Local record store aims to improve area with new apartments: Finding affordable apartments in Rockford can be hard when you’re on a budget, but a local record store is trying to change that. “Either you get $1,000-plus for a one-bedroom apartment or you get a hole in the wall for what I’m asking,” said Toad Hall owner Nick Naruz. That’s why Naruz has spent the last few months renovating this nearly 100-year-old apartment building on Broadway. New appliances, hard wood floors and in-unit laundry are just a few of the amenities he’s providing.
The world’s best record shops #071: Wah Wah Records, Barcelona: A small outlet in a small street of the Raval neighbourhood in Barcelona, Spain, Wah Wah something of a paradise for collectors and aficionados – if your idea of paradise doesn’t include much floor space. Opened in 1992, Wah Wah boasts a huge selection of vinyl records, originals and reissues from all ages and scenes – blues, jazz, soul, funk, R&B, garage, psych, prog, rockabilly, punk, indie, soundtracks… That said, it’s under the broad arch of psychedelic music that Wah Wah records excels, with whole sections dedicated to region specific musics – from Scandinavian prog to obscure Bollywood – and enough diggable records to give both your bank balance and your inner ear the heebies.
‘Popular Mechanics’ spotlights Jack White’s Detroit vinyl plant in ‘Made in USA’ issue: Kevin Dupzyk, senior associate editor of the magazine, met with White at the 441 W. Canfield St. store for the official opening of the plant in February. Dupzyk writes of escapades with the ambitious former White Stripes frontman and lightning literally striking diehards camped outside the plant waiting for it to open. “If you could zoom in on the Detroit of 40 years ago, it would have said ‘Autos.’ Now, who knows? Later tonight, Jack White will plant a flag in this corner of his hometown, and the flag will read ‘Vinyl,’” he writes in the 2,500-word feature with photo spread.
More music a near-impossible mission: Ross Woodward remembers the first record he bought as an 11-year-old in 1974 – Abba’s first UK hit single Waterloo. He bought the band’s second UK hit, too – Mamma Mia, which topped the charts in early 1976. Another early buy was Slade Alive just to show the pre-teen was also into raucous sounds. For the British boy these early purchases were the start of a magnificent obsession with popular music that has lead to a massive collection of vinyl records, then CDs and now back to vinyl again – and a show on the peninsula’s radio station RPP-FM on Friday evenings at 6 o’clock…Woodward said he wanted to “share my love of amazing tunes with others and inspire people to make their record collections even bigger.”
