Edinburgh, UK | Best Record Shops in Edinburgh: Looking to feed your vinyl addiction? Join us as we explore the best record shops in Edinburgh. After a fair few decades of suffering due to the surge in popularity of CDs, vinyl is back and thriving. And we couldn’t be happier! Nothing beats running your hands through a case of vinyl, finally spotting the record you’ve been pining after for what feels like ages, and clinging to it all the way home until you can finally open and play it. But to relish this transcendental experience, you need to know which shops to check out. You need to know which record shops in Edinburgh are best for you and your tastes, and that’s what we’re here to help you with. So here are the best record shops in Edinburgh, where you can find them, and what music they specialise in.
Nashville, TN | Independent music store in Nashville honors Record Store Day Ambassador Taylor Swift: Record Store Day is all about supporting independent record stores, and Taylor Swift, this year’s Record Store Day Global Ambassador, has done more than most to achieve that goal — which is why one of the nation’s most famous indie record stores is saluting her in a special way. Grimey’s New and Preloved Music in Nashville, Tennessee enlisted artist Kim Radford to paint a mural of Taylor’s Record Store Day Ambassador promo shot on the store’s outside wall. Why Grimey’s? Because during the early days of the pandemic, Taylor covered the paychecks and health benefits for the store’s employees so it wouldn’t have to close down. “I loved meeting her fans while I painted this piece at @grimeys and shar[ing] about her unmatched generosity,” Radford wrote on Instagram. As Radford notes, in the photo — and the mural — Taylor is surrounded by 15 stars, marking the 15th anniversary of Record Store Day, but 13 of them are purple, in a nod to Taylor’s lucky number, 13, and her favorite color.
Austin, TX | Meet Me at Waterloo Records: Playing, Shopping, and Encountering Life-Changing Moments at the Heart of Austin Music: Influential Austin characters reminisce on 40 years at the record store. Doyle Bramhall II glanced over his shoulder and gave me a piercing look. Queued up at the vinyl room register in Waterloo Records, I flashed back to my fourth day in Texas: Fourth of July, 1992. Crossing over through El Paso 72 hours earlier, this native San Franciscan rolled into San Antonio in an un-air-conditioned Datsun 280ZX only to discover abuelita hospitalized and a musical christening scheduled for historic Hemisfair Park via an Alamo City/Austin dual commemoration, Freedom Fest: Arc Angels, Stray Cats, Cheap Trick, Leon Russell, Bruce Hornsby & the Range. Kicking about in front of the towering wooden stage, I peered between the slats to find Bramhall staring me straight in the eye. He winked. This time, decades later, a dark countenance across his face read easily enough: “Do I know you?”
Denver, CO | Best of Denver: Twist & Shout. After more than thirty years of running Twist & Shout, the best record store in Denver and one of the best in the country, Paul and Jill Epstein sold the place to longtime manager Patrick Brown, who promises to keep it largely unchanged. And that’s good news for anyone who loves vinyl, old or new, whatever the genre. Sure, there’s other cool stuff at Twist & Shout — almost too much to take in on a single shopping trip — and if you can’t find an awesomely weird birthday present here, then you’re not trying hard enough. Still, Twist & Shout has always been about the music, and with Brown in charge, the song should remain the same. As an old friend of ours used to say, dropping the needle is the best drug there is.
Seattle, WA | 3 Questions with Lost Padre Records’ George Casey: “…we get more walk-in traffic from tourists, but our kind of local vinyl fanatic people are all still coming, and I don’t think we lost a single person. This new space is double the size of the last one, which is good because we were absolutely brimming full with stuff. I couldn’t walk in my office at all because it was floor-to-ceiling records and we didn’t have enough space to put out the stock. It ended up also being this beautiful space downtown. If anything, I’ve seen more young people at this location, maybe because we’re close to the skate park—I see people skate by. I would say there are some high school kids, and a lot of what we’re seeing is early- to mid-20-somethings getting into records. They had their parents’ collection and want more of what they themselves are listening to. Also people upgrading to new or better record players.”
The Weeknd Auctioning Off “Out of Time” Vinyl Pressed on Functioning Saw Blade: Only 25 copies will be made. The Weeknd has partnered with MSCHF, an art collective and app, to press his single “Out of Time” on a functioning saw blade vinyl record. Only 25 copies will be made. They’re being auctioned off on VinylBlade.com for 24 hours, starting at 1 p.m. Eastern today (April 7). Earlier this week, the Weeknd shared the Cliqua-directed music video for “Out of Time,” featuring South Korean model and actress HoYeon Jung and Jim Carrey. It’s the latest track from Dawn FM to get a visual, following “Take My Breath,” “Sacrifice,” and “Gasoline.” He also released The Weeknd x The Dawn FM Experience back in February.
The Animals’ first four albums being reissued on vinyl and as expanded CDs in May: The Animals‘ long-out-of-print first four U.S. studio albums — their 1964 self-titled debut, 1965’s The Animals on Tour and Animal Tracks, and 1966’s Animalization — will be released as 180-gram vinyl LPs and expanded CDs on May 20. In addition, a vinyl bundle will be issued the same day, titled The Animals Mickie Most Years and More, featuring the four LPs, plus a 12-inch vinyl reproduction of the group’s 1963 four-song EP, I Just Wanna Make Love to You. The Animals’ debut album launched the Newcastle, U.K., band into stardom, thanks to the group’s hit cover of “The House of the Rising Sun,” which topped the U.S. and U.K. singles charts. The album itself peaked at #7 on the Billboard 200. The Animals on Tour included “I’m Crying,” which reached #19 on the Billboard Hot 100. Animal Tracks boasted three top-40 hits — “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood,” “Bring It On Home to Me” and “We Gotta Get Out of This Place.” Animalization also featured a trio of top-40 singles — “Inside-Looking Out,” “Don’t Bring Me Down” and “See See Rider.”
Clash to release 40th anniversary edition of “Combat Rock.’ A 40th-anniversary edition of the Clash’s 1982 Combat Rock album is set for release on May 20. The collection, titled Combat Rock / The People’s Hall, includes the original album, along with 12 additional songs compiled by the surviving members of the Clash. You can see the track listing below. After their 17-show residency at New York’s Bond Casino in 1981, the Clash returned to England and began rehearsing at the People’s Hall in the squatting neighborhood of Frestonia in London. They began to record parts of Combat Rock, which was known by its working title Rat Patrol From Fort Bragg at the time. The band eventually relocated back to New York and continued recording at Electric Lady Studios. The supplementary tracks included on The People’s Hall feature rare and unheard recordings made following the 1981 single “This Is Radio Clash” until the release of Combat Rock in May 1982. The album includes some of the band’s best-known songs, like “Should I Stay or Should I Go” and “Rock the Casbah.”
