Vinyl Reports

Back on Wednesday, April 22, 2026, AP editor Mike Mettler and I shared our respective Record Store Day 2026 experiences, along with assessments of some of our purchases that day. (Go here for a refresher, or for your first look at our initial RSD 2026 picks.)

In my portion of that post, I also mentioned that I would be delving into three more RSD 2026 releases at a later time — and that time is now. First up is my extensive look at what’s been considered one of the most controversial releases of that day — but why it definitely has its own merits.

XTC
LIVE BOOTS: EMERALD CITY,
CHERRY HILL, NEW JERSEY – 17TH APRIL 1981
200g 2LP (Ape House)
RSD Exclusive; 2,500 copies

XTC’s Live Boots: Emerald City, Cherry Hill, New Jersey – 17th April 1981 was among the first XTC live recordings I ever got my hands on back in the early 1980s when I was getting much more deeply into the band’s music. Somewhat like a new-wave version of Deadheads, XTC fans are no less obsessive. Once you tapped into that universe of collectors, it was cool to get access to circulating concert tapes, radio broadcasts, demos, and other rarities that people were actively documenting and trading back in the day.

That Emerald City concert quickly became especially well-loved, as it was from a broadcast by WMMR-FM (Philadelphia); the venue’s locale in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, is a suburb just over the bridge from Philly. It’s a fave show for its madly amped-up energy that also had outstanding sound quality, and you can hear the band firing with all cylinders. The setlist leaned heavily on XTC’s third and fourth albums on Virgin — August 1979’s Drums and Wires and September 1980’s Black Sea, respectively. And they even previewed a new song, “Ball and Chain,” from their soon-to-come global breakthrough, also on Virgin, February 1982’s English Settlement.

So, getting a professionally mastered version of this concert pressed on 200g audiophile quality vinyl was simply an essential RSD 2026 purchase for this longtime XTC fanatic. That said, the Live Boots RSD release has triggered a strong, and largely negative, response online from many XTC fans — which I suspect is mostly due to their high expectations not being met. Initially, I too was among the disgruntled, but after closer examination and some serious sleuthing (as only a deep fan might sleuth!), I have come full circle to appreciate Live Boots: Live at Emerald City 1981 for what it is. Let’s explore why.

The official RSD site hype probably exacerbated the situation a bit, as it states: “Previously available as inferior bootleg recordings, [Live Boots] will be mastered to the highest standard supervised by [XTC guitarist/vocalist] Andy Partridge, and will be a vinyl exclusive for Record Store Day 2026.”

That statement, coupled with a plethora of great-sounding recordings commonly circulating for decades on fan-traded audio cassettes, CDRs, some unofficially issued bootlegs issued along the way — and, eventually, even streaming — only seemed to add to the disappointment.

So, what went “wrong”? Well, we may never know exactly — or if it really is “wrong” to begin with, to be honest.

I have some theories. For one thing, I dug out my original cassette (shown above) that I’d either dubbed from a friend of a friend in college back in the early 1980s, or perhaps I’d received from a trade with a fan via one of the XTC fanzines I’d subscribed to like The Little Express. I am guessing that my cassette is probably a 5th or much higher generation analog dub — and it still sounds pretty good. Not quite as stellar as I remembered, but also not as crisp as some of the versions of it that are streaming online.

While listening to the two Live Boots LPs, I noticed something curious: there were differences to the radio broadcast. For example, the introduction from the WMMR announcer is missing, and the intro music by Philip Glass that played as the band was getting onstage is also noticeably absent.

If you listen closely, the first song, “Reel by Reel” (LP1, Side 1, Track 1), starts out largely in mono, but during the second song, “Life Begins at the Hop,” the mix becomes more distinctively stereophonic. This is something that often happens with band reference tapes, as the sound engineer starts to dial in the mix while juggling primary responsibilities of keeping the audience PA sound and the band’s onstage sound (a.k.a. their monitor mixes) in check.

All of this conspired to lead me towards thinking that the tape used for creating Live Boots was not sourced from the WMMR recording, but probably the band’s own reference soundboard cassette. This notion is more or less confirmed in XTC superfan, author, original publisher of XTC fanzine Limelight, and all-around nice human being Mark Fisher’s excellent program, What Do You Call That Noise? The XTC Podcast. On April 2, 2026, he interviewed XTC’s then sound engineer Gary Bradshaw, who explains (around the 25:00 mark) that WMMR had their own feed separate from the band’s soundboard mix. He doesn’t dwell too much on the topic, but even that brief passing mention explains a lot of things for me. Check it out for yourself below, if you want to delve deeper.

So, at the end of the day, I’m calming down a bunch about it all, and am now better appreciating this Live Boots release for what it is — a different perspective on a beloved live concert recording. Knowing it was made from a different recording than the broadcast, I am still glad I grabbed a copy of it while I could.

Mile high perspective: using XTC’s own tape as the source material probably better serves the band on many significant levels (which, as a fan, I ultimately want). If, say, they had tried to get the legal rights to use the WMMR recording (if that original tape even still exists!), they would have likely had to pay licensing fees to the station (or whatever big corporate entity that may own the station’s archives these days). And, if they had used the original announcer intro, they might have had to get clearances from that particular individual, depending on the original agreement with the station and the venue.

And then, an even bigger issue is that using the Philip Glass intro music would require additional clearances and fees. It was probably okay for XTC to use the intro music in the club at the time as part of the concert experience. Its usage probably was covered by the station’s broadcast license at the time, as well as by the club’s own blanket licenses for pre-recorded music usage there. For XTC to physically reproduce that music for their own physical (and digital) media purposes, they would likely have to pay various fees to all the entities involved (Philip Glass, Harry Fox Agency, et al). That all adds up pretty quickly!

All that said, once you get used to the sound of the Live Boots recording, it’s really quite enjoyable. And, happily, as the show progresses, you can hear the engineer steadily dialing in the mix so that by the time we get to the second LP, the sound is far less muddy.

As for my ratings, I give the Music on Live Boots a 10, and the Sound gets a 5, the latter rating mainly due to the sound getting more dialed in and better overall in the back half of the set. (Footnote 1) Even so, Live Boots is still a problematic recording in light of other versions of the show that are circulating out there — but if you’re an XTC completist like we here at AP are, then it’s a must-get, albeit with those aural caveats.

And now, on to two more of my favorite RSD 2026 releases.

BUSTER WILLIAMS
PINNACLE
180g 1LP (Time Traveler Recordings)
RSD Exclusive; 1,500 copies

A new Craft Recordings/Time Traveler series reissue of Pinnacle, the 1975 debut on Muse by bass-playing session icon Buster Williams (Herbie Hancock, Gene Ammons, Larry Coryell, Kenny Barron), is by far the most exciting jazz re-release I’ve crossed paths with on RSD 2026, from both a music and audiophile perspective.

Featuring all-analog remastering, this sweet-sounding gem of an LP is built upon lacquers cut from original tapes by Matthew Lutthans at The Mastering Lab, and it was pressed on 180g black vinyl at Optimal Media.

A rich exploration of progressive jazz, funk-forward soul-jazz, and fusion hybrids that lean at times more toward an ECM vibe, Pinnacle was a total surprise discovery for me. I’d admittedly overlooked this fine musician’s solo works until now, but I will definitely be looking for more of Williams’ albums moving forward. In my defense, Muse releases were never super well-distributed back in the day, so if you weren’t in the know about what was happening at that time and didn’t look out for that label’s releases, you could miss them with a blink of an eye.

Indeed, Pinnacle is rare, as evidenced by the presence of only one original copy having shown up in the U.S. market on Discogs last week for around $200. Note, however, that that copy has since sold in the interim, so the only other available OGs are in the UK and Romania, and they’re selling for even more than that.

There are only five tracks on Pinnacle and two of them are long pieces, so be prepared to sit back and let yourself float downstream with Buster Williams, as backed by Woody Shaw on trumpet and Sonny Fortune on saxophone. Fun, funky, free-flowing grooves are to be found here.

From what we’ve heard, copies of Pinnacle were snapped up fairly quickly in many RSD locales, so you may want to get right onto looking for yours ASAP. Music: 10. Sound: 10.

BRIAN WILSON
ON TOUR 1999-2007
1LP (Oglio)
RSD Exclusive; 2,000 copies

Brian Wilson’s new live Brian Wilson On Tour 1999-2007 LP turned out to be a surprisingly good-sounding, fun RSD treat! Despite the multi-color vinyl pressing, the record itself played quite quietly, and was well-centered. And the recordings — though most likely made in the digital realm during those tours — sound remarkably warm and welcoming.

Within seconds of putting on the album, the opening track, “This Could Be the Night” (Side A, Track 1) — written by Harry Nilsson in tribute to Brian and The Beach Boys back in the mid ’60s (and eventually covered by Wilson on a 1995 Nilsson tribute CD, For the Love of Harry: Everybody Sings Nilsson) — sets the tone for taking a transportive and transformative journey into the peak years of Brian’s remarkable career comeback.

While I’m not often a fan of single-disc live albums, On Tour 1999-2007 somehow captures the essence of where Wilson was at that time in his career with a great sequence of song curation. The stunning precision and swing of his tremendous backing band (who were playing arguably better than The Beach Boys ever really did, even at their peak) is in full flower on this collection.

Some of my other favorite moments on this LP include a wonderful take on “Melt Away” (Side A, Track 3), which is originally from Wilson’s eponymously titled July 1988 solo debut on Sire. And I love how Side B opens with a one-two-punch of Beach Boys nuggets, pairing the wonderful early deep album track “Drive In” (from Side 2 of their July 1964 Capitol LP All Summer Long) back-to-back with a rockin’ “Marcella” (from the underappreciated May 1972 Brothers/Reprise LP Carl and The Passions – “So Tough”).

Whether you are a deep fan or just getting into Brian Wilson’s music, On Tour 1999-2007 is a great and overall super-fun listen. Music: 10. Sound: 8.5.

Footnote 1: AP editor Mike Mettler adds: Mark’s Live Boots etymologically related points are all quite valid, wholly salient, and totally worthwhile to go through step by step. Many people out there on the interwebs simply misunderstand the nature of bootleg recordings and what to expect from them, even when they’re reproduced on modern-pressed vinyl.

Back in the day, getting a copy of any bootleg material on vinyl would cost you no less than $50 to $100 — and sometimes more, much more — given the scarcity of available quantities, and, frankly, the overall clandestine nature of how the music was “obtained” in the first place, and how it was even possible to be pressed that way at all. You were just lucky to have it, so applying the strictest of audiophile standards to these recordings simply does not compute. If you can’t appreciate music for music’s sake and are only beholden to fidelity at the highest level and everything else be damned, then that’s certainly your right — but you’re missing out on the overall experience of enjoying music for what it is. Me, I can do both.

In general, RSD pressings are of limited quantities themselves to begin with, so the asking price for this double-LP XTC release — which was around $55 on the actual RSD — is really quite reasonable, and it’s SOP these days for multidisc RSD releases anyway. This 2LP set is called Live Boots, after all, so that title designation alone should indicate right out of the box that pristine sound is not a likely outcome.

My ratings are close to Mark’s, as I give the Music on Live Boots a 9, but agree that the overall Sound rating is a 5. The pre-dialed-in portion of the show is more like 4, but the post-dialed portion is closer to 5, and sometimes 6, especially when the band is absolutely cooking on tracks like “Making Plans for Nigel” (LP2, Side 3, Track 4) and “Helicopter” (LP2, Side 4, Track 4). I have no regrets picking up the XTC RSD Live Boots 200g 2LP release at all, because I essentially knew what I was getting from the jump — and, like Mark, I’m a completist anyway. If you’re cool with all of our sonic caveats, then you should get a copy of Live Boots for yourself.

Want more RSD releases? You can check out the full Record Store Day 2026 release list here.

And if you’re still looking for any of those releases, go here for the official, authorized RSD Marketplace.