Author Archives: TVD HQ

Edwardsville, IL | Edwardsville going on the record: New shop will feature music on vinyl, cassettes. When the Trusty Chords Record Store opens this fall it will be the first Edwardsville store since the ‘90s that buys and sells vinyl records, CDs and cassettes. The owners’ intent is to have the new store open by the second weekend in November. It will be located in the breezeway of the Montclaire Shopping Center on Troy Road. In recent days, though, the interior has been gutted and Anderson says that when the new store opens, customers will see new and used vinyl, CDs, turntables and turntable accessories, and even a few cassettes. Cassettes, he says, have caught on with a new generation of listeners, despite obvious flaws in the format that sometimes drove earlier users to distraction.

Brighton, UK | Record enthusiasts hunt for bargains at vinyl fair: Music lovers flocked to a record fair to add more vinyl to their personal collections. The event was held at Komedia, in Gardner Street, Brighton, yesterday. Vinyl enthusiasts were busily hunting for bargains and a chance to discover new albums. Brighton Record Fair attracted buyers from all age groups, proving again that the vinyl revolution is gaining momentum. Maria Godden, 43, from Telscombe Cliffs, said: “My son and I came specially for this record fair. “I was just browsing around, hoping to find something really good. I’ve just started collecting vinyl because of the good quality. I really love music. So far I have 20 records and I want to collect as much as I can.”

Keighley, UK | Central place for your soul music: Central Soul will hold its first regular session of the autumn season at Central Hall, Alice Street, on Saturday, August 18 from 8pm to 1pm. DJs from Cross Hills and Lancashire will play the best in 60s and 70s soul including Motown and Northern soul, using original vinyl records. There is a large main dance hall and a bar and chill room. Organiser David Shackleton said the club held a successful night at the Octagon, in Sandbeds, last month, featuring two live artists. Next month Central Soul will host a reunion for former regulars at the Buffs RAOB Club, which ran during the 1970s at the bottom of Spring Gardens Lane in Keighley.

Tokyo, JP | The world’s best record shops #119: Universounds, Tokyo: Tokyo has no shortage of amazing record shops but in amongst the towering skylines, arcades and walkways of Japan’s capital, it’s easy to be distracted from your record diggings. But if you only have time for a handful of stores on your holidays, then make sure Universounds is near the top of your list. Owned by Yusuke Ogawa and found a five minute walk from Koenji Station, Universounds is a beacon for particularly evasive funk, soul, disco and jazz records – or rare grooves, to use the native tongue. It’s a sampler’s delight, so much so that names like DJ Marky have been found rifling through the racks for alien breaks to chop and screw.

Kingston, ON | Kingston store owner feeling the love: Brian Lipsin says he is stunned and touched by the love he’s received from the Kingston community this past week. Ever since a flood at his store, Brian’s Record Option, last Saturday, Kingston‘s favourite record store owner has been inundated with messages of support and donations of money and items to keep his store going. A GoFundMe campaign has raised more than $10,000 in one week for Lipsin, and local venues are hosting benefit concerts on his behalf. Private citizens are donating records to help him re-stock and hundreds of comments posted online outline the personal stories of why Brian’s Record Option is so important to the people who have visited there in the past nearly four decades. “It’s been utterly amazing. I feel like I’m a rock star who doesn’t know how to play the guitar,” Lipsin said on Saturday, exactly one week to the hour after he locked his flooded shop, feeling overwhelmed at the potential damage and unsure whether he would be able to reopen.

Wieden+Kennedy Give Life To Vinyl Records In AR: Media that appeals to more than three senses can increase brand impact and engagement by more than 70% (Martin Lindstrom, 2017). We’re seeing an increase in multisensory campaigns that stimulate multiple senses – including this new initiative from Wieden & Kennedy Amsterdam that brings the vinyl experience to life via augmented reality (AR). Listeners can pull up the ad agency’s AR app Lava, and view virtual moving ‘sculptures’ emerging from the record as it spins on the turntable. The first album to utilise the app is the debut from Dutch band Necessary Explosion. The sculptures react and adapt as you move around them, and the app also works with Spotify and Apple Music. In a statement, Anita Fontaine and Geoffrey Lillemon, creative directors of W&K Amsterdam’s Department of New Realities, described the app as “the future digital vinyl sleeve“. They added: “We see this approach as a new emerging genre for lots of artists, one which can open up new possibilities for all kinds of AR music experiences.”

Post Malone Is Dropping A Vinyl Version Of Beerbongs & Bentleys: The vinyl crackle sound is an essential part of a collectors’ pleasurable experience, like a serpentine belt tucked beneath a muscle car. Post Malone of people, grew up listening to vinyl records passed on by his father Rich Post, a locally respected disc jockey in the Grapevine, Texas area. Records like Motley Crue, Bon Jovi, Twisted Sister, AC/DC, Prince, Bruce Springsteen, Duran Duran and Billy Idol were the basis for Post Malone’s earliest childhood memories. Even the record Post Malone surpassed on the All-Time R&B charts, Michael Jackson’s Thriller, was in partly to blame for the CD boom, but only when it re-entered the market as a reissue, unlike 8-track recording technology which is virtually non-adaptable, and with good reason. The distinguishable vinyl crackle is the elusive demarcation of an unclear technology, but those who know it consummately, sing its praises

League Of Gentlemen release vinyl collection. BBC-owned record label Demon has announced a deluxe League Of Gentlemen vinyl box set. The 12-disc collection promises both the soundtrack to the entire original 3 series of TV sitcom The League Of Gentlemen, plus their earlier radio show, On The Town With The League Of Gentlemen. Issued on brightly coloured, heavyweight vinyl discs, the limited edition set will be released on 2nd November and costs £139.99. Orders are now being taken on an exclusive, dedicated website: alocalshop.co.uk The set, titled Special Stuff – The League Of Gentlemen’s Vinyl Cuts, is named and styled in homage to Royston Vasey’s master butcher Hilary Briss. The Gents – Mark Gatiss, Jeremy Dyson, Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton – have collaborated with the company and artist Graham Humphreys to create the collection, which also includes an exclusive photo print signed by the four men, and brand new sleeve notes also written by them.

Canada | National record store chain marks 1st anniversary: Sunrise Records in Kelowna’s Orchard Park mall is joining a cross-country celebration of record stores still existing. Saturday, the 82 stores in the chain have food and giveaways, sales and discounts, and coupons for future use. Sunrise Records started in 1977 near Hamilton, Ont., but it became a national chain when it took over spaces previously occupied by HMV. That takeover was a year ago, so Saturday’s festivities are also a first birthday party. While record sales are miniscule compared to what they used to be, Sunrise has found a niche with those who still want to buy vinyl. Its stores also sell movies, games and pop culture items.

Wheeling, WV | Nail City Records Will Get You Into the Groove: Owner Sees Store As A Way to Preserve Culture and History. A new record store in downtown Wheeling isn’t just about the music, but also about local culture, history and making Wheeling a destination location for serious album collectors. Nail City Record opened last fall in Elm Grove, and has moved to the third floor of the McLain Building at 40-12th St., Wheeling. There are more than 100,000 pieces of recorded sound available at the shop, according to owner Jonathan Napier. He said the store is not just “about selling records, but archiving history.” …Napier said a major goal of the store is to get old records out of warehouses, basements and garages and back into circulation.

Des Moines, IA | Vinyl Cup, Des Moines’ newest record store, opens in Beaverdale this weekend: Luke Dickens started a Facebook group last summer to share his love for music with a few dozen friends. He posted the group’s first photo last August — a coffee mug placed on top of a turntable. “Vinyl Cup,” he called it. A nod to a collector’s familiar morning ritual of music and a morning cup. No price tag, no first-come, first-serve sales. Just a conversation starter with like-minded music collectors. That was until he posted a photo last September of a half-dozen or so albums and someone asked a question that would rocket-launch a business he hadn’t yet known he started: “How much?” So, he started buying and selling records. Fast.

Ann Arbor, MI | Unreleased Underground Resistance 12″ surfaces at Michigan record store: Two rare ’90s cuts from Jeff Mills and Mike Banks. Technical Equipment Supply – the Michigan-based record store operated by Ghostly International artist Todd Osborn – has announced that they are putting out an previously unreleased Underground Resistance record. The two-track 12-inch, titled ‘Electronic Emotions / Like That’, contains music that was produced between 1993 and 1994 by the seminal Detroit techno icons Jeff Mills and Mike Banks – the two founding members of Underground Resistance. This rare record is only available for purchase in the store, which is located close to Ann Arbor, Michigan in the town of Ypsilanti.

Treat Your Ears To This Stunning Okami Soundtrack Vinyl Boxset: To celebrate the release of Okami HD on Switch, Data Discs has partnered with Capcom to release a remastered version of the original soundtrack on vinyl, and it’s available to pre-order as we speak. Originally released in 2006 and composed by Masami Ueda, Hiroshi Yamaguchi, Rei Kondoh and Akari Groves, the Okami soundtrack is known for suiting the game perfectly; the pieces act as a natural fit to the recurring themes of restoration and resolve. Using traditional Japanese instruments, and inspired by distant folklore, the score moves between peacefulness and danger effortlessly…This new release is presented as a quadruple LP box set, featuring over two hours of newly remastered music and a 40-page artbook. There is also a double-sided lithographic print featuring original illustrations from the Capcom archives in Japan. A lossless download code for the album is also included…

Chicago, IL | Rogers Park gets a new record store: You could be forgiven for mistaking Electric Jungle for a gardening shop at first glance. Potted plants fill the windows of the new Rogers Park record store at 1768 W. Greenleaf, which opened without fanfare during the last weekend of July. The storefront is largely unadorned, though there’s a small green sign on the front door with the shop’s name and business hours. It’s open just a fraction of the week: 2-7 PM on Tuesday and Thursday, and noon-7 PM on Friday and Saturday. Owner John Ciba, who ran Logan Square record store Logan Hardware till it closed in May, says he started working toward opening Electric Jungle this past winter. He stayed mum about the shop’s existence till this summer, when he changed the handle on Logan Hardware’s Instagram account to “electricjunglechicago.”

Louisville, KY | Louisville’s Funhouse Records might be the biggest little record store in America: Five years ago, Bill Barriger had little interest in used vinyl records and couldn’t tell the difference between an LP worth $1 and one worth $100. Now he owns one of the most well-stocked record stores in the United States. Barriger, who opened Funhouse Records & Audio in the Highlands earlier this year, traveled to Texas two weeks ago to buy a collection of approximately 280,000 LPs and 45s. That’s a lot of records. Check that: It’s a crazy amount and the final count may be higher. Even more remarkable, a number of them are new old stock dating back to the 1980s, including unopened shipping boxes from distributors. In the world of record collectors — and retailers — this is the stuff of dreams, the kind of grail-rich score that could make Barriger’s reputation soar among collectors internationally.

SugarCube SC-1 vinyl noise remover hits the UK: For some vinyl enthusiasts, the surface noise of vinyl records is as endearing as the actions of pulling a disc from its sleeve or lowering a turntable’s tonearm lever. But of course one can have too much of a good thing, and the sound of a worn record can fall into that category. And if a good ol’ clean can’t help, maybe the SugarCube SC-1 can. Designed for people with older or second-hand record collections, the all-in-one noise removal device uses proprietary ‘click & pop’ removal technology by Silicon Valley-based start-up SweetVinyl to eliminate vinyl noise in real-time. The technology supposedly uses an algorithm to detect, isolate and remove unwanted noise while keeping the music signal unharmed. All owners have to do is hook the SC-1 up to a phono stage, press a button to initiate the clean-up process, and turn a dial to adjust the strength of the process.

UAE | Vinyl memories: Of cricket, mutton curry and a gruffy Dylan: …Growing up in Dum Dum, in the northern fringes of the eastern Indian metropolis of Kolkata, in the early 1970s, the sheer proximity to the His Master’s Voice (HMV) factory was something to brag about. HMV, then the largest music company in India, was quite a household name and very much a brand to reckon with in an age and time when brand-loyalties were more esoteric in terms of their association with life as it was and not quite dictated by a gadget freak’s now-or-never push for a ‘been-there-done-that’ proclamation. The day father brought home the HMV radiogram, it marked my initiation into the world of music — the sheer joy of being able to be in command of what one loved to listen to and not necessarily dependent on what the All India Radio programme presenter thought music ought to be.

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Leamington, UK | Musicians celebrate reopening of Head with intimate gig: Musicians ditched the stage and took to a slightly different venue to celebrate the reopening of a Leamington record store. Customers of independent music store Head, which is based in the Royal Priors, were left devastated when the shop closed last year. But it recently reopened its doors under new management and to celebrate the owners held an acoustic gig with performances by local bands Luna Kiss, The Ellipsis and Freezacrowd. Luna Kiss frontman Wil Russell said: “We have a record store that is supporting local artists and an opportunity for local artists to get involved with their local record store, which is something not a lot of places are doing. “This is a sense of community which has been lost in the industry for quite a while.”

Racine, WA | Harbor PC Music record shop plays to the tune of variety: Kevin Conrad smiles as he looks at the makeup-covered face of KISS front man Gene Simmons, printed on the jacket for his 1978 self-titled album. At age 9, “Gene Simmons” became the first album Conrad ever owned. Thirty-nine years later, Conrad has more than 20,000. About 4,000 of Conrad’s albums are on display in his record store, Harbor PC Music, 3208 Washington Ave., with another 16,000 stacked floor to ceiling in the basement. Conrad opened the record store in West Racine in 2016. He already owned the storefront; it had been a photo studio, but that had stopped being profitable. Half the building’s floor space is still dedicated to his PC repair business, which has been going strong for more than a decade.

Ontario, CA | Flooding forces beloved Kingston record store to hit pause: Future of Brian’s Record Option unclear after rushing water soaks stock. A beloved Kingston, Ont., record store is hitting pause after flooding damaged much of its inventory on Saturday. Brian’s Record Option on Princess Street has been a treasure trove of dusty vinyl stacked from floor to ceiling since the early 1980s. The 1,200-square-foot store holds 80,000 albums, 20,000 CDs and thousands of cassettes, posters and books. Brian Lipson, the store’s owner, told CBC Radio’s All In A Day he was downstairs in the basement when he heard water gurgling. It began to flow pretty fast. The water filled the basement and rose to the main floor, flooding through the store and out the front door, taking CDs and records with it.

Grandview Heights, OH | Pub, studio put new spin on record store: The combination record store, pub and recording suite will open Wednesday, Aug. 15, at 1806 W. Fifth Ave. in Columbus, just outside Grandview Heights. Stacy has spent the past year renovating the former thrift shop into an open and airy storefront. “It’s not your grandfather’s record store,” he said. Craft & Vinyl offers a small bar that serves craft beer, two floor displays of used vinyl records and new albums displayed on the wall. Two couches with music magazines arrayed on a coffee table are placed near a wall with concert posters designed by Mike Martin of the Columbus-based Engine House 13. Visitors also can play pinball on their choice of Rolling Stones or Kiss machines.

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Columbus, OH | Record store/recording studio/craft beer bar opening soon: Troy Stacy’s new business isn’t as much about what he can do as what you can do. The marketing and music industry veteran is opening Craft & Vinyl on Aug. 15 at 1806 W. 5th Ave. near Grandview Heights. It’s a venture that combines record shop, recording studio and craft beer bar under its 2,000-square-foot roof. While vinyl and beer sales will drive the success, Stacy’s passion is on the studio side. In his music industry days, he worked on several successful albums for both TVT Records and Interscope Records, including the soundtracks to the movies Blade and Bulworth. Those bona fides are on the studio walls, not as a way to brag, but to show that success in the industry can be achieved without leaving Columbus.

Oakland, CA | The 5 best spots to score vinyl records in Oakland: Is vinyl your thing? Hoodline crunched the numbers to find the top vinyl record sources in Oakland, using both Yelp data and our own secret sauce to produce a ranked list of where to venture next time you’re in the market…Topping the list is 1-2-3-4 Go Records. Located at 420 40th St., Suite 5 (between Webster Street and Shafter Avenue) in Mosswood, it’s the highest rated vinyl spot in Oakland, boasting 4.5 stars out of 92 reviews on Yelp. The LPs (plus CDs and cassettes) are well organized by genre. The shop specializes in punk but also carries lots of jazz, indie rock and world music. It also hosts occasional in-store performances in Oakland and at its sister outlet in San Francisco.

Charlotte, NC | Fania Records’ Legacy Lives On With New Owners: ‘It’s The Culture’: Fania Records has a singular place in music history, mostly because it practically gave birth to the genre that became known as salsa. The musicians, singers, composers and arrangers who made music for the label will tell you that the song forms already existed — guaracha, son, mambo, cha cha cha, merengue — but what they did was give it a 1970s New York City swagger. The music produced on Fania albums can also be considered the soundtrack of the Afro-Caribbean political awakening in the U.S. northeast. Puerto Ricans and Cuban-Americans flexed their political and musical muscles at the same time, gaining influence in both arenas along the way. The storied legacy became a tangle of probate hearings and misplaced tape masters when co-founder Jerry Masucci died in 1997.

Dublin, IE | ‘If Drake can’t shift a bulk of physical albums, what hope have Irish musicians?’ …A further sign of the new music reality also came into sharp focus last week when it was reported that physical sales for Scorpion, the No 1 album world’s top-selling performer, hip-hop artist, Drake, were just 29,000 copies per week in the US and close to 6,500 copies in the UK. These were the lowest sales figures for the week’s biggest-selling album in the States since they first began running the numbers in 1991. The trend is unlikely to be that different in Ireland where Spotify has now become the ‘go to’ platform for accessing and paying for music. We live in an era of customised playlists delivered in flavours to match the ever-changing mood of today’s music fans. Increasingly, the choice for many new artists and fans favours random tunes released more regularly. So tracks have become uncoupled from albums in the same way that news articles have become separated from newspapers and TV shows from TV stations.

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Hawthorne, NY | Just for the record, new Hawthorne shop joins vinyl trend in Westchester, Rockland: …Big Jim’s Records opened in April, selling those big, round vinyl discs from yesteryear. A record store may seem as relevant in the internet age as a Fotomat, but owner Jim Gibson said business is cranking…Jon Meyers runs the record store website/app the Vinyl District out of Washington, D.C. He said the shops are a hot property. “I’m pleasantly surprised by the rejuvenation,” he said. “Shops are opening left and right these days.” …The Vinyl District co-hosts a record fair twice a year, which each attracts around 1,500 attendees. Meyers estimates that half of them are millennials or younger. “Everything got smaller and smaller and smaller,” he said of music formats, resulting in “invisible MP3s.” Young consumers tired of it. “You like this band,” Meyers adds, “you love to have a keepsake.”

Liverpool, ENG | The evolution of Liverpool’s iconic Jacaranda that ‘launched’ The Beatles: …reopening the Jac wasn’t easy, as Graham explained: “I’ll be honest when we first sat down and decided to reopen the Jac, I was very intimidated by it. “At that point you had 56 years of history and you had people all over Liverpool who had a really personal connection with the Jac, so it felt to me like no matter what you did you were going to get it wrong and someone would hate it, so I was really reluctant to redesign it. “But I thought we’ve got to reopen it we can’t carry on supporting it being closed.” This year Graham and the team behind The Jacaranda announced that a brand new 400 capacity gig venue, record store and bar opened in the city – just a stone’s throw away from the original Jac. Aptly named Jacaranda Records: Phase One, the Seel Street venue has its sights on becoming Liverpool’s newest musical institution…

Chicago, IL | ‘A great Oak Parker’: Oak Park trustee seeking honorary street sign for record store founder Val Camilletti: An Oak Park trustee has announced his intention to seek an honorary road sign as a tribute to longtime business owner Val Camilletti, who died last month after a two-year battle with breast cancer. If the effort is successful, village officials said it might be just the second such designation in Oak Park. Camilletti, who founded Val’s Halla Records in 1972, died July 24 at age 78. The weekend after her death, hundreds of customers flocked to the store’s annual Hallapalooza anniversary celebration, with many sharing stories about their friend. During the July 30 village board meeting, Oak Park Trustee Deno Andrews announced his intention to request an honorary street designation for Camilletti, possibly being placed in front of the original store’s location on South Boulevard.

Baton Rouge, LA | Party for free and catch a sale at the same time in honor of Lagniappe Records’ birthday. Downtown record store celebrates fifth anniversary: The Lagniappe owners say they’ve kept customers happy with a variety of stock that ranges from rock to jazz to hip hop to Cajun. They also stock most new releases of local music on CD. The couple has put their own music careers on hold. But they’re OK with that for record store success. “The first two years, we were still able to maintain playing music,” said Brunet. “But it got to a point where we couldn’t play our own music. “Even through we’re open 11 to 6, we’re here at 9 (at night) a lot of time. That’s just where we’re at.”

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Falmouth, Cornwall, UK | Jam Records Falmouth features in this week’s Hooray for the High Street: This week’s “Hooray for the High Street” focuses on the funky cafe/record shop that is Jam Records. Upstairs, customers will be greeted by Mandy Kemp and her canine shop assistant Bob (who may have invited himself to be part of the video interview), offering teas, coffees, and the like. Following a narrow wooden staircase tucked into a corner will take you into a different world however – a dimly lit basement decked out with vintage upholstery; old TVs, cameras, and typewriters; and of course records as far as the eye can see…”The thing with records is, it’s the whole package. You can tell something about it by it, if you don’t know who it is, by the sleeve (if they’ve got some sleeve notes on the back). “It gives you licence to branch off into different things which you might not otherwise do. “Nobody needs another Ed Sheeran album. Really. In the world.”

Morganton, NC | Local record store moves up the street: After just more than one year doing business at its original location, one downtown Morganton business is moving on up — the street, that is. Green Eggs and Jam, the local record store owned by Stacey Peek, recently opened the doors of a new location at 108 N. Sterling St. The move came after 13 months doing business at 308 S. Sterling St. The new store formerly housed Carbn Supply Company. “It’s just a better location, you know? There’s more foot traffic,” Peek said. “It’s a bigger store, but foot traffic is the main reason.” The move places Green Eggs and Jam more firmly in the middle of the downtown shopping scene, something that Peek said already has been a boost in the new location, which offers about 500 more square feet of space.

Gallatin, TN | Can Randy’s Record Shop be saved? Many obstacles face historic Gallatin building. In the 1950s, teenagers swarmed the red-bricked, two story building at 321 W. Main St. in Gallatin. Mail-in orders couldn’t be contained on a desk alone. Randy’s Record Shop was the place to get any record anyone could ever want. “They were busy all the time there,” said historian Allen Haynes. “Any record that you wanted, they had in the back in the storage area.” Today, the ruined building sits surrounded by yellow tape. Doors that once promoted record sales now post “Warning: Dangerous building.” After years of neglect, the roof collapsed, wiping out the second floor. The creek directly behind the building has been eating away the back wall.

Rugby, Warwickshire, UK | Rugby record store set to move to new premises after proving a hit in town: A record store which has proved a hit with Rugbeians is set to move to new premises on Little Church Street. Just For The Record opened above Hunt’s Bookshop on High Street in 2016, building a loyal base of customers. Vinyl collector Sally Wolanski said now is the time for the shop to move to somewhere that is more accessible to customers who struggle with stairs. Mrs Wolanski, who has around 12,000 records, said: “This is the first time I’ve run a business. “It’s been a really good two years – we’ve had a wonderful response from the public and from our customers. “I’d like to thank everybody for their support.”

Vinyl Release For Historic Ella Fitzgerald Live Album ‘Ella At Zardi’s’. The 1956 performance that announced Ella’s arrival at Verve Records gets a double vinyl LP release. Ella Fitzgerald’s historic 1956 recording Ella At Zardi’s will receive a wide release as a black vinyl double LP on 17 August via Verve/UMe. This follows its limited-edition release for Record Store Day on blue and pink vinyl, which gave the legendary singer her first No. 1 on the Jazz Albums chart and second on the Traditional Jazz Albums survey. The album was first available on CD and digitally in December 2017, at the end of a year of celebrations of Ella’s centennial. “It’s a real find,” enthused NPR at that time, “two sets of blithe vocal brilliance recorded in a club in 1956, before Ella became a trademark…get this to savour Fitzgerald’s assured sense of swing, and unmatched (still!) vocal dexterity.” Allmusic.com described the recording as “enchanting” and “a magical experience.”