Ville Platte, LA | On the Road: Floyd’s Record Shop in Ville Platte: Many don’t know this but Floyd’s Record Shop in Ville Platte has a rich history of preserving the music of Southwest Louisiana. Floyd Soileau started the shop more than 60 years ago. Soileau got his start in the music business as a DJ at KVPI in the 1950s. While DJing his colleague Chris Duplechin gave Soileau the idea to open a record shop in Ville Platte. So, Soileau and his brother drove to New Orleans and brought back 200 dollars worth of records and a 60 dollar record player to start their record store right next to the KVPI studio. Within a year Soileau moved into a new store and began recording music for local artists. And from his time as a DJ Soileau knew when someone had a hit. Soileau says “I always encouraged them when they came to record give me something of a story that will touch their heart or tickle their funny bones and maybe we got something to sell.” Then in 1975 Soileau opened up Louisiana’s only pressing plant.
Clinton, IA | Taking a spin: About 50% of Melissa Peterson and Keith Rixen’s sales are vinyl albums, so it’s only logical that most of the inventory at their new store consists of vintage LPs. After a couple of years in the flea-market scene, Peterson and Rixen purchased the former Burke Florist building at 210 Sixth Ave. South in Clinton. Having remodeled the building, the couple are now stocking and pricing vintage and antique items for the May 25 grand opening of The Underground. Rixen, who had spent his life in production and operations management, began selling LPs online a few years ago. “I just wanted to do something different,” he said. Then Rixen began fixing old furniture in the garage. It sold quickly, and the business grew. The couple set up shop at a flea market in LeClaire, selling vinyl albums, furniture and vintage items. “We excelled,” Peterson said. “He’s got a very good knack for reading people.”
Tallahassee, FL | FSU students invited to screen their films at Cannes Film Festival: …On May 21, senior film student William Stead will screen his documentary “The Flip Side” at The American Pavilion along with director of photography Evan Barber, also a senior in FSU’s College of Motion Picture Arts. The eight-minute film spotlights Banana’s Records in St. Petersburg, Florida, which describes itself as the largest vinyl record store in the world. Store owners Doug and Michelle Allen started Banana’s Records in the 1970s and have been growing their inventory ever since. Stead’s documentary takes a reflective and engaging look at the demise and surprising resurgence of vinyl records over the past 50 years. “I quickly learned you can’t write a script for a documentary,” Stead said. “Everything relies on how good your interview questions are, so I tried to craft a story with my questions that characterized CDs as the enemy of vinyl because they put a lot of record stores out of business.”
Buenos Aires, AR | The definitive guide to Buenos Aires’ best record shops: Few cities in South America can match the vibrant cosmopolitanism of Buenos Aires, which acts as a hub for people from all across the continent. A symbolic bridge between Latin America and Europe, Argentina’s capital presents a somewhat contradictory proposition for record buyers. With a rich musical culture leaving plenty to discover across the city, the notoriously unstable economy makes Buenos Aires a relatively treacherous place to run a business as precarious as a record shop. While it’s famous for its football, steak and myriad of architectural styles, the city’s record culture can be a littler harder to locate. Scratch below the surface though and it becomes clear that as the rock-obsessed home of tango with a party scene built for insomniacs, Buenos Aires is also an electric environment for music…We pick out nine shops from across genres to get you started.
Phoenix, AZ | The 11 Best Record Stores in Metro Phoenix: Record collectors in Phoenix suffered a heavy loss when Revolver Records closed up shop in February. But like any industry, businesses come and go. Over time, new record shops open up where entrepreneurial record collectors see a need, and older chains expand as they refine their successful habits. Selling records in the age of digital streaming, when even the practice of buying entire albums digitally has decreased, is not as easy of a job as it used to be…Of course, every record shop is different and has its own particular audience in mind. Some shops specialize in high-quality, audiophile releases in particular genres, whereas other shops tend to focus on stocking newer and current releases. Figuring out which record shop carry the records you like can be a time-consuming task, so we’ve put together a list of 11 of the best record shops across metro Phoenix.
Richmond, VA | BK Music record store in South Richmond closing in June: The BK Music store in the Stratford Hills Shopping Center in South Richmond is closing in June. Owner Bill Kennedy and his wife, Gina, announced the closing Friday on Facebook, saying the lease on the space is ending and that they are retiring. The post thanked customers who have patronized the business during the last 18 years, first when the record store was on Midlothian Turnpike in Chesterfield County and now at its location off Forest Hill Avenue. “Each and every one of you, along with our incredible staff, are what made every day special and rewarding. It is with mixed excitement and sadness that we have decided to retire at the end of our current lease, so BK Music will be closing in June,” the post said. The store in South Richmond sold new and used vinyl records, CDs and DVDs.
Everything But the Girl Announce Amplified Heart Vinyl Reissue: The 1994 album gets its first official vinyl release for its 25th anniversary. Everything But the Girl, the British indie pop duo of Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt, have announced a 25th anniversary reissue of their seminal 1994 album Amplified Heart. It’s out July 5 for the first time on vinyl. The album features the original version of the band’s biggest hit song, “Missing.” “We’ve always been proud of Amplified Heart,” Watt said in a statement. “It is both close to the bone—understandable, given its background—but also gentle in its touch, and shot through with resilience. The newly mastered pressing sounds amazing—as good as the original tapes.” “I think it’s a real rebirth record—the moment we got our mojo back,” Thorn added. “And it’s where ‘Missing’ began its story, so it’s a significant album for us.”
