Monthly Archives: October 2018

Carrollton, GA | New Record Shop Brings Vinyl to Life: Eric Shepard’s love for vinyl records goes back to his earliest childhood memories when he would sit in front of the record player and listen for hours to the great musicians like Elvis Presley. He gently slides a decades-old album from its case, gazing at its grooves under the light in his newly opened record store. “There’s a warm, resonating sound that you get from vinyl records,” says Eric. “You can really feel the ambiance. With vinyl, the musical nuances transport you in a way that streaming never does. The anticipation of hearing the needle drop and the first note sound through your speakers always leaves you wanting more. Nothing feels as good as vinyl sounds.” Eric fondly recalls first experiencing vinyl after his brother handed him a KISS album at the tender age of three. “I was hooked…”

Burlington, NC | Burlington’s Main Street Vinyl finds its groove: Edward Bishop flipped through albums in the bargain bins at Main Street Vinyl in downtown Burlington on Tuesday. A regular at the store, Bishop, 63, has collected albums since his youth. “Vinyl has never gone away despite the record companies always seeking to work on another way to package their product,” Bishop said. A brick and mortar store, Main Street Vinyl, 321 S. Main St., Burlington, offers audio enthusiasts the opportunity to own physical analog copies of the music that may be on the playlists of digital devices. Josh Garrett and his girlfriend, Amy McLamb, co-own the store, which opened in November, 2016…“I really like records and sharing with people,” Garrett said. “My dad was big into music and that broad taste of the different genres I listened to is reflected in the store inventory from rock n roll, jazz, soul, imports to the blues.”

Minneapolis, MN | Northeast Minneapolis’ only record store is closing: Michelle Obama never chose to fight that particular urban malady, instead focusing her efforts on the inarguably more troublesome food deserts. Who, then, would combat the area’s vinyl deficiencies? Raoul Benavides would. He opened Flashlight Vinyl at 1519 Central Ave. NE that same year, thus giving Northeast its only dedicated record shop. Until October 31. That’s when Flashlight will go dark forever, according to a Facebook post from Benavides.”Gratitude is all a person can have at this point,” the shop owner wrote Monday. “It was my honor to serve northeast Minneapolis with music. After three years, We are closing our doors. So many great people, new friends, and stories came to visit and share their love of vinyl.” Halloween will be Flashlight’s final day in business, and you bet there’ll be a spooktacular liquidation sale.

Los Angeles, CA | Stones Throw Records opens listening bar in LA: …Open this week, the bar is situated under Stones Throw’s offices, and is a partnership between the label’s founder Peanut Butter Wolf (Chris Manak), label manager Jason McGuire and restaurateur Tyler Bell. The bar’s design nods to vintage recording studios, Japanese hi-fi bars as well as the surrounding neighborhood; the press release says “cross sectional sofas invoke both mid-century minimalism and the custom car culture that rolls past the bar on Figueroa, part of historic Route 66.” The bar’s centerpiece however, is 7,500 records from Peanut Butter Wolf’s own collection, a Thorens turntable, McIntosh Amps and Altec Lansing speakers. The records will be split into rock, soul, reggae, rap, electronic, world and jazz categories. On weekdays, bartenders will select from the collection, while on weekend, Gold Line will host guests mixing exclusively from the in-house vinyl, with a strict policy of no outside records and no computers.

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HD Vinyl Partners With One of the World’s Largest Record Pressing Plants: Back in 2016, ‘HD Vinyl’ emerged as a back-of-the-envelope idea hatched outside Vienna, Austria. Interesting, but mostly theoretical. Now, the company, part of Rebeat Innovation, has received millions in funding, owns critical patents, and is striking major partnerships. That includes a number of deals with major vinyl record pressing plants, including GZ Media, announced this week. The massive GZ, situated in Loděnice, Czech Republic, has joined forces to retrofit HD’s ceramic, laser-cut stampers to select machines. “Since HD Vinyl stampers will be made out of laser-cut ceramic instead of electroplated metal stampers, new molds and fittings have to be developed,” explained HD Vinyl (and Rebeat Innovation) founder, Guenter Loibl.

Norwich, UK | Opinion: why technology sometimes makes things worse: David Clayton says you haven’t lived until you’ve heard music through a juke box – which means most of the younger generation haven’t lived. …in one technological evolution, I put it to you, we have gone the other way. I was chatting to a pal, who’s something of a vinyl record and music aficionado. In fact, he’s known as “Dr. Vinyl” around these parts. Whenever we meet, he’s eager to play me some long-lost track he’s just discovered. From out of his trouser pocket came his miniscule mp3 player and a speaker the size of a golf ball. One connected to the other, he scrolled down hundreds of titles and then filled the room with a sound which was wildly disproportionate to the size of the thing playing it. I once had a garage full of records and this little gadget offered the same storage capacity!

Atlanta, GA | Kosmo Vinyl Brings Punk Rock to Rose Library: Artist Kosmo Vinyl shared his international perspective on punk and D.I.Y. culture, as well as his experience with The Clash and other bands, at the Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book (Rose) Library, which boasts a growing collection of punk and Do-It-Yourself (D.I.Y.) culture in Atlanta, on Sept. 26. Rose Library Curator of Modern Political and Historical Collections Randy Gue introduced Vinyl as a man who holds many titles including, but not limited to: “A press agent, a conceptual publicist, rogue manager, manager, a force of nature, emcee, ringmaster, conciliary, chaperone, factotum, fromage du pompadour, the creative director of The Clash, a producer and an artist.”

Kate Bush’s entire discography to be reissued: Many of Bush’s albums have been unavailable on vinyl for at least a decade. Kate Bush’s entire back catalog will be reissued on vinyl and CD in November. Many of Bush’s albums have been unavailable on vinyl for at least a decade. Not only that, but the archival campaign marks the “first (and definitive) programme of remastering and includes the release of many rarities and cover versions on vinyl and CD for the first time,” according to a press release. Bush personally remastered each album herself with assistance from James Guthrie (Pink Floyd). The reissues will be packaged in four distinct vinyl boxes and released in two waves. The first two box sets are due out on November 16th, with the latter two sets following November 30th. Specifically, the fourth box is made up of rarities previously unreleased on vinyl, including an entire disc of cover versions.

Rolling Stones’ Classic ‘Beggars Banquet’ Gets 50th Anniversary Edition: The reissue of the 1968 landmark will feature a reproduction of a super-rare flexidisc interview with Mick Jagger. The Rolling Stones’ landmark 1968 album Beggars Banquet will be released in a new 50th Anniversary Edition by ABKCO Records in multiple formats, including vinyl and CD, on 16 November. The limited edition vinyl format will have a gatefold jacket with a bonus 12” of the album’s celebrated opening track ‘Sympathy For the Devil’ in mono. That disc is cut at 45rpm and backed with an etching of the original “toilet” cover. Also in the package is a replica of the rare Japanese bonus flexidisc, which contains a telephone interview with Mick Jagger from 1968, and a download code for the album plus interview. Newly mastered by Grammy-winning engineer Bob Ludwig, the disc’s lacquers were cut at Abbey Road and it’s pressed on 180g vinyl.

Lower Merion, PA | Iconic Main Line record store about to close for good: …For over 40 years, Gold Million Records, originally under the name Plastic Fantastic, has been the place to go for music. But over the next few weeks, the store will close for good as owners Howard Gold and Max I. Million have decided to close the iconic store. “This was both of our passions right from the beginning,” Gold said in a recent interview inside the store at its current location at 851 W. Lancaster Ave. in Bryn Mawr. “What a treat to be able to share it, and people appreciated it.” Among their memories of the last 42 years are the giants of the rock industry who have passed through the doors. Today, there are photos on the walls of many of those visits, including Blondie, Joan Jett, the Ramones, the Hooters, the Police and many others. Gold said many of the times those bands were at the store was before they got really big. To Gold and Million, those stars were just kids at the time.

San Francisco, CA | Turn the music up: The 4 best spots to score vinyl records in San Francisco: Love to spin vinyl records at home? Hoodline crunched the numbers to find the top vinyl hotspots in San Francisco, using both Yelp data and our own secret sauce to produce a ranked list of where to venture next time you’re in the market to hear your tunes the old-fashioned way…Topping the list is Rooky Ricardo’s Records. Located at 419 Haight St. (between Webster and Fillmore streets) in Hayes Valley, this is the highest-rated vinyl record spot in San Francisco, boasting 4.5 stars out of 83 reviews on Yelp. Owner Dick Vivian opened Rooky Ricardo’s three decades ago, with a collection of 35,000 45s from a distributor who had gone out of business years before. Since then, the spot has welcomed LPs to its collection to fill things out, becoming one of the country’s top spots for funk and soul records.

Vancouver, CA | VIFF 2018: Kid Koala presents Satellite as part of Live program: Kid Koala brings his interactive turntable orchestra project Satellite to Vancouver. …To bring Satellite to fruition, 50 turntable stations are set up in the performance space. Each station also has a mixing effects console, a series of colour-coded vinyl records, and directions of how to follow the score. This is accomplished by a series of subtle lighting changes which correspond to the colour-coded albums, that the audience plays. Of course, each station will spin along somewhat differently than the next, and also be adding its own sound effects into the master mix. The creative team did consider the very strong possibility that the resulting sound could be extremely and profoundly unpleasant.

Mic Drop: W Hotels Launches Music Label: W Hotels isn’t just marching to their own beat, they’re debuting it. The iconic brand behind the world’s first on-property music festival series (WAKE UP CALL) today announces its newest project: W Records. At its core, W Records is a record label and resource for artists selected by W Hotels and their music industry partners. From signing to release, W Records supports artists through every step of development, providing recording space, video shoot locations, mixing and mastering and finally, distribution of the new sound via live performances, streaming and vinyl production. Tracks for W Records are recorded, naturally, in W Sound Suites (the brand’s signature, on-site recording studios) with four rising artists stepping up to the mic over the next year. Starting today, tracks from the first artist will be released through W Records both digitally and via limited edition runs of vinyl, offering W fans a throwback way to enjoy new/next music.