Category Archives: A morning mix of news for the vinyl inclined

Cardiff, UK | World’s oldest record store bans Morrissey sales over far-right support: ‘I only wished I’d done it sooner’ says owner of Spillers in Cardiff after singer’s backing of For Britain party. Spillers Records, the world’s oldest record shop, has banned Morrissey albums from sale. The shop in Cardiff made the decision due to Morrissey’s support for the far-right political party For Britain, including wearing a badge with the party’s logo when performing on a US talk show this month. “I’m saddened but ultimately not surprised that Spillers is unable to stock Morrissey’s releases any longer,” said the shop’s owner, Ashli Todd. “I only wished I’d done it sooner.”

Port Macquarie, AU | We Shall Overcome record signed by Martin Luther King found in Port Macquarie worth up to $25,000: A record, personally signed by assassinated civil rights leader, Dr Martin Luther King Jr, is ‘a pretty rare find’ and could be worth up to $25,000. The 1961 released Folkways Record, ‘We Shall Overcome’, features songs by the Montgomery Gospel Trio and the Nashville Quartet with Guy Carawan. It is not unusual in itself, but the signature makes it hot property, according to Port Macquarie record store owner Travis Fredericks. The signatures featured on the album of King and human rights activist Bernard Lafayette are very special. “It’s not the record but the signatures on it that are so significant,” said Mr Fredericks. “These guys were obviously civil rights legends, King himself was the face of the civil rights movement. “It belongs in a museum really, as an important part of world history.

Marquette, MI | Vinyl Record takeover at Ore Dock Brewing Company: Another vinyl record show is coming to the Ore Dock Brewing Company. Northern Michigan University’s Vinyl Record Club is hosting their 21st semi-annual vinyl record show this weekend. Jon Teichman of the NMU Vinyl Record Club says there will be over 10,000 records to browse through and purchase, as well as plenty of cassettes, CDs, posters, and t-shirts. “Something for everybody,” says Teichman. “Everything from Abba to Zappa, blues, country, funk, classical, soundtracks, cassette tapes, CDs. Everything.” There will also be experts around to answer any question you have about records, record players, or if you just want to talk about music. The Ore Dock Vinyl Record Show starts Thursday at 5:00 p.m. and runs through May 27 at the Ore Dock Brewing Company. There will also be live music performances all weekend long. It’s free and open to the public to attend.

Telluride, CO | Sunshine daydream: Every time I go to Tyler, Texas to visit family, I make time to frequent Sunshine Records. I never leave empty-handed. Packed to the brim with crate upon crate of used records redolent of grandma’s cellar, I lose track of time when I’m digging there. If members of my family are in tow, my visits are curtailed. I intuit when their boredom sets in and make my way to the cash register. Except there isn’t a cash register. It’s just the owner, Don, a cool dude, T-shirted and about my age, who disappears behind wobbling stacks of boxes and returns with my change. Sunshine is not a perfect record shop. I love it because I’ve found some absolute gems there, but when I visit, all I can think about is the shop’s massive potential. The things I’d get to work on are numerous, starting with Don’s irregular hours. He’s closed, it seems, more than he’s open.

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Melbourne, AU | Vinyl records in Melbourne: An all-round celebration of all things great about vinyl. Record Store Day was happening in Melbourne on Saturday, April 13, where a whole clutch of Melbourne’s great record stores hosted a stack of some of Melbourne’s greatest bands celebrating the brilliance of our independent record store scene. Record stores participating included Off The Hip Records, Wax Museum Records, Easty Street Records, Greville Records, Paradise Records, Basement Discs, Wah Wah Records in Collingwood, Zia Records, Muscle Shoals Records. In the city, at Rocksteady Records, one of the highlights was the set performed by Batts performing songs from her debut album The Grand Tour. This is Batts’ debut album, and The Grand Tour utilises audio recordings from NASA spacecraft journeying through the solar system.

Withington, UK | Popular Withington music shop looks set to start serving booze – here’s what locals are saying: Wilderness Records opened on Egerton Crescent last month. Plans to serve alcohol at a new Withington record shop could be signed off next week – but they have divided opinion in the borough. Local councillors back the proposal, saying the recently-opened shop could become a ‘focal point’ for Withington village and that the owners have a successful track record in the city. But the council’s licensing team want the application refused, arguing that it could lead to increased anti-social behaviour. One resident said it could set a ‘totally inappropriate’ precedent for bars off the main high street. Wilderness Records opened on Egerton Crescent last month, with a party on Record Store Day. Its bosses, who also own Junkyard Golf Club, are now asking for permission to serve alcohol at the premises until 10pm each evening. They’re also planning on doubling the size of the space and introducing a garden terrace outside.

Woodstock, NY | After taking a year off, the Woodstock Vinyl Co-Op is back – in two locations! Now with more dealers than ever before. We’ll have many musical genres available in a very affordable price range: Rock, pop, disco, punk, new wave, lots of jazz, reggae, world music, soul and R&B, blues and more! What are you looking for? This event will be rain or shine. Cash or credit accepted. Located only one mile east of the center of Woodstock, 18 Wardwell Lane is easy to find! Also, of course, the Vinyl Garage will be open for THREE DAYS at 11 Osnas Lane, two miles east of the Wardwell Lane sale towards Saugerties. May 25-27, 10am-5pm. There will be 10,000s of LPs, CDs, 45s +12”s. Two enormous tents and one large garage full of stuff. From bargains to collectibles. Music for every budget (some Cheaper Than Free!). All genres. Free refreshments. Plenty of parking. Listen before you buy.

St. Louis, MO | SOHO Record Shop Brings Eclectic Mix of Vinyl to Manhattan Antique Mall: When kicking off a new business venture — a record store within a north county antique mall, let’s say — it’s always a good sign when you have a line waiting outside the doors before you’re even open. “This morning an associate sent me a message that says, ‘There’s twenty people waiting in a line outside,'” says Graham Swimmer of Saturday’s grand opening of SOHO Record Shop at Manhattan Antique Marketplace (10431 St Charles Rock Road, St. Ann; 314-733-5285). “I said, ‘Oh wow!'” Swimmer is a managing partner of the massive St. Ann-based antique mall, and for the past two weeks, as preparations were being made to open the new record store within its walls, his whole life has been vinyl. Tasked with sorting through the 5,000-piece record collection he and his partners had amassed for the store, he’s intimately familiar with the stock on hand.

Austin, TX | Austin Record Convention takes over Palmer Events Center. Austin Record Convention, the largest sale of recorded music in the United States. Record buyers and collectors look at buying 12 inch vinyl’s records for a dollar each at the Austin Record Convention, the largest sale of recorded music in the United States. Started in 1981 the show brings together collectors, dealers and over 300 vendors from all over the world for a weekend of activity in Austin and end on Sunday afternoon May 19, 2018 at the Palmer Events Center.

Grand Junction, CO | Triple Play Records celebrates 31 years of business: A local record store took advantage of the Downtown Music Festival this weekend. Triple Play Records on Main Street hosted their 31st-anniversary sale, to celebrate the many years they’ve been in business, and say thank you to customers. They say they have excess inventory of vinyl records they need to get rid of, and the festival going on downtown is perfect to bring in some new business. “The Off-Road Festival has been amazing. Every year it continues to get better. It used to be the Art and Jazz Festival, so we started the sale then, but we’ve just held it through the change of the festivals and, the amount of people it brings down is amazing,” said Matthew Cesario, General Manager, Triple Play Records. After the store closed for the day on Sunday, they left out some records for customers to take for free.

Adelaide, AU | Vinyl Squeeze bucks the trend and proves Adelaide still loves a great record store: Sadly, in recent times, there has been more of a need to report on the closure of record and CD stores as they lose their fight against the dual digital enemy of streaming and downloading than there has been on celebrating the arrival of new music retailers. Eighteen months ago, Craig Siviour (aka Cragos to his regulars) after a decade of meticulous planning, bucked the trend and opened Vinyl Squeeze at Gilles Plains confident that there was sufficient demand for a quality vinyl retailer in the north-eastern suburbs of Adelaide. A visit to the store immediately confirms that this is a store sure to please record collectors. There is a huge range of new and second-hand vinyl albums and 45s. The back room also has a wide selection of second-hand CDs and music DVDs, books and tapes. And the prices are surprisingly affordable! Everything is beautifully and accessibly laid out – and there is also an unusually large amount of ‘Weird’ Al Yankovic memorabilia on display around the store…

Houston, TX | 3 top spots for vinyl records in Houston: Looking to score vinyl records? Hoodline crunched the numbers to find the top vinyl record hot spots in Houston, using both Yelp data and our own secret sauce to produce a ranked list of the best spots to venture next time you’re in the market for vinyl records…Topping the list is Vinal Edge Records. Located at 239 W. 19th St. in the Heights, the spot to score music and DVDs and vinyl records is the highest rated vinyl record spot in Houston, boasting 4.5 stars out of 61 reviews on Yelp.

Kent, UK | Owners to sell Herne Bay record store B’side the C’side: A 65-year-old who has been living his boyhood fantasy of owning a record store has put his beloved shop on the market. Martin Eastman and wife Chris have been running B’side the C’side in Herne Bay High Street since 2013. But they have decided to relocate to Essex and placed an asking price of £350,000 on the freehold for the store. “We’ve lived the dream,” Mr Eastman said. “I’ve wanted to own one ever since I bought my first record in 1962. We originally came from Essex and are going back to be nearer our family. “It is a shame, but we’re trying to sell it as a going concern because we believe every town should have a record shop, especially a vinyl one.” The business has been on the market since January and the couple is hoping to up sticks by the end of the year. Mr Eastman insists his business has been unaffected by the rise of music downloads and streaming platforms, such as Spotify and Amazon Music. Instead, he believes vinyl has become increasingly popular among people between the ages of 20 and 30 in recent years.

Bakersfield, CA | Original pressings of Buck Owens LPs available May 31 from Omnivore (online only)—40 original, vintage, sealed volumes: On May 31, 2019, exclusively from the Omnivore Recordings’ web store, 40 original, vintage, sealed Buck Owens LPs will be made available for sale. The stock comes directly from Owens’ own collection in Bakersfield. The original pressing LPs span much of Buck’s career, from 1964’s Together Again/My Heart Skips a Beat to Act Naturally, released in 1989. Quantities are limited and the LPs will be sold first come, first served. This is an incredible opportunity to own a piece of country music history direct from the collection of the artist!

Réunion Island | The world’s best record shops #150: Vinyl Run, Réunion: Never mind desert island discs. As the owner of Réunion Island’s sole record shop, Christophe has got you covered. Thanks to its geographical location, Réunion Island boast a unique mix of styles and cultures. Situated in the Indian ocean, with Madagascar to the west and the white beaches of Mauritius to the east, Réunion boasts a thriving scene of its own, with DIY parties such as The Primative Ö, Babani Soundsystem and Think LOUD. All are represented at Vinyl Run. Classic reggae, dub, zouk reissues and French language disco all provide a fitting soundtrack to the environment that lies on its doorstep. Releases that showcase the local sounds of Maloya – a genre known as the ‘musical soul’ of Réunion – and the heavily politicised island folk of séga (and the reggae-tinged sub-genre known as séggae) are aplenty, with artists like Danyel Waro, Kaya and Ziskakan filling the racks. “I try to introduce our music and culture to people all around the world. I want them to discover these new styles,” says Christophe. “These genres are like the blues of Réunion Island.”

Mystic, CT | Sweet sounds: Website names Mystic Disc ‘the best record store in Connecticut’: It’s no wonder Mystic Disc, the hole-in-the-wall record shop tucked away in an alleyway on Steamboat Wharf, was recently voted “the best record store in Connecticut.” Fans come from all over the Nutmeg State, from New York, from Hawaii, from Europe and from next door, to pore through the bins of records and to listen to owner Dan Curland talk — talk about music and records, of course, but also to listen to him talk about the importance of listening to young people, the importance of community and the importance of a lively downtown. Part father figure, part music man, part pied piper, and full-time storyteller, Curland has influenced the lives of music lovers from three generations, according to those who know him best. “He’s the most unique individual I’ve ever met,” said Rich Freitas, who works for Curland one day a week and has known him for much of his life. “And he’s one of the best people I know.”

New Lawsuit Claims Apple Is Part of a ‘Massive Music Piracy Operation’: Despite Apple’s laudable efforts at fairly compensating songwriters and the tight ship that it runs with the iTunes Store and Apple Music, it seems that at least one songwriter — or his estate at least — feels that the company not only hasn’t been doing enough to prevent piracy, but is actually actively engaged in it. A new lawsuit by the estate of Harold Arlen — the composer of classic songs such as the Wizard of Oz’s 1939 Over the Rainbow — is accusing not only Apple, but also Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Pandora of selling unauthorized recordings of some of the songwriter’s most famous music. According to Forbes, the lawsuit claims that the tech giants are involved in a “massive music piracy operation,” having joined with “notorious music pirates” to sell and stream thousands of pirated recordings, including over 6,000 unauthorized recordings of Arlen’s music. In fact, according to the lawsuit, digital music stores are now “flooded” with unauthorized copies…

The 28 greatest Best Of albums: Greatest Hits albums are a great introduction to an artist, but they’re easy to get wrong, too. Here are the essential ones for any music lover’s collection. Alan Partridge’s favourite album of all time is ‘Best of the Beatles’, which suggests you can’t really go wrong with a greatest hits collection. But don’t let Partridge fool you. Best of’s can somehow manage to ignore a band’s actual appeal, throwing in big-selling hits and ignoring the rest. Either that, or they have the distinct whiff of a record company cash-in. But without exception, you can trust in the below – best of releases which have every right to carry the classics.

Ludington, MI | Going vinyl: Record store to open Saturday: A new business aims to find its groove on South James Street — an independently owned record store in downtown Ludington. Vintage Nutz, at 301 S. James St., will sell, buy and trade vinyl records, turntables, cassettes, CDs, VHS tapes and other retro items and memorabilia, said owner Ryan Lloyd. “We’ll be focusing on the music, but we’ll have a little bit of everything — anything old-school,” he said. The store will host its grand opening from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. this Saturday. As a special offer, customers who buy during opening day will get a 10-percent discount off their next purchase, Lloyd said.

How is the resurgence of vinyl impacting our environment? The music industry has marked more than a decade of phenomenal growth in vinyl sales, but the question of sustainability remains. The figures are no doubt impressive: Some 14.3 million albums were shipped in 2017. Sales were up almost 200 percent year over year through the end of April 2019. And that’s only part of the story. Those numbers don’t include records sold directly to fans by touring bands or via individual sites, not to mention second-hand sales. “What the vinyl industry doesn’t really necessarily recognize,” Ryan Wilson of the Concord Music Group said in 2017, “is that there is a vinyl culture that lives outside of the new-release cycle, outside of Nielsen SoundScan and consumption charts that will always be there.” Unfortunately, there are a series of hidden costs associated with all of that great music – costs borne directly by our over-stressed planet.

Lincoln, UK | It’s coming home! Vinyl fans ecstatic after iconic Lincoln record store returns to the place where it first started: It’s moved to the original site where it opened in 1991. Lincoln’s vinyl fans are ecstatic after the city’s only independent record shop ‘came home’ to the place where it began nearly 30 years ago. Back to Mono announced earlier this week that it had moved a few doors down, back to the upper floor at 26 Guildhall Street – to where the shop started trading in 1991. And the business has a slick new promo video to promote itself. Owner Jim Penistan, 48, otherwise known as Jim Sonic, opened the shop’s predecessor, called Sonic Sounds, which operated at the site until around 2007. The music lover said that record sales have enjoyed a renaissance ever since 2009 and now account for 80 per cent of music sales. The shop has also expanded its collection of second-hand and new records to more than 10,000 – it also stocks CDs, which still account for 20 per cent of music sales, and a wide range of music memorabilia, including posters and tee-shirts.

Vinylize Your Sound: Thenatan’s VINYLIZER VST is designed to add old vinyl textures: Thenatan says that their VINYLIZER VST generates the warm sound and drive of old vinyl records and is a handy tool designed to add a wide range of Old Vinyl Textures to any studio toolkit. Here’s the details in their own words…VINYLIZER VST lets you control each nostalgic element independently, giving you all the vintage turntable sounds you love. Add a Non-Stop Vinyl ‘grit & grime’ Texture to your clean, digital tracks Or Give your tracks that old school flavor by adding a touch of noise dust and Hiss As Simple As Press & Hold a Note on your Midi Keyboard. These analog artifacts will add life and warmth to your tracks, just like the old records from back in the days when your record-player had “soul.”

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.

30 years of data shows the music industry peaked when Napster hit the scene: The music industry, like all industries, has changed a lot over the last 30 years due to advancements in technology and the advent of the internet. A new graph from the data experts at Chartr shows just what that change has meant in terms of what kind of media consumers are buying and how much revenue the industry is making from those sales. The transition from vinyl to cassette to CD to digital is familiar to all music fans, but this chart still offers a look at some bizarre moments throughout the industry’s history. For example, 1999 marked the highest grossing year for record companies, which should come as no surprise to anyone who remembers spending $23 on a 10-song EP packed into a cheap, oft-broken jewel case. Coincidentally, that was the same year Napster was founded, ushering in a new era of music consumption that would result in record companies dragging their feet into the digital age. Other statistical aberrations include the recent resurgence in vinyl sales and the mid-2000s ringtone boom that we still can’t believe was actually a thing.

Tucson, AZ | Jack Grossi of Tucson’s PDQ Records dies at 94: Jack Grossi, who built one of the world’s largest collections of vinyl records and at one time had arguably one of the largest independent record stores in the U.S. — attracting buyers from as far away as Japan — died on April 27. He was 94. Grossi died suddenly at home, said his wife of 10 years Liz Ownbey. Grossi had spent that day working at PDQ Records, the store he started in Tucson with his first wife, Nadine, nearly 40 years ago with a single box of records they got from their daughter’s friend. They tossed the records onto a pile of stuff that they sold at the swap meet. The records sold so quickly that they started amassing record collections and opened the store on North Dodge Boulevard in 1985. At one point, they had 1 million vintage and often hard-to-find vinyl records by artists in all genres, from rock and punk rock to country and classical, Ownbey said. Customers came from throughout the United States and abroad to thumb through the rows and rows of records filling every wall of the 12,000-square-foot warehouse.

Vinyl sales record set to be smashed by Garth Brooks’ Legacy Collection: The country music star has reportedly sold more than a million copies of his latest vinyl release. If tomorrow never comes, Garth Brooks will always know he did right by holding out on music streaming. With pre-orders of his vinyl box set Legacy Collection selling all day long – and now surpassing a million units – Brooks looks set to have the biggest-selling vinyl record since the format made its resurgence at the start of the century. With the 7-LP box set retailing at $130, that’s some $18.5 million in vinyl revenues heading his way. You don’t need friends in low places to know that for artists, direct sales of vinyl, as Brooks has opted for here, pays better than streaming, with fans and collectors willing to pay extra for the tactile, analogue experience. Vinyl has of course been staging a significant comeback for the last 15 years, and Garth’s resolution to go against the grain and not sign-up for streaming platforms looks to have paid dividends.

The world’s best record shops #149: Basement Records, Kuala Lumpur: For those unfamiliar with the underground music scene, it may come as a surprise to hear that the Malaysian city of Kuala Lumpur is a haven for punk rock and DIY hardcore. Shopes like Tandang present cassette tapes while hosting riotous shows from locals and touring bands alike. However, formed in 2003, Kuala Lumpur’s darker side is rooted in Basement Records. “We don’t think we’re the best record shop in Malaysia or the world, but we’ve still been doing the stuff since day one,” says the Basement Records owner, who wishes not to be named. “We grew up in the ’80s and ’90s where the record store was our main source for music, so opening a record store wasn’t an idea, it was a dream.” As well as a healthy dose of grind, thrash and punk vinyl, they keep their cassettes well stocked. “Cassette culture has a stronghold in southeast Asia; cassettes never died here,” he says. True to the punk ethos, he’s proud that Basement also “brings political ideas” into what it does.

Brian Eno to reissue Apollo alongside new album of original compositions: A reimagining of the seminal 1983 ambient masterpiece. In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, ambient architect Brian Eno will release a remastered version of his album Apollo: Atmospheres & Soundtracks alongside a new album of original compositions. For All Mankind takes its name from the 1983 documentary by Al Reinert, for which the original Apollo album was intended to accompany. Check out the stunning visuals for a new track, ‘Like I Was A Spectator’, now. The new album features 11 new instrumental compositions, and sees Eno working alongside both his brother Roger and Daniel Lanois for the first time since the recording of Apollo. Apollo: Atmospheres & Soundtracks – Extended Edition, which includes both the remastered edition of Apollo and For All Mankind, arrives on July 19 and will be available digitally, on CD and vinyl.

Tribeca Film Review: ‘Other Music’ Except for a small sliver of humanity, “Other Music” — a film about a late, legendary, left-of-center New York record store and the community around it — is not a date-night movie. In fact, the documentary, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, is almost a meta version of its subject, in that it’s proudly focused on the niche audience of record-store aficionados dedicated enough to watch a documentary (see also Colin Hanks’ 2015 Tower Records doc “All Things Must Pass”) or a drama that doubles as a sociological study (“High Fidelity,” based on Nick Hornby’s novel) about one. But despite that, “Other Music” largely triumphs in its goal of documenting, celebrating and mourning not just a record store that was much more than a record store — for 21 years, it was an epicenter of the East Village alternative music scene…

All-in-one turntables offer a modern, minimalist introduction to vinyl: The continuing resurgence of the vinyl market has until recently been held back by the sometimes intimidating need for first time adopters to purchase additional preamps and power amplifiers for their new turntables. Users accustomed to all-encompassing mini hi-fi systems and wireless speakers who are considering vinyl potentially turn their back on the format when faced with the additional extras, but a new market – and new solutions – are now emerging for wireless and integrated turntable systems, offering the easiest introduction to vinyl’s pure analog sound. Previously, all-in-one turntables commonly took the form of cheap and nasty systems characterised by cramped and distorted audio, typically targeted at clueless hipsters shopping in big box retailers or clothing stores.

Tokyo, JP | Discover music hidden in x-ray films at Bone Music Exhibition: The Bone Music Exhibition in Harajuku’s Ba-Tsu Art Gallery offers an eye-opening look at how music transcended censorship in the USSR back in the ’50s and ’60s. Perhaps what’s most unusual about these bootleg tunes is that they were ‘embedded’ and disguised within x-ray films. These circular x-ray scans are ghostly remnants of a time when foreign music of certain genres were banned in the Soviet Union. Rock ‘n’ roll was condemned for being too corruptive, jazz for its flagrant eroticism, and thus songs by the likes of Elvis Presley and Ella Fitzgerald were prohibited. The problem was that by the end of World War II, the Soviets had already grown an unshakeable liking to such music. Rather than allowing arbitrary restrictions to separate them from the music they loved so dearly, young Soviet rebels dived into an intricate underground music trade where forbidden records were distributed like illicit drugs.

Joy Division announce Goodhood 40th anniversary Unknown Pleasures capsule collection: Joy Division are launching a capsule collection with Goodhood to celebrate the 40th anniversary of their iconic 1979 album ‘Unknown Pleasures’. The ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ hitmakers and East London fashion and lifestyle retailer have joined forces with renowned art director Peter Saville, who was the mastermind behind their world famous artwork based on an image of radio waves from pulsar CP 1919, from The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Astronomy, which he reversed the image of from black-on-white to white-on-black and printed on textured card for the original version of the record. Goodhood are working on a whole range of products designed by Peter from apparel, homeware, accessories to lifestyle goods, all featuring the same style motif…Peter also designed album sleeves for New Order, which the surviving members of Joy Division – vocalist and guitarist Bernard Sumner, bassist Peter Hook and drummer Stephen Morris – formed after frontman Ian Curtis tragically took his own life in May 1980, aged just 23…A press release states that “The LP will be pressed on 180g ruby red vinyl with an alternative white sleeve resembling the original design idea.”

Sorting through the chud: There’s bound to be some treasure when I buy 2,000 records, right? It’s not all thousand-dollar records and sweet soul music. There’s a word a lot of vinyl record enthusiasts use and that word is “chud.” A box of chud is basically a box of scratched-up Herb Alpert records where the covers have been partially devoured by termites, clawed by disgruntled kitties and autographed by mold. Chud may include records so warped, they make the turntable needle surf the tumultuous black wave like a doomed otter after an oil spill. If Barbara Streisand is the Chud queen, Andy Williams is the king. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not shitting on Barbara’s career. There’s a great drum break on her “Queen Bee” song, but overall, seeing a lot of Streisand records is a prime indicator of chud. When I thumb through a stack of records that begins with four Streisands, I’m not hopeful that Coltrane is coming next (John, not Chi). People are always trying to dump their chud, a classic record collector move…

Garth Brooks Sells More Than 1M Vinyl Records On Pre-Order: Country star Garth Brooks likes to break records and he’s just smashed yet another by surpassing one million in vinyl pre-order sales of his box set “Legacy Collection.” For Brooks, however, this means more to him than just breaking sales records. There’s something special about a vinyl record. “It’s not about the numbers,” he told me. “It’s about the fact that you have to own vinyl, which makes me think that people will never let music just be background noise.” According to Nielsen Music, vinyl sales were up 14.6% in 2018 with 16.8 million vinyl albums sold. Last year marked the 13th consecutive year of growth for the format and it was also a new yearly high for vinyl since Nielsen Music began tracking sales in 1991. In March, Brooks sold over 420,000 in just 18 hours and it was because of this success on the interactive livestream social selling network TalkShopLive that he decided to open this additional sale.

Johnstown, PA | 6 News Throwback: Music forever changed by compact disc: Music is always changing with the times, and so are the ways we listen to music. A WJAC report in the 1990s detailed the limelight coming off cassettes and being put on CDs. “If you wanted to ride around in the car and listen to music and you wanted to listen to your favorite stuff, you bought a CD,” said John George, owner of George’s Song Shop in Johnstown. Take one look at the awning on the outside of the shop, and you’ll know quite the history lesson is waiting for you on the inside. White text across the maroon colored awning reads, “America’s oldest record store.” It’s been in business for more than 80 years. Vinyl, cassettes, CDs – you name it, George’s Song Shop has it. “I carry a little bit of everything. Try to keep everyone happy. Got to have it all to keep them coming back,” said George. And they do keep coming back. One woman coming in to make a purchase says she’s been coming to George’s Song Shop since she was in seventh grade. George says one of the few slow periods at the shop was around the beginning of the digital age.

Billings, MT | New record store opens its doors in Billings: Cameron Records, located at 1440 Central Avenue, held a grand opening Saturday with about 200 people coming through the door. T.J. Goodwin and Andy Brown own Cameron Records. The two used to run getitonvinyl.com, a company that promoted independent record stores selling physical music. They would travel the country buying and re-selling vinyl records. In their travels, they would talk to record store owners and ask how they were surviving in the age of digital, streaming music. After they stumbled upon a large collection for sale, they decided to buy it up and open a record store in Billings. “We just kind of looked at each other and said you know what, we know how to do this. Let’s open a record store,” Goodwin said. “We decided to chase the dream,” Brown said. “The wives were on board. So we jumped in with both feet.”

The Vinyl Restoration Process With Arrow Records: …Arrow Video has a proud history or publishing definitive home video editions of the best of Italian genre cinema, from horror to gialli to westerns… And, as so many of these films have incredible soundtracks, we thought this would be a great place to start. Our first 11 soundtrack editions have largely been drawn from this cinema tradition, with the exception of ZERO BOYS which is a fantastic, very early work from that giant of film soundtracks Hans Zimmer (alongside veteran Stanley Myers). It’s a little-known synth gem! Some of the highlights of what we have published so far are Ennio Morricone’s wonderfully abrasive and atonal soundtrack to the giallo AUTOPSY and Stelvio Cipriani’s stunning scores to the gialli DEATH WALKS ON HIGH HEELS and THE IGUANA WITH THE TONGUE OF FIRE. Morricone is of course the ultimate maestro but this is one of his more difficult yet rewarding works.

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Long Beach, CA | The 3 best spots to score vinyl records in Long Beach: Looking to score vinyl records? Hoodline crunched the numbers to find the top vinyl record sources in Long Beach, using both Yelp data and our own secret sauce to produce a ranked list of the best spots to venture next time you’re in the market for some vinyl LPs. 1. Make Collectives: Topping the list is Make Collectives. Located at 430 E. First St. in Long Beach, the spot to score vinyl records and more is the highest rated vinyl record shop in Long Beach, boasting five stars out of 45 reviews on Yelp. 2. Third Eye Records: Next up is Long Beach’s Third Eye Records, situated at 2234 E. Fourth St., Suite A. With five stars out of 37 reviews on Yelp, the vintage and consignment spot, which offers new and used vinyl records, has proven to be a local favorite. 3. Dex Records: Dex Records, a spot to score vinyl records and DVDs in Long Beach, is another much-loved go-to, with 4.5 stars out of 16 Yelp reviews. Head over to 3906 E. Seventh St. to see for yourself.

Decatur, IL | ‘Come on down, I’ve got an idea.’ Midwest Music Expo at Millikin brings together art, artists: Only seven weeks ago, Millikin University professor Martin Atkins had an idea for a conference. “On March 9, I called a town hall meeting of everybody I knew in Decatur and said, ‘Come on down, I’ve got an idea,’” Atkins said. “I proposed this.” The idea was to bring together arts-related businesses, Millikin students, artists of all kinds from the community, and speakers on topics ranging from album artwork to mental health to the do-it-yourself artist marketing that has taken off in recent years, he said. Scheduling was juggled to coincide with the Oakwood Street Festival that begins at 5 p.m. today (Saturday), celebrating its 10th anniversary of live music, food and community. The festival happens four times a year, with the next three scheduled for June 29, Aug. 24 and Sept. 28. “The Oakwood Street Festival is kind of our crown jewel,” said Shawn Schollenbruch of the Oakwood Business Association. “It’s been a fantastic community event for the last decade.”

Fort Wayne, IN | ‘It was something’ – Smoky’s Record Shop on Wells for sale: The doors on Smoky’s Record Shop on Wells Street have been closed for more than a decade. Now, his last surviving family member has decided it’s time to sell the building and the contents. That job falls to Bob Sluyter, a record dealer and family friend. “I knew him from years ago from shopping here,” Sluyter begins. “I was looking for some Jerry Lee Lewis records and I heard a noise from the back room. Smoky came out and started telling me all about his experiences with meeting Jerry Lee and other country stars. “He was quite a character and he always had a good story about what was going on with those artists. Yeah, it wasn’t like going to the mall. You got a chance to hear, you know, some really good stories.” Smoky was born Charles L. Montgomery. He ran his store for the better part of five decades. He died in 2006. At that time, his family didn’t want to run the store but they didn’t want to sell it, either. The sale will likely take a unique buyer.

Sacramento, CA | Don’t Call It A Comeback: Why Analog Will Always Have An Audience: Let’s play a game. I’m scratchy and sometimes temperamental. I’m hard to travel with. And I may have collected dust in your parent’s attic for years. What am I? You guessed it. A vinyl record. Digital streaming has been the industry standard for years — allowing consumers to listen to audio with unprecedented ease. But analog formats that people can put their hands on are still alluring consumers. In April, 827,000 vinyl albums were sold during the 12th annual Record Store Day week. According to Nielsen Music, that’s the third-largest sales week for vinyl albums since 1991, when the company first began tracking sales. Cassette tape sales are also on the rise, and some artists are turning to analog recording practices. What is it about analog that’s bringing consumers to record stores?

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