Dundee, UK | Former Groucho’s Dundee staff awarded £46,000 in unpaid redundancy after tribunal: A group of Groucho’s Record Store staff have secured a £46,000 win over their former employer after claiming for unpaid wages and redundancy cash. The four former employees raised an employment tribunal action against Stella Brodie claiming for redundancy money, unpaid wages and damages. Mrs Brodie took over the running of the iconic record store after Alastair “Breeks” Brodie died in 2019. Mrs Brodie closed the store in June 2020, but former Groucho’s staff said they were left without wages for weeks after she told them they would not be paid redundancy money. Following an employment tribunal, Mrs Brodie was ordered to pay £45,971 in total. … The former employees went on to start their own business following the closure of Groucho’s, but were left without an income for 12 weeks whilst they established Thirteen Records.
Minneapolis, MN | Electric Fetus Ranked Among The 10 Great Record Stores In America, According To Spin: Minneapolis’ iconic record store, Electric Fetus, has been ranked among the greatest record stores in America. That’s according to music website Spin, which put together a list of 10 of the greatest record stores in America. While there’s no particular ranking of these top vinyl stores, the Electric Fetus is listed third from the top. “Strange name, cool place. So cool, it was apparently the last record store Prince visited before his passing,” Spin writer Jolie Lash said. The list was released in honor of Record Store Day returning June 12 and July 17. Reckless Records in Chicago, Illinois, Music Millennium in Portland, Oregon and Amoeba Music in Hollywood, California are some of the featured stores. The Electric Fetus opened in 1968, and those who run the store admit that the origin of the store’s unique name has been lost to history. As a possible explanation, Lash noted that Hendrix’s Electric Ladyland was released in the same year as the store’s opening.
West Norriton, PA | Coffee Closet with Barista Jake now part of Vinyl Closet Records: Flipping through the record bins can certainly build up an appetite. Fortunately, it’s no longer 1976, and if you happen to be munching on a hot dog with mustard while at the record store, the clerk won’t be asking you to kindly leave the premises with your snack. Eating while browsing is not frowned upon at Vinyl Closet Records. In fact, owners Jason and Angela Bucci McFarland encourage customers to patronize the shop’s new café, Coffee Closet with Barista Jake, which is run by the couple’s son Jake. There’s a mission behind the espressos, medium roast and dark roast coffees, which started from humble beginnings as a coffee cart back in May of 2020. The supplemental business was created to give Jake something to do during the quarantine, Angela McFarland said. … Jake proudly added, “I take the orders and make the coffee. I’m a star, and so is my dad. We work together.”
Austin, TX | Faster Than Sound: Love Wheel Records Rolls In: Austin music mainstay Mike Nicolai retails vinyl and Indoor Creature parties at the Ballroom. Just off Burnet, North Austin stop Love Wheel Records opened in late April nestled between a nail salon and barber shop. Joe, the three-legged shop dog, greets vinyl patrons in the cheery green and orange store. I left with a few very reasonably priced vintage wares and a complimentary Joe coaster. Love Wheel, named for the gushy Daniel Johnston track about a “love wheel spinnin’ round round round,” offers new and used vinyl across genres, with some books and CDs too. “The first time I moved to Austin I was 26 – I had come here on tour and sort of fell in love with it,” says owner Mike Nicolai, who runs the Brentwood store with wife, Nancy. “I’ve been in and out of town, but I always come back because this feels like home. We’re real happy here, so it seemed like the place to do this.”
Tysons Corner, VA | Remembering the day the Rick Springfield fan army shut down Tysons Corner: June 17 is the 40th anniversary of the day Rick Springfield shut down Tysons Corner. Larry Houck was there. “Talk about having a front-row seat,” said Houck, who worked at the Variety Records in Tysons Corner Center, where Springfield was scheduled to meet fans. “It was totally nuts. All the roads leading to Tysons, all the ramps off the Beltway, were totally congested that day.” In 1981, the Australian heartthrob was doubly famous: as Dr. Noah Drake on “General Hospital” and as the artist behind a priceless piece of pop perfection called “Jessie’s Girl.” “He just had so much exposure that summer,” Houck said. The shopping mall record store has pretty much gone the way of the passenger pigeon, but there was a time when it was a busy crossroads for music lovers, both fans and performers alike. “Santana came in once,” said Houck, 63. “Lou Rawls came in one day. Catfish Hodge used to come in. Bill and Taffy Danoff used to come in quite a bit.”
But if I thought he was as interested as I was in talking about the insurgency, I was dead wrong. The moment I entered his office he said, “Do you have it?” He was referring to my cost of admission for our tête-à-tête. “I do,” I said. He smiled. It was not a thing you would want to see. Some men smile, and it is a show of teeth. “Gimme,” he said greedily. So I handed it to him and he gazed at lovingly and said, “Amigo, Venus and Mars are alright tonight.”
NEW RELEASE PICKS: Hprizm, Signs Remixed (Positive Elevation / 577) MC and producer Hprizm, aka High Priest, is well-known as a founding member of Antipop Consortium, one of the cornerstone groups in avant-hip-hop’s turn of the century explosion. Antipop hasn’t released a record since 2009, but Hprizm’s Magnetic Memory came out on the Don Giovanni label in 2018, and he’s following it up with an album remixing Signs, the terrific debut recording of electronic music from crucial contempo avant-jazz drummer Gerald Cleaver, which came out last year on 577. The art of remixing can run the gamut of quality from inventive reinterpretations (that largely retain some semblance of recognizability) to autopilot hackery. Thankfully, in Hprizm’s hands, Cleaver’s pieces serve as a springboard toward invigorating possibilities. Now, if you’re expecting an infusion of slamming beats, please understand that Hprizm’s approach is broad and often abstract (in keeping with Cleaver’s source work). It’s altogether a captivating listen, but I’m especially fond of the throbbing tension in “AKA Radiator.” A
Gerald Cleaver, Griots (Positive Elevation / 577) Signs Remixed is being purposely released in conjunction with Griots, Cleaver’s second excursion into modular electronics, with both issued by 577’s new sublabel, Positive Elevation (“dedicated to electronic experimentation and avant soul.”). Although the majority of Griots’ 11 pieces are titled after individuals of significance to the New Yorker by way of Detroit (e.g. “Cooper-Moore,” “Victor Lewis,” “Geri Allen,” “William Parker”), Cleaver clarifies that this isn’t a tribute record, with his point well taken, as the contents maintain a consistently higher level of quality than most tributes. Rather than assuming that expressions of admiration will transform through sincerity into 30 minutes to an hour of worthwhile listening, Cleaver instead lets his inspirations (which include the Detroit jazz collective Tribe and Faruq Z. Bey of the Motown jazz group Griot Galaxy) serve as a starting point for a deeper delve into electronic territory, with an emphasis on the Motor City techno of his youth. Griots is an acknowledgement of roots, with its sounds vital and unpredictable. A 
Assorted Orchids, S/T (Whale Watch) Assorted Orchids is the recording moniker of Massachusetts native T. McWilliams, and this is his debut, though I’ll note that he’s 35 years old, so there’s a steadiness (that life experience can bring) tangible throughout this succinct recording’s ten tracks. Fingerpicking is also consistently in the foreground, but McWilliams hits those steel and nylon strings hard, with this aspect of his sound intensified by the album’s depth of fidelity. I’ll add that guitar and vocals (his singing as prominent in the mix as the picking) are Assorted Orchids’ main ingredients, with Mississippi John Hurt, Donovan, and Nick Drake cited as influences. In terms of overall sound, he’s much closer to the Brits, but except for the aura of intimacy, he doesn’t particularly remind me of either one. There are a few fleeting moments that do make me think of Robyn Hitchcock if he’d been heavily impacted in his formative years by Bert Jansch. And the last couple selections led me to wonder if McWilliams cut this record in a lighthouse, but no, it was tracked at Wonka Sound Studios in the city of Lowell. A-
REISSUE/ARCHIVAL PICK: Milt Jackson & Ray Charles, Soul Brothers (Rhino) Ray Charles is a pillar of 20th century music, but his discography is large, and from my perspective, the two albums he cut with Milt Jackson for Atlantic are too frequently overlooked, perhaps because neither LP features Charles’ voice. Soul Brothers was the first, released in 1958 (Soul Meeting came out in ’61), and it has an abundance of fine qualities. Naturally, prominent among them is Charles on piano and Jackson on vibes, but the record is just as notable for documenting Charles’ alto sax (the title track and “How Long How Long Blues,” comprising the entirety of side one), and on the album’s mono pressings (which is what Rhino is reissuing) “Bag’s Guitar Blues,” which is the only recording of Jackson playing guitar. If you’re getting the idea that these sessions were relaxed, that’s affirmative, but the playing is sharp for the duration, heightened with Billy Mitchell on tenor, Skeeter Best on guitar, Oscar Pettiford on bass, and Jackson’s Modern Jazz Quartet bandmate Connie Kay on drums. The goodness is inexhaustible. A 
Denver, CO | Denver record store Wax Trax hosts local musicians: Located on 13th and Washington in Denver’s Capitol Hill district, Wax Trax Records has been at the heart of Denver’s alternative music scene since it opened in 1975. Despite the inconspicuous appearance of the brick and mortar corner store, Wax Trax has a long history of putting on shows featuring both local and touring bands, such as Mazzy Star, Gone and Band of Susans. Recently, the store has put on a series of “sidewalk shows” every weekend, inviting local musicians to perform directly outside the store. Although Wax Trax has traditionally held shows inside, the outdoor shows complied with guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during previous stages of the pandemic, allowing it to be one of very few venues where local artists could perform. “We want to really 
SG | The complete beginner’s guide to vinyl and record players in Singapore: Nostalgia is a new-age drug for Millennials. From film photography to calligraphy, retro anything is making its glorious comeback in the world. Similarly, the old-school, analogue features of vinyl records come as a sort of respite in today’s fast-paced digital world. It harkens back to a sentimental time where things were simpler and brings back the experience of selecting music rather than opening an app on your phone. There is just something so comforting about the crackle of a record and the warmer tones of the tunes that make the music really come alive. Putting a record on is the whole music experience: it is active song selection and attentive listening to how artistes curate and convey their message, as opposed to streaming a two-hour playlist of lo-fi beats in the background on your phone. There are many things to consider when getting started on vinyl. Essentially, one would need three things: an active speaker, a record player and of course, 
Sussex, UK | Vinyl record buyers queue from very early hours in Sussex and Brighton: For those vinyl enthusiasts the wait was finally over on Saturday as it was drop one of Record Store Day throughout Brighton, Sussex and the UK. Vinyl junkies have had the dates Saturday 12th June and Saturday 17th July etched on their brains for several months now, as it’s two days of the year when hundreds of independent record shops all across the UK come together to celebrate their unique culture. Special vinyl releases are made exclusively for the annual event, which this year is in two drops. Thousands more shops celebrate the day around the globe in what’s become one of the biggest annual events on the music calendar. Vinyl record fans in Brighton and throughout the rest of Sussex were queueing from the early hours on Saturday in order to endeavour to secure their chosen limited edition treasures, which will in most cases be instantly 
Reno, NV | An Oversized and Eclectic Stack of Well-Loved Vinyl Slides into a Corner of a Reno Brewery: Flip through a treasured record collection and you’re likely to find tattered covers and faded, bent corners on the most played albums. Artist Erik Burke displays these signs of a well-loved LPs in a new mural that amplifies music’s outsized impact to 
He has become the source for affordable restorations and reproductions that are second to none, but Vinyl Nirvana is not a large turntable manufacturer like Pro-Ject, Rega, or VPI who have the ability to engineer and manufacture their own tonearms.
