Record Store Crawl bringing PBR and discounted vinyl to Twin Cities: Warner Music Group is hopping on the vinyl bus and offering cold beer to customers who join them. On June 10, Warner’s two-year-old annual Record Store Crawl hits Minneapolis for the first time. A coach bus will escort up to 40 vinyl connoisseurs to the Electric Fetus, Mill City Sound, Down in the Valley, Barely Brothers, and Agharta Records. The tour kicks off at the Uptown VFW with ticket-buyers getting free PBR, drink tickets and a discounted lunch…This year’s crawl is another push from Warner Music Group to promote vinyl sales. In March, the company launched Run Out Groove, a vinyl-only label that selects its monthly pressings based on customers’ votes.
Fairhaven shop feeds collectors’ desire for vinyl records: Vinyl records are a little less dead today with the grand opening of Max J Records at 145 Bridge St., just off Huttleston Avenue. Owners John and Teresa Pimental have turned a lifetime passion for vinyl into a promising startup dealing with vintage and new vinyl records, which leads immediately to a question: Didn’t a vinyl record store open up just a few months on Purchase Street in downtown New Bedford run by Roger Chouinard? Can SouthCoast support two record stores like this? The answer from both shops is yes, it can.
Albuquerque record store to close after more than 30 years: After 32 years, an Albuquerque record store is closing its doors for good. The owner says the boom in online sales has hit them hard, and customers say Albuquerque is losing a little piece of history. “It’s a very sad day…when they close,” customer Vince Guillen said. “I’ve been a customer of the Stange’s here at Krazy Kat since they opened the door 32 years ago.” It opened in 1983. More than three decades later, Krazy Kat is bidding farewell. Owner, Edward Stange says it’s been quite the ride.
Tributes paid to popular Horsefair record store owner, Mr Tee: Tributes have poured in for Horsefair’s Mr Soul Man who lost his battle with cancer this week – at the age of 66. Francis Terry Thomas – also known by many as Mr Tee – who owned Mister Tee’s Rock Stop, in Blackwell Street, passed away on May 30…Terry Hodges, managing director of Mister Tee’s and who worked alongside Mr Thomas for many years, said: “Music and soul was always a big passion of his. “He started off the shop by wholesaling badges and sold them all over the world. Then one day someone came into the store with a box records and it started from there. “He worked with so many artists over the years including Michael Jackson, UB40 and the Specials.”
Desire Books has relatively new owners but ones with old souls: International comedian Julia Wilson says the memories came flooding back when she heard Manly’s Desire Books was going to be sold. The independent book and record shop in Whistler St, Manly, was her solace when she felt the sting of broken romance. “I’ve been dumped twice and it’s not great,” Wilson said. “And both times I came to Desire, sat on the comfy green chairs at the back of the shop, read Nietzsche and drank coffee. It was very therapeutic. “It didn’t seem to matter who was working at the time, someone would yell ‘are you all right up there?’
The extraordinary, untold story of the world’s weirdest record label: In the 70s and 80s, one record label arguably shaped and reflected British life more than any other – BBC Records & Tapes. It was the type of label that released an album of sound effects called Death & Horror (sample tracks: Neck Twisted and Broken; Red Hot Poker Into Eye) as well as keep-fit music for new mothers, like Diana Moran’s Get Fit with the Green Goddess (sample tracks: Boobs, Chest and Underarms – I Heard It Through the Grapevine; Back and Legs – Who Pays the Ferryman?). It scored big with Top 10 singles (including Nick Berry’s No.1, Every Loser Wins in 1986), but also had a thing for puppet ducks (Orville and Edd the Duck both released songs on the label). And it was equally praised and moaned about in the national press.
A rare vinyl record of the Sex Pistols performing at the 76 Club in Burton has been sold on eBay: A rare vinyl record of rock legends the Sex Pistols performing in Burton has been found and sold on eBay. The Original Pistols Live was recorded when the punk band visited the 76 Club on High Street, Burton, in 1976. They also released an album called Anarchy in the UK: Live at the 76 Club, which featured more songs from the show. The vinyl of the live recording was sold by a record dealer, in Essex, and while it sold for just £12.50, it did bring back memories of the 76 Club and when the band visited the town on September 24, 1976.
