Ottawa/Streator, IL | Eyes on Enterprise: Record store opens inside Streator’s Hometown Shoppes: Grand Ridge man has been selling vinyl most of his life. Bill Dvorak, of Grand Ridge, has been selling vinyl records for at least 35 years—most of his life. Under the name Groovy Dog Records, he sells online and at record conventions and he recently opened up shop inside Hometown Shoppes at Northpoint Plaza in Streator. Over the years, he’s also been in different antique malls and had a storefront in downtown Peru a few year ago. He appreciates the connection he’s able to make with customers by having a brick-and-mortar location, he said. At his store, customers can browse a variety of vinyl, CDs, cassettes, music-related DVDs such as concerts and artist biographies, and purchase audio equipment. Groovy Dog Records at 16 Northpoint Drive, Streator, inside Hometown Shoppes.
Lawrenceville, PA | Long Play Cafe, a new record store and coffee shop, debuts in Lawrenceville: Do you know how you can judge the anticipation for a new shop? Look for the nose print smudges on the windows. By that criteria, Long Play Cafe record store/coffee shop on Butler Street in Lawrenceville is garnering quite a bit of interest even before it starts regular hours next week. Nobody is as excited about new customers as Roos (Dutch, pronounced Rose), the wildly friendly pup that greets everyone. A close second is Brian Broad, Long Play Cafe’s owner. This guy loves records. Not in the normal record store owner way, either. He wants the absolute best for them. That involves giving each album a comprehensive cleaning akin to restoring a piece of art punished by decades of dust and harsh handling. Broad radiates joy when he picks up a rare, freshly cleaned 1968 record by lost avant-garde psychedelic greats The United States of America. The record looks flawless, and even the cover shines.
Mississauga, ON | Record Store Day ‘Drops’ busy day for record lovers in Oshawa: April 23 was ‘the’ Record Store Day around the world, but Saturday’s second Record Store Day ‘Drops’ had its special moments too, said Andre Lessard, proprietor of Another Spin in Oshawa. June 18 was added to the RSD lineup because of supply chain issues that prevented many of the promised titles from arriving in stores in time for the big day. So while April 23rd’s event may have had better titles – especially as it was the 15th annual celebration of independent record stores – this weekend’s event was at least as busy, especially as they were able to spread it over two days. “For RSD Drops June 18 the hot items were Prince, Pearl Jam, Miles Davis. Collective Soul and Paul McCartney,” Lessard said. “Lots of people told us they enjoyed the first one better and we do have more titles left.” “But Sunday was a crazy because of Father’s Day. That day I sold more classic rock and 80’s because of Stranger Things.
St. Louis, MO | The Record Store Day 2022 Drops Party at Euclid Records: Both experienced crate diggers and younger music fans were drawn to Euclid Records on Record Store Day to score deals and exclusives on RSD Drops Day. On RSD Drops day fans could finally get access to all of the vinyl they coveted that had not been released in time for the big annual Record Store Day party in April. Our photographer, Lulu Nix, was there to capture the scene.
DE | German record stores launch petition to fight DHL on rising vinyl shipping fees: At the time of writing, the petition has received a little under 11,300 signatures. Record stores in Germany are fighting back against the German Post and DHL, after the organisations detailed pricing changes that will heavily affect the cost of international shipping. As of July 1, the dimensional criteria for packages shipped under the category of ‘Warenpost International’ – the standard for shipping vinyl records overseas – will be reduced. Once the change is enacted, packages will need to come in at under 25cm wide. Given that 12-inch records come in around 31cm before packaging is even factored in, record stores can no longer rely on Warenpost International for orders shipped into or out of Germany. At the moment, shipping a record through DHL or German Post will cost between €5 and €10 (£4.29-8.58). When the changes come into effect on July 1, however, sellers will need to begin shipping stock under the category of ‘Päckchen M International’, which can cost up to four times more.
London, UK | Colchester songwriter plays in-store gig in HMV: A singing songstress inspired by the off-kilter beauty of jazz music dazzled shoppers with a performance inside a well-known record store. Polly Haynes, backed by her brilliant band of talented instrumentalists, played a gig at HMV, in Culver Square Shopping Centre, Colchester, on Saturday. The early afternoon show, which stopped vinyl-flicking customers in their tracks, was hosted as part of HMV’s Live and Local initiative. It saw the songwriter showcase a of range of different material, providing the perfect soundtrack for shoppers searching for a new favourite album or box set. In a statement posted on social media following her performance, Polly said: “That was a sweaty gig – thanks to HMV Colchester and Ska Blusky for having us. “What an amazing, wonderful crowd we had too – thanks so much.”
Has working from home changed our music tastes? …Taking the remarkably small sample size of my nevertheless ample collection of friends and associates, I know of at least six people who thought it was the right time to begin a vinyl record collection. Beyond that sample, I have the figures to prove that many others did the same, as the pandemic years saw a new 30-year peak in vinyl sales. And with vinyl comes an appreciation of the album. You can’t skip between tracks or artists the way you can with other formats as easily on a turntable. This means that emphasis is placed on perfecting the front-to-back format of a coherent LP. Tim Burgess’ Twitter Listening Parties were testimony of this too. With time on their hands, people wanted to revel in the self-contained beauty of a fully released release—a little time capsule of revelry, not dissimilar from the phone-turned-off bliss of a blackened cinema.
