Author Archives: TVD HQ

Ville Platte, LA | On the Road: Floyd’s Record Shop in Ville Platte: Many don’t know this but Floyd’s Record Shop in Ville Platte has a rich history of preserving the music of Southwest Louisiana. Floyd Soileau started the shop more than 60 years ago. Soileau got his start in the music business as a DJ at KVPI in the 1950s. While DJing his colleague Chris Duplechin gave Soileau the idea to open a record shop in Ville Platte. So, Soileau and his brother drove to New Orleans and brought back 200 dollars worth of records and a 60 dollar record player to start their record store right next to the KVPI studio. Within a year Soileau moved into a new store and began recording music for local artists. And from his time as a DJ Soileau knew when someone had a hit. Soileau says “I always encouraged them when they came to record give me something of a story that will touch their heart or tickle their funny bones and maybe we got something to sell.” Then in 1975 Soileau opened up Louisiana’s only pressing plant.

Clinton, IA | Taking a spin: About 50% of Melissa Peterson and Keith Rixen’s sales are vinyl albums, so it’s only logical that most of the inventory at their new store consists of vintage LPs. After a couple of years in the flea-market scene, Peterson and Rixen purchased the former Burke Florist building at 210 Sixth Ave. South in Clinton. Having remodeled the building, the couple are now stocking and pricing vintage and antique items for the May 25 grand opening of The Underground. Rixen, who had spent his life in production and operations management, began selling LPs online a few years ago. “I just wanted to do something different,” he said. Then Rixen began fixing old furniture in the garage. It sold quickly, and the business grew. The couple set up shop at a flea market in LeClaire, selling vinyl albums, furniture and vintage items. “We excelled,” Peterson said. “He’s got a very good knack for reading people.”

Tallahassee, FL | FSU students invited to screen their films at Cannes Film Festival: …On May 21, senior film student William Stead will screen his documentary “The Flip Side” at The American Pavilion along with director of photography Evan Barber, also a senior in FSU’s College of Motion Picture Arts. The eight-minute film spotlights Banana’s Records in St. Petersburg, Florida, which describes itself as the largest vinyl record store in the world. Store owners Doug and Michelle Allen started Banana’s Records in the 1970s and have been growing their inventory ever since. Stead’s documentary takes a reflective and engaging look at the demise and surprising resurgence of vinyl records over the past 50 years. “I quickly learned you can’t write a script for a documentary,” Stead said. “Everything relies on how good your interview questions are, so I tried to craft a story with my questions that characterized CDs as the enemy of vinyl because they put a lot of record stores out of business.”

Buenos Aires, AR | The definitive guide to Buenos Aires’ best record shops: Few cities in South America can match the vibrant cosmopolitanism of Buenos Aires, which acts as a hub for people from all across the continent. A symbolic bridge between Latin America and Europe, Argentina’s capital presents a somewhat contradictory proposition for record buyers. With a rich musical culture leaving plenty to discover across the city, the notoriously unstable economy makes Buenos Aires a relatively treacherous place to run a business as precarious as a record shop. While it’s famous for its football, steak and myriad of architectural styles, the city’s record culture can be a littler harder to locate. Scratch below the surface though and it becomes clear that as the rock-obsessed home of tango with a party scene built for insomniacs, Buenos Aires is also an electric environment for music…We pick out nine shops from across genres to get you started.

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Pittsburgh, PA | Vinyl Remains record store moving to Mt. Lebanon: Vinyl Remains is moving a few miles south on Route 19 to a new location in Mt. Lebanon, the store announced on social media. The record store, opened by Greg and Jennifer Anderson, transplants from New York City, set up shop on Glenmore Avenue in Dormont in 2017. The Dormont location is closing on May 25 and the new location at 692 Washington Road in Mt. Lebanon is aiming to open in July. The new shop will have later hours, as well. Greg said that the new space is in a better position to get more walk-in customers, as there is more foot traffic in that section of Lebo. And he said that there are other retail shops in the area that will help attract customers. The shop specializes in new, old and hard-to-find records. The store also features books and artists’ work.

Pittsburgh, PA | Pittsburgh Record Convention showcases vinyl revival: Vinyl records are often seen as a relic of the past, sitting forgotten in dusty cardboard boxes in various basements. But in recent years vinyl sales have skyrocketed, partially due to popular contemporary artists like Ariana Grande and Panic! At The Disco releasing their new albums on vinyl and popular classic artists like The Rolling Stones re-releasing theirs. The vinyl record has risen again, if Pittsburgh’s biannual Record Convention is any indication. The most recent Record Convention took place on May 11 at the Sokol Club in the South Side. More than 30 vendors and hundreds of attendees gathered to buy and sell records, CDs, cassette tapes and other music memorabilia. Products included vinyl copies of classic rock albums, rap CDs and artwork featuring ’60s bands like The Beatles and The Monkees.

UK | Morrisons joins ERA’s Record Tokens scheme as record shops celebrate continued success of relaunch: ERA have confirmed sales of its Record Tokens in the UK have gone from strength to strength. One year on since their relaunch, more than 100 independent record shops across the UK now stock the new brand tokens. The newest among them is supermarket giant Morrisons, who will be putting Record Tokens on sale in their stores from late summer – with ERA predicting a Q4 boost for indie record shops…“We are delighted to see Morrisons come on board as Record Token stockists,” ERA CEO Kim Bayley told Music Week. “Vinyl and CDs are sought after gifts and with Father’s Day just around the corner and over 500 Morrisons stores putting Record Tokens on sale ahead of Christmas, this will help encourage music fans to discover their local independent shops as more and more people experience the joys of receiving physical music.”

How Record Labels Are Selling Old Music for (Lots of) New Money: A Warner Music Group executive explains why, and how, record labels are suddenly revisiting their staid back catalogs. Ask someone in the music industry how to sell a new single, and you’ll get rambling answers that go on for days — but ask them how to sell a single that was released 25 years ago, from an artist who’s only ever put out one five-track LP and since faded deep into obscurity, and you’ll get far fewer ideas. Thanks to the discovery-led nature of music streaming, however, older music is, for the first time, ripe with new opportunities. Record companies just have to be nimble enough to find them. Tim Fraser-Harding oversees such out-of-the-ordinary initiatives as Warner Music’s president of global catalog of recorded music, where he’s helped shape new marketing strategies for legacy artists like Led Zeppelin and Fleetwood Mac. Fraser-Harding spoke with Rolling Stone about the trials and rewards of reviving old hits.

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RAVE Reviews: Best Record Shops and Bookstores: To borrow from Mark Twain, rumors of the death of record stores and bookshops are greatly exaggerated. In fact, people are rediscovering — or continuing to appreciate — the joy of shopping for books and music in real-life, brick ‘n’ mortar bookshops or record stores. In fact, if you’re anything like us at RAVE Reviews, you know exploring a record store or bookshop you’ve never been to before is pretty much the best way to spend an afternoon — especially if it’s your first time in a new city. So get yourself a cup of coffee (from a local coffee shop, of course), and get ready to spend some serious time digging through crates of records or sifting through stacks of books. Here’s our ranking of the 25 best record stores and bookshops. Acquired quite a pile of records and books, have you? Or maybe you’re dragging around your old record collection from college, or your parents’ collection from when they were in college. No doubt you have sentimental favorites — books and music that changed your life, helping you to become the person you are today.

Bromsgrove, UK | Bromsgrove vinyl record fair returns this Sunday at Bromsgrove Hotel and Spa, on Birmingham Road: Music lovers are in for a treat as the Bromsgrove vinyl record and CD fair returns this Sunday, May 19. The event, at the Bromsgrove Hotel and Spa, on Birmingham Road, Bromsgrove, from 10am to 4pm, is promising something for everyone, even including the most ardent record hunters. There will be a diverse range of stock, catering for all genres. Organiser Ben Frizzell said: “With a decent number of new traders who’ve never sold at the venue before and having 40 plus tables of used and new vinyl/cd and memorabilia assortments to rummage through, it promises to be a well worth visit.” “There is free on site parking when registering inside the hotel, there’s also a cafe and restaurant if you want food/drink, and a ‘handy’ ATM cash machine also on site, in case you run out of funds.” Further information at midlandsrecordfairs.co.uk

Tampa, FL | ‘Mojo Books & Records’ sells rare finds from 99 cents to $2,999: Tampa’s largest used and new book and record store has hidden gems you can’t find anywhere else. photo The Indie store has been open since 2011 selling secondhand books, records, CDs, DVDs and turntables. Mojo Books & Records also has tons of valuable collectible items like Led Zeplan’s houses of the Holy” album signed by all four band members. You can have it for just $2,999. Also, one of 700 copies of Neil Gaiman’s “American Gods” going for $700. Beatles “Yesterday and Today” with the unpeeled butcher cover – a rare find any music fan can appreciate.

Debut album by electronic pioneers Suicide reissued on limited red vinyl: “A door opener for guitar-less synthesiser bands of the ’80s and dance music of the ’90s.” Suicide’s 1977 self-titled debut LP is being reissued on vinyl, this July via Mute/BMG. Comprised of Alan Vega on vocals and Martin Rev on electronics, the duo formed in the early ’70s, before coming to fame later in the decade as part of legendary NYC club CBGB’s punk scene. Originally released in December 1977, their debut album was “described as the rock and roll version of Martin Scorsese’s neo-noir New York thriller Taxi Driver,” shares writer Chris May. Originally released in December 1977, all seven tracks have been remastered for this new reissue on red vinyl, with an accompanying 12″ print.

Kelowna, BC | A vinyl record maker came across this old Kelowna album and has a great idea: Scott Gibson has embarked on one of the most cheerful sounding missions to ever hit YouTube. Gibson, whose company Sleepovers for Life makes small batch vinyl records, is an avid record collector who recently came across an odd and unique find — an album from the 70s by a band called The Country Happy Gang that was based in Kelowna. “When I found this record I was really curious — who were these people who put out a vinyl record in 1974 in Kelowna, which was a fairly small town at the time?” he said, in a YouTube video posted this week by Anthony David Creative. “What was the process, who were the people who did it and where are they now?” Armed with those questions, he and his team have set out with the objective to find some, if not all, of the members of this band and hopefully hear their story.

New Orleans, LA | Students of the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts have released their first vinyl record: NOCCA Students Announce First Vinyl Record Release Party. Media Arts students at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA) have developed their first vinyl record, Mars Fest. On May 15, they’ll celebrate it with a release party. The album takes its name from NOCCA students’ annual music festival, which this year took place on Valentine’s Day. Mars Fest is a compilation of 15 songs produced by more than 20 NOCCA Media Arts students. Manufactured by New Orleans Record Press, the vinyl was pressed in front of the students. “It was amazing seeing the process first hand,” shared Media Arts Sophomore Andrew Kende. “It wasn’t like ordering it online at the click of a button.” Having a tangible, locally created piece of work takes on real significance in the digital era. Media Arts student Trunks Sims said, “We are official because we are on vinyl and everyone else is just on the internet…”

Records a treasure trove of classic tunes and cash: Everything old is new again… and some of it is worth a whole lot more than you would ever have thought. With the birth of the crisp, clear sounds of the compact disc in the 1980s, few expected vinyl records would make the resurgence they have over recent years. In fact they have become so strong, hitting more than $20million in new sales in Australia last year, that the Australian Recording Industry Association has launched a new weekly vinyl albums chart. But there is also quite a lot of money about for the right sort of old vinyl as well. USQ Senior Lecturer in Media Studies Daryl Sparkes is a die-hard vinyl lover. He has a collection of about 1000 albums, including jazz and blues from the 1920s-40s, a bootleg copy of The Doors in 1970 playing the Isle of Wight which is very close to his heart, picture and coloured discs, and other limited releases and music which never made it to CD.

The latest turntables to help you take advantage of the vinyl revival: It’s back to the future when it comes to vinyl records with the format enjoying a resurgence. And as a result there are a number of turntables that have been released to keep up with demand. Vinyl sales accounted for one of every 10 physical music formats sold in 2018 and grew by 23 per cent in the same period. Artists are also re-releasing their albums on vinyl to meet demand. Audiophiles will swear vinyl sounds a lot better and warmer than the cold and sterile digital sound. They call it “perfectly imperfect” which refers to the amazing high fidelity sounds along with the crackles that are a by-product of the vinyl format. But you can’t listen to a record without a turntable and there are now plenty to choose from. Here are the latest turntables Tech Guide checked out.

David Bowie’s The Mercury Demos to be Released in June: David Bowie’s 1969 demo tape, recorded to secure a record deal with Mercury Records, will be released on June 28th via Parlophone as The Mercury Demos. Comprised of 10 recordings, the new Bowie collection contains an early version of ‘Space Oddity’ and nine previously unreleased songs. Recorded with John Hutchinson, The Mercury Demos will include the following tracks: Space Oddity, Janine, An Occasional Dream, Conversation Piece, Ching-a-Ling, I’m Not Quite (aka Letter To Hermione), Love To The Dawn, Love Song, When I’m Five and Life Is A Circus. The release of The Mercury Demos is part of the ongoing celebrations for ‘Space Oddity’ – which turns 50 this year – and follows the recent release of Spying Through A Keyhole and Clareville Grove Demo collections. The Mercury Demos will come in a replica of the original tape box and will feature a vinyl LP, a print, two photo contact sheets and sleeve notes by Mark Adams.

Brooklyn, NY | Old-School Media Gets a New Home in Brooklyn: As someone who still devours print magazines (and not just because I’m employed by one), I keep a mental list of the few remaining newsstands in New York, like Casa Magazines in the West Village and Iconic Magazines on Mulberry Street. Now the list extends all the way to Gowanus, Brooklyn, where Import News has a new dedicated space inside Public Records, a café, bar, and performance venue that opened earlier this spring. Founded by Ken Miller and Sasha Laing, Import News stocks hard-to-find indie publications from around the world with a focus on music, art, and culture. On the shelves at Public Records, you’ll find titles like Record, Electronic Sound, Gusher, and the last-ever print edition of Maximum Rocknroll. The café will also sell a selection of vinyl records from labels run by partners and friends of the venue, including Scissor & Thread, Kingdoms, Let’s Play House, and Throne of Blood. In unexpected spaces like this former animal shelter–slash–vintage guitar shop, the spirit of old-school media lives on.

Baltimore, MD | Vinyl and beer: Why Fells Point’s Sound Garden is bringing in a Baby’s on Fire cafe: Mount Vernon cafe Baby’s On Fire has been serving up vinyl alongside its coffee and breakfast sandwiches since it opened nearly three years ago. Now the coffee shop-slash-record store is bringing food and drink to the Sound Garden, one of Baltimore’s best-known music stores, as part of a play to draw more traffic to the Fells Point brick-and-mortar. Baby’s On Fire owners David Koslowski and Shirlé Hale-Koslowski obtained a liquor license Thursday for the new cafe, which will share a name and menu with their Mount Vernon business. The license, which applies to the entire Sound Garden space, will allow shoppers to sip beer, wine or coffee while record shopping. The Koslowkis and Sound Garden owner Bryan Burkert hope that kind of cross-pollination will ultimately bring in more business…

Los Angeles, CA | Free Live Music Concerts in Los Angeles at Record Surplus: You will have a blast at free live music concerts at Record Surplus in Los Angeles! Sign up now to get invitations to our upcoming free live music concerts, big sales and cool give-aways! Click Here. Check out our YouTube Channel to see a few of the awesome bands who have performed live here at Record Surplus: The Muffs, Peter Case, George Tomsco of The Fireballs, The Kingbees, California Feetwarmers, Feels. We hope to see you at our next event at Record Surplus!

Berlin, DEU | Vinyl revival: is there an environmental cost to record sales? …Making Vinyl, which was held on 2-3 May, is a conference that aims to recapture something of those glory days and to offer a sustainable way forward for an industry that in 2018 saw its global revenues increase for the 13th consecutive year, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). Vinyl sales now enjoy a 3.6% share of the overall recorded music market, including streaming. In the week ending 18 April, vinyl sales in the US were up 193% year-on-year, from 282,000 to 827,000. Like millions of others, Larry Jaffee, co-founder of Making Vinyl, threw away his 4,000-piece vinyl collection. But in the past few years he has been trying to rebuild it, and believes the IFPI numbers are a gross underestimate, “because most independent shops selling vinyl these days do not report their sales, and the research – at best – relies on estimates.”

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New York, NY | DJ Cedric Woo apologises for stealing from New York record store: DJ Cedric Woo has apologised for stealing from Brooklyn’s Northern Lights Records according to an Instagram post. A clip showing a man who was ‘positively IDed as Cedric Woo’ removing a vinyl record from the shelves and hiding it behind his rucksack caused a huge reaction on the social network yesterday, Tuesday 7th May. The piece was a 12″ copy of ‘I’m Your Superman’ by Jan Leslie Holmes, worth $75. A London-based, French-born player and founder of the Beauty & The Beat parties, Woo— AKA Cedric Lassonde— was in New York to appear on The Lot Radio, according to his own social media updates. Following the accusation his Instagram and Facebook profiles, and website, were taken offline. An additional post by Northern Lights has now confirmed the DJ “reached out to us to apologize [sic] and has paid for the record.”

Chicago, IL | Chicago’s Heart & Soul: Remembering Darrell Woodson. Chicago DJ, producer, inspirational figure and house music sage Darrell Woodson has died. …Darrell is also remembered as a part (and probably a founding father) of the “Gramaphone family” – the former staff and alumni of the famous Chicago record store situated on Chicago’s Northside. Bear Who? once told me that working at Gramaphone in the ’90s would make you “probably the most educated DJ in the world.” That was certainly true of Darrell Woodson. He was a reservoir of knowledge for DJs and producers looking to source a record or a sample. Darrell Woodson’s mixtapes sold from Gramaphone were bestsellers before we had any means to measure such things – they were easily some of the most widely trafficked tapes in Chicago’s house scene. That’s probably how it’s best to remember him, if you are a fan of this music. Jesse de la Pena has announced that Vocalo Radio will be paying tribute to Darrell by featuring his mixes this Thursday 05/09 & Friday 05/10.

Palo Alto, CA | Library nonprofit turns to rare and vintage vinyl for latest fundraiser: Saturday sale features huge record collection of jazz, rock, classical, among other genres: Henry Yu and Frank McConnell have spent the last two months sorting through boxes and crates filled with vinyl records. Accumulated over the course of about five years, the vast collection features hundreds of rare and vintage albums from various genres including jazz, classical, funk, soul, classic rock and reggae, among others. There are so many records, they fill an entire room at Cubberley Community Center in south Palo Alto, covering most of the floor and stacked high along the walls. Yu and McConnell, volunteers for the nonprofit Friends of the Palo Alto Library (FOPAL), were tasked with individually pricing each record by this Saturday, May 11, when all of them will go on sale. They’ve spent hours on the job, fueled by a love for vinyl and a nostalgia for their 1970s childhoods — long before the days of CDs, MP3s and digital streaming. Among Yu’s favorite records were Journey’s “Infinity,” released in 1978 and The Ramones 1977 album “Rocket to Russia.” McConnell said that Tangerine Dream albums made for “good study music.”

Previously unreleased Stan Getz live performance unearthed on 3xLP: From 1961 at NYC’s Village Gate club. Jazz saxophonist Stan Getz’ Getz At The Gate is being released for the first time, on 3xLP this June via Verve/UME. Getz At The Gate features a quartet lead by Getz, with pianist Steve Kuhn, bassist John Neves and drummer Roy Haynes. Its 16-tracks including renditions of John Coltrane’s ‘Impressions’, Thelonious Monk’s ’52nd Street Theme’ and Sonny Rollins’ ‘Airegin’. The live recording captures Getz shortly before his deep dive into jazz samba, and now iconic releases with Charlie Byrd (Jazz Samba, 1962) and João Gilberto (Getz / Gilberto, 1964). Though the show was professionally recorded, it was never released. The 3xLP package includes liner notes by jazz historian Bob Blumenthal.

Woodstock ’69 Getting a Completists’ 38-Disc, 36-Hour Box Set for 50th Anniversary: f you want to hear three complete days of Woodstock music this August, you’re guaranteed it. No, not out at Watkins Glen with Jay-Z, Miley Cyrus, et al. — that Woodstock still seems very much in flux — but via a completists’ audio box set of nearly every note played at the original 1969 Woodstock festival. The Rhino label is about to unveil “Woodstock 50 — Back to the Garden — The Definitive 50th Anniversary Archive,” a 38-disc, 36-hour, 432-song CD collection that lays the ’69 fest out in chronological order, from the first stage announcements to muddy farewells. Amazingly, most of this material has never been issued before; 267 of the 432 songs have never seen an official release. The word “amazingly” comes into play because so much has come out in dribs and drabs since a hit three-LP set went to the top of the charts in 1970.