Paddington, AU | Go crate digging at Paddington’s new record emporium Dutch Vinyl: Any music lover or audiophile will tell you that there’s no sweeter feeling than lightly dropping the needle on a brand-new record. Although the act of buying a physical release might seem like an outdated way of digesting tunes to some, vinyl records have continued to increase in popularity and so too have record stores. Last weekend Paddington welcomed a brand new music house called Dutch Vinyl, a Melbourne-born business that has expanded north, bringing with it a curated collection of new and old records and an atmosphere that makes flipping through wax an immeasurably enjoyable experience. Opening a record store in the age of digital streaming is a challenge in itself – throw in an active pandemic and you’ve got a significantly more difficult job on your hands. For Mark Reuten and Tam Patton, that’s exactly the sort of predicament they found themselves in whilst bringing Dutch Vinyl to Brisbane. When Dutch Vinyl’s owner Mark opened his first store in Abbotsford in 2016, he experienced a sharp learning curve that came with the territory.
Naperville, IL | 6 shops closed but 5 new opening in downtown Naperville: …Recently opened are Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ at 47 E. Chicago Ave. suite 108, which wasn’t in business long before Gov. J.B. Pritzker required restaurants to close in March; and Purple Dog Records, which opened Tuesday at 231 S. Washington St., suite 105, after moving from a space on Center Street near the Naperville Metra station. Purple Dog opened in 2014 under the father-daughter-son ownership of Joel Sicker and his children Erin Gavin and Colin Sicker, but the shop closed at its original location March 15 because the building was sold. The family took until May to find a new spot in town, accessible from a downtown alley just north of Jackson Avenue, then got help moving from longtime customers and began buying and selling vinyl again this week. “We’ve got a lot more visibility,” Sicker said of the new location. “We just put our sign out there and people just see it and walk on in.”
Cincinnati, OH | Umber 87, OTR’s new waxing bar, has an interesting origin story: Siobhan McNear didn’t expect to use her rented Over-the-Rhine business space just yet. The Cincinnati native, a longtime backup vocalist for award-winning singer Jennifer Hudson, had planned on a spring of touring and performing. She told herself she would fill the empty storefront on Walnut Street when she had the time and money to do it. The COVID-19 pandemic pulled all those plans out from under her. “I had no work,” McNear said Wednesday. “I’m a singer, so the entertainment industry was hit very hard, and I didn’t have anything.” The only thing she had left in a world with no air travel and no live music was Walnut Street. She started praying. Hard. And she got to work. McNear’s new body waxing bar, Umber 87, is a space where she hopes to share her love of music and beauty with her clients. The menu of services is printed on a vinyl record, and the walls are decorated with framed album covers: TLC’s “CrazySexyCool,” Usher’s “My Way” and SWV’s “Anything” among them. Customers who trade in their own vinyl can get a discount.
Phoenix, AZ | Here’s What We Found in Our Zia Records Mystery Bag: Record shopping usually goes: Enter a store, find something you think you’ll like, and buy it. How boring is that? Desperate for anything to snap us out of our pandemic rut, we recently hit up Zia Records on Mill Avenue for one of its enigmatic Mystery Bags. For only $4.99 plus tax, adventurous listeners get a sealed, opaque bag containing 10 records that didn’t even sell on clearance. (This didn’t bode well for the quality of the offerings.) What we got for our fiver truly was a mixed bag: some bland, dated albums we could take or leave, but stuck among the dross were a few records we were glad to discover and plan to hang on to. Here are the contents of our Zia Mystery Bag, in the order we listened to them.
The Cranberries’ ‘No Need to Argue’ is landing an expanded reissue: Massive news for fans of The Cranberries! The band’s legendary 1994 album No Need to Argue is landing its very own expanded release. Announced by Island/UMe, the new edition will feature new demos, B-sides, live recordings, a Carpenters cover, and fully remastered versions of the original tracks. No Need to Argue has long been heralded as one of the band’s most defining bodies of work. Boasting iconic tracks such as Zombie and Ode to My Family, the record has sold over 17 million copies worldwide since its release nearly two decades ago. Punters will now be able to get their hands on the record’s two-CD, vinyl, and digital reissues, along with exclusive photos snapped during the sessions. Cranberries archivist Eoin Devereux was even kind enough to chuck a No Need to Argue history essay into the mix. The group’s 1993 debut Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We? was reissued back in 2018, in honour of the album’s 25th anniversary. In addition to 2019’s In The End, this had previously been the last release from the band following the passing of front woman Dolores O’Riordan. The expanded edition drops on September 18th.
