Manila, PH | 7 Vinyl Record Shops In Metro Manila To Visit For Retro Music Lovers: Nowadays, trends from before the 1980s are finding their way back in the 21st century. Collecting vinyl records is one of these trends Filipinos are learning more about to bring back the kind of music that people used to listen to – without the frills and autotune of modern mp3s. Here are seven vinyl record shops in Metro Manila you can visit to start or grow your vinyl collection. 1. Vinyl Dump Thrift Store in Quezon City – affordable classic records: If you’re looking for budget-friendly records, go to Vinyl Dump Thrift Store in Cubao, Quezon City. Vinyl records are sold for as low as P300 each (~USD5.84). The records range from as early as the 60s to the 90s. This is also a good place to visit if you’re starting out in vinyl collecting. The shop owner, Joel Devicais, will walk you through any record you inquire about and will even suggest records that you might like…
Burlington, NC | Main Street Vinyl rocks into their sixth year in Burlington: The independently owned record shop is not only in the business of vinyl records but also nostalgia. When Joshua Garrett’s favorite record store closed in Melbourne, North Carolina, he decided to open his very own shop — Main Street Vinyl. Located in downtown Burlington, Main Street Vinyl is an independently owned record store co-owned by Garrett and his fiancée, Amy McLamb. The store carries a wide range of music genres from trendy pop music to old jazz hits, Garrett said, to cater to a large and diverse customer base. According to Garrett, the shop not only offers a variety of old records customers can listen to and purchase, but also a throwback experience, as many of their products are from classic musicians, like Elvis. Garrett mainly stocks the shelves with old records that have been bought either from customers or from other record and donation stores such as Salvation Army or Goodwill. “We sell nostalgia, that is the name of the game,” Garett said. “We take people back to that time and place.”
Is Pam & Tommy’s Tower Records a Real Record Store? Where is it Located? ‘Pam & Tommy’ brings back a wave of nostalgic 1990s icons, be it a dramatized version of the iconic red bathing suit-clad ‘Baywatch’ actress or the quaint references to the World Wide Web (with authentic-sounding dial-up connection sounds). Since much of the show is set in California, there are a ton of recognizable names that also populate the narrative. Those with a keen eye probably noticed Rand going in and out of a Tower Records store, trying to sell copies of the titular couple’s private tape. The store seems to be very reminiscent of the kind of music outlets that have all but disappeared but were essential hangout spots for music lovers back in the day. Are you wondering whether Tower Records, as seen on ‘Pam and Tommy,’ is based on an actual record store? Let’s find out.
Glasgow, UK | New exhibition celebrates Glasgow’s golden era for record stores: The Bluebells, who topped the UK charts back in 1993 with Young at Heart, opened the exhibition on Wednesday. A new exhibition is aiming to transport music fans back to Glasgow’s golden era for record stores. Spinning Around – Glasgow’s Remarkable Record Shops is a celebration of the numerous music stores that thrived in the city from the 1980s to the mid-1990s. Scots band The Bluebells, who topped the UK charts back in 1993 with Young at Heart, opened the exhibition at the city’s Riverside Museum on Wednesday. Robert Hodgens, founder of The Bluebells and better known as Bobby Bluebell, was joined by brothers and fellow bandmates Ken and David McCluskey. Ken said: “Glasgow’s record shops in the 1980s were hugely important to me and The Bluebells. They were where we got our musical education from and where we would meet and hang out.
La Crosse, WI | Photo Series: Ye Olde Deaf Ear: The downtown La Crosse area has become a place for local businesses to come and use the space provided to sell their products and cater to passers-by. Through this, the local businesses can help customers become more in tune with the area. One business that does this is Deaf Ear Records. In 1978, Deaf Ear Records was established, hopping from location to location around the downtown area. From behind Fayze’s restaurant on 4th street to 3rd street than to a place on 4th and Jay, Deaf Ear has done quite a bit of moving before settling in its current spot on 112 4th street south. With the arrival of the business at its’ current location, Deaf Ear has expanded itself to areas outside of music. This includes collectibles, such as comics, for example, DVDs, and many other items. Furthermore, the basement of the building now is home to the Gaming Dungeon, which is a space that allows people to play popular tabletop games such as Magic the Gathering, along with many others.
Alliance, OH | Rodman’s Vinyl Club spins cool vibes: The Alliance area was under a wind chill advisory on Jan. 26, but the vibe inside Rodman Public Library’s auditorium was just plain cool. Librarian Byrun Reed was spinning records on the library’s turntable as half a dozen others listened to the music, drank coffee and talked about whatever subject happened to come up during a meeting of the Alliance Vinyl Club. The group included another librarian, an artist, a retired lawyer, a musician/music shop owner, and a graduate student. A special guest for the evening was Bob Ethington, a drummer on the Akron music scene since the 1980s who recently retired after 35 years as a library manager for the Akron-Summit County Public Library. “I just sort of turn into a DJ,” said Reed, who started the Alliance Vinyl Club in 2019. “I like vinyl records. You get an idea, most of the time, of what the artist’s vision was with the large record jacket. You can read everything. On CDs, you can’t really read the liner notes to see the names of the musicians who played on the recordings or things like that. All that stuff has always been really important to me.”
Kingsport, TN | It’s time for the Kingsport Book Fair at the Kingsport Civic Auditorium: Volunteers were busy Wednesday toting box after box of used books into the Kingsport Civic Auditorium for the annual Kingsport Book Fair, which begins Thursday evening and continues through Sunday afternoon. Billed as the largest book fair in the region, the event is sponsored by Friends of the Library and First Book — Greater Kingsport. It typically draws buyers from several other states. A special preview sale Thursday from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. has an admission fee of $10. Returning is the special academic preview sale, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Admission is $5 and a valid faculty/staff/student ID is required for entry. …Organizers said the Book Fair will offer thousands of books for sale, along with a good selection of audiobooks, music CDs, DVDs and vinyl record albums.
Taylor Swift Is The Vinyl Queen Of The World: The list of the bestselling vinyl albums in the world in 2021 is flush with some of the most successful music stars of today and yesterday, with a blend of pop stars and rock bands that have left their mark on history all managing to sell healthy sums of a format that was once thought to be done with. On IFPI’s (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry) first-ever ranking of the top 10 bestselling titles on wax on planet Earth last year, just one artist claims a pair of spaces, and in doing so, she once again proves she is the vinyl queen of the world. Taylor Swift appears twice on the 10-spot tally, as two of her recent releases sold incredibly well on vinyl all around the world. First up for the singer-songwriter is Red (Taylor’s Version), which lands at No. 6. Down at No. 10, in last place, is Evermore. The former effort was released in November 2021, yet it still managed to sell well enough in only about a month and a half to break onto this tally. Evermore was initially made available in late 2020, but the vinyl version wasn’t released until May 2021, so it’s not entirely shocking that the surprise full-length is present on this list.
