Hamden, CT | Beloved CT Record Store Closing; Owners Plan To Keep Music Alive With Online Shop: Hamden’s go-to spot for vinyl collectors and music fans is preparing to close its storefront after 36 years, but the owners promise to keep the music alive with an online shop. Replay Records, which opened in 1989, announced on Facebook that it will close the store at the end of July. The owners, Doug and Mary Snyder, thanked the customers who’ve shopped there for the last three decades. “So many people have come through our doors in the last 36 years,” Mary posted. “It’s truly been a remarkable adventure for us both. We’ve always done our very best to bring you quality vinyl at affordable prices. I hope it’s been an enjoyable ride for everyone. I know Doug and I sure loved it.” Through the end of the month, the store is offering big discounts on used records and CDs.
London, UK | Vinyl Variety: Grace Hayhurst Goes Through Some of Her Favourite London Record Shops: Musician Grace Hayhurst joins us for Vinyl Variety, sharing five of her favourite record stores in London, England, including Crypt of the Wizard, FOPP, Sounds of the Universe, Sister Ray, and Reckless Records. The world faces some cold, complex realities, and Grace Hayhurst is coming to terms with some of them on her new album The World Is Dying. This is the singer and guitarist’s debut full-length album, inspired by some of her perceptions of the world’s predicament. …As an old school musician, you better believe Hayhurst loves her vinyl. She joins us today for Vinyl Variety, sharing with us five of her favourite vinyl shops, one of which is her own!
Batumi, GE | Tbilisi’s Vodkast Records opens pop-up store in Batumi: One of the Georgian capital’s key underground labels is coming to the coast. Tbilisi-based label and vinyl outlet Vodkast Records has opened a new pop-up space in Batumi. Located inside the hotel Rooms Batumi, the new outpost operates daily from 12 PM to 8 PM, serving as a hub for analog culture and leftfield sounds. Alongside its curated record selection, the pop-up will host a rotating array of artists—an opening party on June 30th hosted Georgian DJs Zurkin and Vakho, as well as Norway’s DJ Fett Burger. Since launching in 2013, Vodkast has grown from a record store into a label, podcast series, and key platform in Georgia’s underground music scene. The new location will remain open for the entirety of the summer season.
Phoenix, AZ | Phoenix record store for sale after 43 years: ‘Burnt out on being a stool jockey.’ Timmy Stamper isn’t selling Tracks in Wax because the business isn’t doing well. It’s just that he’s been feeling like it might be time to see what else this world has to offer. It’s been nearly 10 years since Stamper purchased Tracks in Wax, a record store at 4741 N. Central Ave., just south of Camelback Road in Phoenix, from Julie Chiesa, the widow of Dennis Chiesa, who opened the business with his brother Don in 1982. By the time he bought it, Stamper had been working there for nearly 10 years. “There’s a lot of things that since I’ve had the store, I’ve put on hold: playing in bands, making records, vacationing, that sort of thing,” he says. “I don’t have employees, so it’s just a matter of hitting the wall and getting burnt out on being a stool jockey. It just becomes a grind after a while, like any job. And when you get burnt out, it’s time for something else.”
Maybe you had to hear it stoned. Maybe that’s it. I never heard it stoned. I never listened to any Jimi Hendrix LP stoned except 1969’s Smash Hits, which I liked because whomever it was that cherry-picked its tunes made certain they were both (1) catchy and (2) short. Smash Hits coheres, as does 1967’s Are You Experienced, which is more than can be said for the shambolic Electric Ladyland, which one critic called “the fullest realization of Jimi’s far-reaching ambitions,” but which I find both uneven and diffuse—in short, less a case of far-reaching than overreaching, and overreaching at its worst.
Hamden, CT | Replay Records closing in Hamden after more than 30 years in business: For 36 years, Doug and Mary Snyder have been slinging records out of Replay Records — a staple record shop located on Hamden’s Whitney Avenue. First opened in 1989, the shop moved from its original Whitney Avenue location to West Haven before moving back to Hamden for nearly the past two decades. Now, at the end of the month, the record store will be closing down and transitioning to online sales. “So many people have come through our doors in the last 36 years. It’s truly been a remarkable adventure for us both. We’ve always done our very best to bring you 
Rockland, ME | Private Press brings old-school records to Rockland’s Main Street: Like most Gen Xers, Justin Miller remembers his first vinyl record, The Germs. Back in the 1970s and early 1980s, before cassette tapes became overwhelmingly the popular choice for playing music, vinyl was king. Private Press, a 200-square foot space on 385 Main Street, which opened June 13, has been Miller’s dream business for some time. A private collector of vinyl records for more than 30 years, he began buying and selling records online before deciding to move the business to a brick-and-mortar location. “During the COVID-19 pandemic, I had a lot of time and dove even deeper down the well, discovering music,” he said. “As long as I’ve been interested in music, this felt like a natural progression and [the store] brings me a lot of happiness. I was working two remote jobs and resigned from one 
I don’t base my opinion on the fact that Ringo is the humblest and most lovable Beatle. No, all one has to do is compare his best of, 1975’s Blast from Your Past, with those of the other members of the Fab Four. It’s got a higher winner to loser ratio (90%, and that’s only if I call “Beaucoups of Blues” a loser, which it ain’t!) than John Lennon’s Shaved Fish (64%) Wings’ Wings Greatest (50%), and George Harrison’s The Best of George Harrison, which I refuse to even consider seeing as how its first side is composed solely of Beatles’ era songs.
Shepherdstown, WV | Admiral Analog’s Audio Assortment finds new home, plans expansion to inventory. Admiral Analog’s Audio Assortment closed the doors to its storefront at 141 East German Street on June 15, after seven years in the location. Over the following four days, the business underwent a move to a location down the street, at 119 West German Street. On Friday, the business opened its new doors to the public. “It was a whole lot of work,” said owner Andrew Barton. “We’re not completely done yet, but everything essential to us selling and being in business is here.” According to Barton, this is the second move his 11-year-old business has had to make. The reason for this move, to the former home of Dickinson & Wait Craft Gallery, is to enable the business to expand its inventory. The new location is 
Minneapolis, MN | After 37 years, Hymie’s in Minneapolis spins its last record: After nearly four decades of serving the Twin Cities’ vibrant music scene, Hymie’s Records has decided to close its doors. Originally opened in the 1980s, the Longfellow neighborhood shop once praised by the Beastie Boys and Rolling Stone, announced that it has no plans to reopen. Adam Taylor, the store’s fourth owner, bought Hymie’s in 2019. Taylor says that throughout the pandemic, record shops around the Twin Cities were hit hard, experiencing financial hurdles that put some out of business. While Hymie’s managed to stay afloat, Taylor says that added financial pressures chipped away at the business’s future. “Rent is astronomical. I can’t afford 4,000 bucks a month,” Taylor said, “I’m out of spirits. 
