Yuma, AZ | Local musician opens record shop in Yuma: It’s been nearly 10 years since Yuma had a local record shop. But now the tune is changing. “Music is very great for the soul and it’s good to communicate with other people and bring people together and quite frankly it’s a beautiful thing all the way around,” said the owner of Blue Big Records Steven Larose. Steven Larose is a local musician with a passion for music and of course vinyl records. “I started collecting since I was about 16 and again getting into hip-hop and records in such you do what’s called sampling and you take little bits and pieces from each record and make your own sound,” said Larose. Larose started selling records at his apartment but finally decided to open Blue Bug Records. “That collection grew and over time one thing led to another and just decided to open that collection up and give it up for sale you know no reason to hold onto it all for oneself and help the community and develop a culture here…”
Suffolk, UK | Suffolk town becoming a vinyl haven as stores open side-by-side: A twist of fate has resulted in vinyl record stores opening next door to each other in a seaside town. Grooveyard Records has opened next door to Onion Vinyl in Orwell Road, Felixstowe and the town is becoming a haven for record stores with other businesses, including Nick Barber Auctions in Hamilton Road, also in the trade. However, Grooveyard owner Garry O’Malley said it was ‘pure coincidence’ that he had opened next door to Onion Vinyl and he was good friends with his neighbouring store owner, Steve Kendall. Mr Kendall told him that he was going to be opening his store in the former Age UK premises, which was by chance right next door to Mr O’Malley. He said: “I can’t think of any town this size that has record stores side-by-side. It is a pure coincidence, that is all it is.”
Cloverdales, BC | Record Store Day resounding success at Elevated Music: Record Store Day was another resounding success at Elevated Music, according to store owner Bill Haggerty. “RSD was insane,” Haggerty told the Cloverdale Reporter via email. Haggerty said it was first-come, first-served at his shop as eager patrons lined up to get in. RSD, as Record Store Day is also known, attracts large crowds seeking hard-to-get titles. RSD was held April 23. The event was created several years ago with the goal of supporting and promoting independent records stores (like Cloverdale’s Elevated Music). Many new records and limited-edition pressings are released exclusively on Record Store Day, making the sales day an eagerly anticipated event. This year Haggerty infused a little Easter spirit into his Record Store Day sale after he decided to hide Easter Eggs around Cloverdale. Elevated Music’s Easter Egg hunt rewarded egg finders with limited-edition tickets for a chance to win limited-edition records. The highly-sought-after tickets were hidden inside eggs around the downtown area and Haggerty released clues to their location prior to RSD.
Austin, TX | A Universe of Music at Your Fingertips Inside the Austin Record Convention: ARC runs Friday through Sunday at the Palmer Events Center: Pandemic takeaway No. 33⅓: VINYL. Pandemic reality No. 3: complete and total supply chain abandonment. “Recently at the Austin Record Convention, we’ve seen an uptick in indie labels signing up as vendors and selling their catalog,” relays Nathan Hanners, son and partner of Doug Hanners, who first staged Austin’s all-music swap meet in 1981. “If new inventory isn’t being produced to sell, [the vinyl logjam] will dampen that trend. I saw that Jack White called on the major labels to invest in building their own vinyl pressing plants again. I hope they do.” Four decades in, music freaks far and wide trek to mecca to trawl two of the best ballrooms in town, packed with every conceivable form of music memorabilia known to humankind. That the Hanners bounced back last May from 2020 canceling both the spring and fall conventions felt like a furlough from the COVID psych ward.
Canberra, AU | Canberra autumn record fair on Saturday: Vinyl Addicts Canberra is holding the Canberra Autumn Record Fair at the Flynn Community Hub on Saturday from 8am to 2.30pm. We can’t go past this pitch: “It’s election season vinyl lovers, and while we can’t guarantee you’ll pick up an album by The Party Boys, The Drones, Liar, Corrupt Souls, The Faceless, The Promises or The Raconteurs, we’re pretty confident you’re going to find some long-wanted or unexpected gems that will give you hours of listening pleasure that lasts long after the glow of casting your vote has worn off.” How long until the election?
Peter Tosh Outsells Bob Marley Thanks To Vinyl Sales: Regend legends Peter Tosh and Jimmy Cliff have re-entered the Billboard Reggae Albums chart for the first time in years, fuelled by vinyl reissues of their classic albums on Record Store Day (RSD). In fact, the vinyl boost helped Peter Tosh to outsell Bob Marley in the pure album sales count last week, which is also a first for any Reggae or Dancehall artist in several years. However, the Bad Card singer remains king on the Reggae chart dated May 7, where on-demand streaming is also considered. On RSD, April 23, 2022, 6,700 copies of Tosh’s Complete Captured Live album were made available on vinyl for the time since 2002. The album features 15 songs that were performed live at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles in 1983, including fiery versions of Equal Rights/Downpressor Man, African, and Get Up, Stand Up. Complete Captured Live has now debuted on the Billboard Reggae Albums chart at No. 2 this week, after it sold 3,500 of the 6,700 vinyl copies in the United States last week, according to data provided to DancehallMag from Billboard’s sales tracker, Luminate. Peter Tosh’s last album to enter the chart was Super Hits, which peaked at No. 7 in April 2002 and had spent 11 weeks on the chart.
New vinyl-CD hybrid format is :the pinnacle of recorded sound,” says founder T Bone Burnett: Burnett has described it as the “first breakthrough in analog sound reproduction in more than 70 years.” US music producer and guitarist T Bone Burnett is developing a new physical audio format, which he’s calling ‘Iconic Originals’. The ultra high-fidelity format, said to be a hybrid of vinyl and CD, is made from a combination of lacquer and aluminium. Burnett has described it in a statement as “the pinnacle of recorded sound.” Speaking further, he said: “It is archival quality. It is future proof. It is one of one. Not only is an Ionic Original the equivalent of a painting, it is a painting. It is lacquer painted onto an aluminum disc, with a spiral etched into it by music. This painting, however, has the additional quality of containing that music, which can be heard by putting a stylus into the spiral and spinning it.” Burnett also described the new format as “the first breakthrough in analog sound reproduction in more than 70 years,” adding no further detail on how it presents a more accessible and significant shift forward than those previously offered by CD.
