Salt Lake City, UT | Owner of well-known Salt Lake City record store retiring: A small record store in Salt Lake City that sells vinyl and has managed to survive 40 years despite records long ago being eclipsed by CDs and streaming music is starting a new chapter as the owner hands the business over to his son. Owner and founder Randy Stinson, 76, is retiring after four successful decades and will let his son run the store, Randy’s Record Shop, The Salt Lake Tribune reports. Stinson opened the store in 1978 with just $3,000 and his personal inventory of about 60,000 records. He said it gave him focus after he served in Vietnam, and helped him overcome heavy drinking and smoking habits. In the 1980s, he feared he would have to close the store as CDs started being sold everywhere and interest in records waned.
Toronto, CA | A visit to a brand new Canadian vinyl record pressing plant: …During vinyl’s near-death experience, most plants closed. The ones that still existed were using ancient equipment for which it was hard to source parts. Labels were waiting up to a year to have their orders filled. And let’s not even talk about indie acts who could only afford small production runs. Enter Viryl Technologies of Toronto, which has been online for a couple of years now. Tucked in an industrial area of Etobicoke, Viryl is not only in the business of pressing records, but they’re also manufacturing new pressing equipment for export worldwide. Viryl is one of just two companies in the world (the other is in Sweden) designing and manufacturing new, state-of-the-art record pressing machines.
Dublin, IE | The Dun Laoghaire Vinyl festival looks set to be a mecca for record lovers: The three-day festival will feature a series of talks with international musicians, writers and filmmakers. Music fanatics take note! Next month Dun Laoghaire will play host to a festival which promises to be a treat for all vinyl record lovers. The Vinyl Festival will take place in an eclectic range of venues from the Lexicon Library to the National Maritime Museum. The three-day festival will feature a series of talks relating to all aspects of vinyl recordings. International musicians, writers and filmmakers will take part in the discussions and play a selection of their own favourite vinyl records. These include Oscar-nominated director Lenny Abrahamson, Gavin Friday, Bronagh Gallagher and actor Adrian Dunbar. There will also be a record fair on site throughout the festival for music fans looking to pick up some special vinyl sounds.
Ninja Is Getting His Own Soundtrack Thanks to Record Label Astralwerks: Popular “Fortnite” Twitch streamer Tyler “Ninja” Blevins is teaming up with recording label Astralwerks to create a soundtrack based on his gaming life. He announced the album on Friday during TwitchCon in San Jose, Calif. “Ninjawerks” will be available in digital, CD, and vinyl formats and it will feature music from today’s top electronic artists. Songs and other content will release in the weeks ahead, Astralwerks said, including a wide range of merchandise, accessories, and original artwork. Ninja rose to celebrity status earlier this year after streaming himself playing “Fortnite” with rappers Drake and Travis Scott, and NFL player JuJu Smith-Schuster…Now, he can apparently add musical muse to that list.
Soundtrack for cult metafictional video game Doki Doki Literature Club gets vinyl release: Hope you’re sitting down… cuz yeah: the soundtrack to cult metafictional game Doki Doki Literature Club is getting a vinyl release on its one-year anniversary. Unfortunately, there’s no word yet on whether this record will fall in love with you and, like, destroy all your Byrds records to be closer to you; but it DOES come on crimson smoke vinyl. Dan Salvato, who created the game, also composed its soundtrack, which plays with the conventions of dating simulation game music, mixing the upbeat with moments uncanny sadness. The record comes with cover art by OMOCAT, and its design incorporates a die-cut sleeve (á la Led Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti), allowing one to view variable art from the inner sleeve through the laptop screen on the outer sleeve.
Listen to two previously unreleased Mystery Jets songs cut live to vinyl: “No editing, no fussing, no auto-tune.” Mystery Jets have shared two previously unreleased songs on their new record ‘Live To Vinyl’. “Stormborn” is an unheard track from 2016 ‘Curve Of The Earth’ album sessions, and a cover of The Waterboys’ classic 1985 hit ‘The Whole Of The Moon.’ Both tracks were recorded and cut live to vinyl this summer, in front of an audience at London’s Metropolitan Studios.The limited edition white vinyl record was released today (October 26). In a press release, the band spoke about the session: “At Metropolis Studios this summer, we invited a small audience of special guests and competition winners to witness a one off recording session of two songs.”
