PHOTO: JACKIE LEE YOUNG | I recently sat down with my former bandmate and friend, Jay Mumford. Jay’s career as a session and touring drummer has paired him with artists across multiple genres.
From Hermanos Gutierrez, to Danger Mouse, Lulu Lewis, Adrian Quesada, Vampire Weekend, Just Blaze, Dan Auerbach, Greyhounds, Madlib, Michael Kiwanuka, and many more. He’s also a co-founder and shares producer and songwriter duties with Pablo Martin (my partner) for their funk outfit, The Du-Rites.
Jay is on tour with Adrian Quesada with dates in August and September and played on Quesada’s Boleros Psicodelicos 2, which dropped June 27th on ATO Records.
There’s a new EP, “Tenement,” from The Du-Rites dropping this fall, and he’s back in the studio with Amsterdam-based keyboardist, producer, and arranger, Soul Supreme, working on new material. I recommend heading over to his Instagram to stay in the loop.
Radar features discussions with artists and industry leaders who are creators and devotees of music and is produced by Dylan Hundley and The Vinyl District. Dylan Hundley is an artist and performer, and the co-creator and lead singer of Lulu Lewis and all things at Darling Black. She co-curates and hosts Salon Lulu which is a New York based multidisciplinary performance series. She is also a cast member of the iconic New York film Metropolitan.
Chris Stamey is a music scene long-hauler if there’s ever been one. He’s been making records for nearly half a century, and his new one, Anything Is Possible, is amongst his best work. Taking inspiration from lush 1960s pop, Stamey avoids the formalist nature of homage while being clearly indebted to the brilliance of Brian Wilson, whose “Don’t Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)” is covered. Stamey’s originals have an unstrained, timeless quality, and the production basks in classicism without faltering into the overly labored. The guests include the Wild Honey Orchestra, the Lemon Twigs, Marshall Crenshaw, Pat Sansone, and Jennifer Curtis. The record is out July 11 on LP, CD, and digital.
As a member of the guitar pop elite of the Southeastern USA (but with time spent in NYC), Chris Stamey’s peers include the members of R.E.M., Don Dixon, and Mitch Easter, with the latter two contributing to this record. Perhaps most famous as a member of the seminal pop-rock outfit The dB’s alongside Peter Holsapple, Will Rigby, and Gene Holder, Stamey has also played with Jody Stephens and the late Alex Chilton of Big Star. In 1976, Stamey’s band Sneakers, very much under the influence of Big Star, released a 7-inch (since given an expanded reissue) with contributions from Rigby, Easter, and Dixon as producer.
Stamey has helped keep the post-Big Star power pop flame alive while releasing a bunch of solo records with an ever-increasing yet cohesive stylistic reach and working as a producer for a wide range of acts. Anything Is Possible’s opener “I’d Be Lost Without You,” a bold ’60s production pop nugget with clear ties to the Beach Boys and the Wrecking Crew, underscores Stamey’s continued ambition and the steadiness of his ideas.
The title track and “In a Lonely Place” represent the album’s grittier side, with the guitar amps turned up, but with the songwriting maintaining a high pop standard. Stamey might’ve been a young moth drawn to the undying light of hooky simplicity, but like Arthur Lee or Todd Rundgren or his contemporaries in Yo La Tengo, he’s undergone striking compositional development.
Hamden, CT | Beloved CT Record Store Closing; Owners Plan To Keep Music Alive With Online Shop: Hamden’s go-to spot for vinyl collectors and music fans is preparing to close its storefront after 36 years, but the owners promise to keep the music alive with an online shop. Replay Records, which opened in 1989, announced on Facebook that it will close the store at the end of July. The owners, Doug and Mary Snyder, thanked the customers who’ve shopped there for the last three decades. “So many people have come through our doors in the last 36 years,” Mary posted. “It’s truly been a remarkable adventure for us both. We’ve always done our very best to bring you quality vinyl at affordable prices. I hope it’s been an enjoyable ride for everyone. I know Doug and I sure loved it.” Through the end of the month, the store is offering big discounts on used records and CDs.
London, UK | Vinyl Variety: Grace Hayhurst Goes Through Some of Her Favourite London Record Shops: Musician Grace Hayhurst joins us for Vinyl Variety, sharing five of her favourite record stores in London, England, including Crypt of the Wizard, FOPP, Sounds of the Universe, Sister Ray, and Reckless Records. The world faces some cold, complex realities, and Grace Hayhurst is coming to terms with some of them on her new album The World Is Dying. This is the singer and guitarist’s debut full-length album, inspired by some of her perceptions of the world’s predicament. …As an old school musician, you better believe Hayhurst loves her vinyl. She joins us today for Vinyl Variety, sharing with us five of her favourite vinyl shops, one of which is her own!
Batumi, GE | Tbilisi’s Vodkast Records opens pop-up store in Batumi: One of the Georgian capital’s key underground labels is coming to the coast. Tbilisi-based label and vinyl outlet Vodkast Records has opened a new pop-up space in Batumi. Located inside the hotel Rooms Batumi, the new outpost operates daily from 12 PM to 8 PM, serving as a hub for analog culture and leftfield sounds. Alongside its curated record selection, the pop-up will host a rotating array of artists—an opening party on June 30th hosted Georgian DJs Zurkin and Vakho, as well as Norway’s DJ Fett Burger. Since launching in 2013, Vodkast has grown from a record store into a label, podcast series, and key platform in Georgia’s underground music scene. The new location will remain open for the entirety of the summer season.
Phoenix, AZ | Phoenix record store for sale after 43 years: ‘Burnt out on being a stool jockey.’ Timmy Stamper isn’t selling Tracks in Wax because the business isn’t doing well. It’s just that he’s been feeling like it might be time to see what else this world has to offer. It’s been nearly 10 years since Stamper purchased Tracks in Wax, a record store at 4741 N. Central Ave., just south of Camelback Road in Phoenix, from Julie Chiesa, the widow of Dennis Chiesa, who opened the business with his brother Don in 1982. By the time he bought it, Stamper had been working there for nearly 10 years. “There’s a lot of things that since I’ve had the store, I’ve put on hold: playing in bands, making records, vacationing, that sort of thing,” he says. “I don’t have employees, so it’s just a matter of hitting the wall and getting burnt out on being a stool jockey. It just becomes a grind after a while, like any job. And when you get burnt out, it’s time for something else.”
VIA PRESS RELEASE | Both albums have been half-speed remastered at Abbey Road Studios and mark the first two releases in a series of reissues from their catalogue.
Originally released on 25 October 1974, Crime Of The Century was Supertramp’s era-defining third album, catapulting them to global success, breaking them into the UK top five and U.S. Billboard top 40 for the first time. As the album fast-tracked the band’s global popularity, they would write and record Crisis? What Crisis?, which was released on 28 November 1975, 13 months after Crime Of The Century.
With the band and co-producer Ken Scott overseeing, Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios remastered these 50th anniversary reissues at half speed, giving them greater detail and the best possible clarity. Both are set to release on 29 August and are available for pre-order now from here.
Crime Of The Century followed the release of their self-titled debut in 1970 and 1971’s Indelibly Stamped albums, neither of which had garnered much commercial success, and their record contract had expired.
It may be hard to believe now, but Crime Of The Century was not an instant hit upon its original release. “Bloody Well Right” was the first single released in the US reaching number 35 in the Billboard Hot 100, but it wasn’t until the release of “Dreamer” in February 1975 that the track caught the imagination and momentum truly began to build.
VIA PRESS RELEASE | ZZ Top delivers the fireworks on July 4 with From The Top (1979–1990), a limited-edition collection from Rhino High Fidelity (Rhino Hi-Fi) that trails the Texas trio on the road to worldwide fame. Following the first volume’s sellout last year, the sequel features five albums from the height of the band’s mainstream success.
From The Top (1979–1990) includes Degüello (1979), El Loco (1981), Eliminator (1983), Afterburner (1985), and Recycler (1990). Lacquers for each album were AAA cut from the original stereo master tapes by Kevin Gray and pressed on 180-gram heavyweight vinyl at Optimal. The albums are housed in a faux-leather slipcase, and the collection is limited to 3,000 individually numbered copies. The collection is available today for pre-order exclusively at Rhino.com and select WMG stores worldwide. Order HERE.
ZZ Top came together in Houston with vocalist and guitarist Billy Gibbons, bassist Dusty Hill, and Frank Beard behind the drums. Blending electric blues, boogie, and humor, the trio steadily built a following through relentless touring and a streak of increasingly confident records. From The Top (1979–1990) picks up as the band entered a new decade—one where their sound expanded, their videos took over MTV, and their beards grew right along with their fanbase.
Remembering Mitch Mitchell in advance of his birthdate tomorrow. —Ed.
Is it me? I repeat, is it me? Am I the only person on the planet who thinks the Jimi Hendrix Experience’s Electric Ladyland is grossly overrated? Well, almost. The famously eccentric rock critic Chuck Eddy agrees with me, I think. But otherwise? The two of us are all by our lonesome on this one. Let the critics, all 20 million of them, fawn and gush! Let one Peter Doggett proclaim Electric Ladyland the greatest rock album of all time! Me, I’ve always found the guitar legend’s 1968 double LP to be less a rewarding experience than an overlong and sometimes grueling, listen.
Maybe you had to hear it stoned. Maybe that’s it. I never heard it stoned. I never listened to any Jimi Hendrix LP stoned except 1969’s Smash Hits, which I liked because whomever it was that cherry-picked its tunes made certain they were both (1) catchy and (2) short. Smash Hits coheres, as does 1967’s Are You Experienced, which is more than can be said for the shambolic Electric Ladyland, which one critic called “the fullest realization of Jimi’s far-reaching ambitions,” but which I find both uneven and diffuse—in short, less a case of far-reaching than overreaching, and overreaching at its worst.
Only a fool would write off Electric Ladyland as a complete loss. There’s no denying that “Crosstown Traffic,” the haunting cover of Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower,” and “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)” are stone cold brilliant. “All Along the Watchtower” shows remarkable self-restraint; Hendrix plays only those notes that are necessary to frame and accompany the melody, which was rarely the case with the guy. As for “Voodoo Child (Slight Return),” it’s musical napalm, and one of the most incendiary songs ever recorded. On it Hendrix renounces subtlety for a sound every bit as brutal as the Tet Offensive, which took place while Hendrix, his bandmates, and an all-star crew of extras were recording Electric Ladyland.
PHOTO: ASHWIN SOMER | Leeuwarden-born and Utrecht-based, GINGE is carving out a space of her own in the world of R&B, pop, and neo-soul, making her the perfect fit for our latest AOTW.
With striking red hair and a voice that moves effortlessly between sultry softness and razor-sharp edge, GINGE is a rising talent you won’t forget—and her rapidly growing fanbase agrees. Her influences include a powerful roster of female artists like Joy Crookes, Mahalia, Jorja Smith, and Snoh Aalegra—women known for their delicate yet assertive storytelling.
While firmly rooted in RnB and neo-soul, GINGE isn’t afraid to play with sound. Her latest single, “Count To 4,” leans into dance-pop, bringing a burst of energy to the dance floor. “Brought you a vibe to dance, drink, get down, sneak around to,” she teases. “Now show me your moves!”
An independent artist navigating the ups and downs of the music industry, GINGE is as real as she is driven. With her honest lyrics, genre-blending sound, and captivating presence, GINGE is undoubtedly one to watch.
As the musical platform of San Francisco-based songwriter Glenn Donaldson, The Reds, Pinks & Purples have been prolific over the last six years, enough so that even the most veracious lovers of melancholy and smart indie pop will have experienced difficulty keeping up with the outpouring of the songs. Well, Donaldson and his new label Fire Records have done a favor for fans and newbies alike by collecting a strong batch of tunes from the outfit’s pool of roughly 200 that have never been given a physical release before. Indeed, The Past Is a Garden I Never Fed is a compilation, but one with no filler that gets right to the core of what’s special about The Reds, Pinks & Purples. It’s out now on LP, CD, and digital.
If one commits oneself to the playing of indie pop, either as part of a band or as the creative engine of a project that either enlists the aid of others or comes to fruition all by one’s own devices, getting the sound right is crucial. Or at least that’s so if one is striving to equal the achievements of the great acts in the genre. It can be jangly, dreamy, achy, angular, punky, or some combination of these descriptors, but absorbing the genre’s essence and extending it is essential rather than approximating and, in turn, diluting it.
Embodying and elevating the sound instead of merely imitating; Glenn Donaldson understands. It’s evident in the layered guitar distortion and acoustic strum of “I Only Ever Wanted to See You Fail,” and also in how he opts for a melodica, instead of say, a harmonica, during “Slow Torture of an Hourly Wage.” A harmonica would’ve been fine, but the melodica sets the track apart and readies it for longevity.
But with this album’s opener “The World Doesn’t Need Another Band,” Donaldson also seems to realize that one can get in the neighborhood of noise-pop perfection without creating so much as a minor stir in the grand scheme of things. In the 21st century, creating indie pop is an endeavor undertaken for the love of it.
Warwick, RI | Doomed Records get comfortable in their new location in Warwick: In an age of streaming and downloading, the best way to get a genuine experience when purchasing music is by going to an independent record store. It’s a place where you can find that gem of an album you’ve been looking for, or where you can buy a t-shirt or a collector’s item. There are a bunch of these places still operating around Rhode Island, including Doomed Records. Initially located on Broad Street in Edgewood, the business made a move down Warwick last fall. They are now located on 101 W. Natick Road, downstairs from the tattoo and piercing shop Cream BodyMods, directly across from the Warwick Mall. I spoke with owner and operator Eric Browning about how the move happened, rounding out his inventory and what makes Doomed Records stand out from other stores.
Hamden, CT | Replay Records closing in Hamden after more than 30 years in business: For 36 years, Doug and Mary Snyder have been slinging records out of Replay Records — a staple record shop located on Hamden’s Whitney Avenue. First opened in 1989, the shop moved from its original Whitney Avenue location to West Haven before moving back to Hamden for nearly the past two decades. Now, at the end of the month, the record store will be closing down and transitioning to online sales. “So many people have come through our doors in the last 36 years. It’s truly been a remarkable adventure for us both. We’ve always done our very best to bring you quality vinyl at affordable prices. I hope it’s been an enjoyable ride for everyone. I know Doug and I sure loved it,” reads a post on the store’s Facebook page.
Hagerstown, MD | Hagerstown’s Hub City Vinyl expanding its live music venue: Watch out Nashville! A live venue in Hub City has really taken off since it opened three years ago, where Jed Duvall will be performing this weekend. Hub City Vinyl may not be the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame, but it’s a venue Hagerstown has warmly embraced. Duvall, a Paul McCartney tribute artist, is performing at Hub City Vinyl Saturday night. “It says something about how much Hagerstown needs and wants live music,” Duvall said. Duvall performs all around the mid-Atlantic region but loves Hub City Vinyl, in the heart of the city’s Arts 7 Entertainment District. Calvin Staley has been with Hub City Vinyl since its inception. “There just haven’t been a lot of options [in Hagerstown] to see a live show without having to go to Frederick or D.C.” Hub City Vinyl is expanding its live music venue. The project is expected to be completed this fall.
Rockland, ME | Private Press brings old-school records to Rockland’s Main Street: Like most Gen Xers, Justin Miller remembers his first vinyl record, The Germs. Back in the 1970s and early 1980s, before cassette tapes became overwhelmingly the popular choice for playing music, vinyl was king. Private Press, a 200-square foot space on 385 Main Street, which opened June 13, has been Miller’s dream business for some time. A private collector of vinyl records for more than 30 years, he began buying and selling records online before deciding to move the business to a brick-and-mortar location. “During the COVID-19 pandemic, I had a lot of time and dove even deeper down the well, discovering music,” he said. “As long as I’ve been interested in music, this felt like a natural progression and [the store] brings me a lot of happiness. I was working two remote jobs and resigned from one to open up this shop.”
VIA PRESS RELEASE | In 1982, The Dream Syndicate started their own record company, Down There Records, to release their self-titled 4-song 12-inch EP that included the first versions of “When You Smile” and “That’s What You Always Say.”
They went on to sign with Slash for Days Of Wine & Roses, followed by A&M for the Medicine Show album. After a long, protracted debate with the massive Universal Music Group, the band has earned the right to reissue Medicine Show as a 42-song 4-CD box featuring 29 unreleased recordings from that 1983–’84 era. For this special occasion, The Dream Syndicate is resurrecting their Down There label, which will be distributed by Fire Records.
The Dream Syndicate’s Medicine Show album has always been controversial, even before it was recorded. Indie-rock darlings become the first Paisley Underground band to sign to a major label, hire a mainstream rock producer, change bass players, and spend months recording it after banging out the previous album, Days of Wine and Roses in mere hours.
What this new box set reveals—is that as a live band—between Steve’s (then) new songs and his animated vocal performances, Karl’s expanded guitar playing (taking it to outer space and beyond), various new bassists (Dave, then Mark) holding it down (while pumping it up), and of course Dennis holding it rock steady—The Medicine Show era was the shit!
VIA PRESS RELEASE | Third Man Records is proud to announce the 65th installment in their long-running quarterly vinyl subscription service The Vault, The Jesus and Mary Chain’s Psychocandy 40th Anniversary Edition.
Included in this set is a 2xLP version of Psychocandy cut at 45rpm, a live recording from St. Andrew’s Hall in Detroit from 1987, and a metallic gold 7” featuring “Jesus Fuck” b/w an early (and previously unreleased) demo of “Just Like Honey.” Sign-up is open now through July 31 at midnight CST.
1985: As the last detached murmurs of post-punk slowly crest into the earliest whispers of shoegaze, standing there in a world all their own, cutting a profile both unique and incomparable is The Jesus and Mary Chain. With equal influence gleaned from The Stooges and The Shangri-Las, The Velvet Underground and The Beach Boys, the band released the unassailable godhead album, Psychocandy.
In celebration of this recording, one of the most important and watershed albums of all time, Third Man Records is humbled to announce Psychocandy: 40th Anniversary Edition as the 65th release of their Vault quarterly subscription series.
Anchoring this set is a 2xLP version of Psychocandy cut at 45rpm. It is not hyperbole to say this might be the loudest cut…not only of this record but of any record…you will ever hear. The high-speed treatment here affords the sonics a heretofore-unseen clarity in the band’s utilization of controlled feedback.
Celebrating Ringo Starr on his 85th birthday. —Ed.
Beatles fans, stop your incessant bickering about who’s the better artist, Paul McCartney or John Lennon! Because let’s face it, Ringo Starr beats the MBEs off both of ‘em! He’s a hit machine, a genius and a true Starr! And to those who would say otherwise I say, well, to HECK with you!
I don’t base my opinion on the fact that Ringo is the humblest and most lovable Beatle. No, all one has to do is compare his best of, 1975’s Blast from Your Past, with those of the other members of the Fab Four. It’s got a higher winner to loser ratio (90%, and that’s only if I call “Beaucoups of Blues” a loser, which it ain’t!) than John Lennon’s Shaved Fish (64%) Wings’ Wings Greatest (50%), and George Harrison’s The Best of George Harrison, which I refuse to even consider seeing as how its first side is composed solely of Beatles’ era songs.
And not only does Ringo have a better batting average–he’s also a lot more fun. Sure Lennon’s “Cold Turkey” (to pick just one song) is a harrowing depiction of heroin withdrawal blah blah blah, but do I ever listen to it? Of course not! It’s a stone bummer! And yes, Paul the Frivolous has written some lovably lightweight songs over the years, but he’s also the spitwit responsible for “Silly Love Songs,” “Let ‘em In,” and “Ebony and Ivory,” which makes him a horrible person in my book! And don’t even get me started on that nebbish George Harrison. No, Ringo’s the King, and I say that not as a fan but as a completely objective party who Ringo just paid me to say that!
Look, I would call Ringo the Greatest but I don’t have too since he comes right out and says he is in “I’m the Greatest,” just one of the delicious trifles that make Blasts from Your Past as indispensable an album as, well, pick an album, any album! And just in case you think Ringo’s only good for producing trifles, I give you “Photograph” (as touching a song as you’ll ever run across) and “It Don’t Come Easy,” which has George Harrison’s fingerprints all over it but who gives a shit!
VIA PRESS RELEASE | Oasis has today announced details of deluxe formats of (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? to celebrate the era-defining album’s landmark 30-year anniversary. It will feature new unplugged versions of five classic recordings “Cast No Shadow,” “Morning Glory,” ” Wonderwall,” “Acquiesce,” and “Champagne Supernova.”
Released on the 3rd October on Big Brother Recordings, (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? (30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition) is available for pre-order here on limited edition 2CD and 3LP formats as well as digital formats to pre-save. This special anniversary format follows last summer’s release of the 30th Anniversary Edition of Definitely Maybe which reached number 1 in the Official UK Album Chart for the second time in that album’s history.
The new unplugged versions were produced and mixed by Noel Gallagher and Callum Marinho from the original master recordings at Noel’s studio, Lone Star Sound, in London. The new interpretation of ‘”Acquiesce” is revealed today.
The deluxe album features new artwork shot by original sleeve designer Brian Cannon and new sleeve notes. Exclusive coloured vinyl formats will be available, including indie record store exclusive “Cast No Shadow” inspired Crystal Clear 3LP, HMV “Morning Glory” inspired blue marble 3LP, Amazon Exclusive “Wonderwall” inspired sepia marble 3LP, and official store exclusive “Acquiesce” inspired neon orange 3LP. All formats will include the 2014 remastered version of the album alongside the new bonus versions.
I love Sleaford Mods. I love everything about them. If you were to ask me which I love more, Sleaford Mods or my mom, I would say Sleaford Mods. Sorry Mom. I love you, I really do. But you’re no Sleaford Mods.
I love that singer-talker (they call that Sprechgesang in Deutsch). Kevin Williamson, a rough and angular-looking working-class fellow, is the kind of fucking cunt who likes to say fucking cunt, and in a wonderful East Midlands accent no less. I love that the duo (Andrew Fearn programs their tracks and stands around in their videos looking cool) originally called themselves That’s Shit, Try Harder. I love that Williamson specializes in diatribes, against this, against that, against everything, it seems, British. I love that both men are in their forties. Success hasn’t come easy for them. Williamson, in particular, took the long and winding road to where he is now, obscenitying away.
I also love that “Mods.” It’s a tribute to Williamson’s early love for bands like The Jam. But what I love more is that Williamson has nothing good to say about The Jams’ Paul Weller, and he’s more than happy to say it in public. He basically thinks the old geezer should hang it up, that he’s just going through the motions and beating a dead Mod horse for the filthy lucre.
But what I love most are their songs. Utterly addictive and stripped to the basics songs like “Bang Someone Out,” “Mork n Mindy,” “Jolly Fucker,” “TCR,” “B.H.S.,” “UK Grim,” “Force 10 from Navarone,” and “Tweet Tweet Tweet.” They’re all poetic prole blasts of pure stream-of-consciousness invective, reminiscent of a less arcane Mark E. Smith.
Dayton, OH | Belmont record shop moves to the Oregon District: ‘I underestimated how emotional I would be.’ After nearly five years and two locations in Dayton’s Belmont neighborhood, Blind Rage Records — “Dayton’s Third Best Record Store” — is moving to the Oregon District. Its last day in Belmont was Friday, June 27. The store’s first day at the new location, 508 E. 5th St., is Saturday, July 5. The opening coincides with the “Independents” Day Block Party in the Oregon District, an annual celebration that supports independent businesses and local street vendors. Blind Rage Records was originally located at 734 Watervliet Ave. in Dayton. After eight months, it moved a few storefronts down to 740 Watervliet Ave., a bigger location with a stage for local and touring bands. …Although Blind Rage is as much a venue as it is a record store, the new location doesn’t have an obvious stage. While that doesn’t necessarily mean there won’t be shows in the store’s future, the focus is on the records.
Shepherdstown, WV | Admiral Analog’s Audio Assortment finds new home, plans expansion to inventory. Admiral Analog’s Audio Assortment closed the doors to its storefront at 141 East German Street on June 15, after seven years in the location. Over the following four days, the business underwent a move to a location down the street, at 119 West German Street. On Friday, the business opened its new doors to the public. “It was a whole lot of work,” said owner Andrew Barton. “We’re not completely done yet, but everything essential to us selling and being in business is here.” According to Barton, this is the second move his 11-year-old business has had to make. The reason for this move, to the former home of Dickinson & Wait Craft Gallery, is to enable the business to expand its inventory. The new location is over twice the size of his previous one.
Bethlehem, PA | ‘Super excited!’: New Bethlehem record store looks to open in time for Musikfest. A retail shop coming soon to Northampton County is music to the ears of vinyl record collectors. Railroad Records, offering vinyl records, CDs, books, memorabilia, antiques, vintage clothing and more, is expected to open in early August at 335 Vine St. in south Bethlehem, owner Asa Blynn said. Blynn, 26, has been collecting vinyl records since he was 13 and previously worked at a couple of local record businesses, including a former Carbon County farmers market stand. “I had a lot of fun and learned a lot over the couple of summers I spent there,” Blynn said of the farmers market stand. “The owner gave me store credit, and I was just a young teenager. So, it was an awesome experience. About three days a week, I’d also go to an awesome shop in Allentown, called Double Decker Records. The shop closed a few years ago, but the owner became a friend of mine, and I got kind of a degree in running a record store…”
Minneapolis, MN | After 37 years, Hymie’s in Minneapolis spins its last record: After nearly four decades of serving the Twin Cities’ vibrant music scene, Hymie’s Records has decided to close its doors. Originally opened in the 1980s, the Longfellow neighborhood shop once praised by the Beastie Boys and Rolling Stone, announced that it has no plans to reopen. Adam Taylor, the store’s fourth owner, bought Hymie’s in 2019. Taylor says that throughout the pandemic, record shops around the Twin Cities were hit hard, experiencing financial hurdles that put some out of business. While Hymie’s managed to stay afloat, Taylor says that added financial pressures chipped away at the business’s future. “Rent is astronomical. I can’t afford 4,000 bucks a month,” Taylor said, “I’m out of spirits. My tank is empty.”