Portland, OR | Vinyl Shopping in Portland: Spend the day exploring the stacks at these local record stores. Every day is Record Store Day in Portland, where indie bands rule the airwaves and mom-and-pop music vinyl shops still line neighborhood streets. From vintage wax to locally pressed vinyl to new European imports, those rare releases you’ve been searching for are surely waiting at one of these rockin’ local record stores. And you might even catch a touring band live in-store for an intimate show. Crossroads Music: Crossroads Music works like a melodic consignment shop, divvying up the catalog of more than 35 individual record collectors. The deep well of musical tastes results in an impressive selection of quality vinyl inside this Southeast Foster gem.
New York, NY | Muzik City: I’ve visited thousands of NYC’s small, indy shops. Here are some niche standouts. For the past two years, I’ve been on a mission to catalog every small business retail shop in New York City. By my estimate, there are at least 17,000 brick-and-mortar independent retail shops in the city. To study the city’s small business scene, I’ve walked or biked each borough, cataloging shops as I go and following leads to any particularly interesting ones. Last summer, to better know Staten Island, I rented an Airbnb and drove around the borough until I’d been just about everywhere… Hard-to-find reggae records: The legacy of Clement “Sir Coxsone” Dodd, reggae icon and founder of Studio One Records, lives on Cypress Hills. Jamaican-born Dodd’s label was widely regarded as the “Motown of Jamaica,” and in the 1980s he moved his studio from Jamaica to Cypress Hills, Brooklyn, where he ran a recording studio and record store. His grandson Ian has recently reopened the record store, with plans to revive the label.
Cavan, IE | Gone Quiet: ‘Massive part of my childhood’ cry gutted customers as popular Irish store confirms closure after 36 years in business. The Saw Doctors have played in the store. Fans of a popular Irish record store have been left gutted after the business confirmed that they will close 36 years after their opening their doors for the first time. Multisound in Cavan is located on the town’s Main Street and supplied all things musical, from CDs and tickets to guitar strings and live performances. Taking to social media this week, the store owners confirmed that after nearly four decades in business they would be shutting up shop from next month. Penning a message to customers owner Noel said that working in the music store had “never really been a job” but more a source of entertainment. He also shared a long list of people he wanted to thank in the announcement. Taking to Facebook he wrote: “Hello all, just to let you know that Multisound will cease trading at the end of September…”
US election 2024: Kamala Harris knows her jazz—why this could count with voters. Since Kamala Harris became the presumptive Democratic Party nominee to go head-to-head with Donald Trump in November’s presidential election, interest in the US vice-president has skyrocketed. Where’s she from, what’s her background, what sort of food does she eat, what are her tastes in books, films and music? So it’s no surprise that a video showing Harris emerging from a record store in Washington DC has recently gained massive traction on social media. The footage, taken in May 2023, shows her engaging with journalists while displaying and talking about the records she had purchased. This video clip was notably shared and reposted among the European jazz community—not people you’d necessarily think would be hugely interested in the musical tastes of US presidential candidates. Harris’s purchases included three classic jazz albums by notable African American artists: Charlie Mingus’s 1972 album Let My Children Hear Music, Roy Ayers’ 1976 Everybody Loves the Sunshine, and the 1959 collaboration of Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong on Porgy and Bess.
Tim Walz Is a Vinyl Guy. Here’s His Record Player of Choice. A widely recommended and not-at-all weird beginner turntable that’ll last forever. We don’t often get political around here, so I will refrain from openly commenting on Kamala Harris’ selection of Minnesota governor Tim Walz as her running mate — except, of course, to call attention to the below Twitter thread. The photos, originally posted to Facebook way back in 2020, show Walz setting up a stereo system and bonding with his now-23-year-old daughter Hope over Bob Seger’s much-underrated 1980 album Against the Wind. His stereo setup is modest but functional, featuring a Denon receiver, some big, vintage-looking floorstanding speakers and, the centerpiece, an Audio Technica LP60. The LP60 has long been my (and everyone else’s) go-to recommendation for anyone looking to get started with vinyl as a hobby. It’s affordable, it sounds excellent and is far more durable than you’d expect, given its price point.
Flipside Review: Finding Meaning in Life’s Detours: Nostalgia, Regrets and Lessons from a Record Store. Chris Wilcha has spent decades in the film industry, yet found his career taking unexpected turns. Starting in his twenties as an ambitious documentarian, he made “The Target Shoots First,” a well-received look at his job in music marketing. But making a living as an independent filmmaker was difficult, so commercial work soon followed. Over the years, Wilcha tried starting other documentary projects but rarely finished them. In “Flipside,” Wilcha revisits this path with reflection and humor. The film centers around a New Jersey record store where he worked as a teen, Flipside Records, that now struggles to stay relevant. Wilcha’s goal was to document the store’s history as it faced an uncertain future. Yet the film becomes much more, exploring Wilcha’s own journey from those early days with high ideals to his current life with a family and career in television commercials.
Vinyl Revival Faces Crisis as Counterfeit Records Rake in Millions Worldwide: More bootleggers are cashing in on renewed interest in vinyl. As vinyl record sales hit levels not seen since the 1980s, criminals are cashing in. Fake vinyl records are making millions worldwide, tricking music fans and hurting the very comeback that created the chance. This rise in fake vinyl could hurt the revival that created it, fooling music lovers and damaging the industry’s hard-won comeback. Vinyl’s return has been good news for an industry long battered by digital changes. The UK alone saw 5.5 million vinyl albums sold in 2022, with the first half of 2023 seeing another 12% rise. And, in the US, vinyl sales made up 71% of all money from physical music formats in 2023. But as we’ve found the warm, rich sounds of analog again, counterfeiters have found a new market to exploit.
Green Day announce ‘American Idiot’ 20th anniversary reissue—including new documentary and unreleased songs: The band have previewed the extensive deluxe edition by sharing a demo, a B-side and a live track. Green Day have announced an expanded 20th anniversary reissue of their hit album ‘American Idiot’, featuring a new documentary and various unreleased tracks. …The pop-punk trio are set to release “limited edition super deluxe box sets” of their Grammy Award-winning 2004 record on October 25. Fans will be able to buy the collection on 8LP vinyl and 4CD, with each package also containing two Blu-ray discs. Additionally, Green Day will drop a limited edition colour vinyl of the original 2LP version of ‘American Idiot’. To mark the announcement the band have shared three cuts on streaming platforms: the previously unreleased ‘Holiday / Boulevard Of Broken Dreams (Demo)’, the fan favourite B-side ‘Favorite Son’ and ‘Minority (Live From Irving Plaza).’
