Wilco DVD's Record Store Day Launch

Wilco will show their support for Record Store Day by releasing their Ashes Of American Flags DVD to American indie music retailers on April 18, two weeks before it ships to larger retailers.

Warner Music Canada publicist Steve Waxman says the DVD is tentatively scheduled for a mid-April release north of the 49th parallel, but a firm date hasn't been set.

The Nonesuch DVD features footage shot in: Tulsa, Okla.; New Orleans; Mobile, Ala.; Nashville; and Washington, D.C. last year. It was produced by Trixie Films' Brendan Canty and Christoph Green, who worked on Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy's 2006 Sunken Treasure: Live In The Pacific Northwest DVD.

"My introduction to a lot of great music and to the 'music business' came from hanging around and eventually working at independent record stores in Belleville, Ill., and St. Louis many years back," Tweedy said in a Billboard.com article about the reasoning behind the band's decision to give indie stores an early sales window. "It's the life I know.

"Nothing beats browsing in your favorite store, listening to music, finding something new or old that you've been searching for, being ignored by the store clerks, all that.

"And without these stores, there's just no way Wilco would still be around. They've been with us from the very beginning, through thick and thin. Even if I wasn't in a band, I'd still support Record Store Day. It's a great thing and I'm glad we could do something special with them for our DVD."

Wilco's follow-up album to 2007's Sky Blue Sky is expected this summer.

Record Store Day began in the U.S. and has made small inroads internationally. The Canadian outlets that have signed up on the Record Store Day website so far are: the 21-store Sunrise Records chain in Ontario; Atomix Records in St. Catharines, Ont.; Break Beat Vinyl in Calgary; Devil May Care Productions in Toronto; and Into The Music, Planet Of Sound and Music Trader in Winnipeg.

Other companies and artists are also backing the retail initiative.

Matador Records is offering these Record Store Day exclusive deals: a seven-inch single of Sonic Youth covering Beck's "Pay No Mind" and Beck performing Sonic Youth's "Green Light"; a seven-inch featuring Sonic Youth's "No Garage" and Jay Reatard's "Hang Them All"; and a previously unreleased 1997 live recording from a Pavement show in Cologne, Germany. Only 2,500 copies of each release will be available.

My Morning Jacket's Evil Urges will be reissued as a double 10-inch vinyl album by ATO on Record Store Day, while EMI will make its series of 12-inch Radiohead singles available to indie stores three days ahead of their April 21 widespread release.