Baltimore, MD | Holiday gift guide: How to support local businesses during the pandemic: My Vintage Vinyl. Brian Hoffman, owner of My Vintage Vinyl in Arnold, has been delighting crate diggers for the last two years. Then the pandemic hit. “Trying to outlast it has been the largest challenge,” Hoffman said. “And it wins. COVID wins hands down.” Still, the record shop is still going. An understanding landlord and a faithful following that have helped keep the lights on. Featuring thousands of records spanning rock, R&B, country and more, this Arnold gem is a go-to whether you’re looking for the perfect rare find or something snazzy for your pared-down holiday get-together. With a new website set to launch in the coming weeks, the store is working to build back this holiday season.
McKinney, TX | Red Zeppelin Records brings punk flare to Downtown McKinney: A mural of funky aliens, lips spilling green and red slime, and an homage to David Bowie’s iconic alter ego Ziggy Stardust adorn the back wall of Red Zeppelin, a new record store in McKinney, Texas. Katie Scott, Red Zeppelin owner, said one of the main goals of the store is to remove customers from suburbia and transport them to a punk-inspired space more suitable of a large city. With its wide-ranging selection and mural, Red Zeppelin is a unique store. Red Zeppelin has more than the contrast of store ambience versus the town it calls home to make it unique. It is one of the few female-owned record stores in Texas. Scott said, “We’re not trying to play some feminist thing. we’re just proud of it.” Manager Bayleigh Cheek agreed. “We’re not man-hating,” she said. “We’re really appreciative of what men have done in the industry. We’re proud to be a woman-owned business.”
London, UK | Four Tet, Burial And Thom Yorke Collaborate On New 12″. Very limited “black label” copies of the two-tracker are available now at London’s Phonica Records and Sounds Of The Universe. Four Tet, Burial and Thom Yorke have teamed up for a new collaborative record. Comprising two tracks, titled ‘Her Revolution’ and ‘His Rope’, “ultra-limited edition black label” 12″ copies of the record are available now at London’s Phonica Records and Sounds Of The Universe, and can only be purchased in-store at both shops. No clips of the two tracks are available as yet, but XL is running a mysterious stream on YouTube which could possibly be related to the record. You can watch that stream above. This is the second time all three artists have collaborated on record, following 2011’s Ego / Mirror, which came out on Four Tet’s Text Records.
Jimi Hendrix’s home audio set-up recreated in new exhibit: Jimi Hendrix’s home audio set-up in his London flat between ’68-’69 has been recreated at Handel & Hendrix, in collaboration with Bang & Olufsen, Lowther, and LEAK. Research during the restoration of Hendrix’s flat revealed his setup included a Bang & Olufsen turntable connected to a LEAK amplifier and two Lowther speakers. The recreation features an original Bang & Olufsen Beogram 1000 turntable, a restored set of Lowther Acousta 115 speakers – the same model owned by Hendrix – and a LEAK Stereo 130 integrated stereo amplifier, modeled on the 1963 Stereo 30 version Hendrix used. To coincide with what would have been Hendrix’s 78th birthday, the museum has shared a new video of Nabihah Iqbal testing out the set-up with a selection of records owned by Hendrix.
Frank Black Announces 12 Album Series of Solo Album Vinyl Reissues: Pixies frontman Frank Black (aka Black Francis) is reissuing twelve of his solo releases on vinyl via Demon Records. The first to be reissued is 2006’s Christmass on December 4, with 1996’s The Cult of Ray and B-sides compilation OddBalls to follow on February 12, 2021. The Christmass reissue comes just in time for the holiday season and features acoustic recordings that aren’t really Christmas songs but fit into the Christmas atmosphere. There’s folky versions of several popular Pixies songs, including “Wave of Mutilation,” “Where Is My Mind?” and “Cactus,” as well as re-recordings of Black’s previous solo songs, “I Burn Today,” “Bullet” and “Nadine.” Most of the album is made up of acoustic live recordings, with just one quarter of them recorded in studios. “Christmass is a collection of songs recorded in hotel rooms, nightclubs, and even a few actual recording studios,” Black reflected. “Some are standard live repertoire and some are new songs never to be revisited again, well, until now, sort of, so see what you think as needles drop.”
