Rochester, IN | BIZ BUZZ: Record Farm adding second location in Rochester. Second store will be next to The Times Theater: A record store housed next to a historic theater in Logansport will have a similar neighbor in Rochester when it opens its second location. The Record Farm, next to the State Theatre in downtown Logansport, is opening a new store at 618 Main St. in downtown Rochester next to The Times Theater. “It’s a mirror image of what we’re doing in Logansport,” said Matt Swisher, who co-owns The Record Farm with Adam Wilson. Just like with The State, The Record Farm’s Rochester location will serve as The Times’ box office. Tickets for the The State Theatre’s events will be for sale at the Rochester record store as well.

Norman, OK | Guestroom Records to celebrate 15 years: “…We are small and flexible. We don’t have a corporate ethos, so there aren’t a lot of hurdles to making a change in our stores,” Muir said. “It’s, ‘Do you wanna do this?’ ‘Yes, let’s do it.’” There’s also the vinyl resurgence, which Guestroom caught onto ahead of the curve. Billboard reported that 2017 marked vinyl sales’ 12th straight year of growth, comprising 14 percent of all physical album sales that year. While Guestroom does carry CDs, its inventory has shifted heavily in favor of vinyl records since opening, and not just the punk and indie variety that spurred the store’s creation…“When major labels figured out what independent labels were doing, more pop albums came out on vinyl all of a sudden, and there was nowhere else for people to buy them. We were the place to go if you wanted to buy a punk record; we’re now the place to go if you want to buy any record.”

Melbourne, AU | Win big at the Australian Record Fair: Part of the 2018 Melbourne International Hi-Fi Show that takes place across three great days in October, the Australian Record Fair is the only 3-day event of its type in the country. This year promises to be the fair to top all other records fairs with seller’s tables sold out in a staggering six days. If the rare and exotic vinyl, not to mention the tasty bargains are not enough, the show’s organisers and sponsors are giving you even more reasons to come along and win big. Just spend more than $50 with any vendor, and you’ll get a ticket into the daily raffle drawn in the Record Fair at the end of each day. Each day a fantastic Music Hall MMF 1.5 turntable (valued at $599 RRP each) will be up for grabs thanks to Convoy.

Philippines | The state of OPM in vinyl: We all know that vinyl records are back with a vengeance. Now, how is the Original Pilipino Music (OPM) market coping? We were able to speak to some re-sellers of OPM albums and unanimously, the most sought records from local artists are the Juan dela Cruz Band, the Dawn, and Identity Crisis in that order. Then there are a host of others: Maria Cafra, Judas, APO Hiking Society, and the Gapo compilation are also in demand. They sell for a lot of money depending on their condition. In fact, some command outrageous prices that are more than enough to make a down payment on a car. The cheapest price you will find for old records pressed in the 1970s or 1980s is P1,000. They mostly sell for a lot of money. When compact discs became all the rage in the 1990s, local record companies slowly stopped pressing music on vinyl. That is until the new millennium when indie and underground bands began producing their own material.

Sufjan Stevens to reissue ‘Songs For Christmas’ on vinyl for first time: All of the collection’s 42 tracks will be pressed in time for the holidays Sufjan Stevens has announced plans to reissue his 2006 ‘Songs for Christmas’ collection on Vinyl for the first time. The artist’s longtime record label Asthmatic Kitty revealed the plans to put out the box set on November 9th and the collection will feature all 42 songs of the original release. The tracks will be spread out over five EPs. The label have also detailed that the original package design will be included with the collection, which includes drawings created by Stevens, a painted family portrait, chord charts and lyric sheets for the tracks. Each year between 2001 and 2010, Stevens recorded Christmas tracks to give as gifts to his friends and family. ‘Songs For Christmas’ is comprised of the first five year’s worth of those tracks and was originally released in 2006.

We could be looking at a new standard called “HD-Vinyl”: …The standards for the manufacture of vinyl records have served us well, but because of the rise of the CD in the 80s and 90s, none of those standards have been revised since 1978. That’s about to change. With vinyl sales into their 11th year of double-digit growth, the recording industry has decided that it’s time to bring the old manufacturing standards into the 21st century. Some new upgraded specifications are sorely needed. But like what? One term that’s being thrown around is HD-Vinyl, records created by a new laser-guided process that allegedly results in a longer-playing record with better fidelity than anything we see today. And yes, it has to be backward-compatible for turntables and styluses used today.

Washington, DC | Ira Sabin, D.C. record-store owner, founder of JazzTimes magazine, dies at 90: …In 1962, he bought out a brother-in-law who had a record store, renaming it Sabin’s Discount Records. The store, at Ninth and U streets NW, was in the heart of Washington’s thriving jazz district, within walking distance of two theaters and six jazz clubs. The shop carried one of the country’s largest collections of jazz recordings, and musicians often stopped by to shop and chat. “He seemed to attract folks and had this bon-vivant manner,” Lee Mergner, a former editor and publisher of JazzTimes, said in an interview. “In Ira’s world, people were all ‘cats’ and ‘chicks.’ He called everybody ‘baby’ and ‘man.’ ”

Urban Legends Reissues Kurtis Blow’s Landmark Self-Titled Debut, ‘Kurtis Blow,’ On Standard & Limited Edition Gold Vinyl: Urban Legends/UMe has reissued the out-of-print debut LP by Kurtis Blow on standard black vinyl. In addition, a gold vinyl edition—inspired by “The Breaks,” which is the first Gold certified rap song—will also be released. In 1980, hip-hop found a charismatic orator who could comfortably represent the genre underneath its ever-expanding spotlight. Kurtis Blow, a young Harlem kid who studied communication in college was the perfect fit—handsome, squeaky-clean, and ready to represent the new-yet-growing landscape of rap. “The Breaks” was an early smash single that helped not only launch Blow’s career, but also positioned rap as something that could be popularized beyond the fleeting trend it was originally perceived as.

Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Electric Ladyland’ Gets 50th-Anniversary Deluxe Release Including Live SBD Of 1968 Hollywood Bowl Show: On October 16, 1968, The Jimi Hendrix Experience released their final album, Electric Ladyland. The sprawling double-LP opus proved to be the last studio album Hendrix would release before his death in 1970. The album has been lauded as one of the greatest of all time, largely because of the famously inspired, experimental state of mind that Hendrix maintained while working on the record. Now, fans can revisit Electric Ladyland and that creatively fruitful period in Jimi’s brief life from every angle with an upcoming 50th-anniversary deluxe edition package. The Electric Ladyland deluxe addition will feature outtakes, live concert recordings, a documentary on the making of the album, photo inserts, a book, and more, and is set to be released on November 9th.

Despite Streaming Revolution, Vinyl Resurgence Continues To Grow: The vinyl resurgence is showing continued growth, with vinyl album sales growing from 3.23 million to 4.1 million units from 2016 to 2017 according to the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). Five years ago Radio Facts predicted the resurgence of Vinyl and Record Player Nostalgia. The ‘experience’ that baby boomers grew up with when it came to buying records was completely lost in the CD and the digital era. In the face of the industry-revolutionizing rise of streaming, the rebirth of vinyl was an initial surprise. Speaking to Music Week, Karen Emanuel (CEO of Key Production, manufacturer of CD, DVD, and vinyl) noted “I thought we would see a plateau in vinyl before now and we haven’t. For us, the format is still growing.”

Stourbridge, UK | Kiki & Henry’s Record Fair returns to Stourbridge’s Talbot Hotel: Kiki & Henry’s Record Fair is back this Saturday (September 15) – providing Stourbridge music lovers with another chance to add to their vinyl collection. The event will take place at The Talbot Hotel, Stourbridge High Street, from 11am to 4pm. Traders old and new will have a vast selection of vinyl records on offer to suit all tastes and pockets. Both pre-loved and brand new music will be available, with rarities, classic titles and bargains to be found. Music books, memorabilia and CDs will also be for sale. Entry is 50p.

Stuart Semple, Jeremy Deller and more leading artists create turntables to raise money for mental health charity: World famous artists have designed a series of record turntables for this year’s Secret 7″ project, to raise money for mental health charity MIND. The auction ends tonight. See details and our interview with artist Stuart Semple below. Earlier this year, the likes of Primal Scream, London Grammar, Manic Street Preachers and Jeff Buckley all had songs contributed to the project that saw over 700 designers choose a track by one of seven selected artists, before designing a one-of- a kind sleeve design for a limited 7” vinyl release. Just 100 copies of each track were pressed, with the identity of each record’s designer remains a mystery until it was purchased.

Sydney, AU | One of the most beloved venues in all of Glebe, The Record Crate, is set to close its doors this weekend. Since opening its doors six years ago, The Record Crate has become a noted hangout for fans of the New South Wales music scene. Between selling vinyl, hosting gigs, and serving up drinks and food, it has managed to serve as a rather unique venue, with acts such as Georgia Maq, Fierce Mild, and Cheap Fakes performing there in recent times. Now, it’s all set to come to an end on Sunday, September 16th. In a since-deleted Facebook post last night, organisers at The Record Crate broke the news to their dedicated followers. “To all the brilliant bands, soloists, poets, story tellers, DJ’s, punks, rockers, metal heads, international artists, regulars, visitors, dog lovers, chefs, wait/bar staff, friends, and family, we have had the most amazing adventure and we hope you have too,” they wrote.

San Diego, CA | Free hip-hop and BBQ: Hip-hop promotor celebrates 2-year anniversary of Skoolyard Records in Oceanside. In 1988, when he was 9, Rizaldy Cruz moved with his family from the Philippines to Oceanside’s Deep Valley neighborhood, which was at that time was teeming with gang activity. Cruz, who has long been known as DJ Kid Riz, eschewed gang activity and instead became one of the most prolific local promoters of all things hip-hop. “We started the Higher Dimension or H-D B-Boy dance crew. We would dance anywhere we could, at house parties, in garages.” The crew got noticed with their impromptu shows in front of the Oceanside Pier-adjacent amphitheater locals call the bandshell. Crowds assembled as each H-D crew member hit the deck while a boom box belted tunes…Skoolyard Records celebrates its two-year anniversary with an in-house show featuring MCs and B-Boy dance crews Saturday, September 15, from 2 to 8 pm. The free admission show includes complimentary BBQ.

Massive Attack releasing 20th anniversary edition of Mezzanine on 3xLP: In a heat sensitive box, with a previously unheard Mad Professor remix from the 1998 sessions. Massive Attack are releasing a remastered limited edition version of their 1998 album Mezzanine on triple coloured vinyl, this December via Virgin EMI. The triple coloured vinyl package comes housed in a heat sensitive box, with a book containing images by photographer Nick Knight and Massive Attack’s Robert Del Naja. Mezzanine features remastered versions of the original album, along with 8 additional tracks, including a previously unheard Mad Professor remix from the 1998 sessions. Earlier this year, the band also encoded Mezzanine into DNA to mark the album’s 20th anniversary.