Philadelphia, PA | Is Val Shively’s Philly-area shop ‘the world’s greatest record store’? Val Shively is telling a story about his father, and a fish. Actually, a shark. It has to do with obsession, genetics and how the charmingly cantankerous owner of R&B Records in Upper Darby wound up with 4 million 45 rpm records — “Or maybe it’s 5 million, I don’t know” — in the fantastically cluttered shop that Smithsonian magazine has called “the world’s greatest record store.” The larger-than-life subject of Christopher Plant’s new documentary film “ReCollections: Val Shively — 50 Years of Collecting Records in Philadelphia” has spent his life assembling a personal library of group harmony records from the 1950s and 1960s that’s regarded as the finest in the world. …And not just for the music, but for the stories Shively, 79, carries in his head as a one-of-a-kind living, breathing repository of music history who now wonders what legacy a lifetime of collecting will leave behind.
Copenhagen, DK | Vinyl cut: Copenhagen’s coolest record shops: Cratediggers of the world—make for the Danish capital. It’s one of Europe’s best spots for rooting out rare grooves. Donald Trump used to have “executive time”; I like to have “record-shop time”. On most of my foreign trips, if I get a spare hour I go hunting for vinyl treasure rather than eat lunch. As vinyl has come back into fashion in the past decade, overtaking CDs in sales, so traditional second-hand-record shops have regained their place at the heart of music enthusiasts’ shopping. For my money, Copenhagen vies with Stockholm for the honour of the best Nordic capital to dig for records in, making it one of the best cities in Europe too. There’s a wide range of shops accounting for most tastes, especially second-hand ones. Vinyl may be bulkier than CDs but the sound is warmer, the album art bigger and the range of titles from around the world and all the way back to the 1950s and ’60s far greater. I tend to visit only one shop per trip, but it’s possible to spend an entire afternoon touring the best in the Danish capital.
Indianapolis, IN | Don’t fret, LUNA Music sells songs on vinyl, CD and cassette: “Like most businesses, the music industry is cyclic,” Todd Robinson said. “I think it’s just the natural evolution.” An evolution Robinson witnessed firsthand. “From a very, very, very early age, music always captivated me and captured me,” Robinson said. “I just really couldn’t imagine doing anything else with my life.” Robinson is the owner of LUNA Music in Indianapolis. It’s a shop he began nearly 30 years ago when he was unable to find a record store to sink his teeth into. “I was just so passionate about being involved in music,” Robinson said. “I really liked the interaction that you have at a record store with people and that really fed me in a lot of ways because now we’re talking about something that I love with like minded individuals.”
London, UK | London’s best independent record shops—and the top turntables to play your vinyl on: With Black Friday and Record Store Day nearly upon us, we flick through our favourite London record shops and celebrate the unique culture of spinning vinyl. They say cocaine and sugar are the two most addictive substances on the planet. They clearly haven’t tried vinyl. That uncontrollable urge as your favourite artist releases a new album or when rumours of a repress of a classic must-have LP filters through from your network of fellow junkies reverberates through your veins until you have no alternative but to scratch that itch. You know it won’t go away until that needle (or stylus, but you get where I’m going with this) lands on the surface and injects life into your speakers. The age-old argument that CDs or digital files sound better falls on deaf ears to those who worship the vinyl format. There is no argument; they don’t— vinyl rules.
Toronto, CA | Toronto’s Dine Alone Records Clubhouse Open to Public for Black Friday Sale: The November 24 sale will feature RSD Black Friday titles, Dine Alone exclusives, rare warehouse finds, mystery bags and more. Once again this year, Toronto indie mecca Dine Alone Records will open their 864 Eastern Avenue clubhouse to the public for a massive Black Friday sale. From 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET on November 24, you’ll be able to shop in person for incredible deals and special offers on official Record Store Day Black Friday titles, Dine Alone exclusives, rare warehouse finds, mystery bags and CD boxes, buy-one-get-one CDs, discounted New Damage Records merch and more. The first 30 visitors will receive Mini Mystery Bags, while all shoppers can enjoy beverages as part of a Welch Coffee pop-up. Any remaining titles will be available to shop online the next day (11/25) from 10a.m. onward.
Grass Valley, CA | All along the Clock Tower: Local record store launches GoFundMe amid building’s sale: Clock Tower Records in Grass Valley is one of the last remaining record stores in the county, and they are asking the community to help them get through a tough time that might force them to close. Owner Jonny Moser has had the spot since 2020, though the store has been in operation since 2011. Now, because of real estate happenings with the building’s owners, Clock Tower Records is facing a hardship which could affect the future of the business. Moser is determined to make it all work. “The owner of the building passed away,” Moser said. “There are three generations involved in this. There was the owner of the building and she passed away and it went into a trust that is controlled by the middle generation; the trust is for the kids. They have to dissolve the trust by the end of the year so they don’t get hit by a big tax. They don’t want to be involved in commercial real estate and this is the last of it.” Moser went on to explain that the owners are willing and able to sell the building directly to Moser; the problem is, there is a $90,000 down payment that needs to be made.
Seattle, WA | Capitol Hill Rewind: Mt. Olympus Imports brought the sounds of Europe and Japan to Broadway. Exploring the neighborhood’s record-shop history. It seems quaint today, but there was a time when a new record shop on Capitol Hill celebrated its grand opening with a storewide sale and album giveaways. Such was the case for Mt. Olympus Imports, which opened in the Broadway Alley in the summer of 1980, according to The Rocket, offering prizes like complete LP catalogs for the Clash, the Sex Pistols, and the Scorpions, as well as the Oblique Strategies box autographed by Brian Eno. Mt. Olympus Imports was a pioneering neighborhood record shop—The Record Library, Broadway Record Centre, Bomb Shelter, and Rubato Records would open nearby over the next few years—with roots dating back to 1975 with its first location in a Burien storefront on Main Street. It was an offshoot of a handful of neighborhood Budget Tapes and Records owned and operated by Scott Martin (a.k.a. DJ Les Morely), Greg Norling, and Don Stivers.
South Penrith, AU | Vinyl revival: Another retailer meets surging demand for records: QBD Books has officially expanded into the music world for the first time, stocking vinyl records in stores across the country thanks to a new partnership with Sony Music. According to QBD Books CEO Nicholas Croydon, the idea for the partnership came about following the closure of Australia’s Sanity stores, leaving few places for vinyl music lovers to shop the products in person. Ultimately, he realised that books and vinyl records go hand in hand, and approached Sony with the goal of creating something special. “I had this vision in my head of sitting in your armchair, reading a book, cup of coffee or a wine in hand, with your favourite record playing in the background,” he said. For the first time ever in 2023, Croydon said that vinyl sales at Sanity were greater than CDs, meaning the transition couldn’t have come at a better time.
Conan O’Brien Releasing Limited-Edition Vinyl Album to Celebrate 5th Anniversary of Podcast: Only 1,500 copies of Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend: Quinquennial Celebration will be pressed. Conan O’Brien has made plenty of new pals over the five years he’s hosted his Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend podcast. And what better way to celebrate all those deep connections than a limited-edition vinyl album curated by Conan and his trusty Friend co-hosts assistant Sona Movsesian and show producer Matt Gourley? SiriusXM announced Tuesday the holiday release of Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend: Quinquennial Celebration, a limited-edition (1,500 copies) collection that finds O’Brien and his “Chill Chums reflecting on the last five years of recording their hit podcast,” including never-before-heard backstories and original comedy surprises. “This is a historic achievement — listening to a podcast on vinyl will tear a hole in the hipster spacetime continuum,” O’Brien said in a statement. The album is available for pre-sale beginning Wednesday and the content included will not be available in full on the podcast feed; the pre-sale will go live at 11 a.m. ET.
