Ithaca, NY | Vinyl’s in style; record shop booms as listeners look for alternative music sources: As gloomy rain hangs over COVID restrictions, inside Angry Moms Records shop in Ithaca, they’re busy dancing. Nestled in the basement of a bookstore with albums from floor to ceiling; where the crinkle of plastic casing and ring of a corded landline brings you back in time. And the shops owner hopes to keep it that way. “It’s like a time machine…” store owner George Johann said. A time machine for many to a time before COVID. Especially as COVID restrictions continue to cancel concerts and impact the music industry, it might feel a little bit like doomsday. But in record stores they’re actually seeing an increase in business this year as people come to remember the good times and thumb through the shelves. One customer says he’s been looking into vinyl to listen to while he stays home. “People have kind of been cooped up in the house a lot and they want to go back just to try out new things, stuff they haven’t seen in a while. I think we kind of see people going back to like, I don’t know, different ways of listening to stuff,” said local Ithaca College student Quinn Karlok.
Santa Rosa, CA | Doug Jayne, “The Luckiest Guy In The World” behind Santa Rosa’s Last Record Store, upfront on KRCB Midday Music: Doug Jayne, who says he listens to music all the time, has four shows on the public radio station KRCB, and is a half-partner in Santa Rosa’s Last Record Store. His recording studio/record label has produced his own albums and about 35 for other bands. He has three sons and five grandkids. Jayne considers himself “the luckiest guy in the world.” In our recent phone conversation, Jayne tells me he emerged on this planet in Southern California in 1954. He recalls seeing the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show as a youngster and thinking “Holy crap. This is crazy. This is gonna change the world.” Jayne learned basic guitar chords during his schooldays, but never played publicly until 1978, while living for a year in Durango, Colorado. While working in a music store there, he played at open mics, meeting other musicians. “I’m not much of a musician myself,” he says, crediting his later onstage success to surrounding himself with “tremendously great people. I’ve always been the weak link in any band I’ve played with.”
Kent, UK | A Record Fair with vinyl and CDs will be held at reopened Westgate Hall, Canterbury: Westgate Hall in Canterbury city centre recently reopened for the first time since lockdown, with plenty of safety measures, including sanitising stations and deep cleans. This weekend the second event will be held when fans of vinyl will be able to enhance their collections with finds from a range of eras and genres at the popular Record Fair, staged by UK Vinyl Vault on Saturday, October 3. Face masks must be worn by visitors and event organisers and there will be social distancing and a one-way system, among other measures for the event from 9.30am to 3.30pm. Westgate Hall CEO Clare Millett said: “The hall has inspired us to meet the Covid-19 challenges. It stood strong through two world wars, so we’ve had to stand strong again during this pandemic. “We are doing everything we can to remain a sustainable space for everyone now and in the future.”
PH | In an era of comebacks, vinyl records are spinning right back to music lovers’ hearts! We’re at a time of comebacks and as surprising as you might think, the rise of digital music streaming didn’t stop the resurgence of vinyl records. Yes, people are back to buying records off the shelves and online. Of note, these are not just reissues, but new releases by current artists as well! For the first time in three decades, vinyl records are spinning back on track outselling CDs, in fact, generating more than $224 million in revenue in 2019. Since peaking in the early 1980s, vinyl records didn’t fade into obscurity even with conveniently newer ways of listening to music; cassette tapes, CDs, and streaming services. According to Billboard, LPs contribution of 17% of album sales may not be much, but to factor in streaming for music consumption, really puts things in perspective. Digital music is accessible more than ever but how did this bulky, old-school tech gain new appeal? It’s not as convenient as newer options but this generation might be just reviving a hundred year-old technology come back from near extinction.
The FADER Launches Charitable Merch Collection Benefitting Independent Venues: As the COVID-19 crisis continues to disrupt the nation, the music industry is facing one of the biggest setbacks in its history. Realizing that 90% of independent music venues across the country are in danger of closing permanently, The FADER has partnered with This T-Shirt – a relief platform founded by Dylan Hattem and Cassandra Aaron of DS Projects – to do our part with the Save Our Stages capsule collection, starting with our hometown of New York City. In an homage to the classic tour t-shirt, The FADER & This T-Shirt will build on the National Independent Venue Association’s (NIVA) #SaveOurStages campaign, spotlighting independent venues across New York and the impact they hold within their communities. Current times call for bold and passionate messaging. As independent venues are the lifeblood of our culture, the collection taps into the community’s love for live music to communicate that if we don’t step in, these venues will not survive.
