Boonton, NJ | ‘Music Is Our Lifeblood:’ Married Couple Bring Record Store, Intimate Venue To North Jersey: Music lovers in Morris County will have a place to call home, thanks to a husband and wife. On a recent trip to Boonton Coffee, Shane and Michele Murphy noticed a vacant storefront at 520A Main St. The West Milford couple knew immediately how to use it. Shane, a U.S. Army veteran, and Michele will soon be opening Hidden Tracks Records, a music store and intimate music venue. …The store, named after Shane’s podcast, HiddenTracks, will feature new and used vinyl records, CDs, cassette tapes, stereo and record equipment, music gifts, accessories and apparel. The store aims to support the indie music community by serving as a venue for bands, the first concert to be held on Thursday, June 6 at 8 p.m. featuring Dylan Clark of the Milwaukees and Jonah Matranga from onelinedrawing. “We know how powerful music can be in bringing people together and thought this community would be a perfect fit for our new venture,” Michele said.
Montavilla, OR | City Noise Records Opens, Replicant Bar to Follow: On May 22nd, City Noise Records relocated from a small storefront on NE Broadway Street to 7033 NE Glisan Street. Within a few weeks, a new beer and wine bar called Replicant will open next door to the punk and metal music shop, allowing customers of both establishments to commingle through a central passageway. These complementary businesses renovated the century-old storefront to create a complete experience for people to become immersed in music while enjoying their favorite drinks. Lydia Crumbley and Gianpiero Milani co-own Replicant Beer & Wine PDX, creating the new bar as an extension of Milani’s other business, City Noise Records. The 810-square-foot bar’s name originates from the 1982 sci-fi movie Blade Runner.
Columbus, OH | The Record Store: Owners Recall Rare Pressings We Never Knew Existed: A profile of Spoonful Records in Columbus, Ohio. Owning a record store can be a dirty job, but someone’s gotta do it. It’s the message that Brett Ruland and Amy Kesting—husband-and-wife owners of the Columbus, Ohio music shop Spoonful Records—embody in their auto mechanic-inspired work attire. But nestled in the city’s downtown, adjacent to plant-based diner 4th & State, Spoonful Records is exactly in its element, providing locals with must-have vinyl finds. At their third location overall, the 144 E State St. digs feel just like home to the couple and record-digging regulars. On a Wednesday afternoon in early-April, Ruland and Kesting have a bit of a break from a traffic of customers that scour vinyl from the “Used Rap” to Soundtracks sections. Kesting’s paintings surround the shop, replicas of iconic album covers for Maggot Brain and the eponymous KISS LP, a hobby that she picked up in her spare time after retiring from pinball tournaments.
Minneapolis, MN | U.K. rocker Frank Turner returns to Minneapolis after working a shift at Electric Fetus: The British punk anthem singer will add the Uptown Theater to “a long, happily varied list” of Twin Cities gigs and stunts. …The anthemic punk strummer pulled off another in a series of daredevil-ish gig marathons in early May, like the time he performed in all 50 of the United States in 50 days. This time, he did 15 different U.K. cities in 24 hours, setting a Guinness World Record. “Nightmarish and fun,” quipped Turner, who performs in Minneapolis again Saturday at the Uptown Theater—one show only. “The 24 hours part was fun. The 36 hours afterward was tough. I got home and just sort of sat there dazed with no idea what was going on.” The 42-year-old rocker—whose latest single is titled “Girl From the Record Shop”—also went to work supporting independent record shops last month by flying all the way to Middle America to man a shift at Minneapolis’ own Electric Fetus. He really came to work, too, according to staff there.
Pompton Lakes, NJ | Pompton Lakes record store plays big part in Chris Wilcha’s new documentary ‘Flipside.’ Filmmaker Chris Wilcha needed to declutter. Decades after he moved to California, all these things were still at his parents’ home in Franklin Lakes — boxes of old Spin magazines, a collection of Fisher-Price turntables. And then there were the leftovers of a quarter-century of filmmaking — cartons stuffed with documentaries he’d never finished, rough drafts for movies he’d never begun. Wilcha is still working on clearing out his parents’ place. (“I really need to rent a van,” he confesses.) But at least he did come up with an idea for all those in-progress movies. Turn them into a new movie. The picture opens May 31 at the IFC Center in New York and it’s called “Flipside.” It’s largely about the Pompton Lakes record store of the same name, a musty Aladdin’s cave of undiscovered treasures. But it’s also about a mail-order record club. And Uncle Floyd.
Boston, MA | Vinyl bar with a cocktail menu opens in Trillium’s Fort Point location: The cocktails at Headroom are made using Trillium’s spirits products. Trillium Brewing has opened a new concept at its Fort Point location, adding to the growing scene of vinyl bars in Boston. Headroom took over the second floor of the brewery, turning the space into a swanky, mid-century modern listening lounge just up the stairs from its craft beer taproom. JC Tetreault, Trillium owner, said the curation of records for the lounge was not an “overnight thing,” like it might be when putting together a Spotify playlist. The process started over e-mails between Tetreault and Will McNeil, Trillium’s food and beverage director, first picking apart their individual collections. Then they contacted record shops and online collectors and vendors. A press release said their collection includes “thousands of LPs,” but Tetreault said they’re still developing and growing the number of records they have.
MN | Minnesota garage sale gold: Insider tips for scoring valuable vinyl: ‘Mighty John The Record Guy’ joins me each month on my talk show “It Matters with Kelly Cordes,” from 10 to Noon on weekdays on WJON. Today I spoke with Mighty John about how to spot those garage sale deals on Vinyl, and he gave me lots of tips to share with those of you who are featuring vinyl at your yard sales, and those who just love to shop for vinyl. Here are the most important tips he had for us.
Vinyl Version of Beyonce’s ‘Cowboy Carter’ With the Five Missing Tracks Is Finally on Sale, at a Higher Price: Vinyl-loving Beyoncé fans were chagrined when the singer issued an LP version of her acclaimed “Cowboy Carter” album in March that was missing five tracks found on the standard digital edition. Now, that seeming oversight is being rectified with a new vinyl edition of the collection that includes all the MIA tracks, albeit for a higher price. Beyoncé’s webstore and a few web retailers are now selling what is billed as the “official” vinyl version of “Cowboy Carter,” with the complete 27-song track list. Although, like the previous edition, it is a two-LP set, the cost of the new version has been bumped up to $59.98, a price point $20 higher than what the first edition was selling for. (Amazon, Target and Walmart also put the new version up for sale on Thursday. A previous version of this story said only the artist’s webstore appeared to have the refreshed edition.)
