Boone, NC | This week in the archives: record shop opens, the battle over streaking, WWII artifacts: March 12, 1964. An article from the March 12, 1964 issue of the Watauga Democrat detailed the opening of a new store and the live band they had play out front for the occasion. “Boone’s newest business establishment, the Appalachian Record Shop, opened for business last week with a full supply of 45 and 78-rpm records of all types,” the article stated. Located “on the Square,” the shop was at the corner of King and Depot Street, between the Boone Loan and Gun Shop and the Southern Bell Telephone Company. “The Appalachian Record Shop is presently featuring single records and an album by the Beatles, the sensational new British singing group, along with all other types of records from jazz to rock ‘n’ roll to folk music to old standards to hymns,” the article stated. The opening included impersonators of The Beatles performing in front of the store. “The Appalachian Record Shop also has a ‘record club,’ whereby the purchase of a certain number of records within a stated period entitles the buyer to a free record,” the article stated.
San Marcos, TX | Sundance Record Lagoon coming back to San Marcos this summer: The record shop is aiming for a June 1st opening. Wait—did this song just skip? Nope! It’s official! Sundance Record Lagoon is coming back to San Marcos this summer. The announcement of the store’s return to the unofficial mermaid capital of Texas was made on Monday by Tomas Escalante, owner of Sig’s Lagoon Record Shop in Houston. “We’re super excited to announce that in June 2021, we’re going to bring this sign back to where it belongs in San Marcos, Texas, with the opening of Sundance Record Lagoon,” Escalante says in the video. The announcement lists 241 N LBJ Street as the address for the shop. The record shop told KSAT they would be aiming for a June 1st opening. Earlier this month, shop officials had been selling vintage memorabilia at Zelick’s Icehouse in San Marcos. Shop officials told KSAT that they plan on having more pop-up sales at the icehouse before the store’s opening in June.
Best Film and TV Scores to Own on Vinyl: Hear your favorite movies in a whole new way. As we wait for Oscar nominations to drop next Monday, movie lovers find themselves reflecting back on a fantastic year for cinema (if little else). And regardless of your end-of-year rankings, everyone should agree that 2020 was a particularly strong year for movie music. The Academy Award for Best Original Score is going to be a highly competitive category, with compelling compositions in a variety of genres competing for only five slots. It is a testament to the fact that today’s top composers possess highly original voices comparable to the best directors, and elite musicians working in the television space created long-form scores that were every bit as powerful.
Tired of collecting normal vinyl records? Alan Cross has some abnormal options for you. Most fans of vinyl are happy collecting 33 1/3 RPM albums, 7-inch 45 RPM singles, and the odd 12-inch. A subset dig for rare 78 RPM discs, especially the blues recordings of the 1920s and ’30s. But what if want to get really esoteric with your library? An option is to dive into the world of the obsolete and the forgotten. The history of recorded music is littered with audio storage formats that either died out or went nowhere. The fact that they existed at all will amaze you. At one point, someone thought these were good ideas. The Last-ever 78s: The 10-inch 78 RPM disc ruled the recorded music industry for close to 60 years. Emile Berliner, the German-American inventor, patented the idea of putting audio on a flat rotating disc in 1887. Within a couple of decades, the 78 had muscled out all other formats and had become the worldwide standard. The technology hung on until stereo LPs pressed on polyvinyl chloride began to take off in the 1950s. U.S. sales dropped from 4.5 million units in 1957 to just 500,000 a year later.
This Mini Record Cutter Let’s You Cut Your Own Vinyl In $80: Designed by Gakken and manufactured by the Japanese company, Suzuki, is the latest mini record cutter. The machine has a USB power outlet that lets you connect your smartphone to it via an auxiliary input cable (3.5-mm mono jack or USB). The needle of the cutter is placed on the left side of the black vinyl. The speed is selected to be either 33.3 or 45 rpm, and the cutting begins. The machine itself comes in a little size of 19 x 16 x 15-cm (7.5 x 6.3 x 5.9-in), with a printed magazine that documents its development and usage. The entire kit of the mini record cutter incorporates power and audio cables, two cutting needles, five blank 5-inch black records and five blank 5-inch white records, and an EP adapter, along with the little machine itself. The tiny vinyl record cutter became a reality when the company Suzuki collaborated with Gakken to figure out the best ways to introduce DIY musical instruments. The main idea was to help musicians and people with a particular taste and appreciation for physical music collection.
Seth Rogen releasing new 3xLP collection to be enjoyed with different weed strains: The high of vinyl. Comedian and actor Seth Rogen is releasing a new box set of mixes designed to complement different strains of weed.via his Houseplant company. Released via his Houseplant company and called Houseplant Box Set Vol.1, the 3xLP set features a different record for different types of weed: sativa, indica, and hybrid. The Sativa LP focuses on upbeat songs, while Indica goes down a more mellow route, and Hybrid’s musical offerings are somewhere in between. The box set also includes a limited edition felt slipmat, as well as a set of instructions. Rogen originally launched his Houseplant brand in 2019 with business partner Evan Goldberg, born from a shared “love and passion for cannabis, design and art.”
