Ardmore, OK | Taproom and record store coming to Downtown Ardmore: Black Mesa Taproom II and Cool Tom Records owner Tracy Edwards says her establishment will have an atmosphere unlike anywhere else in Downtown Ardmore. “Records and beer, I think that will be a good time,” Edwards said. “We’ll have a good crowd.” She’s worked to make the taproom a reality for a year now. “COVID and a 100 year old building with lots of surprises,” Edwards said. After fixing the roof, and having a mural painted by a local Oklahoma City artist, Edwards said she’s almost ready to open the doors and show it off. “You’ll walk through the record store to get to the taproom,” Edwards said. “It won’t be like a bar because it’s just a craft beer and the craft beer is excellent.” The craft beer comes from Norman-based Black Mesa Brewing Company. “We range from all kinds of flavors, all the way from a kolsch, a light lager through ranch water, seltzer, all the way to a stout and many types of IPAs,” Owner Chris Sanders said.
Ann Arbor, MI | Downtown Ann Arbor music store pursues liquor license for bar, entertainment use: A downtown Ann Arbor record shop is making its way toward serving beer and wine. Matt Bradish, owner of Underground Sounds, applied for a liquor license under the name Up From the Skies LLC for the shop’s space at 210 S Main St. in Ann Arbor, to create a café, tavern and vinyl retail-style space, city records show. The shop occupies the former Peaceable Kingdom space. Underground Sounds moving to Main Street in Ann Arbor City Council on Monday, March 1 approved the request, which needs approval from the Michigan Liquor Control Commission. Council Member Jeff Hayner said the project would be a “neat idea” to fill up an old space. “It’s kind of nice we have a gentleman here who is repurposing or is planning to repurpose a downtown space, a sort of beloved space, the old Peaceable Kingdom building, to be a sort of more of a public meeting space around some of people’s favorite things, vinyl records and a bar,” Hayner said.
Hagerstown, MD | Stacks of wax: Hagerstown-area vinyl shops are music to record fans’ ears: Lloyd Thoburn had vinyl records aplenty. As the owner of a successful business dealing in used arcade machines, he continuously acquired 45s that had been used to stock jukeboxes. “He had no idea what to do with them,” said his wife, Sheree Thoburn. Overloaded with records, the Thoburns some sold of them on Facebook. “We used to sell them in unpacked boxes with no idea what was inside. It was ‘Take your chance. It’s a box full of 45s — I don’t know what they are — for $50 a box,’” Thoburn said. Then the couple discovered that some of the boxes contained rare collectibles. “We found out after someone bought about four of those boxes and made about $10,000 off of them on eBay,” she said. “I said, ‘How about if I research and price the 45s. We started with that, then, realizing that the real demand was for LPs, we started buying used LPs.” The Thoburns found a vital and active industry in vinyl and went on to open Hub City Vinyl, a record shop with thousands of used and new albums and 45s from a variety of genres, including promo copies and hard-to-find titles. Despite opening less than a year ago during the pandemic, the enterprise is thriving and growing.
UK | ‘I’ve been listening to 300 vinyl records to get me through lockdown’ Nearly a year since the start of the first UK lockdown, I’ve listened to every LP I’ve ever bought – and found a diary of my life in the grooves. I’m sitting, typing. The rain spreads across the window in glossy veins. We can’t go out, anyway, but the weather adds to the feeling of being stuck. So here I am inside, listening to music so familiar I can hear the next track as the first starts to fade. I flip over the record and reset the needle. And I’m crying. Happy tears… memory tears… tears of gratitude. Because you may be in lockdown but I’m at the gig of my life and all it took to get here was a song. A year ago, the nationwide order to stay inside, possibly for months, filled many of us with anxiety. But it presented a strange kind of novelty too. As our worlds suddenly got smaller a domestic and creative mania took hold. Cupboards were cleared and musical instruments dragged down from lofts. We needed something to punctuate the oddly blank, possibly frightening, expanse of time fanning out in front of us. Like everyone in March 2020, I reached around for a meaningful self-care project. What is it that I love but never quite do? Can I finally do that thing? And there in my living room my eyes fell upon four shelves containing about 300 records. I’m going to play them all.
Record Store Day announce second 2021 event for July: ‘Drop dates’ will now take place in both June and July. Record Store Day has announced a second drop date for 2021, with events now taking place in June and July. It comes after the 2020 version of the annual celebration ended up being split across three events in August, September and October. After announcing their initial date of June 12 for 2021’s RSD at the end of last year, an additional date of July 17 has now been added. A statement announcing the new date read: “With vaccines on the horizon, Record Store Day organisers around the world look forward to the future, but recognise that in 2021, the world’s biggest record store party needs some adjustments to make it as successful for as many participating indie record shops as possible. “Throughout the past year, record stores have found creative, flexible and inventive ways to keep serving the music lovers in their communities. However, the ongoing worldwide pandemic makes it impossible to predict the status of many stores and locations around the globe in the next few months…”
