Jacksonville, IL | Jacksonville’s first record store in four years opening this weekend: Vinyl records are making a comeback in Jacksonville this weekend. Pizza Records will open a storefront Saturday at Gillham House, 326 W. State St. The shop will offer new and used records, CDs, cassette tapes and other merchandise. Pizza Records originally began in May as a booth at Peddler’s, 1847 S. Main St. in South Jacksonville. Devin Smock, who co-owns the shop with his wife, Heather, said the move to a larger space was motivated by the resurgent popularity of vinyl records, which he said have been more popular in the past 10 years than they had been since the late ’80s. “… A lot of young people are getting into it and I think it’s the right time to bring a record store back,” Smock said. The shop will be the first record store in Jacksonville since Revolution Records shut its doors in 2018.
San Francisco, CA | This Hidden Back-Alley Dive Is Now a Haven for Audiophiles and Vintage Record Lovers: Bar Fluxus is no more. Say hello to Harlan Records. The team behind Macondray, Natoma Cabana, Terminus, Pie Punks, High Horse, and the Old Ship Saloon is adding one more bar to its roster. Harlan Records opened September 23, and manager and partner Will Herrera assures fans this bar is perfect for that Haruki Murakami-style experience of working through a glass of whiskey while listening to The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds on repeat. “The inspiration for the concept was to create a venue that focused on the social intimacy of this kind of environment,” Herrera says. Inside the space, formerly Bar Fluxus, records line the walls like a file cabinet spilt on its side — there are almost 2,000 vinyl records, with artists ranging from John Lee Hooker, Albert King, Taj Mahal, and Charlie Parker to Sharon Jones, Lee Fields, and Khruangbin. For those even deeper in music nerdom, the bar sports a Thorens TD124, McIntosh 2210 amplifier, AdCom amplifier, NAD 1020 preamplifier, a set of Sony SA-7300’s, and a pair of JBL L100s.
Sussex, UK | Blast from the past as Our Price Records could return to Sussex high streets: A fondly remembered vinyl record shop chain that closed nearly two decades ago is in the process of making a bold come-back. Our Price Records, with its distinctive red and white logo has launched a Kickstarter bid and has already generated a great deal of interest among audio enthusiasts. With the original rise of cassette tapes as well as records, Our Price came to the scene as the Tape Revolution in 1971 created by founders Gary Nesbitt, Edward Stollins and Mike Isaacs before rebranding to Our Price Records in 1976 due to the high rise of interest of vinyl records at the time. Then once 1988 came around, Our Price Records once again rebranded to Our Price Music, due to the popularity of CDs beginning to rise before finally in 1993 being changed to the simple title of Our Price. It once had more than 300 shops across the UK. All stores were close by 2004 due to the company falling into administration.
Madison, WI | All in the B-Side family: The footprint of B-Side Records’ original storefront is not large, but Steve Manley made the absolute most of it. “There is stuff in every square inch of space,” says Manley, eyeing the contents during the store’s last full week at 436 State St., where it’s been a downtown institution since 1982. Manley has been associated with B-Side almost from the beginning. He started as a part-time worker, then managed the store for many years. In 2007 he became owner. After learning of plans to redevelop 436 State St. and the surrounding addresses, Manley settled on a new spot about a block closer to campus at 514 State. Customers and friends offered to help out with the move, and on Sept. 20 Manley emailed that the time had come to pitch in. It’s not as surprising as it may seem that anyone would volunteer for what is rarely a fun task. But record stores have a way of developing a community that feels like a second family, especially those stores with as long a history as B-Side.
Ocean County, NJ | This New Jersey artist could make your record collection worth a fortune: I love everything about vinyl records. They are so much fun to collect and research, I love how rich they sound through my record player, and most of all the art on the records and their cases are phenomenal. If you’re looking to get into collecting, there are a ton of great places around Ocean County that I’ve written about in the past. One of the fun parts of collecting records is learning about the album and its history. Sometimes, a record you get can be quite valuable, and although nothing in my collection is worth a ton, maybe something in your collection is. The experts at lovemoney.com released a list of some of the most valuable records out there, and the list was pretty expansive! …with all the musical talent in the Garden State, it’s no surprise that Bruce Springsteen has a record that made the list of most valuable. Although, it’s not a full record so much as a single, and if you happen to have this in your collection you may want to look for a trustworthy appraiser because it could be worth over five thousand dollars! So, what Bruce Springsteen record is worth over five grand?
Memphis, TN | FedEx to Hire More People to Fuck Up the Corners of Vinyl Records While in Transit: Shipping conglomerate FedEx announced a massive hiring effort to recruit hundreds of staffers dedicated to fucking up vinyl records during the shipping process. “As the vinyl boom only continues to grow, we remain steadfast in our dedication to fucking up, folding, and warping your records in transit,” stated FedEx Hiring Division spokesperson Gloria Wessant. …A new FedEx Vinyl Fucker-Upper described what their typical work day entails. “It’s actually quite an easy job and you get to be really creative. When a vinyl record comes across your desk, you are simply required to damage it in some way so that it isn’t in mint condition when it arrives to the destination,” explained Tom Kirkman, Junior Vinyl Fucker-Upper of the past five months. “You don’t want to actually break the vinyl inside—that would lead to the customer returning it, creating more work for us. You just want to usually bend a corner or two, or apply weight to the corner so it gets gently ruined. Occasionally, we load a lot of other packages onto the vinyl so it warps, but the cover is unaffected. It’s a delicate balance; a fine line we dance in this masquerade.”
Does music collecting define you? Can we be defined as individuals by our collecting habits? Do our music collecting protocols manifest from our own character traits? Let’s take a moment to ‘light-heartedly’ explore this enigma… Hello music junkies, enthusiasts, and lovers of all shapes and sizes of music media; before we get started, please let me introduce myself. My name is TONE Scott – I am a career-long American Music Industry professional, having held chairs at several major and independent recording companies, I’ve been an artist manager to many prominent names in music, as well as a platinum-selling songwriter, composer, and music producer (currently active). I am a published music journalist, having written feature articles for many music publications (including Goldmine), as well as a content creator hosting an active YouTube channel (as part of the illustrious YouTube Vinyl Community), where I share bits & pieces of my career, but mostly my experiences; both the ups and downs, of my life as a serious Music Collector, which is now slightly over three and a half decades and running.
