New Orleans, LA | One Stop Record Shop: Legendary guitarist Earl King (“Lonely, Lonely Nights” and “Let the Good Times Roll”) claimed that he walked into the One Stop Record Shop one day in late 1963 and was told “All your gang is in the back.” Sure enough, behind the stacks of 45s and LPs he found Professor Longhair, Tommy Ridgley, Eddie Bo, and others huddled around the store’s piano. This was the same room where in early 1960 a teenaged Irma Thomas auditioned for Ron and Ric Records’ Joe Ruffino, which led to her cutting the hit “Don’t Mess With My Man” (the preceding lyric is “You can have my husband, but please…”). The record jumpstarted the career of the future Soul Queen of New Orleans.
The 50 Best Rock Albums Ever: The 50 greatest rock albums of all time, as chosen by you. When we asked people to vote for their favourite ever rock album, we didn’t restrict the options to a pre-defined list of titles we’d come up with over pints in the pub. You could add any album you liked. What happened? Well, a slew of old favourites popped up when we compiled the results, but there were a few surprises too, albums we probably wouldn’t have assumed would make to Top 50. And it’s made the results a lot more interesting. So if you voted, thank you, Otherwise, just enjoy a selection of 50 albums that genuinely broke the mould.
Help MOJO Find The World’s Best Record Shops! Nominate the music emporia that have made your lives better, and we’ll feature the most amazing in MOJO. …Wherever in the world it is, your dream shop will be a fantastic place to spend time. Maybe it looks great, has a cool specialism or super-friendly and knowledgeable staff. Maybe it’s on a boat or in someone’s front room. Perhaps it’s patronised by the local music-making community and/or the guy from Endless Boogie. Maybe it’s all black metal, in Bali. Or just more conventionally, you know, great. Possibly this retail wonder is in your own back yard – a regular haunt/life-support system – or a vision you’ve stumbled on during your travels.
Vinyl revival boosts Crosley Brands revenue: Crosley Brands, a venerable Louisville electronics company that has its origins in the heyday of radio, has been capitalizing on a surprising trend: a resurgence of vinyl. The analog technology, which requires a physical medium (the phonograph record) and a mechanical device that spins the record and decodes it with a needle, is finding ever more fans in an era dominated by streaming music and handheld devices that hold tens of thousands of songs. And if it weren’t for a gutsy decision and impromptu trip to China by a young CEO in the early 1990s — when vinyl, thanks to the dominance of CDs, seemed to go the way of 8-track — Crosley might have folded long before the vinyl renaissance.
Cinepocalypse launches its first vinyl release, plots its return to Chicago in June 2019: …Cinepocalypse has also partnered with Creep Records for its first-ever vinyl releases: The soundtrack and score to Jenn Wexler’s The Ranger, an official selection of last year’s Cinepocalypse. The punk slasher’s soundtrack is, obviously, heavy on classic punk rock, including tracks from FANG, The Avengers, The Grim, and Dayglo Abortions; the synth-heavy score comes courtesy of Wade McNeil and Andrew Gordon Macpherson. Both records will be out next year with gatefold jackets, colored vinyl, and all that fun stuff collectors go nuts for, along with CD and cassette releases perfect for blasting in your shitty van.
How to give your vinyl records an extreme clean: Much in hi-fi turns out to be more complicated than it first looks. That’s probably why I kept avoiding the Vinyl Record Cleaning system (VRC) that arrived for test. Record cleaners are popping up like seagulls at beachside cafés lately and many are based around either fine-bristled brushes or immersion of the record’s playing surface in special cleaning fluid. There are also vacuum systems and ultrasonic cleaners. As with many things in hi-fi, you can spend modestly or fly right out there to the dizzying limits of belief. The VRC is different. Okay, it appears fussy and complex and when you read the instruction booklet it only seems more so, but it turns out that using it is a great deal simpler and quicker than you’d think.
Record Store Day 2019 will take place on Saturday April 13: Record Store Day Unsigned will also return for another year. Record Store Day will return on Saturday, April 13 for its 12th year. Over 240 independent record shops are expected to take part in the celebrations, with hundreds of limited-edition vinyl releases exclusively created and released for the event. Record shops across the country will hold performances and events to celebrate. Set up in 2007, Record Store Day champions the culture of the independent record store. Rachel Lowe, who works at Vinyl Revolution in Brighton took part for the first time in 2018. “It was the best day we’ve had since opening and was terrific fun,” she said. “The revenue from Record Store Day will help our young shop immensely but the publicity and goodwill will last much longer.” Record Store Day Unsigned will also return in 2019.
