 2024 Hopeless Records 30th anniversary, and just this summer they repressed it again across a trio of different colorways.
00:32:03
Speaker
Black and orange swirl, black and purple swirl, and clear with orange, black, and purple swirl. As far as current availability, the RSD 2017 vinyl debut of all-time Lowe's MTV Unplugged seems pretty available and pretty affordable on the secondary market.
00:32:19
Speaker
Plus, just like the original 2010 CD, it also came with the DVD of their performance. This one shouldn't be too hard to snag if you're looking for it. 2018 Bleachers, MTV Unplugged.
00:32:31
Speaker
The very next year, yet another MTV Unplugged album showed up on the RSD list, and this one was another first-timer. put my things into boxes, I carry all of my old lies, rubber band in my past tight.
00:32:45
Speaker
You know what?
00:32:48
Speaker
Okay, where to begin with succinctly contextualizing Jack Antonoff circa 2018? Um, okay. Jack first came to prominence in the late 2000s as the guitarist slash multi-instrumentalist for the multiple Grammy-winning trio Fun, who only released two albums, the second of which went triple platinum and won the band Best New Artist and Song of the Year for We Are Young at the 2013 Grammys.
00:33:15
Speaker
That same year, he started an incredibly fruitful creative collaboration with Taylor Swift, who he still works with to this day, first co-writing and producing her song Sweeter Than Fiction for the soundtrack to the 2013 film One Chance, and then co-writing and producing three tracks on her massive 1989 album.
00:33:35
Speaker
which landed him an Album of the Year award at the 2016 Grammys. Amidst this period of absolutely skyrocketing his pop production career with Swift, Sara Bareilles, Tegan and Sara, and many others, he was also getting his own post-fun, rock-informed solo project off the ground under the name Bleachers.
00:33:55
Speaker
His debut album, Strange Desire, came out in 2014, and his follow-up, Gone Now, came out in 2017. The same year, he was also doing production work for St. Vincent, Pink, Lorde, and, oh yeah, still Taylor Swift. 2017 is also when Bleachers recorded their MTV Unplugged episode, featuring two special guests he had produced albums for, Carly Rae Jepsen and Lorde.
00:34:29
Speaker
And the episode got released as an album just a couple months later for Record Store Day 2018. Now, actual Bleachers fans, please correct me if I'm wrong, but I do believe that vinyl is the only medium that this album has ever been released on.
00:34:43
Speaker
I mean, apart from digital streaming, of course. I'm saying I don't think there are like CD or cassette versions of this one at all. Even for that level of vinyl-only novelty, this 2018 RSD version isn't super hard to find on the secondary market.
00:34:57
Speaker
There usually a small handful that are always available, but they do usually run a little above average pricing. Like, mostly within the higher double digits, but not quite triple digits window.
00:35:08
Speaker
2019, Pearl Jam. pearl jam MTV Unplugged, March 16, 1992. Much like the REM Unplugged RSD release in 2014, the first time ever Pearl Jam Unplugged album that was released for Record Store Day Black Friday in November 2019 was an extremely huge, feverishly anticipated for decades, wildly celebrated moment for fans.
00:35:35
Speaker
All the bills sold by hand, initiatives are taken off, like the men on.
00:35:42
Speaker
Had this been the only release on the list that year, I guarantee you thousands of Pearl Jam fans would have still queued up in the pre-dawn hours to snag a copy. Which, just for context on how much demand they knew this one would draw, many ah RSD offerings are so limited edition that quantities can just be in the hundreds or maybe right at a thousand or so.
00:36:02
Speaker
For RSD Black Friday 2019, the previously unreleased Pearl Jam Unplugged pressing was reported to be 13,000 copies, the highest volume pressing of that year's list.
00:36:14
Speaker
And also much like the REM Unplugged RSD release in 2014, I have to be very careful to not let my deep love and appreciation for this album put a parking brake on the entire episode.
00:36:25
Speaker
So I'll try to keep this somewhat succinct. In fact, if you'd like to get more of my thoughts on this particular performance, you can check out the album release article I wrote for the Grammys, including my interview with the episode's director, Joel Gallen, over at the Grammys' website, if they still have their articles available from all the way back in 2019.
00:36:45
Speaker
So, as I've mentioned on numerous previous episodes, Pearl Jam's MTV Unplugged from 92 is one of the quintessential masterpieces of the show's entire run. It's an amazing and unconventional acoustic set from a band at an incredibly important early moment in their career.
00:37:02
Speaker
In this case, only one album in and taking the world by storm as one of their genre's mainstream ambassadors. Also, the band is both sonically and visually enrapturing.
00:37:13
Speaker
I mean, even just during their incendiary version of Porch, Jeff plays bass while standing on the kick drum, Eddie iconically writes Pro Choice down his entire arm in Sharpie, and then Jeff attempts, I believe, the only acoustic bass toss in the history of televised musical performances.
00:37:32
Speaker
Plus, I will never fail to mention that it was recorded on the exact same night as the legendary Mariah Carey Unplugged, as well as the Boyz II Men's Shawneese Joe Public Unplugged. Man, what a monumental day at the office for the Unplugged crew.
00:37:45
Speaker
However, despite all that awesomeness, this was another stellar Unplugged that confoundingly never got an official album release, probably just due to timing, as the Carey-Clapton-Unplugged album boom hadn't really kicked off yet.
00:38:00
Speaker
Thankfully, it quickly became one of the most easily available unplugged bootlegs to find within the fan community and across a ton of early MP3 blogs. And not just homespun VHS rips of the original broadcast.
00:38:12
Speaker
Someone actually sourced the audio from the soundboard and the original tapes. of both the actual show and their soundcheck. So not only could you still get access to two songs from the actual performance that didn't make air, Oceans and their cover of Neil Young's Rockin' in the Free World, but you could also easily find their entire unplugged pre-show soundcheck.
00:38:33
Speaker
I mean, I've got a six minute track of them just checking drum levels alone.
00:38:56
Speaker
But still, an official, high-quality audio release of Pearl Jam's Unplugged episode eluded fans for years. Then, they first got the ball rolling in 2009 when they included a DVD of their 92 Unplugged episode as part of the bonus material included in the deluxe reissue of their debut album 10.
00:39:15
Speaker
And then another full decade later, they finally released Unplugged as its own standalone album for RSD Black Friday 2019. Which, I'd like to note, when this was first announced back in 2019, it was, shall we say, impressed upon us that any coverage had to include its full title, Pearl Jam's MTV Unplugged, March 16th, 1992, which was the date it was first filmed.
00:39:40
Speaker
But these days, everyone just refers to it as Pearl Jam's MTV Unplugged. I'll also note they included the unaired version of Oceans on both the 2009 DVD and the 2019 vinyl, but they still kept their acoustic cover of Rockin' in the Free World off of both official releases.
00:39:57
Speaker
So just for fun, here's a little snippet of that.
00:40:12
Speaker
As far as current availability, the album quickly got a mainstream run on CD and even a later vinyl repress. Even this exact 2019 RSD version isn't hard to find at all due to the large pressing size I mentioned.
00:40:27
Speaker
So if you're in the market for this one, A, it is extremely worth the pickup and B, it's really easy to find at extremely decent pricing. Plus, the cover art featured that hybrid guitar-piano unplugged logo that they only used for a year or so before pivoting to the more iconic unplugged logo that branded the majority of the show's biggest mainstream boom.
00:40:48
Speaker
So that's kind of a super cool, historically accurate touch as well. 2021. The Fantastischen Veer MTV Unplugged 2. Okay, I'm putting an asterisk by this next one just because I'm doing that tricky dance of wanting to be accurate and all-encompassing in my reporting, but I'm not able to confidently source my research in as many places as I would normally like.
00:41:09
Speaker
So I'm going to include this one, but for any of my German listeners, please correct me if I've got any of this wrong. Die Fantastischen Wier, or Fanta 4 as they're also known, is a German hip-hop group who recorded two separate unplugged episodes for MTV Germany, one in 2000 and another in 2012, both of which were filmed inside a literal cave, Balver Hole, which is actually an incredibly cool performance space that's been used for over 160 years.
00:41:38
Speaker
And according to the Balver Cave website and Google Translate, since it's all in German, It is the largest open cultural cave in Europe, where approximately 2,000 people can experience the unique acoustics and atmosphere of a concert.
00:41:52
Speaker
Fanta 4 released both of their cave-recorded MTV Unplugged episodes as albums, and their second one, released in 2012, hit the top 10 in Austria and Switzerland and went all the way to number one in Germany.
00:42:05
Speaker
That record was repressed for Record Store Day 2021 Germany, and it was released as a triple LP offering, packaged in a triple gatefold cover and pressed on a striking white and blue splatter.
00:42:17
Speaker
The RSD Germany 2021 repressing of MTV Unplugged 2 can be found on the secondary market, but prices might be a barrier to entry for some, especially if you're stateside, since this was only released in Germany and the international shipping cost, for a weighty triple album no less, can run a bit high.
00:42:36
Speaker
So available? Yes. Affordable? Well, your mileage may vary. I admittedly have zero contextual knowledge of Fanta 4, but one of the only non-German song titles on their MTV Unplugged 2 record is the album-closer titled Troy, which I'm picking to play a clip of solely because it's also the name of a beautiful and brutal Sinead O'Connor song I love.
00:42:59
Speaker
But even not knowing a word of German, I can assure you this is not a cover of that song.
00:43:12
Speaker
F to the MTV Unplugged, live in London.
00:43:24
Speaker
British indie pop outfit Bastille is another band that I personally wasn't familiar with before their 2021 MTV Unplugged episode. But their incredible performance in True Blue Return to Form Unplugged certainly piqued my interest.
00:43:40
Speaker
Echoing back to the show's most popular 90s run, they had a small audience, performed in the round, showcased their own instrumental versatility with glockenspiel, mandolin, lap steel, mellotron, Wurlitzer, and what looked like maybe a lute, and they invited along two horn players, a trio of background singers, and cellist.
00:44:02
Speaker
But it was their two unplugged cover songs that really drew me in, both of which had their own unplugged meta-threads. First, they did an awesome cover of Killing Me Softly. Yes, originally a Roberta Flack song, but this one no doubt informed by the flawless Fugees cover from 96, which I'm sure most folks would have loved to hear Lauryn Hill revisit during her unconventional 2001 episode.
00:44:24
Speaker
Killing me softly
00:44:30
Speaker
with this song
00:44:38
Speaker
I fell all flushed with fever embarrassed by the cry. And they also did a stunningly clever piano cover of Nirvana's Come As You Are, which was such a surprise and executed so perfectly in this unplugged setting that it was impossible not to feel a directly inspired sonic and visual echo back to Nirvana's mythological unplugged from 93. Take time.
00:45:07
Speaker
Hurry up, choice is yours, don't be late. Take a rest as a friend, as an old memory.
00:45:24
Speaker
Within the larger cultural arc of Unplugged, this is always one of the more recent 2020 eras Unplugged episodes that I bring up whenever folks understandably ask if Unplugged is still a thing.
00:45:36
Speaker
A couple years after the 2021 episode, Bastille decided to release their Unplugged as a double album for Record Store Day 2023. And much like the Bleachers one from 2018, I believe that this RSD vinyl version is the only medium the album was released on.
00:45:52
Speaker
And again, yes, there's digital streaming availability, but no CDs or cassettes, I don't believe. I don't think this one has ever even gotten a repressing yet either. The original vinyl run did have a fairly good-sized pressing, though.
00:46:06
Speaker
2,500 copies, I believe. So it's readily available on the secondary market, and the prices are pretty comparable for a double LP. You know, 50, 60 bucks for an open copy, a bit higher for a sealed one. 2023, Soul Asylum, the complete unplugged NYC 93.
00:46:22
Speaker
Wait, you're saying there were two new MTV Unplugged albums released for RSD 2023? Yes, my friends. As the ancient prophets foretold, we got a double shot of MTV Unplugged Record Store Day goodness in 2023.
00:46:36
Speaker
And this Soul Asylum double album was absolutely massive for me. Grandfather watches the grandfather clock
00:46:59
Speaker
Joining R.E.M. and Pearl Jam, Soul Asylum is another killer example of a fabled 90s unplugged episode from the show's massively impactful heyday that didn't get an official album release at the time, but eventually landed on Record Store Day as the pitch-perfect venue by which to rectify the tragedy and quell the tireless requests from fans.
00:47:20
Speaker
Also like R.E.M., Soul Asylum used the opportunity to release the entirety of their 16-song unplugged taping setlist, including the half-dozen or so songs that didn't make the original broadcast.
00:47:32
Speaker
My favorite of which was their unplugged cover of Victoria Williams' Summer of Drugs that they originally recorded for her Sweet Relief tribute album that also came out in 93. The same one that had Pearl Jam's cover of Crazy Mary that was a massive alternative radio mainstay at the time.
00:47:49
Speaker
Here's the more rare, live, unplugged version of Soul Asylum's fantastic Summer of Drugs cover. Sister got bit by copperhead snake in the woods behind the house.
00:48:04
Speaker
Nobody was home, so I grabbed her foot and I sucked that poison out. The Soul Asylum Unplugged episode was incredibly cool for me. Loads of Gravedancers Union goodies, bringing out Lulu to guest onto Sir with Love, and lighting up somebody to shove with a string section, which was curiously mistitled Someone one to Shove on the Back Jacket.
00:48:28
Speaker
It was really, really nice to finally get to retire my small handful of Soul Asylum Unplugged tracks they had released as B-sides over the previous years, in favor of finally having their full Unplugged performance in one single cohesive album.
00:48:42
Speaker
I mean, seriously, this one is just legit 90s gold. Black gold, if you will. The songs are awesome. It was recorded on the same night as the huge 10,000 Maniacs MTV Unplugged.
00:48:54
Speaker
And it's where Dave Perner and Winona Ryder first met before they started dating. I mean, come on. Classic performance totally deserving of its own standalone album release.
00:49:04
Speaker
While this one-time pressing of Soul Asylum's The Complete Unplugged for RSD 2023 is the only physical option for this album, again, no CD or cassette versions, they did press up over 3,000 copies.
00:49:17
Speaker
So it's not too hard to get your hands on one, and the secondary market prices are totally reasonable. 2025, AHA, Take On Me, 40th Anniversary EP. And that brings us to the final entry in our MTV Unplugged Record Store Day retrospective list.
00:49:33
Speaker
This year's upcoming release of AHA's Take On Me EP, pressed up on ruby red vinyl for this year's RSD Black Friday on November 28th. So yes, admittedly this isn't an exclusively unplugged anchored release.
00:49:48
Speaker
And yes, AHA already released their majestic 2017 unplugged episode as a proper album and DVD, MTV Unplugged Summer Solstice, back during the same year it was recorded.
00:50:00
Speaker
However, I think the conceit of this release is a really cool concept. Plus, AHA's unplugged reworking of Take On Me from the bubbly MTV-enshrined synth-pop classic into this reflective, tender piano ballad version they rolled out during their 2017 Unplugged episode?
00:50:17
Speaker
I mean, this is easily one of the all-time top 10 MTV Unplugged reimaginings, where an artist used the show to take one of their own songs and completely reconfigure it into something altogether new, surprising, and equally as enrapturing as the original.
00:50:35
Speaker
Talking away I don't know what I'm to say I'll say it anyway Today is another day To find you Shying away I'll be coming for your love again Take on
00:51:03
Speaker
As far as current availability, well, duh, this one is still a couple weeks away from even being available to purchase. But they are reportedly pressing up about 3,000 copies of it.
00:51:13
Speaker
So, if like me, November 28th will find you queued up in a pre-dawn line outside of a record store, bundled up, caffeinated, and engaged in groggy small talk with your fellow unhinged lunatics, I mean, fellow vinyl enthusiasts,
00:51:28
Speaker
then there's a pretty good chance you'll be able to add this one to your RSD haul, which for me means hopefully it will be tucked safely away in my bag right between the Ramones, En Vogue, Dillon, and Bratmobile releases.
00:51:41
Speaker
Fingers crossed. Okay, I think that'll do it for today's show. I hope this one was an enjoyable little unplugged rabbit trail, even for those of you who couldn't care less about collecting vinyl records.
00:51:53
Speaker
If nothing else, hopefully you can at least join me in lighting your own Natalie Merchant prayer candles to see future Record Store Day lists healthily seasoned with even more MTV Unplugged releases, especially from artists who never got around to releasing one in the first place.
00:52:08
Speaker
Again, I'm looking at slash pleading with you, Fiona Apple, The Cure, Sheryl Crow, Sting, Lenny Kravitz, Elton John. Okay, okay. We're supposed to be making our way to the exit, not ramping back up.
00:52:21
Speaker
If you'd like to share your own unplugged memories, offer up a correction, or connect with the show for any other reason, You can send me an email, unpluggedrevisited at gmail.com, leave a voicemail by calling 234-REVISIT, which is 234-738-4748, or you can reach out on social media.
00:52:41
Speaker
As always, please take a moment to follow the pod on your platform of choice so that it'll automatically pop into your feed when it goes live next month. Until then, my friends, be kind to yourself and look out for each other.
00:52:55
Speaker
Unplugged Revisited is a Son of a Butch production. The show is written and hosted by me, Will Hodge. The show is edited by Amanda Hodge and myself. Podcast artwork is by Jordan Ullam, and you can find more of their incredible work at jordanullam.design.
00:53:09
Speaker
That's J-O-R-D-A-N-U-L-L-O-M.design.