Medicine Hat, AB | Take what you need: Local record store owner doing what he can to help: The owner of a local record store is doing what he can to assist those in need during these tough times. Big Al’s Music and Games owner Al Brigham has been filling up an empty cooler with essentials every night before closing. He leaves the cooler out overnight with a note on top, asking people to take what they need. “I’m leaving a lot of different things in there every night,” he said. “I know sometimes it isn’t everything people need, but I try and have it stocked with toilet paper, gloves, water and music. “These are really challenging times right now and I’m just trying to help out.” Brigham leaves the cooler outside every night and has been doing so for two weeks. “Pretty much everything I’ve left outside is gone in the morning,” he said. “All I ask is that people leave the container so I can fill it up again.”
North Adams, MA | Belltower Records Doors May Be Shut But The Music Is Still On: Belltower Records is keeping the record store experience alive despite the sudden closure because of the COVID-19 outbreak. “People love to connect over records and their love of music. Music can ease a lot of anxiety or discomfort over day-to-day life and in that way it serves an emotional purpose,” owners Andrea Belair and Wes Nelson said in a joint email. “With this sudden retreat into isolation, we think it’s important to not overlook how this will affect people emotionally. ‘Music is the healing force of the universe.’” The record store closed in the Norad Mill on March 16 as concerns over the novel coronavirus continued to ramp up. “We decided to close out of concern for public health surrounding the COVID-19 crisis since we did not want to contribute to the spread of the virus through exposing customers through contact with it,” they wrote. Belair and Nelson have always sold music online but saw an opportunity to expand while the brick and mortar operation is closed.. They have increased their offerings on both Discogs and Etsy…
UK | Tributes to former ERA chairman Paul Quirk: Following the sad news of the death of former ERA chairman Paul Quirk, industry figures have paid tribute. Quirk died aged 71 after a short battle with cancer. Alongside his brother Rob, he headed up the Quirk’s indie retail chain, which was centred on Ormskirk, outside Liverpool. Paul Quirk became an increasingly well-known industry figure, so it was a natural step to for him to get involved with the Entertainment Retailers Association, launched in 1988 by members including Woolworths, Our Price and WH Smith. “He didn’t see why he should sit around the table with people who were trying to put him out of business,” said former Millward Brown charts director Bob Barnes. “But he came along, realised that his issues were the same as theirs and soon became more and more involved.”
Why Warner Records Is Still Releasing Big Albums Amid COVID-19 Lockdown: As artists postpone releases amid a market slowdown, one major record label is finding success sticking to its original plans. “Music is very of the moment — it captures a time,” says Warner Records COO Tom Corson. It was not on my list of expectations, when interviewing Los Angeles-based Chairman and COO of Warner Records Tom Corson, to be greeted by a quote from the German soccer coach, Jurgen Klopp. But these are, as those serotonin-sapping global headlines keep reminding us, unpredictable times. “Football is the most important of the least important things.” …Corson told me these words resonated with him not only for offering a spot of mirth during an oft-bleak period, but also because he humbly disagrees: Music, says Corson, is, by far the most important of the least important things — especially right now. With this essential credo set in stone, he permits me to quiz him on the fact that Warner Records is having hit records… during a particularly abnormal few weeks.
Why ‘High Fidelity’ Plays So Differently After 20 Years: High Fidelity turned 20 this March, which is a sentence I take absolutely no joy in writing. I was 17 when I first saw it, fully in the throws of teenage angst, and John Cusack was one of My Guys. I watched Better Off Dead and Say Anything… almost constantly (the former more than the latter – Say Anything… is actually kind of a bummer), and the prospect of seeing Cusack bemoan his failed relationships while lording over an elitist record store was extremely my shit at the time. (I was exhausting to be around, you guys.) It was a combination of all of my favorite things – mopey introspection, music snobbery, and pining over girls. Consequently, when I walked out of that movie theater in March of 2000, I absolutely loved High Fidelity. Today, I’m considerably older, I’ve been married for several years, and I have way more grey in my hair, and High Fidelity doesn’t play the same as it did back when I was in high school. I’m not positive, but I think I don’t actually like it anymore.
1975’s appropriately titled Nuthin’ Fancy isn’t the best Skynyrd LP out there. It may even be the worst of the five albums the original Lynyrd Skynyrd—which is the only Lynyrd Skynyrd that matters—recorded between 1973 and 1977. It lacks the sublime touches that make Skynyrd’s first and second albums rock landmarks, and the assortment of to-die-for songs (“That Smell,” “One More Time,” “All I Can Do Is Write About It”) scattered throughout the two LPs that came after it. The way I see it, Nuthin’ Fancy only boasts two songs—I’m talking about “Saturday Night Special” and “Am I Losin’”—that are truly indispensible.
Williamsville, NY | Williamsville record store owner: ‘Who knew keeping vinyl alive would be so hard?’ Things were looking good for Joe Igielinski and his fledgling independent record store, Hi-Fi Hits, since the store opened its doors in August 2019. A veteran of the Record Theatre chain, Igielinski had wisely purchased much of the remaining inventory when those stores closed for good in 2017, in anticipation of going it alone. After securing some prime storefront real estate on Main Street in Williamsville, he immediately set to putting his several decades of experience to good use. By the winter holidays, he’d built up a considerable inventory, plastered the place with posters, added memorabilia and rock T-shirts to the mix and organized a steady stream of trade-ins, both of used vinyl and CDs. Soon after, Igielinski installed an Iron Maiden pinball machine, built a small stage, and secured a license to serve beer and wine from a small bar area in the rear of the store. Igielinski had all his ducks in a row. But the coronavirus pandemic 
London, UK | Paul Quirk, ‘Prime Mover’ Behind Record Store Day UK, Dies at 71: Tributes have been paid to former Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA) chairman Paul Quirk, who has died at age 71 following a short battle with cancer. Quirk was chairman of ERA over three separate periods, beginning in 2007. His longest continuous reign at the helm of the trade group, which represents U.K. retailers of music, video, DVD and computer games, was from 2009 to 2014. Following a year off, he returned to the organization in 2016 when he served as co-chairman for a year. Alongside Spencer Hickman and Steve Redmond, Quirk is credited as one of the main drivers behind the launch of Record Store Day (RSD) in the U.K., which took place for the first time in 2008. Paying tribute, ERA CEO Kim Bayley said the British music retail sector owed a heavy debt to Quirk. “Not only was he a strong and passionate voice for music retailers for more than three decades, he was the longest-serving chairman of ERA itself, a prime mover behind Record Store Day in the U.K. and a mentor to countless people across the industry,” said Bayley. “He will be missed right across the business for his enthusiasm, humour and 
But a listen to Baby Huey and the Babysitters’ LP The Baby Huey Story: The Living Legend (an odd title for a man who was functionally deceased at the time of the LP’s release; some fact checker somewhere was hitting the ODs too) will make you bemoan his early death at age 26 in a Chicago motel room, because the goddamned album, so frustrating in places, in others shows Baby Huey to be one badass funk and soul man. Produced by Curtis Mayfield, who most likely used pre-existing tracks and session men after Baby Huey’s demise to fill in the backgrounds because he was no fan of the Babysitters, The Baby Huey Story is all over the place: from a fantastically weird cover of Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come” to a take of Mayfield’s own “Mighty, Mighty” that was recorded live to one very jazz-centric take on “California Dreamin’,” Baby Huey covered all the bases and then some.
UK / AU | Australia’s indie record stores celebrated in interactive map: The small retailers are currently doing it rough. Australia’s independent record stores have been highlighted in an interactive map as part of a larger campaign to support the industry amid the coronavirus pandemic. The online map is hosted by Beggars Group, which owns labels 4AD, Matador, XL, Rough Trade and Young Turks. Users are able to filter between stores by those that deliver locally, offer pickup services and mail out orders. Stores are listed for all states and territories with the exception of Northern Territory. View the map 
Lansing, MI | Record Lounge opens online shop to stay afloat during COVID-19 outbreak: Heather Frarey, owner of the vintage Reo Town vinyl store The Record Lounge, is staying home these days. One of her customer’s sons built her a website so she could keep up an online storefront during the coronavirus outbreak. She said that she received three orders right when the site went live. “He needed some credit because he’s going to computer engineering school, so he said he’d make a website for me,” said Frarey. The Record Lounge also posts new inventory on their Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages. She’s still ordering new records from distributors two times a week. Frarey said that, since the state went on lockdown, most folks have preferred to order their records through the mail, though she does still offer delivery for local orders. “You know, people are scared,” she explained. Regulars have still been messaging Frarey on Facebook, asking her questions like if the new Pearl Jam is available to buy. Frarey has been trying to get all of the new releases online, but the used records aren’t there quite yet. She emphasized that if someone wants a particular record — new or old — 
