Edinburgh, UK | Nine lost Edinburgh record stores that are still sorely missed today: Many of Edinburgh’s record stores have been sent to the history books, but at one point the city was filled with independent vinyl sellers perfect for an afternoon of browsing. Back when apple was just a fruit and YouTube sounded more like an insult, Edinburgh was stacked with record stores that kept the good times spinning. First came CDs, and eventually digital downloads, that effectively obliterated the need for a 45. Things have full circle in recent years with vinyl making an unlikely comeback and catapulting the format back into the mainstream for the first time in decades. However, despite the return of the record, our streets are still missing out on the fabulous dedicated stores from days gone by. More than just places to shop for the best new tunes, they were often hives of activity where like-minded souls would discuss their favourites, forge new friendships – and, in some cases, even form bands.
Auckland, NZ | Two friends, one dream, no holiday: inside NZ’s only vinyl pressing plant: It’s called Holiday Records, but for those working on the frontlines of the turntable resurgence, there’s barely been time for one. Behind a glass door on Auckland’s Wellesley Street, secrets are being kept. Like Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory, a boiler gurgles mysteriously, steam hisses sporadically, and large machinery whizzes, whirs, pumps and pounds. At Holiday Records, they’re making magic: vinyl records, those sleek back discs that are suddenly in shockingly high demand. “We live it and breathe it,” says one staff member at New Zealand’s only vinyl pressing plant. He’s standing in front of a pile of freshly pressed records, holding each up to the light, checking it over for imperfections. Once it’s approved, it will be slipped into a protective sleeve, then a cover, shrinkwrapped and boxed, waiting to be purchased and played on a turntable at home.
UK | Bastille Add Oxford And Margate Shows To Indie Record Store Tour In February: Bastille have added two more shows to their Indie Record Store Tour. Following the February 4 arrival of ‘Give Me The Future’, the band will now also headline the O2 Academy Oxford on February 15 and Winter Gardens in Margate the next day. Tickets go on general sale at 3pm on January 21. The group will support the follow-up 2019’s ’Doom Days’ with the Give Me The Future Tour, which begins on March 31 in Bournemouth. Prior to that, they’ll play a Holmfirth gig as part of The National Lottery and Music Venue Trust Revive Live Tour, and perform as part of the BRITs Week celebrations in aid of War Child UK.
Phoenix, AZ | Sometimes, Album Cover Art Is the Thing: A handful of people I’ve told this to get it; usually they’re other record collectors. Eric Kohler certainly understood. In his groundbreaking survey of midcentury album cover art, In the Groove: Vintage Record Graphics 1940-1960, Kohler explains how in the late 1940s, when the LP medium was still new, record covers were considered blank canvases; a kind of collaboration with the music they housed. And so, in this era before LP jackets always depicted the artist whose record you were buying, a Ray Anthony or Sarah Vaughn album sleeve was more likely to feature a colorful abstract than a portrait of the performer. For a while, abstraction in the age of Pop Art was the rule. For Command Records, Bauhaus artist Joseph Albers did a series of covers with repeated shapes meant to describe the sound of percussion or what the bleat of a trumpet might look like. Closer to high art was David Stone Martin’s 1955 primitive watercolor portrait of Stan Getz on his At the Shrine sleeve. Occasionally the artist himself got involved, as when Jackie Gleason created the conceptual acrylic painting on the cover of his 1959 collection titled That Moment.
Washington, DC | These local record shops give you an analog break from a digital world: For decades, people who enjoyed music on vinyl records instead of CDs or MP3s were considered dinosaurs, moving at 33 RPM while the rest of the world rushed to go digital. Why waste money on a 12-inch piece of plastic when millions of songs — more than anyone could listen to in a lifetime — are just a click away? Now, more and more people are discovering, or rediscovering, the tactile pleasures of vinyl: The joy of sliding a favorite album out of its cover; the crackle of a needle just dropped into a groove; the careful way to pick up and flip a record when a side ends. Forget those stereotypes of hipsters clutching indie seven-inch singles or audiophiles droning on about the merits of 180-gram reissues. Last year, vinyl was the most popular format for physical album sales — 41.7 million sold! — since at least 1991, when data companies started keeping track. That might not be much compared with the 988.1 billion songs streamed in the same time period, but vinyl’s resurgence 
Cheyenne, WY | ‘Let’s go all in.’ Cheyenne used bookstore rebrands to Downtown Vinyl after years of growing music sales: On the surface, Don McKee’s decision to nearly completely revamp how he’s made his living for the past 16 years seems risky. But pay attention to consumer tendencies over that timeframe, and his recent choice to rebrand his shop in Cheyenne from Phoenix Books & Music to Downtown Vinyl becomes a much easier one to understand. McKee, the only owner and employee of his business on 1612 Capitol Ave. in downtown, held a soft opening of Downtown Vinyl on Monday to much fanfare, calling it one of the best sales days he’s had in 16 years. Influenced by the so-called “vinyl revival” — a resurgence of interest over the past decade-plus in vinyl records, resulting in the format surpassing CDs in physical sales last year — and its effect on why patrons were going to and buying things from his store, his shop has gradually shifted from one heavy on used book sales to one 
In the 1980s, one didn’t begin watching a film without assuming Feldman might pop up somewhere; he appeared in an astounding batch of pop culture blockbusters; many of which still roundly resonate today: Gremlins (1984), The Goonies (1985), Stand By Me (1986), The Lost Boys (1987), and many more. Feldman—with his entertainment pal, Corey Haim—was also one half of the eighties showbiz power-duo known as “The Two Coreys,” appearing in nine films together, including a popular reality television series.
Oxford, UK | Beer and vinyl store Big Scary Monsters Social Club will welcome bands in 2022: Just over a year ago Kevin Douch opened Big Scary Monsters Social Club in Cowley Road. It sells alternative punk and indie records and craft beer, so there was a ready-made customer base among the student population of east Oxford. The coronavirus pandemic meant he and his wife Gemma and their business partner Leigh Shorter were forced to start running the shop on a click and collect basis. But as restrictions eased throughout 2021 the store has built up a loyal customer base and Mr Douch said they were hopeful that 2022 will be an even better year. At the age of 17 he launched the Big Scary Monsters independent record label. Now 38, he is proud the label is about to reach the age of 21, with records by bands on the label selling 
Kent, UK | We visited HMV store in Canterbury before it closed ahead of move to smaller shop: Like many, I suspect, I haven’t ventured into a branch of HMV for years. If I want to listen to the latest music, I use Spotify; if I want to watch a new blockbuster film, I turn on Netflix or Amazon Prime. So in this new era of downloads and streaming services, how do shops selling racks of CDs and DVDs survive? When it opened in 1999, Canterbury’s HMV was one of the city’s busiest stores, attracting hordes of film and music fans as it brought pop culture to the high street. For many, each visit to the shop was an experience; an event to be savoured. Teenagers would pile in after school, spending an age listening to music on headphones dotted around the two-storey store, and often leaving 
NEW RELEASE PICKS: The Whitmore Sisters, Ghost Stories (Red House / Compass) This one starts big and bright and then doesn’t falter in its old-school harmony rich rootsy country-rock sweetness. Bonnie Whitmore is known for her solo recordings, of which there are four, with 2020’s Last Will And Testament serving as my entry point to her work. Eleanor is half of The Mastersons with husband Chris Masterson; they’ve cut four albums and play in Steve Earles’ Dukes. Produced by Masterson, this is the Whitmore siblings’ first album together, but anybody coming to it cold would likely think they’d already cut three or four, as the interaction is sublime. Recorded spontaneously post-pandemic in Los Angeles, the 11 tracks thrive on unexpected twists, and right away in “Learn to Fly,” which has a Bangles gone country-rock appeal, while also emphasizing their harmonious strengths, as in “On the Wings of a Nightingale,” a song that Paul McCartney wrote for the Everly Brothers. Secret weapon: strings. In closer “Greek Tragedy,” they bring Forever Changes to mind. WHAT KIND OF WONDERFUL CRAZINESS IS THIS?! A
Artsick, Fingers Crossed (Slumberland) The focal point of Artsick is Christina Riley, formerly of Burnt Palms, who set this band in motion by sharing a few of her demos with Mario Hernandez of Kids on a Crime Spree and Ciao Bella. He was up for playing drums and doing some recording at his Oakland, CA studio. With Donna McKean of Lunchbox and Hard Left stepping in on bass, a new trio was formed. Musically, the focal point on this concise full-length is also Riley, with her vocals lending everything, even the hard-charging Ramones-y handclapping highlight “Despise,” a 1990s indie-pop angle, though this shouldn’t discount the deftness of the playing. On that note, the Ramones mention supports a comparison to Vivian Girls, though I will add that Artsick is less rigid and more supple in their approach, and with some appealing range. A fine example is “Look Again,” which reminds me a bit of a Bratmobile-’80s Flying Nun hybrid, though I suppose that the C86 explosion and even earlier ’80s predecessors Dolly Mixture can be considered part of the equation, as well. It’s an equation that never feels like formula. A-
REISSUE/ARCHIVAL PICKS: Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers, Play Selections From the New Musical Golden Boy (Honey Pie) Here’s a highly deserving reissue of one of the few obscurities in the discography of celebrated drummer and bandleader Blakey. Released in 1963, Golden Boy’s lack of stature derives partly from its release on the Colpix label (rather than Blue Note or Atlantic or Impulse!) and also I’m guessing due to the Broadway musical tie-in. The corrective is the personnel, specifically the Messengers lineup that cut Caravan before and Free for All after: trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, trombonist Curtis Fuller, saxophonist Wayne Shorter, pianist Cedar Walton, and bassist Reggie Workman, this core group expanded with Lee Morgan on trumpet, Julius Watkins on French horn, Bill Barber on tuba, James Spaulding on alto sax, and Charles Davis on baritone sax. The largest Blakey band on record? I think so, and the playing throughout is splendid, with Shorter and Davis particularly fired up. Blakey shines in his spots, and if Golden Boy isn’t on par with his best stuff, it’s not far behind. A
The Cosmic Jokers, S/T (Die Kosmischen Kuriere) The label blurb for this reissue states that it’s a remaster from the “original analog tapes,” and has apparently never sounded better. The text also describes the Jokers as simply an “all-star band,” which isn’t wrong, as this Krautrock supergroup features Manuel Göttsching and Klaus Schulze from Ash Ra Tempel and Jürgen Dollase and Harald Großkopf from Wallenstein, with Dieter Dierks also contributing, but definitely omits some crucial info, as they congregated to play parties organized by producer Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser and hosted by Dierks in his sound studio, with the “band” reportedly paid in cash and hallucinogens. Recorded (legend has it surreptitiously) and edited by Kaiser, four albums were issued in 1974 without the consent of the players (who weren’t even informed of their release). Legal action ensued (the dispute eventually settled). It’s been a while since I’ve heard the others, but checking this one out fresh solidifies my belief that it’s the best of the bunch. It features two potent side-long space rock excursions sans vocals. A-
