Making the rounds of Tokyo’s record stores: Tokyo is a city of thirteen million people, and what sometimes seems like twice as many music scenes. With fans, concerts and clubs spread throughout a vast metropolitan area, the record store acts as a home base — they are anchors for entire musical subcultures. For the uninitiated, it can be an entry point, too. As well as providing listeners with recordings, record stores are a source of information about gigs and clubs (also known as live houses in Japan), and a space to meet likeminded fans and collaborators…Though by no mean extensive, the listings should help you on your way towards new sounds and new experiences.
Record growth: Pressing plants make sound investment in vinyl: Vinyl has made a record comeback, and Furnace Record Pressing can’t open its new vinyl pressing plant in suburban Washington, D.C., soon enough. “After seeing years of consistent vinyl growth and new markets emerging around the globe, we knew it was time to make the significant investment into expanding our operations,” Furnace Record Pressing founder and CEO Eric Astor said. In the digital age, vinyl sales still pale in comparison to revenue from streaming. While revenue from the sale of vinyl reached $182 million in the first half of 2017, according to data released in September by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), revenue from streaming services reached $2.5 billion.
Sainbury’s heralds vinyl sales with release of Own Label albums: The retailer has surprisingly announced it is one of the major high-street sellers of vinyl, having shifted some 120,000 units since it started selling them in March 2016. It is doing its part to solidify the medium’s 5% share of the UK music scene. Furthermore, it claims that one in every 20 vinyl records sold in the UK is now purchased in a Sainsbury’s store. Bob Stanley of Saint Etienne fame has put his name to the albums, two 20-track compilations. The stunt could position the retailer as a reliable vendor of vinyl, across the 168 stores that will stock it. Pete Selby, head of music and books at Sainsbury’s, said: “Our customers’ love of vinyl shows no sign of abating, so alongside the classics albums, we want to offer our shoppers something they won’t find anywhere else.
Review: ‘The B-Side’ Is an Extraordinary Masterclass in Listening: You may have even been told, with unconditional sincerity, “This song will change your life.” And if it didn’t quite do that, the focus of an aficionado’s enthusiasm and expertise made you hear layers and meanings that you would never have inferred had you come across the same work by chance on the radio or as background music at a party. That’s the experience, heightened to the point of transcendence, that’s on offer in the Wooster Group’s extraordinary “The B-Side: ‘Negro Folklore From Texas State Prisons,’” which runs through Nov. 19 at the Performing Garage in SoHo. Like this troupe’s marvelous “Early Shaker Spirituals,” staged in New York in 2014 and scheduled for revival in December, “The B-Side” is quaintly subtitled “A Record Album Interpretation.” Yes, the focal point here is a vinyl disc that is removed from an attractively illustrated jacket and placed on a turntable.
Vinyl Record Swap Planned At Red Palm In Evergreen Park, Vinyl record owners will trade goods during a “Swap & Haggle” event organized by Beverly Records: A community-based vinyl record fair should be a hit among record lovers near and far at the Red Palm Bar & Grill, 3020 W. 95th St. in Evergreen Park on Sunday. Beverly Records is co-hosting the “Swap & Haggle” event from noon to 4 p.m. “We have people come in the store all the time selling records and we can’t buy them all because we have so much stock and not much room,” said John Dreznes, owner of Beverly Records, a 50-year- old family business at 11612 S. Western Ave.in Chicago’s Morgan Park neighborhood. “Unfortunately, we are letting a lot of collections go and this is a great way to get these collections back in circulation.” Organizers expect dozens of tables stacked with vinyl from residents’ personal collections, according to a news release.
