Sunrise Records returning to Pen Centre, Record store chain will take over HMV lease: Shortly after music giant HMV entered bankruptcy and announced it would be closing up shop in Canada, Ancaster-based record store chain Sunrise Records revealed it will be buying out the leases of at least 70 of the former locations. Company president Doug Putnam said the St. Catharines store in the Pen Centre will be one of those locations. “With HMV closing, a big hole is left in the market,” said Putnam. “I think Canada needs a physical music retailer coast to coast. This seemed like a good opportunity and the timing is right.”
Music Record Shop makes new noise in Grand Center: Music Record Shop has some fancy new digs. The record store, specializing in vinyl and CDs, relocated from 4191 Manchester Avenue in the Grove neighborhood to the Kranzberg Arts Foundation’s plush .ZACK Performing Arts Incubator at 3224 Locust Street (the Cadillac Building) in Grand Center. Music Record Store opened in January in its new location and this month had a grand opening that doubled as an album release celebration for St. Louis metal band Final Drive.
Fate of Iconic Record Store Sign at Center of Struggle Between Owner and City: Just two weeks after launching an online petition to pressure the city to help in designating the World Famous VIP Records sign as a historic landmark, the owner of the record store has launched a separate petition seeking to block what he’s calling the city’s “illegal” attempt to brand the iconic sign with historic status. Kelvin Anderson, owner and operator of VIP Records for nearly 40 years, claims that Mayor Robert Garcia and the city are proceeding with an attempt to classify the sign—made famous when it was featured in the 1993 music video for Snoop Dogg’s “Who Am I (What’s My Name)”—as historic, which could effectively strip him of any rights he has to the sign.
Cassette Tapes And Vinyl Making A Comeback With Younger Generations: This isn’t a throwback; it’s 2017 and cassette tapes are back. Chris Jacques runs a small independent music label in Winnipeg that primarily works with cassettes. He’s produced tapes for musicians all over the world. It’s a trend that is popular particularly among newer bands. “They’ve grown up with CD’s and digital, that’s boring. Tapes are interesting, they’re neat, they’re compact,” Jacques from Dub Ditch Picnic Records said. He also noted that tapes are an easy and cost effective way to share music. “You’re always going to have a percentage of people who want to own something, that want to look at what they have.”
Black archives hosts “Music on Vinyl”: Kenneth Plummer began collecting records in the ninth grade. His love of music and admiration for Florida A&M University inspired him to donate a part of his collection to the Black Archives, on Saturday, during the “Music on Vinyl” listening party. “FAMU has always been a part of my history, my family history, my heritage and it was my intended as far as colleges to attend. Even though that didn’t happen, I never lost my love, my support and my affinity for FAMU,” Plummer said. “So when I decided to donate all of my life long collectables, this was a natural place.”
Aleppo man: The story behind the viral photograph symbolising six years of Syrian civil war: Weak spring sunlight enters Mohammed Mohiedin Anis’s Aleppo bedroom through windows missing their glass and broken shutters. Amid the rubble and dust, he sits on the edge of his bed, pipe in hand and legs crossed, listening to a record player. The haunting portrait taken by AFP photographer Joseph Eid is as perfectly composed as a painting. It has commanded attention around the world since its publication on March 9 for encapsulating not just the destruction of Syria’s brutal civil war, but the Syrian people’s determination to soldier on despite their circumstances.
Records never went away for vinyl collector: Ask someone about a favorite song or musician, and that person is likely to take out a smart phone and call it up in a few seconds. For Chris Haner, it’s a little more complicated and, he said, comes with a better sound. Haner manages Green Light Music, 4717 W. KL Ave., but it’s a job where he gets to indulge in a favorite hobby: buying, selling and listening to vinyl records. Haner said he’s not alone. On Record Store Day, there’s usually a long line of people camped outside, waiting for a chance to get a limited release of a particular album or one of the many giveaways that are offered. This year, Record Store Day is April 22.
