Bristol, UK | The friends bringing metal music to the masses: A record shop and a pub are building an underground metal music scene in Bristol. Black City Records – a metal music record shop in Bristol – is the only store in Bristol nominated for the Love Your High Street Award. Together with the heavy metal pub The Gryphon down the road, they are forming the “Bristol Metal Quarter”, where a community can come together, make friends, and form bands. David Savage, owner of Black City Records, said: “It’s one of those scenes where everyone kind of knows each other to a degree. You get a lot of unity in it and a lot of friendships.” Mr Savage said he is running the “South West’s only heavy metal record shop”. He was 14 in 1988, the heyday of heavy metal. “I had £5 burning a hole in my pocket and this cover art just really took me, it was an Iron Maiden cassette. I bought it on a whim and now here we are,” he said.
Indianapolis, IN | Twenty One Pilots listening event big success for Indy’s Luna Music: I recently got to mark a couple more firsts off my list, as I had never before attended an album listening party at a record store nor had I ever visited Luna Music, a cool CD & vinyl record store located near the campus of Butler University in Indianapolis. The listening party was for my two daughters’ favorite band Twenty One Pilots’ new album “Breach,” which was to be released the following week. My girls absolutely love this band and I’ll admit that I’ve also grown to appreciate their sound and skill, even though I am definitely not their target demographic. I’ve spoken with fans who describe the Twenty One Pilots sound as “too broad to be defined” and I understand where they’re coming from, as the group has evolved over the course of their eight album catalog spanning 16 years.
Easton, PA | Cardi B appearance draws thousands to Palmer Park Mall despite invite-only event: Palmer Park Mall probably hasn’t seen these kinds of crowds since Hess’s Department Store went out of business in 1994. But the same could be said for almost any mall on Saturday afternoon in Pennsylvania. Rap superstar Cardi B was billed for a 2 p.m. appearance at the mall’s Spin Me Round record store. Despite the appearance being heavily publicized as open only to pre-selected fans, few seemed to get the message. At least 2,000 people, by conservative estimates, had queued up outside the record store’s exterior entrance at the mall by 11 a.m. Saturday. The line wrapped around most of the perimeter of the nearly 470,000-square-foot building, which Hess’s developed as a major retail center and anchored when it first opened in 1973. The crowd continued to linger patiently past 2 p.m. Cardi B arrived with police escort after 4 p.m.
New York, NY | Vinyl NYC: 33 1/3 of the Best Record Stores Across All Five Boroughs: Join as acclaimed photographers James and Karla Murray talk about their newest book exploring New York’s vibrant vinyl scene in a tribute to 33 1/3 of the city’s favorite record shops. Spanning all 5 boroughs, these havens have become essential to the cultural fabric of the city, bringing together communities through a shared passion for music. This book takes readers on a journey through New York City’s iconic record shops, celebrating their history, character, and cultural significance. Featuring stunning new photographs by James and Karla Murray, it captures the vibrant exteriors, intimate interiors, and countless musical treasures that make these shops special. Detailed profiles penned by journalist Hattie Lindert reveal the stories behind each location, with insights from the owners and founders about their passion for music and the communities they serve.
Carlisle, UK | ‘Vinyl is back’: Tables fully booked at record fair heading to Carlisle: Tables are fully booked and top dealers are coming from across the UK for the Carlisle Vinyl Record Fair next month. The event will be hosted at the County Hotel, 9 Botchergate, Carlisle, on Saturday, October 11, 2025. Organisers said: “Vinyl is back, and here you will find some of the finest selection of UK dealers, with a wide range of quality vinyl and CD – something to suit everyone. From bargains to top collectables.” There will be ‘tens of thousands’ of records for sale, from Rap, Hip Hop, Soul, Disco, Boogie, Funk, Rock ‘n’ Roll, Punk and more genres. Specialist dealers will be selling a wide variety of quality vinyl records, and want lists are welcome. People are encouraged to message the organisers with what they are looking for, and they will contact dealers to see if they can find it.
Taylor Swift speaks about ‘The Life of a Showgirl’ vinyl & CD packaging and art: ‘I hope the fans are happy.’ “We wanted this album to feel really luxurious,” says Swift, who’s launched pre-orders for various limited-quantity iterations, with different album covers and extras, for ‘Showgirl.’ Seated in front of a backdrop reminiscent of a floral watercolor painting—perhaps a reference to artist John Everett Millais’ Hamlet-inspired work “Ophelia,” which fans theorize influenced “The Fate of Ophelia” singer’s pose on her new album cover—Taylor Swift talks about the visual art of upcoming album The Life of a Showgirl in a promo clip released by her Taylor Nation team on Saturday (Sept. 20). …“And so I really spent a lot of time figuring out how I could make the best vinyl product and the best packaging and the best CD experience that they could have.”
Eight interiors where DJ booths take centre stage: DJ booths clad in wood, metal and a giant disco ball feature in this lookbook, which rounds up nightclubs, restaurants and even a bathhouse that centre music. With dance music culture “booming again” throughout the world, the spaces where it happens are also receiving renewed attention. The DJ booth is arguably at the centre of it all, serving as its own mini-gathering hub inside of a larger restaurant, nightclub or outdoor space. In this lookbook, we take a look at unique booth designs from Japan to Australia that keep people on their feet. This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. For more inspiration, see previous lookbooks featuring milking stools, stylish skylights and marble kitchen islands. A semi-circular VIP area is tucked behind this metallic DJ booth in Unveiled, a nightclub located in the basement of the William Vale hotel in Williamsburg.
New York, NY | Cereal Box Records Sound Horrible. They Still Look Incredible. Decades ago, singles were printed on cereal boxes as cutout prizes. Now, a dedicated few are working to save these cardboard treasures from extinction. Most record collectors want the highest quality audio. But Duane Dimock, 68, is different. He’s proud to have one of the best collections of low-quality records on the planet. “They sound really bad,” he said of the hundreds of cereal box records he has amassed at his home in San Diego. This forgotten format emerged in the 1950s. It used a thin plastic film to stamp records onto cereal boxes, providing a cheap cutout prize for children. At the peak of the trend, artists as big as the Monkees and the Jackson 5 had their greatest hits pressed into cardboard, helping to sell millions of boxes of cereal. The disposable nature of these low-quality records means most were eventually thrown out or destroyed by their rambunctious preteen owners. But some survived, and today a small community of collectors continues to hunt down and preserve these forgotten treasures.
Philips’ versatile new Bluetooth turntable features a built-in CD player: The ultimate combo? Philips is returning to the home hi-fi market with an intriguing new product that combines physical media with modern streaming: a Bluetooth turntable that also plays CDs. Looking rather like a standard modern turntable, the Philips Fidelio FT1 also features a CD player built into the chassis. The turntable is a belt-drive design with two-speed playback, while the CD player is front mounted with a tray-loading mechanism. Philips says the two elements are mechanically separated inside, and found enough space inside the record player’s chassis to fit a fairly compact CD player mechanism. The aim was to offer something different from the rest of the popular Bluetooth turntable market. See more photos of the FT1 in the flesh, in the gallery.
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