Milton Keynes, UK | Off the Record charity shop in Milton Keynes chosen for ‘Record Store Day’ venue: This year Record Store Day will be on Saturday 20 April and Off The Record, located in Midsummer Place, Milton Keynes has been selected to be part of this worldwide event. Record Store Day is an annual event where independent record shops come together to celebrate people’s love of music with limited releases. Off the Record is a specially curated shop by Willen Hospice, selling pre-loved and new vinyl records to raise funds for the charity. They will be celebrating the day by selling limited releases and live music in store. The centre will open at 6am if people want to arrive early and the shop will open from 8am. The shop will be managing the queue and admittance will be limited to ensure people have space to browse. Each customer will be allowed to buy one copy of each LP and a list of stock will be updated throughout the day. There will still be the normal range of pre-loved and new music and accessories as well for customers to browse, but when the records are gone, they are gone.
Hayward, CA | The Record Store: This Shop’s Niche Hip-Hop, Soul, Jazz, and Funk Make It a DJ’s Dream: Come inside The Stacks Record Shop in Hayward, California. When SETI X—the San Francisco-based emcee and recipient of the Pharrell Williams-backed J Dilla Music Tech Grant—told me about a small brick-and-mortar he co-owned with Delrokz, a turntablist and breakdancer from Daly City, I knew my visit would yield audio gold. Nestled in Hayward, a sleepy suburb 45 minutes outside of San Francisco—and whose local high school mascot is a hay-carrying farmer—The Stacks Record Shop can be easy to miss. The brick shop is on the edge of a three-block downtown scene, which isn’t particularly known for any music or arts presence in the region. Though off the radar, it’s a Bay Area audiophile’s sanctuary. Since opening in 2020 during shelter-in-place, the Filipino- and Indian-owned storefront has become one of the only remaining spaces that specializes in niche hip-hop, soul, jazz, and funk.
Cambridge, MA | A walk into Armageddon will delight aficionados of punk and metal with vinyl, CDs and cassettes: It’s time for another episode of Totally Excellent Mid-January Cambridge Day-Approved Record Store Walk & You Better Dress Warm. Except the days are warmer, the sun is shining, the birds are chirping and spring has officially sprung. What better weather to hide away in a basement record shop void of natural light with aggro punk obscurities screaming at you through the loudspeakers from open to close? If you read that last line as snark, you’re one type of person. If you read it and thought “Fuck yeah!” you’re another. Armageddon Record Shop (12 Eliot St. B, Harvard Square, Cambridge) is for the truly initiated, mostly initiated into punk and metal. Contrast it with a more generalist shop such as Planet Records, a few blocks away.
Louisville, KY | Jack Harlow Foundation and Guestroom Records Give Away 100 Records and Record Players: The partnership gave Louisville kids their choice of vinyl albums and players to go with them. Jack Harlow’s non-profit organization continues its mission to make Louisville a better place to live. In March, the Jack Harlow Foundation made Louisville a better sounding place too. In partnership with the local record shop Guestroom Records, they welcomed 100 local kids to come to the store, chose their favorite album, and then take home a record player to listen to it on. In a photo set by Urban Wyatt we spot kids with everything from Chief Keef’s “Glotoven” on glow-in-the-dark vinyl to Korn’s “Issues” and even Alex G’s “Trick.” When Travis Searle and Justin Sowers opened Guestroom Records all the way back in 2002, their inventory was their personal vinyl collection. They sold records out of their guest rooms and garages for 11 years, until they opened their retail location in the Clifton neighborhood in 2013. In 2024, they helped make memories for 100 kids and we are here for it.