Birmingham, UK | First look inside giant HMV The Vault in Birmingham as Europe’s biggest store opens: Doug Putman told the PA news agency that the retailer is “under-indexed in London,” saying there is room for expansion in the capital as the company eyes new locations for its growth strategy. The owner of HMV said the company will return to opening new stores over the next year, just eight months after it shut a raft of high street shops after being rescued from administration. Doug Putman, who purchased the music retailer in February, said the business will pump cash into new sites and refurbishments. He told the PA news agency that the retailer is “under-indexed in London”, saying there is room for expansion in the capital as the company eyes new locations for its growth strategy. Mr Putman revealed his ambitions ahead of the launch of HMV’s largest ever store, which is being called hmv Vault, at Dale End in Birmingham. The store, which the retailer said will be the largest entertainment store in Europe, is due to open on Friday after a “multimillion-pound investment” in the new site.
National Cassette Store Day: Saturday, Oct. 12: With Black Friday Record Store Day on the way Nov. 29 (the list is out this week, and we have them for you!), the fledgling Cassette Store Day makes a great warmup for this fall celebration. In existence since 2013, CSD has grown in leaps and bounds with events across the world. At the moment more than 300 very limited releases lie in wait for you music fans that are only available for this special day. Following vinyl’s meteoric reemergence, cassettes began their comeback the same year as CSD. Fueled by mostly new releases, the single cassette manufacturing company in the U.S. actually ran out of material to make the tapes with in September 2017 and still gained year-to-year in sales. As of 2019, nearly 50 percent of the tapes sold are new releases (some with as few as 200 pressed) like Lana Del Rey, twentyonepilots and Beck. For 2018, a whopping 219,000 cassettes were sold nationwide, up from 178,000 in the previous year (when they experienced an increase of 35 percent).
Black Friday record player deals: how and where to find the best Black Friday turntable bargains: Black Friday 2019 is almost here. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll know that Black Friday is the time when online retailers dish out epic deals on everything from video doorbells to Dr Martens. For wax fans, there’s plenty of great Black Friday vinyl deals to be had. But what if you don’t have anything to play your records on, or your turntable is due an upgrade? Black Friday could be the ideal time to get your hands on a great sounding new record player, too. Been eyeing up one of the decks we recommend in our best budget turntables guide, or perhaps you fancy something a little more upmarket (you’ve been good this year, right?)? Whatever you’re after, the likelihood is that you’ll find an epic record player deal on Black Friday. And the best news? We’ll have our experts on-hand throughout the shopping event to help uncover the best deals.
Leicestershire, UK | Ashby record store auctions off 40,000 albums: A recently closed record store has sold its collection of more than 40,000 albums and music memorabilia in an “unusual” auction. The Attic in Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire, shut in August when its owner could not find someone to take over the business. Ben Duncombe sold his entire stock at an auction held in the shop and picked up more than £13,400. The 36-year-old said selling up “was a really hard decision” to make. “I started selling records at car boots sales and stuff like that, and it just kept getting bigger until I opened the store,” he said. The life-long record collector said he was tempted to keep some of the vinyl stock himself. “I had to dissociate myself from it a few weeks ago” he added. “There was a Lynyrd Skynyrd record I thought ‘I’d quite like to take that’ but then I just had to leave it. “There’s some great 7” records too….and a whole Northern Soul section that I know’s really valuable. Some of it’s never been played.”
These are the rock and metal releases coming out on Black Friday: Now that it’s early October, it means companies will start pushing things for that Christmas pretty soon. Because capitalism rules everything. Just before that, however, is the ultimate tribute to consumerism – Black Friday. And while hordes of people might go apeshit trying to rush into John Lewis, Urban Outfitters, Tesco and other chain stores to fight over products that should be sold at those heavily reduced prices anyway, music lovers will have to contend with another facet of Black Friday madness – Record Store Day. Yes, that day when a bunch of limited edition vinyl pressings are released into the world only to wind up on eBay minutes after they’ve been purchased is upon us once more. IF THAT IS YOU, THEN STOP IT. That all said and done, and despite the fact that Record Store Day has ultimately become a cynical symptom of late stage capitalism, there are some noteworthy rock and metal releases coming out on November 29, aka Record Store Day Black Friday.
Cardi B mixtape and first EPs from Lizzo and The Weeknd coming to vinyl for Record Store Day Black Friday: Courtesy of Record Store DayFans of Cardi B., Lizzo and The Weeknd will have a special reason to shop on Black Friday. Limited-edition vinyl versions of music from all three artists will be available exclusively in independent record stores on November 29 for Record Store Day. Available on vinyl for the first time will be Cardi’s first release, her Gangsta B***h Music Vol. 1 mixtape released in March 2016; Lizzo’s first EP, Coconut Oil, released October 2016; and The Weeknd’s first EP, My Dear Melancholy, which dropped in March 2018. Also available on vinyl for Black Friday will be Live at Home: The After Show by James Brown, J. Cole’s 2014 Forest Hills Drive, The Smoke Out Festival Presents by DMX, Aretha Franklin: The Atlantic Singles Collection 1968 box set, Nas’ Stillmatic, and Naughty By Nature’s Poverty’s Paradise25th Anniversary Edition.
Jerry Garcia Band’s 1980 Capitol Theatre Show To Receive Vinyl Release For Black Friday: The Jerry Garcia Band‘s 1980 performance at Passaic, New Jersey’s Capitol Theatre will be released on vinyl for the first time this fall as part of Record Store Day‘s “Black Friday” initiative. Announced via the Jerry Garcia website on Tuesday, GarciaLive Volume One: March 1st, 1980 Capitol Theatre will see the band’s performance at the New Jersey venue pressed on vinyl and sold to fans for the first time since the live album was first released back in February 2013. The limited-edition recordings will arrive on Black Friday (November 29th) as part of a 5-LP collection pressed on to 180gram vinyl of just 5,000 individually numbered, foil-stamped boxed sets. Fans who purchase the box set will also receive a free download of the album’s mastered audio.
The New Pornographers Announce New Three-Song Seven-Inch Fade Baby Fade for Record Store Day Black Friday 2019 Release: Canadian rock band The New Pornographers have announced a new 7-inch vinyl release via Concord Records, featuring three new tracks: “Stand-Up”, “The True Forms,” and “Fade, Baby, Fade Into The City Of Lovers.” This new 7-inch will have a limited release on November 29th, for Record Store Day (RSD) Black Friday, with only 2,450 copies hitting the shelves. As with many other “RSD,” first releases, a wide release of these tracks will become available for wide release some time in the near future. This new project is being entitled Fade Baby Fade. which is referenced on the B-Side’s title “Fade, Baby, Fade Into The City Of Lovers.” The band released In The Morse Code Of Brake Lights earlier this year, which featured many orchestral and power pop elements on the record. In the lead-up to this project, the band released “The Surprise Knock,” and “Falling Down The Stairs of Your Smile,” which are both featured on the new album.
Geddy Lee’s My Favorite Headache Vinyl Edition Part of Black Friday Record Store Day Event: Back in August we first announced that Geddy Lee’s solo album My Favorite Headache would be re-released on vinyl later this year. Today, we’ve received some new details about the release, which includes two additional tracks! First, the album will be part of this year’s Black Friday Record Store Day event on November 29th. Check out the official Record Store Day website to find a local retailer near you. Second, as indicated above and outlined on the Record Store Day website, the vinyl edition of My Favorite Headache will include two additional tracks – instrumental versions of My Favourite Headache and Home on the Strange. No word yet if this release will be made available outside of the RSD event, though it’s likely to appear on the Rush Backstage Club in December.
Phish LP ‘The Story Of The Ghost’ To Be Released On Vinyl For 2019 Record Store Day Black Friday: Phish‘s The Story of the Ghost album is set to be released on vinyl as part of Record Store Day‘s Black Friday event on Friday, November 29th. The Story of the Ghost is Phish’s seventh studio album, which was released on October 27th, 1998 via Elektra Records. Produced by Andy Wallace, the Vermont-bred quartet recorded the 14-song album over several sessions at Bearsville, NY’s Bearsville Studios, the same location the band recorded their 1996 Billy Breathes LP. Tracks from The Story of the Ghost writing sessions that didn’t make the cut went on to appear on The Siket Disk, Trampled by Lambs and Pecked by the Dove, and much of Farmhouse.
