Del Norte, CO | How a record and tinned-fish store has survived for three years in Del Norte: For the first couple of years living in the rustic, homestead cabin Paul Fennell had purchased in Rio Grande County, it was basically camping indoors. …It was time to move his life back in, from the shipping container outside he’d had shipped out from Silicon Valley, California. “I started bringing my furniture. I started bringing in the things I felt that I would need. The coffee maker and the record player,” Fennell said. “Then I looked at my records and I realized (the cabin) isn’t really going to afford the space of a record collection of a few thousand. “I knew I had to do something with it.”
Seattle, WA | ‘End of the line’—Wall of Sound music shop closing on Capitol Hill: For nearly 40 years, Wall of Sound has offered a mix of new and used cassette, CD, and vinyl releases covering everything from avant-garde to art rock, Japanese noise to neo-classical, alternative to ambient, folk to free jazz, and so much more. Unfortunately, the final track for this eclectic record shop, which has called Capitol Hill home for the past 23 years, will be playing out this summer above 12th and Pike. “It has been a joy to disperse so much fantastic music into the world over so many years and into so many ears,” co-owners Michael Ohlenroth and Jeffrey Taylor announced in a message to Wall of Sound customers.
Stroud, UK | Records shop in Stroud town centre to move location: A record shop in Stroud town centre will move location this summer. Klang Tone Records—currently at 7A Lansdown—will move a few doors down into the former home of Sew and So. The record store—which also sells merchandise—first opened in 2022, at London Road. The shop is open on Fridays and Saturdays at its current location. Sew and So meanwhile moved to the Five Valleys Shopping Centre earlier this year.
UK | Shop Talk: 3 indie records stores across the Central Belt: With the vinyl revival showing no sign of abating, Isy Santini rounds up some great record shops to boost your collection. Thorne Records: Since opening in 2022, Thorne Records has become an integral part of the Bruntsfield community. Owner Mark Thorne is determined to put people first, offering recycling services for vinyl shrink wrap, a store credit on all purchases and donating a percentage of every sale to MS Society Scotland. Not to mention, of course, the shop’s excellent range of indie records. Le Freak Vinyl: Step into the quirkiest record store in Dundee. Le Freak Vinyl’s walls are bathed in a myriad of colours, its ceiling dotted with vinyl and hanging CD decorations…
Long Beach, CA | VIP Records will bring free music and a message of unity to its first-ever Juneteenth festival Saturday: Downtown Long Beach is getting a new Juneteenth festival this year, launched by the city’s most famous record store, known for helping shape the direction of West Coast hip-hop. On Saturday, June 20, VIP Records and the VIP Family Foundation are launching their inaugural World Famous Block Party: Juneteenth Edition. No tickets required, the event is free for all ages, hosted at Promenade Square Park from noon to 8 p.m. “VIP Records has been part of this community for over 45 years,” said Kelvin Anderson, the shop’s longtime owner. “Juneteenth is about freedom and celebration, and there is no better place to do that than right here in Long Beach.”
Greenville, SC | Step Inside This South Carolina Record Store And Browse Rare Vinyl You’ll Struggle To Find Anywhere Else: Tucked away at 2 W Stone Ave in Greenville, South Carolina, Horizon Records has been a beloved destination for music lovers for over 50 years. Whether you collect rare vinyl, hunt for hard-to-find CDs, or simply love the thrill of flipping through thousands of records, this store delivers every single time. With a 4.6-star rating and hundreds of loyal fans, it has earned its reputation as one of the South’s most exciting record shops. If you have never stepped inside, you are seriously missing out on something special.
ABBA Announce 50th Anniversary Vinyl Reissue Of ‘Dancing Queen’ Swedish pop group ABBA have announced that they will reissue their biggest hit, “Dancing Queen,” on vinyl in celebration of the song’s 50th anniversary. The song, which earned ABBA their first No. 1 on the U.S. charts, has gained over two billion streams on Spotify. It also became the group’s first music video to reach one billion views on YouTube in 2023. ABBA will reissue “Dancing Queen” across two vinyl variants on August 14th via Polar Music—as limited-edition sparkly vinyl and the classic black vinyl, with “La Reina Del Baile” as a B-side. “I thought it was so enormously beautiful that I started to cry,” Frida said about the song in previous interviews. Agnetha added, “We knew immediately it was going to be massive.”
Broadview Heights, OH | The Cleveland South Record Riot! It’s a BIG VINYL RECORD POP-UP sale at Woodside Event Center, 5025 Mill Road, Broadview Heights! The Cleveland South Record Riot RETURNS! It’s a MAD VINYL DIGGING PARTY! Sun July 19th at the Woodside Event Center, 5025 Mill Road. Great music and amazing family fun. LPs, CDs and 45s. Dealers from far and wide converge for a giant music sale! All types of music from punk to funk to country to classic rock, hip hop, soul/jazz and more. Dust off that turntable and come on down. DOOR PRIZES TOO! Regular admission starts at 10 AM ($5) with early admission at 9 AM ($15). Don’t miss the BIG VINYL DIG!
Pro-grade record cutter lets musos make their own master discs: A few years ago, Teenage Engineering partnered with designer Yuri Suzuki for a cute lo-fi vinyl cutter. Now the Swedes are going pro with the limited-edition APC-2, a full-sized record cutter for churning out high-quality playback discs. This beast of a machine measures 51 x 23.6 x 15.7 inches (1,300 x 600 x 400 mm) and weighs in at 308 lb (140 kg), so you’re not going to be lugging it from studio to rehearsal space by yourself. The APC-2 has been developed in collaboration with analog lovers SuperSense “to enable access to anyone who wants their music or sound on a physical record.”
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