Cleveland Heights, OH | The music stops — oldest record store in Ohio is closing at the end of the year: The oldest record store in Northeast Ohio is closing its doors after more than 50 years of business. Records Revolution has been selling records for 55 years along with posters, shirts and so much more. It’s a classic in Cleveland Heights and one of the country’s longest-running independent record stores. All in the heart of the Coventry neighborhood. “Coventry, historically, it was kind of the ground zero for the counterculture,” said John Neely, manager of the Grog Shop. “This is a place where people can be themselves,” said Rob Love, the general manager at Record Revolution. Of those 50-plus years, Rob Love has been at the record store for 35 of them. “Music to me is everything right? It’s my art form. It’s my religion. It’s the soundtrack to my life,” said Love.
Montreal, CA | Montreal’s BANQ Has A New Music Pavilion With Free Instruments & 10,000+ Vinyl Records: It’s also a unique and relaxing study space. Montreal’s largest library has a pavilion dedicated entirely to music lovers. Musicians who visit the top floor of the BANQ can play instruments provided by the space, while audiophiles can peruse the library’s 10,000+ vinyl record collection and listen to their picks at a private station. The BANQ is a notoriously delightful study space, and its music pavilion is no exception. You can set up at a desk surrounded by musical inspiration, including old music player installations and colourful displays of special records, including a release by Montreal-based Polaris winner Pierre Kwenders. The revamped space, once occupied by the National Music Collection, now also lets visitors digitize audio cassettes and other analog audio formats.
Chicago, IL | Katalyst for Change: Talking vinyl, coffee and connection with Katalyst’s Kevin Beauchamp. Kevin Beauchamp, the owner of Katalyst Coffee Lounge and Music Gallery, is an avid music fan and record collector. “It might be the old-school nature I come from,” he says. “I’m used to pressing up some CDs and hustling to sell ‘em … something about that, physically holding the music, it connects with the experience.” He’s a veteran of Chicago’s house music scene, having spent countless hours DJing around the city during high school. This experience inspired Beauchamp to pursue his love of music, and led to a career working for record companies on the West Coast. Eventually, Beauchamp left PolyGram to start his own label, Katalyst Entertainment, which has published releases by Chicago icons like Kahil El’Zabar, Phil Cohran, and the Art Ensemble of Chicago. Today, Beauchamp runs his café and record store in Hegewisch on the Southeast Side. Now in his early fifties, Mr. Beauchamp wants to share his records and stories with the world through his store.
Bob Marley’s ‘Rastaman Vibration’ Enters Billboard Reggae Chart For First Time Thanks To Vinyl Reissue: Bob Marley and The Wailers’ 1976 classic album Rastaman Vibration has made its way onto the Billboard Reggae Albums chart for the first time ever, thanks to a special vinyl reissue of the record as a collector’s item. On November 18, 2022, Tuff Gong International teamed up with Analogue Productions/Acoustic Sounds to release a remastered and repackaged version of the 1976 album in Ultra High Quality Record (UHQR) vinyl format. The release was priced at $125 USD but was limited to a run of 3,500 units. It sold out almost instantly, according to the Acoustic Sounds website. US-based consumers and audiophiles snatched up the majority of the limited run, with Billboard’s sales tracker Luminate reporting to DancehallMag that Rastaman Vibration sold 2,000 units in the United States last week, placing it at No. 4 on the Billboard Reggae Albums chart, dated December 3.
Loděnice, CZ | GZ Media: Czech firm is world leader in vinyl record production: GZ Media, based at Loděnice near Prague, produces vinyl records around the clock in order to meet huge demand. In fact the company, which also has three plants in North America, is the world’s biggest producer of a music medium that many thought was bound for the dustbin of history. Are you one of the growing number of people again purchasing music on the once dominant delivery format of vinyl records? If so, there is a big chance part of your collection has been pressed up here in Czechia. GZ Media, which is located in Loděnice, a small town near Prague, was founded in Communist Czechoslovakia in the late 1940s. However, instead of going the way of many state enterprises from the era of the state-controlled economy, the firm has gone from strength to strength – and is today the biggest producer of vinyl on the planet. Indeed last year the firm pressed more than 55 million records, including by major rock names such as The Rolling Stones and Black Sabbath.
To Obi or not to Obi — that is the question: Learn more about that thin decorative belt around Japanese media that literally ‘holds up’ the value of a record album. If you’ve ever wondered what that thin belt-like strip of advertisement is, wrapped around the spine-side of a vinyl record cover, or inserted around the spine of a CD jewel case, when you purchase music media from Japan, then stick around, and let’s talk about the Obi. Now, if you’ve been collecting music media (vinyl records, CDs, cassette tapes) for a while, you’ve more than likely run across Japanese imported music with an Obi strip attached (if you were lucky). And even if you do know the general idea behind the Obi, I can promise you that this discussion will enlighten you to things you may not be familiar with. And, it may illuminate some facts about the Obi strip, in relation to collecting music media, which will help to answer the question – “to Obi, or not to Obi”? The word “Obi” (which translates to English as ‘belt’) is a shortened form of the term “Obigami” (Obi = belt, Gami = paper), or ‘paper belt’. And though in the English speaking world, these information strips are technically referred to as ‘spine cards,’ that term in the English vernacular has all but disappeared, as the name “Obi” has become recognized and utilized as the international default word when referring to these ‘media markers’ (at least in the realm of the music collector).
The Smiths vinyl contains hidden secret messages: In my 1980s youth, I collected vinyl. One genre, so to speak, very specifically—12 inch vinyl singles from The Smiths. The vast majority in my collection have scratched lyrics, essentially altered riffs of original lyrics, play on words, and obscure literary references on the clear empty area of the record nearest the center. I am curious to know if it is all vinyl. Once discovered, these “run-off groove” messages added allure—the B-sides were also extraordinary—to acquiring such rare and coveted records across the pond in the United States. Do you have old Smith 12-inch vinyl singles or albums? Do they have secretly scratched hidden messages? Maybe they’re not secret to the people or persons who etched the messages?
