Ardmore, OK | Taproom and record store coming to Downtown Ardmore: Black Mesa Taproom II and Cool Tom Records owner Tracy Edwards says her establishment will have an atmosphere unlike anywhere else in Downtown Ardmore. “Records and beer, I think that will be a good time,” Edwards said. “We’ll have a good crowd.” She’s worked to make the taproom a reality for a year now. “COVID and a 100 year old building with lots of surprises,” Edwards said. After fixing the roof, and having a mural painted by a local Oklahoma City artist, Edwards said she’s almost ready to open the doors and show it off. “You’ll walk through the record store to get to the taproom,” Edwards said. “It won’t be like a bar because it’s just a craft beer and the craft beer is excellent.” The craft beer comes from Norman-based Black Mesa Brewing Company. “We range from all kinds of flavors, all the way from a kolsch, a light lager through ranch water, seltzer, all the way to a stout and many types of IPAs,” Owner Chris Sanders said.
Ann Arbor, MI | Downtown Ann Arbor music store pursues liquor license for bar, entertainment use: A downtown Ann Arbor record shop is making its way toward serving beer and wine. Matt Bradish, owner of Underground Sounds, applied for a liquor license under the name Up From the Skies LLC for the shop’s space at 210 S Main St. in Ann Arbor, to create a café, tavern and vinyl retail-style space, city records show. The shop occupies the former Peaceable Kingdom space. Underground Sounds moving to Main Street in Ann Arbor City Council on Monday, March 1 approved the request, which needs approval from the Michigan Liquor Control Commission. Council Member Jeff Hayner said the project would be a “neat idea” to fill up an old space. “It’s kind of nice we have a gentleman here who is repurposing or is planning to repurpose a downtown space, a sort of beloved space, the old Peaceable Kingdom building, to be a sort of more of a public meeting space around some of people’s favorite things, vinyl records and a bar,” Hayner said.
Hagerstown, MD | Stacks of wax: Hagerstown-area vinyl shops are music to record fans’ ears: Lloyd Thoburn had vinyl records aplenty. As the owner of a successful business dealing in used arcade machines, he continuously acquired 45s that had been used to stock jukeboxes. “He had no idea what to do with them,” said his wife, Sheree Thoburn. Overloaded with records, the Thoburns some sold of them on Facebook. “We used to sell them in unpacked boxes with no idea what was inside. It was ‘Take your chance. It’s a box full of 45s — I don’t know what they are — for $50 a box,’” Thoburn said. Then the couple discovered that some of the boxes contained rare collectibles. “We found out after someone bought about four of those boxes and made about $10,000 off of them on eBay,” she said. “I said, ‘How about if I research and price the 45s. We started with that, then, realizing that the real demand was for LPs, we started buying used LPs.” The Thoburns found a vital and active industry in vinyl and went on to open Hub City Vinyl, a record shop with thousands of used and new albums and 45s from a variety of genres, including promo copies and hard-to-find titles. Despite opening less than a year ago during the pandemic, the enterprise is thriving and growing.
UK | ‘I’ve been listening to 300 vinyl records to get me through lockdown’ Nearly a year since the start of the first UK lockdown, I’ve listened to every LP I’ve ever bought – and found a diary of my life in the grooves. I’m sitting, typing. The rain spreads across the window in glossy veins. We can’t go out, anyway, but the weather adds to the feeling of being stuck. So here I am inside, listening to music so familiar I can hear the next track as the first starts to fade. I flip over the record and reset the needle. And I’m crying. Happy tears… memory tears… tears of gratitude. Because you may be in lockdown but I’m at the gig of my life and all it took to get here was a song. A year ago, the nationwide order to stay inside, possibly for months, filled many of us with anxiety. But it presented a strange kind of novelty too. As our worlds suddenly got smaller a domestic and creative mania took hold. Cupboards were cleared and musical instruments dragged down from lofts. We needed something to punctuate the oddly blank, possibly frightening, expanse of time fanning out in front of us. Like everyone in March 2020, I reached around for a meaningful self-care project. What is it that I love but never quite do? Can I finally do that thing? And there in my living room my eyes fell upon four shelves containing about 300 records. I’m going to play them all.
Record Store Day announce second 2021 event for July: ‘Drop dates’ will now take place in both June and July. Record Store Day has announced a second drop date for 2021, with events now taking place in June and July. It comes after the 2020 version of the annual celebration ended up being split across three events in August, September and October. After announcing their initial date of June 12 for 2021’s RSD at the end of last year, an additional date of July 17 has now been added. A statement announcing the new date read: “With vaccines on the horizon, Record Store Day organisers around the world look forward to the future, but recognise that in 2021, the world’s biggest record store party needs some adjustments to make it as successful for as many participating indie record shops as possible. “Throughout the past year, record stores have found creative, flexible and inventive ways to keep serving the music lovers in their communities. However, the ongoing worldwide pandemic makes it impossible to predict the status of many stores and locations around the globe in the next few months…”
His brand new album, By Request on Compass Records, features Croce utilizing his impressive piano skills and vocal stylings on a number of familiar songs, but with his own reworkings and unique spin. The goal behind the album was to give listeners an experience as though they were attending a house party thrown by Croce and hearing him entertain the intimate gathering with well-known chestnuts and unexpected gems.
Evanston, IL | A new record store somehow opens in Evanston: On February 20, Michael Dedmon opened Evanston’s newest music store, Black Squirrel Records. Dedmon is a dedicated record fiend who began buying up entire collections a decade ago, and so far all of Black Squirrel’s stock has come directly from his personal holdings. The store’s inventory includes rock, reggae, electronic music, jazz, soul, country, blues, and world music. Dedmon says a neighbor of his owns the 450-square-foot storefront at 1620 Greenleaf Street, and he’s wanted to open a record store there for a few years. When it became available about a month ago, he secured a short-term rental with the hope of transforming it into a long-term endeavor. For now he mostly runs the place himself, with a little help from a friend and his friend’s daughter. “Everyone who walks in has a smile on their face,” Dedmon says. “Or I think they do, because 
Winston-Salem, NC | Earshot Music in Winston-Salem purchased by owner of Hippo Records in Greensboro: Earshot Music in Winston-Salem will reopen on Saturday as Hippo Records, said owner Patrick Lemons. The store has been closed since last Sunday for some remodeling and restocking. Lemons, the owner of the Hippo Records store at 2823 Spring Garden St. in Greensboro, bought the Earshot Music store at 3254 Silas Creek Parkway in Silas Creek Crossing shopping center on March 1. This will be Lemons’ second Hippo Records location. Alan “Phred” Rainey, the previous owner of Earshot Music, died in January after a long battle with leukemia. “I was really sad to hear the news of Phred’s passing,” Lemons said. Lemons, who lived in Winston-Salem from 2008 through 2009, said he had known Rainey since the early 2000s and would shop in Earshot Music, which once went under the name the Record Exchange. Lemons said Rainey approached him about buying the store prior to his death. “In the circumstances, I am definitely honored that he had an interest to want me to come in and continue on 
NEW RELEASE PICKS: Arab Strap, As Days Get Dark (Rock Action) Reuniting in 2016 and releasing their first LP in 16 years with As Days Get Dark, Arab Strap, which for those unfamiliar is the duo of vocalist Aidan Moffat and multi-instrumentalist Malcolm Middleton, display an admirable disinterest in approximating the essence of their ’90s sound. To clarify, these 11 tracks do cohere into what’s still clearly an Arab Strap album, but one that’s unmotivated by the temptations of easy nostalgia. There is a considerable tendency toward electronics throughout the record, along with some dancy rhythms, even getting borderline disco-ish in spots, plus string section largeness, and a few flurries of saxophone that gesture toward pop erudition without becoming too sophisto. And all this amid a production scheme that’s as bright as Moffat’s subject matter is reliably dark. That’s dark but not dour, because who needs dour in times like these? And Middleton’s guitar is not sidetracked. Sweet. The bottom line is As Days Get Dark is head and shoulders above the norm for reunion albums, and it ends fantastically. A-
Mouse on Mars, AAI (Thrill Jockey) AAI stands for Anarchic Artificial Intelligence, which is a dead solid description of what Jan St. Werner and Andi Toma, the individuals who have comprised Mouse on Mars for a quarter century now, have crafted on their latest release. Various industries use AI in health, photography such as AI photo tool, and more. Those who are looking for undress AI tool may check out 
Rachika Nayar, Our Hands Against the Dusk (NNA Tapes) Available on cassette and digital, this is the full-length debut from Brooklyn-based ambient-electronic composer Nayar. As described in her bio, Nayar’s compositional process begins with her guitar playing, which is looped and then digitally processed into pieces of considerable range, indeed expanding beyond the descriptor of ambient-electronic. Now, the consecutive tracks “Marigolds & Tulsi” and “The Edges” certainly did strike my ear as being ambient in nature, but across the set, her compositions possess both intensity and movement. To put it another way, things are happening, and those things are powerful. Nayar’s work wields an experimental edge that is quite appealing. Also, I dig how she broadened her sound even more with Zeelie Brown’s cello in the closing selection “No Future,” and how Yatta’s singing in “Losing Too Is Still Ours” breaks with the non-vocal template. Finally, there is an organic warmth in Nayar’s work that’s in welcome contrast to the often clinical sounds proffered by others in the electronic field. A-
Vapour Theories, Celestial Scuzz (Fire) Vapour Theories features John and Michael Gibbons, who are brothers, and also the guitarists for Bardo Pond. Those Philadelphians endure as one of the finest of heavy psych units, so if you’re familiar with what they’ve been laying down since the early 1990s, you’ll have an inkling of what’s happening with Celestial Scuzz. However, a few more observations are in order, foremost, that the dual guitar attack delivers plenty of amp sizzle (the Scuzz of the title) with an absence of thud (as there are no drums in Vapour Theories’ scheme). Instead, this baby soars like an absolute champ (which is where the Celestial comes in). Amongst this record’s treats is a version of Eno’s “The Big Ship” (from Another Green World), with Fire opining that the results are like ol’ Bri tangling with Sunn-O))))). Good gravy. Great gravy even, but lemme just add that at a few spots across this slab my thoughts turned to Popol Vuh, and that’s a superb thing to ponder. Other than half a split with Loren Connors in 2014, this is Vapour Theories first release in 15 years. ‘tis very welcome. A-
Inverness, UK | Kind donations from a city centre record shop will provide 300 displaced families with safe drinking water: Union Vinyl, based on Market Brae Steps in Inverness, posted a message on its social media to say vinyl records they had passed to Oxfam had raised £3407 for the charity’s work. Saying the team behind the shop were staggered by the amount raised said it was delighted the vinyl records that it could not use could be recycled to support the charity’s work. Owner Nigel Graham wrote: “Just to let you all know, I got confirmation by email today of Union Vinyl contribution to Oxfam. “We often get collections in which through sorting fall below our standard for resale, or are artists that are not so sell able for us, so we set them aside in a box for Oxfam in Inverness. “We phone them to collect when it’s full, and some of you know that I recently moved house so a lot of stock needed to be shifted so Oxfam kindly picked them up. And some people randomly drop bags off to us to dispose of for them, they always go into the box. “The total raised by Oxfam through our donations at present is 
Austin, TX | Through Vinyl, Keeled Scales is Defying the Odds: Owner Tony Presley found new life at his indie record label thanks to records and other physical media. “The sky was falling,” says Tony Presley, owner of Austin indie record label Keeled Scales. Following national shutdowns last spring, the company’s monthly financial reports showed album sales down by two-thirds, and with people glued to the news, streaming numbers tanked. In those precarious first months of the pandemic, Presley pondered whether or not the label even had a future. But then the unexpected happened. In June, Presley started to process an inordinate amount of album orders, mainly of vinyl records. Comments were often attached, where purchasers left encouraging notes to the artists (Wish we were seeing you live this year, but this will have to do! said one to Will Johnson). “In the absence of artists touring, their fans and listeners wanted to 
