Ypsilanti, MI | Vintage store Wyrd Byrd opens in Ypsilanti: The new business sells vintage role playing games and vinyl records. A new store featuring vintage roleplaying games and records is now open in Ypsilanti at 9 S. Washington St. Wyrd Byrd opened on Nov. 2 after receiving a final inspection from the city. “’Wyrd’ has always been a word I wanted to use in a business name. It means something similar to fate, but in modern English, it became ‘weird,’ meaning odd or strange,” Shawn Gates, owner of Wyrd Byrd, said. “We have pet birds, which are a large part of our lives, so we also decided to add that in but keep the spelling with a ‘y’ because we liked it. I’ve heard folks say it a few different ways, and all are correct.” Gates is an EMU alumni from the class of 2001 and has worked as a software engineer since graduating. He owns Wyrd Byrd along with his wife Brooke Gates. Wyrd Byrd will be closed on Mondays and Tuesdays and open Wednesdays through Sundays with varying hours.
New Westminster, CA | Celebrate vinyl music and frothy beer this month in New West: Spend an evening browsing records, and clinking beer mugs, at Steel & Oak’s annual Analog Vinyl Fair in New Westminster. Getting too used to having YouTube and Spotify suggest what you need to listen to next? It’s time to give those apps a break and play music on something more tangible. Go old school for a difference and head to Steel & Oak Brewery’s seventh edition of Analog Vinyl Fair on Saturday, Nov. 19. To be held at the food court of the River Market building, you can browse through stacks of vinyl records while nursing a chilled beer from Steel & Oak. The fair was introduced by the brewery first in 2016, and the fact that it has continued for seven years now is proof that people in New West, and beyond, still like digging into deep crates of hard-to-find rock, psych, funk, soul and jazz LPs from around the world. …“We’re excited to bring this event back for the New West and broader music and vinyl communities. Music played a big role in helping folks get through the pandemic, so it’ll be all the more special to gather around that shared love of that unexpected find deep in a crate…”
Carrboro, NC | Longtime record-seller Gerry Williams hosts biannual record show in Carrboro: Gerry Williams has been selling records for 45 years. He’s hosted record shows in Carrboro for the last 18. Williams held his most recent record show on Sunday at the Carrboro Century Center. Since 2004, the November event has been one of Williams’ two annual shows sponsored by the Town of Carrboro. “Back in 2004, there wasn’t a show like this in the Triangle and I thought, ‘Let’s do one here,’ or if I could get the Town to sponsor it for me,” Williams said. Williams said he began his career selling records in 1977 when he opened a store in Washington, D.C., which he said featured 200,000 records, mostly used. These days, Williams said he does not own any brick-and-mortar record stores. He said all of his business is either online or through record shows, some of which he hosts.
London, UK | Independent Label Market shares full label and DJ line-up for London Christmas market: Christmas is coming early. Independent Label Market has announced the full line-up for their London Christmas market in Coal Drops Yards on November 12. Record labels involved on the day include !K7, Bella Union, Dead Oceans, Erased Tapes, Ninja Tune, Secretly Canadian and more. The labels will bring an assortment of vinyl-related treats like rarities, test pressings, extended back catalogues, signed merchandise and advance copies to the market, making it a one-stop-shop for Christmas presents this year. The event will also feature a lineup of DJs on an Audio Gold Soundsystem, an acoustic live stage and live radio from Voices Radio. Check out the full schedule and line-up…
Maplewood, NJ | Hundreds of vinyl and collectible music items at the Maplewood Record Fair: Over the years vinyl records have faded into obscurity as the digital age of music took hold. However, for some, vinyl is still the preferred medium for listening to music. Many prefer the clean sound that comes with running a record on a turntable, while others prefer the aesthetics and artistry associated with vinyl. Some even oppose digital music and streaming. Whatever it is, the last half decade has proven that vinyl has earned its place back in our music scene. Elusive Sounds is hosting its fifth annual Maplewood Record Fair on October 13th at The Woodland in the heart of Maplewood Village. For nearly a century, the Revival-style mansion has been the center of Maplewood’s robust cultural and civic life. The Maplewood community has established The Woodland as a venue for cultural, recreational and educational events. The show will feature over 30 vendors and 40 tables with records, cassettes, CDs, toys, comics and more. The passion for vintage collectibles clearly goes beyond just music.
Love and Rockets reissues, box set announced: Beggars Arkive has announced its plans to reissue the complete catalog of Love and Rockets, the hitmaking goth/neo-psych group that formed after the breakup of Bauhaus. On December 9, it kicks off the campaign with a webstore-only box set of the band’s first six studio albums, all on colored vinyl, complete with a slipmat. It includes Seventh Dream Of Teenage Heaven on dark cyan, Express on red, Earth, Sun, Moon on white, Love And Rockets on black and white quad, Hot Trip To Heaven on blue vinyl w/black marble and grey splatter, and Sweet F.A. on marble vinyl. It’s limited to 1,000 copies. Then, beginning in 2023, a campaign of individual album reissues launches, starting with Seventh Dream of Teenage Heaven and Express on January 13, Earth, Sun, Moon and Love and Rockets on April 28, and on June 9, Hot Trip to Heaven and Sweet F.A. will be released. More Love and Rockets releases will be announced in early 2023.
Verve By Request Series Resurrected with Vinyl Twist: Verve Records/UMe and Third Man Records have partnered to resurrect the popular reissue series Verve By Request, with a vinyl twist. Focusing on rare gems and fan-requested jazz albums from the Verve Label Group’s stable of iconic labels, the series will offer two titles per month — each hand-picked by Verve and Third Man Records. The records will include long-out-of-print titles from the vault as well as the first-ever vinyl pressings for albums released in the ’90s and aughts that were only originally released on CD. Albums will be newly remastered from original analog sources, when available, and pressed on audiophile-quality 180-gram vinyl at Third Man Pressing in Detroit. Each month, a limited Third Man Edition yellow color variant of each LP will also be available exclusively via Third Man Records and uDiscoverMusic. Each of the Third Man Editions will come in a limited edition, two-color, screen-printed jacket on archival cover stock, printed and assembled in Detroit.
How Boston fooled their record company with their debut: Classic rockers Boston were foundational in the transition between the emerging sounds of hard rock in the early 1970s and the slick, radio-friendly format that would take over the genre’s sound. Boston had killer ballads like ‘More Than a Feeling’ and ‘Amanda’, but also unrelenting prog-rock epics like ‘Foreplay/Long Time’ and hard-hitting self-aggrandising rock tracks like ‘Rock ‘N Roll Band’. All the while, the band’s gigantic power-chord heavy guitar sound was copied by nearly every band that followed in their wake, leading the charge of what most listeners considered the sound of rock music in the 1970s. Like most rock bands, Boston wasn’t exactly a democracy. In fact, when they first formed, Boston was hardly even a band. MIT-educated mechanical engineer Tom Scholz was playing in groups as a side hustle while working a day job at the photography company Polaroid. Scholz was modifying his amplifiers and building his own effects pedals, bringing a scientific approach to arena-ready rock songs. Scholz had the vision to bring his signature sound to the masses, but what he didn’t have was a band to do it with.
