Sheffield, UK | Grub Records: New record shop opening on Queens Road, Sheffield, with on-site wine bar: Sheffield is set to get a new record shop with a difference. Grub Records is due to have what its owners described as a ‘hard opening’ at the weekend, which will see it opening five days a week on Queens Road, not far from Bramall Lane. The store is being opened by a group of local DJs who are keen to set up a shop for local record buyers. And it will also have a wine bar as part of the facility. The shop is being opened up after an ongoing crowdfunding campaign, which has helped pay for some of the set-up costs. It has been open three days a week selling second hand records for a few weeks following a ‘soft launch’ in June. From this weekend the shop will be open from Wednesday to Sunday each week. Money from the ongoing crowd funding campaign is being used for interior decoration and for stocking the shelves with records.
Bainbridge, WA | Bainbridge record store joins growing trend in Kitsap County, plans new vinyl event: Yes, there really is a big dog inside of Big Dawg Records. His name is Obie and he’s a four-year-old, 170-pound Great Dane who belongs to Big Dawg’s founder, island architect Matthew Coates. “He sits in the front and attracts an enormous amount of attention,” Coates said. “I didn’t set out to exploit my dog in that way, so we take it easy on him. He’s handsomely rewarded with treats.” Obie isn’t the only thing that Coates’ shop, located in The Cove (formerly the Winslow Mall), has to offer. …Big Dawg opened in November 2023. Originally, Coates — who owns the architectural firm overseeing The Cove’s renovations — intended the store to be a pop-up. He planned to vacate the space in December, after a fun month of selling records. But then that month went well. Really, really well.
Edmonds, WA | UK alternative pop faves Haircut 100 to appear at Edmonds’ own record shop Musicology Co Aug. 12: UK alternative pop group Haircut 100 will make a special stop in Edmonds on Monday, Aug. 12, to sign albums and connect with fans before the band’s Marymoor show on Wednesday, Aug. 14. The event will be at Musicology Co record store, located at 420 5th Ave. S., Suite 107, Edmonds. The band is joining New Wave icon Howard Jones and synth pop stars ABC on a North America Tour this summer. It’s the first time in 40-plus years that Haircut 100 will be playing in North America with their original band line-up. “Ever since our last tour in 1982 we’ve been pining to play in North America again, so this is a dream come true for us,” said Haircut 100’s Nick Heyward. “Come down early and get your dancing shoes on, because there’s a lot of catching up to do.” Haircut 100 will feature original/founding members Nick Heyward (lead vocals/guitars), Graham Jones (guitars), Les Nemes (bass) and five additional players rounding out the show with brass and percussion.
UK | For the Record: Rarest and most valuable vinyl records worth up to £800, according to an expert – do you have one: If you’re got a box of dusty records in the loft or shelves of rarely played vinyl, then you could be sitting on a goldmine. The rarest and most valuable records can fetch up to £800 – and now is the time to sell, says expert vinyl specialist James Hancox, a valuer at Gorringe’s Auctioneers. “It’s such a burgeoning market. There’s a resurgence of interest and it’s the perfect time for records – demand has never been higher,” he said. “It’s nostalgia for older people, but it’s also become a trendy thing for young people to listen to and collect records. “There’s a ceremony in putting a record on, as opposed to just looking through Spotify.” James says that records that command the biggest prices tend to be from the late 60s and early 70s, though there can also be high returns for vinyl from the 1950s through to the 1980s. For example, Elvis Presley’s Rock n Roll can fetch £300 for lucky owners.
Washington, DC | Judging the candidates the only way that makes sense: Their records. To understand politicians, it’s good to know who’s got their ears. I do my best to keep up with what’s happening in the world, and I love the performing arts, but I’m not big on political theater. My approach to sizing up politicians is pretty straightforward: They’re politicians. They enjoy attention. If you feed one, more will show up. They bite. Every now and then, though, a politician behaves like a person, and you can’t help but notice. This happened yesterday during my morning TikTok sojourn, when I spotted not one, but two short videos of Vice President Harris emerging, bag in hand, from a record store. Relatable content alert! …Another clip, from May 2023, finds Harris in D.C., leaving Home Rule Records with an armful of vinyl in a paper bag. Although I already knew that Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff run a jazz household (his children from his first marriage, Ella and Cole, are respectively named after Fitzgerald and John Coltrane), it hits different seeing the veep out and actively crate-digging—to me, one of the most human things a person can do.
Rum brand Barcardi makes a vinyl record out of sugarcane: It features a track from Camila Cabello’s new album. As booze-related promos go, this is a strange one, but undeniably kind of neat: Barcardi, the ubiquitous rum brand, has created a limited edition vinyl record made of sugarcane. The single chosen for the vinyl is “I LUV IT” by Camila Cabello, former member of Fifth Harmony. Cabello hails from Cuba and has worked with Barcadi before, which she describes as the quintessential rum brand. The sugarcane vinyl is created using repurposed materials and ethically sourced sugarcane, which is broken down to create a bioplastic which can then be formed into a vinyl disk. The process uses low temperatures, which helps to save on energy. “It’s fascinating to see what sugarcane can do beyond making rum,” said Marc Carey, co-founder of the group Evolution Music, a group which aims to make the music industry more sustainable and which worked on the release. “These records are built to last as long as PVC vinyl and designed to sound just as good, if not better.”
JP | The Land Where The CD Never Died: Though CDs are an artifact of the musical past in most places, they remain shockingly popular in Japan. This week we try to understand why. …Despite the fact that Japan is the 11th most populated country on Earth, they have been the second largest music market by revenue for a long time. You could use this point to argue why the CD has remained so popular in Japan. The Japanese people love their music. Of course, they remain infatuated with the compact disc, a format with high quality audio. That’s a nice theory. But it’s incomplete. Though some of the Japanese CD infatuation is driven by musical factors, demographic and economic factors are far more important. First, Japan’s population is old. As of 2021, the United Nations lists 29.8 percent of Japanese people as 65 or older, the highest percentage among any country with a population of at least one million people. Other metrics tell the same story.
Madonna to mark ‘Like a Prayer’ album’s 35th anniversary with new vinyl release: Madonna will mark the 35th anniversary of her iconic album ‘Like a Prayer’ with the release of an opaque silver vinyl. The second release from the Queen of Pop’s Silver Collection, a series of limited edition vinyl reissues celebrating her 40-year career, ‘Like a Prayer’ follows last year’s ‘True Blue’ reissue. Other Madonna albums will be released in the coming months. Released on 6th September 2024, ‘Like a Prayer (The Silver Collection)’ will feature the album’s original track list. Orders placed on Rhino.com and Madonna.com will receive an exclusive poster featuring Herb Ritts’ iconic black-and-white photograph of Madonna from the album’s back cover. ‘Like a Prayer’ was originally released on 21st March 1989 and it features the hits ‘Like a Prayer’, ‘Express Yourself’ and ‘Cherish’. The album was Madonna’s third consecutive number one album and it sold more than 15 million copies worldwide. It also features Madonna’s collaboration with Prince, who co-wrote and sang on ‘Love Song’ and played guitar (uncredited) on ‘Like A Prayer’ and ‘Act Of Contrition.’
