Around this time of year, music news is dominated by South By Southwest, Coachella and Record Store Day news, all of which help drive the visibility of participating artists. For acts like Arcade Fire, Metallica, the Black Keys and Feist, today is just one of those days, for the RSD retail holiday on April 21. Merge Records and Warner Bros. have announced their current crop of exclusive, deluxe and rare releases.

Warner's collection of releases from affiliate labels including Sire, Nonesuch and Reprise will feature more than two dozen special inclusions. Metallica's "Beyond Magnetic" EP will get the 12", silver-colored vinyl treatment; The Black Keys' last album "El Camino" will be out deluxe vinyl packaged with a 45 rpm 7" single with previously unreleased live tracks "Sister" and "Money Maker"; Wilco and Billy Bragg's "Mermaid Avenue" sessions will be finally milked into a "Complete" 3-CD/1-DVD set with 17 unreleased songs and Kim Hopkins' "Man in the Sand" film; Red Hot Chili Peppers' first No. 1 album (double album, at that) "Stadium Arcadium" will be in deluxe vinyl in time for their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction; Dr. John's new, forthcoming, Dan Auerback-produced album "Locked Down" on vinyl; and Otis Redding and Aretha Franklin's "Respect" side-by-side on gold 7" vinyl, which will clearly be your new favorite object.

The Mastodon and Feist split is detailed with the former covering the latter's "A Commotion" and the latter covering the former's "Black Tongue," which will be obviously worth your while and totally sick. Mastodon is also on a split with the Flaming Lips, featuring the Oklahoma band's "Soft Bulletin" original "A Spoonful Weighs a Ton" and the metal band doing their take of it. Flaming Lips are expected to release details soon of a whole collaborative covers album, which may be what Warner is alluding to when it said, "Expect exciting news from The Flaming Lips regarding their very special, limited RSD exclusive release. Stay tuned!"

As previously reported, Metallica have their own curated festival, Orion Music + More, to launch this summer.

Check out details on all of Warner's announced RSD releases here, including info on drops from Common, Eric Clapton, Gary Clarke Jr., MC5...

Meanwhile, "Hunger Games" soundtrack contributors Arcade Fire have slated an RSD drop of "Sprawl II"/"Ready to Start" remixes on 12" via Merge for Record Store Day. Both tracks were reduxed by the band and Damian Taylor; the featured "Sprawl II" remix can be experienced through this interactive video, while the remixed "Ready to Start" was available on "The Suburbs" deluxe reissue, which dropped late last year.

Destroyer's excellent "Rubies" will be on -- naturally -- ruby red vinyl for a double-LP reissue. Richard Buckner's "Willow" will be backed by "Lost" on 7", with an additional ungh of a cover of The Cars' "Candy-O. And M. Ward will further promote his new album "A Wasteland Companion" with a single "Primitive Girl" b/w original, new song "The Twist" and a cover of Chuck Berry's "Roll Over Beethoven."

Before I forget, here is a video of Gary Clarke Jr. blazing your face off from the White House: