UK | Young Brits aiming for a stylish death – by putting their ashes into vinyl records. The under 25s are moving towards trendy memorial ideas, while one in three of the older generation are happy to leave without a memorial of any kind. One in four young people want their ashes compressed into a trendy vinyl record, it has emerged. Researchers who carried out a detailed study also found the ‘selfie generation’ – those under the age of 25 – are twice as likely to want a gravestone as the over-55s. However one in three of the more modest older generation are happy to have no lasting memorial when they shuffle off this mortal coil. Nearly half of young people who said they’d prefer to be cremated would like their ashes made into a diamond. The study was carried out by Simplicity Cremations. Spokesman Mark Hull said: “The way we want to be remembered is changing radically.”
Oakland, CA | Japanese-Inspired Hi-Fi Vinyl Bar Coming to Oakland. It’ll be the first of its kind in the Bay Area. …Hi-fi bars like Bar Shiru are just starting to make waves stateside. In Los Angeles, In Sheep’s Clothing recently opened as a listening bar hidden within Lupetti Pizzeria, and Stones Throw Records debuted Gold Line with one of the city’s best sound systems. Taking a cue from Tokyo, Bar Shiru will emphasize jazz — both traditional jazz as well as genres that tie back to jazz in some way, like hip-hop, soul, funk, and electronic music. The goal is to expose multigenerational audiences to new sounds, and once Bar Shiru’s musical identity gets solidified, Gahr and Raza plan to experiment with artist collaborations, guest lecture nights, and other sonically-minded one-off events. “I think one of the things we love about jazz is it’s such a common thread through so many genres and so much of the music we appreciate,” Raza says. “We definitely see music as a really connective force in our community.”
Learn How to Run a Vinyl-Only Record Label With I Love Acid. Josh Doherty discuses the ins and outs of running his I Love Acid and Balkan Records imprints. Point Blank’s latest video features I Love Acid and Balkan Records’ Josh Doherty, who discusses the inner workings of running vinyl labels. In the video, Doherty outlines his various projects, including Posthuman, his duo with Rich Bevan, the vinyl/digital label Balkan Records, and the vinyl-only I Love Acid, which releases 303 copies at a time, hand stamped and hand numbered, with no digital. He details his processes for running everything smoothly, from pressing records to social media marketing, networking at club nights, staying true to your vision, and even his opinion on CDs.
Long Beach, CA | Live After 5 in Long Beach is on the record with vinyl night this month: Live After 5 is starting the year with an ode to vinyl. The free music event, which takes place on the third Thursday of every month and includes performances in downtown Long Beach, returns Jan. 17 with Vinyl Record Night. The 5-9 p.m. event begins at The Loop at 100 E. Ocean Blvd. where there will be a vinyl jam with contemporary dancers performing. You’ll also have the chance to win records and gift cards to Fingerprint Records and Toxic Toast Records. Live After 5 includes an open-air trolley that circulates between the The Loop and other performance areas. The monthly event was launched in 2013 by the Downtown Long Beach Alliance, which still organizes the event.
Marquette, MI | NMU record show, poster sale to be held Saturday: Tens of thousands of vinyl records, original art, cassette tapes, CDs, DVDs, video games, concert posters and other pop culture collectibles will be available for purchase at Northern Michigan University’s first record show and poster sale of the year. The free event, which is open to the public, is presented by the NMU Record Club and will be held Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Whitman Hall Commons. There are three NMU record shows held through the year — one during the fall near NMU’s homecoming, another in the winter when students are getting back into the swing of their routines after the holidays, and one in the spring close to May commencement. For about a decade, thousands have been introduced to a vast array of artists or discovered gems they’ve been searching for by attending these events. Jon Teichman, the show’s organizer, said it’s been a great way to bring folks together over the years.
Records as Time Machines: After years of experience as a producer and engineer, I’ve come to expect the unexpected—even with something as familiar as the sound of my own grandfather’s voice. Astute listeners can easily tell the difference between good and bad sounding recordings; great artists are immediately evident, compared to mediocre ones, even many decades after stardom and notoriety have faded. Likewise, styles of music and their associated performance affectations tend to come and go within the era in which they were first invented or embraced. In that way, classical music was replaced by Jazz, then supplanted by Rock and Pop, Metal, Fusion, Rap…. Over the last century and a half, an entire legion of music-making trends has come and gone with people’s fancies, year in and year out. And yet: artists like Enrico Caruso, Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, and (as it turns out) Alexander Kipnis live on, as their performance careers were captured on the commercial picture and sound media of their times, and are now distributed through YouTube, Vimeo, and other streaming media sites.
