The Broke Music Fan’s Guide to Buying Music in Denver: Sometimes a music lover has to stay home and get her fix from her own sound system. But buying music — even if it’s not in the form of concert tickets — takes dollars, so what’s a broke music fan to do? We’re here to help with a few tips for scoring music in Denver within a reasonable budget.
Colin Hanks introduces his documentary about Tower Records – and reveals how his 400-record vinyl collection took shape: ‘All actors have their share of downtime and I have had this idea for a music documentary on Tower Records in my head for quite some time. I felt I had a stake in it personally because I grew up in Sacramento where they opened up the first store. My mum would take me in there when I was as young as eight or nine. It’s where I bought my first Beastie Boys cassettes – and it was about cassettes then, not vinyl or CDs.’
Warrington record shop sounds like heaven: Walk through the door at Eddie’s Music & More and you’ll forget how it looks — cramped, narrow aisles, dark as a dungeon. The sign on the street reads Eddie’s Music & More. The hand-painted sign on the window reads “The Music Store.” No matter. It’s Eddie’s Music & More and looks don’t mean a thing here. Because it’s the sound that matters — and if you look hard enough you’ll find a vintage copy of Johnny Cash singing “Dark As a Dungeon” somewhere in the oft-overlooked Warrington record store.
He’s got four million doo-wop 45s for sale, but browers beware: Val Shively’s R&B Records in Upper Darby is a three-story bop-shoo-bop shrine, stacked floor to ceiling with four million records, mostly 45s by ’50s and early ’60s one-hit and no-hit doo-wop groups beloved by the 72-year-old guy with the four-part-harmony heart seated in a threadbare chair. He’s got four million doo-wop 45s for sale, but browers beware Stormy and Feisty, the cats who rendered the chair threadbare, prowl the narrow aisles between tall walls of big-hole singles, a section of vintage CDs, and one of LPs.
The Big Read: Vinyl Revival: You don’t have to be 40-something to relish records. Sixteen-year-old Chloe Phillips says she’s been collecting about three years. She imagines how past owners might have enjoyed their LPs. “… did they hang them up as decorations or play them? It’s just so much better than digital music, or CDs or anything. It’s so different. It looks cool, as well. I love it.” The Te Puna teen discovers new songs by letting entire albums play. Favourites include Nirvana, Jimmy Hendrix, David Bowie, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rolling Stones and Madonna.
Record sale draws diverse crowd: “Vinyl is coming back in vogue over the last half dozen years,” said Rob Plante, who organized the semi-annual show along with John Ashley. “There’s a whole generation of high school and college kids who have never had anything tactile like this. It’s new to them and they’re finding joy in it.” A half dozen out-of-town vendors were doing a brisk business by early afternoon. Little picked up several jazz albums by Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan and Duke Ellington to add to her library of 300 records.
