In rotation: 1/20/21

Pittsburgh, PA | Netflix’s ‘Archive 81’ filming in North Side and Downtown Pittsburgh: In November, a random group of visitors walked into The Government Center, an independent record store on Pittsburgh’s North Side, with no interest in making a purchase. “They came in to search out specific locations,” said owner Josh Cozby, referring to film scouts for Netflix’s production company, looking for spaces to shoot a horror series, “Archive 81.” According to Netflix, when archivist Dan Turner takes a mysterious job restoring a collection of damaged videotapes from 1994, he finds himself reconstructing the work of documentary filmmaker Melody Pendras and her investigation into a dangerous cult. …He said the plan was to have the shop look like a record store in the 1990s on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. They set up some tables outside and used record bins and hung old posters from that era in the windows.

New York, NY | Rough Trade NYC Record Store and Concert Venue to Relocate: In sad news for music lovers, Rough Trade NYC will close its Williamsburg location in the spring and will relocate to another, yet-to-be announced city location in the summer. During the intervening months, Rough Trade’s online record store, www.roughtrade.com, will continue to serve patrons with its emphasis on pre-orders, weekly new releases, exclusive editions and sale back catalogue. The current NYC store – a 10,000 square foot ex-warehouse building located between Kent and Wythe on North 9th Street – was converted by Rough Trade using over a dozen shipping containers, creating a giant record store with intimate venue space, opening late 2013 in response to the growing deficit of record stores in the city. With the store relocation, Rough Trade NYC’s concert venue, operated in partnership with The Bowery Presents, will not re-open in its current location. As a concert venue, Rough Trade NYC opened with two nights of the band Television in 2013 and has since produced hundreds of events annually.

Grand Junction, CO | Triple Play Records helps save Mesa Theater: Independent venues are among the industries hit hardest by the ongoing pandemic. COVID-19 has cancelled concert after concert, ultimately shutting the doors to all performances for months. Locally, Mesa Theater has been facing these financial hardships. Rick Christensen, Mesa Theater manager, says, “we’ve just been spending more than we’ve ever been making.” Previously the venue received a grant from the Grand Junction Chamber of Commerce, as well as money from the Paycheck Protection Program. However, the federal funding fell short as Mesa Theater had to pay employees, the mortgage, and other expenses. Still, the manager is optimistic there is a light at the end of the tunnel. …In the meantime, Mesa Theater’s neighbor, Triple Play Records, is lending a helping hand. The record store donated racks of vinyls to the theater, and all profits go towards “saving the stage.” Matthew Cesarrio, Triple Play Records manager, says, “we had a really good year. The community came out and helped us in 2020, while the Mesa Theater didn’t have that option. We see it as a huge thing to give back to them because without the Mesa Theater we can’t see live music.”

Iowa City, IA | Furniture, vinyl, watches and paintings: Inside Ulysses Modern, Iowa City’s newest vintage shop: Ryan Quinn attended auctions and scoured thrift stores and junkyards for car parts with his family as a kid. In his teen years, he started searching on his own for punk rock albums from artists like The Clash. These days, he travels thousands of miles a month in his minivan, hunting down art, watches, vintage denim, mid-century modern furniture or anything else that catches his eye in a process he calls “picking.” “I started getting interested in mid-century modern 12, 13 years ago, really just by chance,” Quinn said. “I’d been a record and vinyl collector and I was out all the time looking for records.” His interest led him to open a store in Cedar Rapids called First Class Finds, with Dave Owens. That first business venture didn’t work out, but Ryan ended up working with Owens again for two years at Mad Modern.

Black History Month celebrated with iconic vinyl reissues: Recognizing the undeniable impact of black music on over a century of artistry throughout popular culture, Rhino Records celebrates Black History Month with a series of high-profile vinyl reissues, first-ever digital releases, initiatives, activations, and collaborations. The celebration commences on February 5th, with the release of Donny Hathaway’s A Donny Hathaway Collection on 2 LP purple vinyl, George Benson’s Breezin’ on blue/beige vinyl and The Jungle Brothers Done By The Forces of Nature (Deluxe Edition) digitally, and will continue throughout the month with the limited edition, colored vinyl releases of classics by everyone from Aretha Franklin and Curtis Mayfield to Lil’ Kim and Ray Charles, among others. February 12th sees a pair of colored vinyls hitting the shelves. Roots will be pressed on orange vinyl with There’s No Place Like America Today being available on blue vinyl in North America only.

The Cover Uncovered: The trials and tribulations of Sex Pistols’ ‘Nevermind the Bollocks’ Album covers don’t get much more iconic than the Sex Pistols’ classic Nevermind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols. Everything about the album is a triumph, from start to finish. Every nuanced facet to the ferocious record helped conceit a provoking image around the band that turned them into something much more than just a rock act. They were an unstoppable cultural entity, sticking two fingers fiercely up at the system at every turn. The 1977 classic was initially titled God Save Sex Pistols and the record cover was designed by Jamie Reid, who decided to go against the grain with his artistic direction. Instead, it was bright pink and yellow with cutout lettering which immediately caught the eye and is unforgettable. The album’s title then changed in mid-1977 from God Save Sex Pistols after Jones came across the phrase, ‘never mind the bollocks’. He heard this from two fans who would always say it to one another, and there was something in the simple beauty of it that perfectly encapsulated the music of the Sex Pistols.

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  • SUPPORTING YOUR LOCAL INDIE SHOPS SINCE 2007


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