Minneapolis, MN | Extreme Noise record store announces 30th anniversary concerts: The volunteer-run punk and metal record store is hosting a series of concerts to celebrate its anniversary. Extreme Noise, the volunteer-run punk and metal record store in Minneapolis, is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. The collective will mark the anniversary with a series of concerts beginning in July. It announced three shows this week, with each of them taking place at the Cedar Cultural Center. “After months of meticulous curation, we are excited to present a series of shows that embody the spirit of Extreme Noise, celebrating 30 years of our vibrant community,” the record store wrote in an announcement. “The Twin Cities have been through many trials and tribulations since our last anniversary celebration five years ago, and we can’t wait to share these thrilling shows with you.”
San Antonio, TX | Staying in the groove: How San Antonio’s record stores keep spinning. The evolution of how people consume music went from vinyl to digital platforms that provide access at our fingertips through streaming services like Spotify or Apple Music. Such change has seen some record stores vanish completely, but after 96 years vinyl still has a strong connection revolving around nostalgia that keeps audiophiles digging through the record bins. For Francois ‘Mike’ Robles, preserving vinyl is about living up to a legacy. Robles is the owner of Pink Zeppelin Books & Records, a place known for the loud local shows that he hosts, but he didn’t grow up collecting music. Robles inherited his father’s immense record collection dating back to the 1970s after he died from a heart attack in 2020. Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin are the iconic groups that make up most of the large collection, hence the name ‘Pink Zeppelin.’ His father’s collection helped Robles appreciate physical media.
Los Angeles, CA | Incredible LA record store is also city’s lowest rated due to owner: The oldest record store in Los Angeles is also the lowest rated online because of its owner who admits he is an intimidating figure. Sanders Chase has run the Record Collector for more than 50 years and musicians including Michael Jackson, Notorious B.I.G., Frank Sinatra and Quincy Jones have walked through his doors. His store is filled with 500,000 classical and jazz records with another 300,000 in storage. But Chase’s store is the city’s lowest rated record store with 1.9 stars on Google reviews due to his management style. ‘Of course I’m intimidating,’ he told SFGate. ‘See, this is my problem. They’re curiosity seekers. Curiosity killed the cat.’ Chase becomes frustrated when customers do not know what they want and aimlessly browse through his extensive record collection.
Pittsburgh, PA | Unbroken record: The 59th running of a local vinyl and CD convention brought together regulars, first-timers and pros: The Pittsburgh Record and CD Convention brings together music lovers of all ages, from all walks of life and places far and wide, to a town where vinyl is still groovy. At the Pittsburgh Record & CD Convention on Saturday, July 13, vinyl records were not a thing of the past. Instead, they were a way to spark conversations and community connections that simply streaming music just doesn’t promote. This summer’s convention, at the West View Firemen’s Banquet Hall as it has been for the last three years, was the organization’s 59th show in its 28th year. The convention had smaller crowds than usual, according to its organizer Anthony Medwid, but the vendors and customers who attended were highly enthusiastic about the music and the community that comes with it. Medwid said they’ve had customers from other cities, states and countries. Some customers have never been to a record convention while others have been to the same one five times.
Brighton, UK | Gallery unveils collaboration between DJ and artist: An exclusive art collaboration between world-renowned DJ Carl Cox and acclaimed UK photographic artist Mark Vessey is opening in Brighton. The exhibition, at the Enter Gallery, in Bond Street, showcases some of the key records from Cox’s 150,000-plus vinyl collection that have defined his career. The collaboration illustrates a musical journey from funk, soul, disco, and rare groove to rave, techno, hip hop, electro, and pop. Cox said: “Each record I chose has a story behind it, and it was very emotional choosing the records that helped shape my journey.” The artwork features some of the most iconic releases by artists like Run DMC, Carrie Lucas, Fleetwood Mac, Duran Duran, Lil Louis and Doug Lazy. The collection will showcase each record selected by Cox, alongside a meaningful story where he elaborates on its importance.
‘Frank Zappa For President’ Compilation Headed Back to Vinyl: The compilation showcasing Zappa’s more political work was first released in 2016. Frank Zappa For President is seeing a new physical release. The 2016 compilation highlighting the idiosyncratic artist’s most political works has been set for a new vinyl pressing that will also include unreleased compositions Frank Zappa put together on his Synclavier synthesizer. The album, one of Zappa’s countless official posthumous releases, features songs like “When The Lie’s So Big,” “Amnerika,” and the aptly-named “‘If I Was President…’” (As the title suggests, Zappa would in fact go on to consider a presidential run of his own in the 1990s, although it never came to fruition. As he told the San Diego Tribune in 1991, his curiosity in a run was piqued by Democratic consultant Raymond Stohrer’s assertion that only an outsider could come in and change the race.
Stone Gossard “having a blast signing bands and putting out records” with Loosegroove: The Pearl Jam guitarist told Goldmine that restarting his record label, Loosegroove, created an encouraging enthusiasm within him. “…Regan Hagar was in [Seattle band] Malfunkshun and was really a huge inspiration for me musically when I was just starting to get excited about guitar and being in bands. And we’ve remained friends, and we did Loosegroove for a while. And that was fun, and we had some success; we ended up signing Queens of the Stone Age, and they ended up being pretty successful. But I felt a little overwhelmed by it at the time, and I think I just needed to simplify my life. And after a long, almost 20-year hiatus, me and Regan are still playing music together in [the band] Brad and still connecting about art and things that we love to do just for the fun of it.
The 100 Best Album Covers of All Time: From Biggie to Beyoncé to Bad Bunny, from Nirvana to Nas to Neil Young, this is the album art that changed the way we see music. The album is the best invention of the past century, hands down — but the music isn’t the whole story. The album cover has been a cultural obsession as long as albums have. Ever since 12-inch vinyl records took off in the 1950s, packaged in cardboard sleeves, musicians have been fascinated by the art that goes on those covers, and so have fans. When the Beatles revolutionized the game with the cover of Sgt. Pepper, in 1967, it became a way to make a visual statement about where the music comes from and why it matters. But the art of the album cover just keeps evolving. So this is our massive celebration of that art: the 100 best album covers ever, from Biggie to Beyoncé to Bad Bunny, from Nirvana to Nas to Neil Young, from SZA to Sabbath to the Sex Pistols. We’ve got rap, country, jazz, prog, metal, reggae, flamenco, funk, goth, hippie psychedelia, hardcore punk. But all these albums have a unique look to go with the sound.
The 50 Worst Album Covers of All Time: From rock to rap to country and beyond, it’s an assortment of images that you can’t unsee no matter how hard you try. Hubris, lack of taste, massive amounts of drugs: There are many reasons for terrible album covers. This gallery collects 50 of the worst. Enter the carnival tent to witness the monstrosities, the design disasters, the images that you can’t unsee no matter how hard you try. As you will see, even as they fail by the traditional yardsticks of being “good” or “visually compelling,” many of these album covers are at least memorable, and so we gather here to celebrate the craziness of these choices, not to shame the artists behind them. (Admittedly, we’re also going to laugh at them.) Our selection criteria for the list, other than fugliness: We skewed toward major artists with the resources of professional graphic designers who really should have known better. (Some of rock music’s most revered design firms, such as Hipgnosis, are also some of the worst offenders here.) No more than one album per artist. No mercy for the album’s music actually being good (that happens more often than you’d think). Yes, these are all real. As you look at these album covers, remember: With each one of these, multiple highly paid people thought this was a good idea.
