We’re less than two months away from Record Store Day, and with that means the promise of major limited edition releases from many of the labels you read about each day here at The Second Disc.  Los Angeles’ Omnivore Recordings, one of our favorite new labels of 2011, is leading the pack with its announcement of two unique titles to be made available on April 21 for Record Store Day.  The more unusual of the two is, believe it or not, a coloring book!  Yes, Omnivore is offering a 2,500-copy limited edition of an actual 1970 Buck Owens coloring book, complete with a colorful flexi-disc containing four songs!  (A digital download card will also be included to bring the package into the 21^st century!)  And that’s not all.  Omnivore will also issue a 10-inch “authorized bootleg” EP from power pop legends The Knack.  Live in Los Angeles: 1978 chronicles the band before “My Sharona” vaulted them to the big time one year later.  (The song is, however, heard on the EP!)  Befitting the spirit of Record Store Day, both titles are vinyl-only releases.

Buck Owens, pioneer of the Bakersfield Sound and Hee-Haw television personality, planned to release his official coloring book back in 1970.  In the “better late than never” department, it finally sees wide release for the first time on Record Store Day.  The package consists of a coloring book from Owens’ original stock plus a newly-pressed flexi-disc (available in red, white or blue).  The coloring book tells the story of Buck and his Buckaroos, with the grand finale a concert performance that can be heard on the flexi-disc.  “Act Naturally,” “Together Again,” “I’ve Got a Tiger by the Tail” and “Crying Time” are all mentioned in the coloring book and can be played by you, the reader!  All four songs come from Owens’ White House performance on September 9, 1968 before President Lyndon B. Johnson.  A digital download card also contains all four songs.  The original Live at the White House LP was issued on September 5, 1972 and hasn’t yet seen reissue on CD…until now.  Omnivore will, later this year, issue that seminal recording along with some very special bonus tracks: a previously unissued set recorded by Owens for the astronauts of Apollo 16 in 1972.  The label cheekily notes that these tracks have “never before been heard on planet Earth!”

Hit the jump to get the Knack!

1,500 is the magic number for The Knack: Live in Los Angeles 1978, a 10-inch red/yellow “splatter-colored” vinyl EP recorded at Doug Weston’s famed Troubadour club.  Taken from the archive of Knack’s late leader, Doug Fieger, Side One features two audience-recorded live renditions of “My Sharona” and “Let Me Out”. Side Two features two tracks exclusive to this release, both recorded at a rehearsal in 1978. “Romeo Eyes” never received a studio recording, and appears on Omnivore’s EP for the first time anywhere. All tracks have been restored by The Knack’s producer Richard Bosworth, and all are previously unreleased.

The two Side One recordings will later take their rightful place alongside twelve other tracks when Omnivore issues Havin' A Rave-Up: Live in Los Angeles, 1978 this May.  In the meantime, contact your local independent record store to make sure you know where to find the Buck Owens coloring book and The Knack’s Live in Los Angeles EP on April 21!

Buck Owens, Coloring Book and Flexi-Disc (Omnivore Recordings, 2012)

1. Act Naturally
2. Together Again
3. I’ve Got a Tiger by the Tail
4. Crying Time

All tracks from Live at the White House, 1972 (EMI LP SW-71105, 1972)

The Knack, Live in Los Angeles, 1978 (Omnivore Recordings, 2012)

1. Let Me Out (Live)
2. My Sharona (Live)
3. Romeo Eyes (Rehearsal)
4. Art War (Rehearsal)