“To me, a vinyl record spinning on the turntable is like a bonfire glowing in your backyard. Once you spark it up, you have to tend to its beginning, middle, and end.”
“It creates a buzz and warmth that draws you and your friends closer, and even as it stays in that one place, it never stops moving, it never stops moving you. In this day and age, I love vinyl for slowing us down a little, for sucking us in, for giving us something that’s real to engage with and to hold onto.
My record collection tells a story of who I am as well. It’s a culmination of an inherited American tradition of music, family, friends, and touring/travel. I have my dad’s old records: Gordon Lightfoot, THE Moody Blues, Dan Fogelberg, Fleetwood Mac. I have albums inherited from friends: Stevie Wonder, Art Garfunkel, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross, Dire Straits.
San Francisco, CA | Rasputin Music On Haight Street Closes: Rasputin Music, the iconic Bay Area record store chain, will be closing its Haight Ashbury location, its last storefront in San Francisco. Employees were informed Friday. The Haight Ashbury Rasputin location opened in 2013. Rasputin closing its doors is the latest in a series of storefronts shutting down on Haight Street. Christin Evans runs The Booksmith on Haight Street, located just a few doors down. She is also the president of the Haight Ashbury Merchants Association and has been active in the economic welfare of the street since 2007. “There’s about 150 storefronts on Haight Street and there have been more vacant ones on Haight recently than any other time in my memory of being on the street,” she tells SF Weekly. “Even when we had the economic downturn we did not see as many storefronts closed as we do now.” She says she believes the stores closing on the street is the result of 
Chicago, IL | Selling Your Record Collection To Move On In Life The Focus Of New Documentary Based At Dusty Groove: “It’s really not about how cool records are or the resurgence of vinyl, it’s really about people who are letting go of the things that once defined them.” A new documentary about West Town’s Dusty Groove records is a lot more than a story about vinyl. The film, “Dusty Groove: The Sound of Transition,” is Chicago filmmaker Danielle Beverly’s look at several people at a transition in their lives, often opting to sell their record collections to move on to their next phase. But Beverly provides enough footage of record culture to satisfy the vinyl lovers. “If someone loves vinyl records and record stores, they are going to love this film. The vinyl nerds are going to get their fix. But it’s really not about how cool records are or the resurgence of vinyl, it’s really about people who are letting go of the things that once defined them,” Beverly said. Beverly is a professor at Northwestern University who teaches documentary filmmaking both in Evanston and at the school’s campus in Qatar. She recently moved back to Chicago from Qatar. …“I had just finished buying a record collection from a woman named Jazzy Joyce, who was one of the first female hip-hop DJs in New York,” Wojcik recalled. “This was like 2010 and Joyce was just ready to start the next chapter of her life. And as with everybody when I buy these records, 
Sydney, AU | Fish Fine Music to close at the end of the year: Classical music specialist record store Fish Fine Music has announced it will close forever on December 21. The Sydney store, which opened as The Record Collector in 1982, is the last remaining classical music specialist shop in the country, following the closure of Melbourne’s Thomas’ Music last year. Operated and owned by the same family as when it opened, the store moved to a larger space at Town Hall Square in 2016, after more than ten years in the Queen Victoria Building. “It has been a great pleasure to meet and serve so many like-minded, wonderful customers. As this is the end of an era, we look back on so many years of being part of what was such a vibrant industry,” said the store’s owner Paul Nemeth when he announced the closure. “Many will ask why we are closing and it is briefly that record companies continue monthly to delete hundreds of titles in favour of streaming. The difficulty this causes for us in getting regular and consistent supply, along with the vagaries of releases and distribution, have made retail just too difficult. As the last Classical retailer, 
London, UK | New record shop, Hidden Sounds, has opened in London: “A multi-disciplinary platform for buying records, hosting workshops, and putting on concerts.” A new record shop, called Hidden Sounds, has opened in London’s Bethnal Green. “Hidden Sounds is not related to any particular genre or style of music, but its main focus is to offer 
NEW RELEASE PICKS: Jumpstarted Plowhards, Round One (Recess) Bassist Mike Watt is, with no hyperbole, indefatigable. In the recent past, he’s been out on the road as part of Tav Falco’s band, assisted (along with singer David Yow) in a bunch of shows with Flipper, and has just wound down a tour with his own outfit The Missingmen. Recordings have been prominent as well, with this set a back-and-forth project with singer-guitarist Todd Congelliere of Toys That Kill and a rotating cast of drummers including a few with long associations with Watt, namely George Hurley, Raul Morales, and the youthful Nick Aguilar. Toys That Kill is a San Pedro-based outfit, so this is all literally close to home for Watt, with the foundation of the songs beginning with his bass parts as recorded to click tracks.
Fitted, First Fits (ORG Music) If Jumpstarted Plowhards is near to Mike Watt geographically, Fitted connects to the Minutemen (the bassist’s most high-profile endeavor, as ever it will be) pretty solidly, as amongst the participants is founding member of Wire, bassist-vocalist Edvard Graham Lewis; rounding out the band is later and current Wire member Matthew Sims on guitar and Bob Lee (Fearless Leader, Claw Hammer, The Freeks) on drums, with Watt on bass and spiel. Lewis adds synth and sampler, while Simms brings modular synth and organ to the studio. Well, five studios, as this was cut in various locations in Cali, the UK and Sweden in 2017-’18. Amazingly, Fitted practiced once, on March 30, 2017. The music is sharp-edged post-punk and expansive; at six tracks, it’s twice the length of Round One. A-
REISSUE/ARCHIVAL PICK: Peter Ivers, Becoming Peter Ivers (RVNG Intl.) Peter Ivers is far from forgotten, but along with the mysterious circumstances of his death in 1983, he’s probably remembered mainly these days for writing “In Heaven,” which was featured in David Lynch’s Eraserhead as sung by Laurel Near (it has since been covered many times, including by The Pixies). He was also the host of Los Angeles-area public access show New Wave Theater, which benefited from wider exposure on Night Flight and last decade by making the internet rounds. But as a recording artist, Ivers debuted all the way back in ’69 for Epic with Knight of the Blue Communion. Neither it nor his epic follow-up Take It Out On Me sold much, but he still ended up signed to Warner Brothers, where he cut two more albums.
The Miniature 3-Inch Vinyl Format Is Growing Fast — Disney Is Now on Board: The mini-turntable has seen multiple releases this year from artists like All Time Low and Beastie Boys. Now a new collaboration will see vinyl based on classic animations that span several generations. The Disney/Pixar 3-inch vinyl single series will feature songs from Disney films. Each release also includes a collector’s edition poster and lyric sheet. Singles as part of this collection include “A Whole New World” from Aladdin, “A Part Of Your World” from The Little Mermaid, “Can You Feel The Love Tonight” from The Lion King, and “You’ve Got A Friend In Me” from Toy Story. Also coming is a 3-inch vinyl 
Nova Scotia, CA | Murray Deal’s 8,000 country music records are heading west: Amanda Jackson searched for a buyer who would keep her dad’s record collection intact. A Nova Scotian’s massive collection of country music records is heading west to live out its days on a cattle ranch in central B.C. Murray Deal spent nearly six decades lovingly collecting and meticulously cataloguing roughly 8,000 records, which he kept in a music room in his basement. Deal died last year, and his daughter, Amanda Jackson, began searching for a buyer who would appreciate the collection the way its creator did. “I think he’d be happy to know that it’s going to somebody that’s really excited about it and is going to show it off,” Jackson said. That person is Dan Mott, a record collector from Burnaby, B.C., who has ties to Nova Scotia. Mott travelled to Nova Scotia last week and spent two days carefully boxing up the records so they can be shipped to his home. “We were sort of gobsmacked, I guess you could say, when we first walked in and looked at the collection. It was 
