Record Store Day 2024 List Is Announced! Indie Stores Celebrate With These Titles on Saturday, April 20th: Those are just a few of the artists who are proclaiming their love for the culture of indie record stores by having a special release available as part of this year’s Record Store Day. Now in its seventeenth year, Record Store Day 2024 on April 20 is looking to be one of the best parties record stores have ever thrown. A complete list of the releases (and other exciting elements of the world’s largest single-day music event) can be found at recordstoreday.com.
Dundee, UK | Keith Ingram on championing local bands: ‘We’re trying to do the things that record shops should do.’ With a third branch of Assai now up and running, owner Keith Ingram tells us how he founded Scotland’s fastest growing record shop. After a decade working at HMV, Dundee-based music-lover Keith Ingram was determined to start his very own record shop. When a first attempt in Stirling didn’t quite go to plan, Assai got its start online. ‘We were a top ten Amazon seller but completely under the radar. Nobody really knew much about us,’ recalls Ingram as we speak in the recently opened Glasgow shop, Assai’s third branch since the flagship Dundee store opened in 2015. Now having built a large community of record enthusiasts, Assai caters to a wide variety of genres, including pop, metal and hip hop. ‘We curate what’s in the shop so there is something for everybody,’ explains Ingram.
Dallas, TX | Good Records Celebrated Its 24th Anniversary With Brainiac’s First Dallas Show in 27 Years. Balloons, Buc-ee’s and Brainiac: the Good Records anniversary had it all. This week, Good Records celebrated a milestone. The shop turned 24, its third anniversary of being able to legally drink and its last year of being eligible to date Leonardo DiCaprio. On Saturday, one of Dallas’ most venerated record stores—which long stood on a Greenville Avenue corner before moving to Garland Road—celebrated the occasion with a big bash at Deep Ellum Art Co. The party was headlined by none other than Brainiac (also known as 3RA1N1AC), the first appearance in Dallas by the Dayton, Ohio, experimental rock greats in 27 years. Opening the stacked bill were Cincinnati cello rockers Lung (who are opening the bands’ tour) and Dallas’ own Baboon and Def Rain.
UK | As HMV eyes expansion, owner Doug Putman talks new opportunities, vinyl, CD and the first five years: Since its rescue by Doug Putman five years ago, the entertainment retail chain has got to a point where it’s now expanding once again, having survived the impact of Covid on High Street retail. Following its return to the London flagship store in November 2023, and Music Week’s report on a rare CD sales increase, the company recently issued positive financial results. For the 12 months ending May 30, HMV’s parent company reported that revenue increased by 18% year-on-year to £177.9 million. …The company has transitioned HMV to a contemporary retail offering with 43 HMV Shop concept stores, which now accounts for the majority of revenue. As well as exporting the concept to Ireland and Belgium, the business is “actively seeking to open both HMV and Fopp stores in new locations.”
Eugene, OR | Little Axe Records: a pop-up garage shop turned record store and label: Ravi Shankar and The Supremes smile down on a light wood countertop, where a composition book is opened to a pencil drawing of an ape. A quick flip through the handmade wooden record bins and shelves of cassettes reveals a colorful collection of music from around the world, ranging from Peru to Indonesia, Turkey to Nigeria. Welcome to Little Axe Records. Little Axe is named after Willmer “Little Axe” Broadnax, a gospel singer from the group Spirit of Memphis. “I was really into gospel music then, and I liked their story,” Warren Hill, the co-owner of Little Axe Records, said of his music taste at the time the store was founded. …Starting in Warren Hill and Jed Bindeman’s garage, Little Axe opened its doors in 2011. Hill and Bindeman currently own the Springfield store and another in Portland. Hill also runs the Little Axe record label, which releases current and reissued world music as well as old-school mixtapes.
Detroit, MI | Detroit’s Vinyl Tasting pop-up chefs honor American music and ingredients: Music is an important background element to any successful restaurant or dinner party. At the very least, it sets a mood and covers up the clanking of silverware and other noise pollution while also being low enough to allow guests to converse. At the Vinyl Tasting monthly pop-up dinners, music is the main course. Not just a well-curated playlist, but entire albums, specifically. Accomplished chefs Amber Beckem and Jermond Booze present a six-course meal that is inspired and influenced by an artist and the songs on one of their classic albums. Recent dinners have paid homage to performers from a variety of decades — from Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” to Erykah Badu’s “Baduizm” — and have also spotlighted Detroit artists like J Dilla, Slum Village and Stevie Wonder. “It doesn’t matter where you go in this world … music and food is just in every culture and it’s almost a natural, symbiotic relationship,” said Booze.
Why isn’t the vinyl trend crossing over to the classical music market? Over the past few years, a resurgence of interest in vinyl recordings has taken popular music by storm. Cellist Leonard Elschenbroich tells Simon Heighes why classical musicians should also take an interest. …‘Although sales of vinyl overall are amazing,’ confirms Long, ‘we’ve been underwhelmed with the figures for classical music, which only amount to about two per cent of the UK classical market [compared with 34 per cent for CDs and 55 per cent for streaming]. When we reissued the Gabrieli Consort’s award-winning Venetian Coronation on two LPs in 2013, we were working with very small numbers: we pressed 1000 copies and needed to sell 500 to break even, which we’ve done, but it hasn’t put a gold disc on the wall.’
Arvind Sanjeev’s SPIN Is a Synth with a Generative AI Twist—and a Turntable, Too: Powered by a Raspberry Pi and Arduino Mega, this unusual synth ties in to the MusicGen language model to create bespoke tunes on the fly. Maker Arvind Sanjeev has built a chunky portable synthesizer that provides a physical interface to the MusicGen language model (LM) so you can collaborate with the artificial intelligence (AI) on musical creations: SPIN. “SPIN is an AI music synthesizer that allows you to co-create compositions with a language model, MusicGen,” Sanjeev explains of his creation. …Inside SPIN’s eye-catching wooden housing is a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B single-board computer, connected to an Arduino Mega that drives the light-up input pad. Next to this is a Numark PT-01 record player, though there’s no ordinary vinyl atop it: instead, it hosts a time-coded “control” record, the spinning of which controls playback.
South Bend, IN | South Bend Record show attracts hundreds with first event of 2024: Whether you’re looking to complete a record collection – or start one, the South Bend Record Show is the place to be. This event is held every month at the Gillespie Center in South Bend. It attracts hundreds – looking to enjoy a day filled with all types of music. 400,000 different types of music, which makes sense with this event going on 30+ years. There were 94 different tables from as far away as Pennsylvania, all gathering to share a common interest… music. According to the event organizer Jeremy Bonfiglio, Sunday’s event saw a packed house. “We’ve had almost 550 people through the door buying records looking for old school vinyl’s vinyl 45 cassettes posters you name it if it’s music related you can find it here.” said Jeremy Bonfiglio – South Bend Record Show Owner and Organizer.” This event saw all types of music lovers.
