New record shop specialising in underground music opens in London: Owned and run by Blackest Ever Black founder Kiran Sande, new record shop Low Company will open in Hackney, east London this week. While not under the label’s umbrella, Low Company follows a similar ethos to Blackest Ever Black, which has been described by FACT as occupying a musical realm that is “not so much about a genre as an aesthetic.” That aesthetic is outlined by the shop who say they’ll stock “hand-picked new and second-hand underground stuff more or less across the board but especially art-rock/DIY, (post-)punk, indie-pop, techno, dnb, garage, grime, industrial, darkwave, minimal synth, ambient, dub, jazz, avant-garde.”
Stinkweeds: An Oral History of the Iconic Phoenix Record Store’s First 30 Years: It’s the night before Record Store Day 2017 in April, and the interior of her particular record store is a hive of activity. In a little more than 12 hours, a horde of customers will fill the place in search of freebies, exclusives, rarities, and finds. Right now, the Stinkweeds staff, including manager Lindsay Cates and longtime employee Dario Miranda, are the ones going full-tilt boogie inside the store as they arrange goodie bags, open boxes of records, and make other preparations for what lies ahead. Lanning, however, is more interested in the past at the moment. Standing behind the store’s counter, she flips through a small photo album containing pictures of the store from some 30-odd years.
Exile on Main honors Record Store Day with its own event: April 22, Record Store Day, was forecasted to have storms but turned out to be an amazing day with the sun shining and music playing in downtown Champaign…Record Store Day, however, was not without its difficulties, says Mike Ingram, who is a booking and local music coordinator at Exile on Main Street. “It’s difficult to make everyone happy,” Ingram says, “but it’s become such a huge thing nationwide, and even internationally, so sometimes you get people calling to see if they can get a certain thing that they saw online, however it might be a UK exclusive and then they have to try their luck online.”
Singer Kate Nash makes surprise visit to city record shop: Singer Kate Nash surprised music lovers when she popped into the Vinyl Collectors and Sellers store in Salisbury. The business, which recently started up in Cross Keys Arcade, was joined by the star to celebrate national Record Store Day on Saturday, April 22. Nash, who is famed for hits including Foundations, is an ambassador for Record Store Day. The day before she performed at Salisbury Arts Centre, headlining the The Fold Out Festival youth music event. Vinyl Collectors and Sellers owner Paul Smith said: “It was brilliant she chose our store.
Is it time MI retailers embraced the vinyl revival? The 10th annual Record Store Day took place on Saturday April 22nd, and early data suggest sales grew by 10% this year. “It was a fantastic day,” Record Store Day UK’s coordinator Megan Page told Music Week. “Early reports from shops across the board suggest it was the best year yet, and we are always surprised every year to think we can outgrow the last! “The experience and the events shop offered their customers this year was really exceptional as high-profile artists including Izzy Bizu, The Black Angels, Bobbie Gillespie and many more joined in the RSD celebrations at their local shops up and down the country.”
