Lafayette, LA | Owner of Lagniappe Records spat at by patron because of mask policy, which led to a “much-needed” break: If you’ve tried to visit Lagniappe Records within the past few days you may have realized that they were closed. That’s because the owners are taking a break after receiving backlash for their mask policy during the holiday season. If you’ve tried to visit Lagniappe Records within the past few days you may have realized that they were closed. That’s because the owners are taking a break after receiving backlash for their mask policy during the holiday season. “Music is supposed to unite people and we’re not trying to be divisive. We’re just trying to have a place where people can come and you know music like an escape to some people,” Patrick Hodgkins, co-owner of Lagniappe Records, said. The owners of the store told News15 that have been yelled at, spit at, and scoffed at by patrons, all because they require masks to enter.
Brooklyn Park, MN | Vinyl proves resilient at Golden Valley music store: At Down in the Valley music shop in Golden Valley, the store’s 50-year anniversary is coinciding with an ongoing vinyl revival. “It’s hip now to listen to vinyl,” said Scott Farrell with Down in the Valley. Cassette tapes supplanted vinyl in the early 1980s and then CDs took over the market followed by digital music options. But records are proving to be resilient. “It’s actually that physical piece,” said Farrell. “We went so long in the digital world of music, iPods, MP3s but there was nothing to hold, there was no artwork to look at.” New vinyl is now in high demand at Down in the Valley. It’s a trend the music and novelty store started seeing around 15 years ago and really picked up around 2015. “So as we come to today, 2022, it’s at a peak level and you see turntables and records in commercials and everywhere you look now there’s turntables and it’s quite surprising how far this has gone, but we’re enjoying it,” Farrell said.
Williamsville, NY | Revolver Records bringing in live music, arcade games and cafe in new Williamsville expansion: Revolver Records has been a mainstay in Western New York for several years. Music lovers have come to rely on the record store for buying and selling records, now the store is evolving into an entertainment hub. “I started out basically selling records out of my garage, and from there, I moved on to markets and selling at different places around the city,” said owner Phil Machmer. “I was like a mobile record shop and about six years ago, I settled into my Hertel location.” Along with the Hertel Avenue location, there’s a location in the Elmwood Village, and a new location at 6840 Transit Rd. in Williamsville, which opened last year. “This shop is quite a bit bigger. It’s about three times the size of the Elmwood store and four times the size of the Hertel shop,” Machmer said. “We just have a lot more room for records here. There’s a bigger selection.”
Sligo, IE | Sligo record shop where good music never grows old: Over the last 40 years the music industry has gone through countless transformations, but as people’s relationship with how they experience and consume music has changed there has been one constant in Sligo: The Record Room. The shop was first opened in 1983 by Aidan Mannion, Gerry Taheny and Kevin Flannery and is located right at the heart of Sligo town on Grattan Street. “The main sellers back in those days were 7-inch singles, cassettes and LPs. Generally, it was pop music, it tended to reflect the charts,” Aidan said. “We actually had a machine connected to the Irish chart system which recorded the sales made in Sligo, that in turn helped to create the Irish charts.” As an integral part of the music scene in Sligo, the shop used to sell tickets for concerts and would even go the extra mile and make arrangements to literally bring customers to the gigs. “We’d hire buses and bring around 50-100 people to places like Slane Castle in Dublin to go to a particular concert,” he said.
Prince Estate to reissue 12 classic albums in February: Controversy, Dirty Mind, 1999, Lovesexy are among the reissued albums on vinyl from Sony Legacy. From his 1978 debut to the 1999 Warner Brothers finale, twelve albums from Prince’s early- to mid-career will be reissued on CD and vinyl, the Prince Estate has announced. The reissue is being handled under the auspices of Legacy Recordings, a division of Sony Music. Through their deal with the Prince Estate, Legacy has previously reissued several of Prince’s late career albums, many of them on vinyl for the first time. This latest reissue binge does not include four of the Prince “soundtrack” albums — Purple Rain, Parade, Batman and Graffiti Bridge — the rights to which remain bound by a separate agreement with Warner Records. A nine disc “super deluxe edition” of Sign O’ The Times was also released last year and nominated for a Grammy for Best Historical Album.
Los Angeles, CA | Vintage LA: A photo history of Tower Records: It’s impossible not to think of Tower Records when referring to the Sunset Strip. It’s even more impossible to accept that the beloved store once located at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Horn Avenue is no longer in business. I recently had dinner with a friend not too far from the old Tower location. As we were paying our bill, we discussed what we should do next. I joked that we should walk down to Tower Records and browse through rows and rows of LPs and cassettes, then head across the street to Tower Video to rent the latest release (most likely on VHS).I wish it wasn’t just a fantasy. You see, Tower Records was more than just a record store, it was a musical rite of passage. It’s where kids graduated to die-hard music fans. I spent my very first allowance money on Blondie and Devo records. I’ll never forget the anticipation of rushing home to get them on the turntable! …It’s where rock stars mingled with locals and tourists; it wasn’t uncommon to bump into Robert Plant, Stevie Wonder, Robert Stigwood, Ella Fitzgerald, Ringo Starr, Harry Nilsson, Elvis Costello, Robert Evans, Smokey Robinson or even George Burns in the aisles.
