At 40, Bananas Music is still selling vinyl like it’s 1980: “A few years ago we were 15 years behind,” Doug says. “We’re probably 10 years behind now.” If, however, you don’t mind slipping down rabbit holes and picking through crates of curiosities, there is no place like Bananas. Especially when you’ve got Doug or Michelle by your side. Doug can tell you about buying from Nat King Cole’s old manager in Sun City Center, or the time he scraped through piles of “raw, petrified cat poop” to find rare jazz and blues from a hermit in Mount Dora.
Reimagine Records Is Celebrating 3 Years of Bringing The Best Vinyl To CNY: Shopping local not only helps out small business owners, but benefits our entire community. Scott and Michelle, the couple that owns Reimagine Records, are some of the most warm people you will ever meet. Through my own personal experience, they have been nothing but welcoming and go above and beyond for all of their customers. From cleaning and organizing each vinyl record in the shop to ordering hard to find records, they are happy to help with any request. Don’t just take my word for it, their shop has nearly 100 five star reviews.
How Omerta Records Brings Your Favorite Rap Records To The Vinyl World: When we spoke with co-owners James Batsford and Sam Gilbert, they’d just announced their forthcoming reissue of Nipsey Hussle’s 2013 mixtape Crenshaw. Hussle, already a local celebrity, made national news when he sold out a limited run of Crenshaw CDs, each priced at $100. Omertà’s white and red double-vinyl–a reasonable £25 plus shipping!–are the first physical copies since Hussle’s audacious, well, hustle.
Cleveland’s legendary Record Rendezvous: The cradle of rock ‘n’ roll: The ‘Vous was in the middle of it all. “I remember we had the Capitol Records guy come in with this promo of a single by a band he was trying to get us to carry,” says Stuart Mintz. “We couldn’t stop laughing at the name.” The stopped laughing after the Beatles made their 1964 debut on “The Ed Sullivan Show” two days. The store became a popular stop for stars as well as shoppers – from Milton Berle and Lawrence Welk to Keith Moon, Barry White, Sam Kinison, Tom Waits, Elvis Costello and David Byrne.
The needle still brings the grooves for Norfolk vinyl collectors, sellers: Despite the many streaming options available now, Schwimmer feels that records have stood the test of time. Along with older albums being reproduced, newer artists have begun pressing their music on vinyl records like Kanye West’s 2010 album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy seen here. “It’s an interesting trend,” he said. “Vinyl has no competition anymore as far as physical [formats] go. Nobody’s really buying CDs or cassettes or anything like that. As streaming has become the main way people consume their music, it really helps vinyl sales because they compliment each other very well.” While portability serves as an advantage for music streaming, Schwimmer added, vinyl offers a more robust experience with the music and artists you like.
Introducing: Visible Vinyl: The makers of the hand made wooden framing kits we sell with our art prints have launched an awesome new thing, and it’s best friends with your vinyl records. It’s called Visible Vinyl, and it’s a ledge especially made for displaying your favorite records (or the one you have playing) on the wall! If you’re like me, you are a sucker for good album art. This ledge makes it easy to switch out your favorite records to be able to see and enjoy the record covers.
