Harrisburg, PA | ‘I’m just a guy who owns a record store.’ Mike ‘Mr. Mike’ Albert remembers 33 years in business: The secret to a good pop song, as anyone who’s ever fallen in love during the three minutes and thirty-four seconds it takes to get from triumphant beginning to the often melancholic end, is the beauty of the memory it holds. Births. Deaths. First loves. Break-ups. First cars. First jobs. First and second marriages. The pop song, disposable by design, becomes something more permanent: A soundtrack for our lives. As he looks around the store he’s operated in various spots on South Third Street for 33 years, Mike Albert hears echoes in every corner. The friends he’s made. The musical legends he’s met. And, perhaps, most of all, the usual Saturday morning crew of regulars who have given shape to his days. But on Dec. 29. the needle will run out on the groove, as Albert, owner of Mr. Mike’s Records, puts the key in the door a final time.
Fort Worth, TX | Christmas Wax: Fort Worth suddenly has a glut of record stores for your holiday-buying needs. “Do people still buy records?” This is a question I’ve heard asked by Boomer dads at Off the Record (the Near Southside record store/watering hole where I tend bar on Sundays), and I think it’s an odd thing to ask when, in plain sight, directly opposite the bathrooms, there’s a shelf about 2 feet deep, 4 feet high, and 15 feet long stocked with vinyl albums festooned with price tags… As of December 5, 2018, Fort Worth proper has five stores dedicated to selling vinyl records, and that’s not even counting Truth Vinyl and Growler Records in Arlington, Vintage Freaks in Bedford, Forever Young in Grand Prairie, the three Half-Price Books locations in Tarrant County, nor Record Town on South Main Street, which mostly sells CDs. Since the holiday shopping season lies upon us like a cheerful, pine-scented fog, what follows is a rundown of Fort Worth’s record stores, should a vinylphilic music fan be on your list of gift recipients.
Boulder, CO | Absolute Vinyl hopes to find groove in Longmont: Shop is city’s second old-school record store. An oversized cut out of “Aladdin Sane”-era David Bowie peaked out from behind a dozen or so boxes of vinyl records marked “Bluegrass, Country & Americana. Ambient & Electronic and Hip Hop A-K” inside a downtown Longmont storefront Tuesday afternoon. Mr. Bowie awaited his place on the walls inside Doug Gaddy’s most recent incarnation of Absolute Vinyl Records & Stereo, opening a mere eight months after he shuttered his Boulder location that served vinyl fans for nearly a decade. At the time, it seemed Gaddy was making a permanent exit from the realm of the brick-and-mortar record shop, a rarity in this age of online retail. The closure left Boulder with only two record stores, Bart’s Records and Albums on the Hill. When Absolute Vinyl opens on Friday, Longmont will become a two record shop town. The other shop is Recycled Records LP.
The Ruts’ Debut Album ‘The Crack’ Set For 40th Anniversary Vinyl Reissue In February: The legendary punk album’s new edition was remastered at Turan Audio and cut to vinyl at Abbey Road Studios. Trailblazing West London punks The Ruts’ legendary 1979 debut album The Crack has been remastered and is set for reissue on vinyl via Virgin/EMI/UMC on 8 February 2019. The album’s new edition was remastered by Tim Turan at Turan Audio and cut to vinyl at Abbey Road Studios. Released in September of 1979, the band’s one and only studio album The Crack was an extraordinary statement of intent. As the energy and attitude of punks first wave started to dissipate, here was a band that exploded onto the scene with everything to offer. The Crack includes twelve power-packed songs brimming with invention and energy and it featured an outstanding run of hit singles – ‘Babylon’s Burning’, ‘Something That I Said’ and ‘Jah War’ – alongside some of the best adrenalized rock music to emerge in that decade’s closing.
‘Dawn to Dusk’ Music Playlist #28 – White Label Records’ co-founder Darren Tan: Discover the permanent record chart by this vinyl maestro. Every Wednesday we ask a creative, artisan, or musician to share what music gets them going from dawn to dusk. This week, Darren Tan—co-founder of e-commerce music platform#vinyloftheday and the recently-opened White Label Records at Ann Siang House (together with Kurt Loy)—name his mood fixers for an entire day. So you’ve heard Loy’s picks last week. Dig it? You may like Tan’s choices too. After all, the duo has a matching frequency in music. As a fellow DJ and vinyl buff, Tan dedicated his time to celebrate vinyl culture through audio-visual online project #vinyloftheday. “Vinyl records attach more ‘sentimental’ value to music than digital formats such as MP3”, Tan expressed. “More fans in their late teens getting into vinyl because a lot of popular indie bands nowadays are putting out their releases on vinyl.”
