Colorado Springs, CO | Remember Record Store Day? It’s back! Bryan Ostrow has mixed feelings about Record Store Day. As the co-founder of What’s Left — a political music zine, indie label, and newly opened record shop at 829 N. Circle Drive — he feels the annual “celebration of the culture of the independently owned record store” is becoming less about small stores and more about big record companies. …But Ostrow is also an enthusiastic vinyl collector with an undying devotion to punk, metal and hip-hop. So it’s inevitable that several Record Store Day exclusives find their way into his collection each year. “Collecting physical music is so important,” says the longtime Colorado Springs resident, who also plays guitar in Night of the Living Shred and books shows for various venues around town. “Listening to a full album the way it was meant to be played; pulling out the liner notes and reading along as you listen; it’s an important art that has been going away for a while now.”
Austin, IL | ‘Austin is where we want to be.’ Despite pandemic, looting West Side small businesses still loyal to community. On June 6, less than a week after the wave of looting swept through West Garfield Park’s Madison Street corridor, Out of the Past Records store, which has been operating at 4407 W. Madison St. since 1986, was open for business. Marie Henderson, who founded the store with her husband, Charlie Henderson, said that the store has been struggling throughout the pandemic. And while it wasn’t looted, in the month after the reopening, the business hasn’t fully rebounded to where it was pre-COVID-19. The Hendersons are among a handful of small business owners on the West Side who were interviewed about how they’ve fared since the pandemic and the death of George Floyd. Some of the entrepreneurs reported an increase in profits while others found their business model completely disrupted. The Hendersons said that at one point they owned 12 record stores throughout Chicago, but as tapes and later CDs became popular, the demand for records plummeted and they wound up consolidating their inventory into their current location.
Macon, GA | Old School Music Headquarters celebrates 50 years of music in Macon: Since 1967, owner ‘Laughing’ Lafayette Haynes has watched the world of music change from his downtown record shop. For 53 years, former radio personality “Laughing” Lafayette Haynes has watched the world of music grow from his record shop in downtown Macon. Whether through owning his shop or working as a radio disk jockey, Haynes’ life has been a large part of Macon’s evolving music scene. “It’s been amazing to see the difference that has taken place in Macon since I was a little kid,” says Haynes. The same month that he opened Old School Music, Haynes started at WIBB with “The Laughing Lafayette Show.” While hosting, Haynes became a household name interviewing stars like James Brown, The Temptations, and Fletch Stone. During his 13 years at WIBB, Haynes also helped shift the station from country music to gospel and rhythm and blues alongside ‘King Bee’ disk jockey, Hamp Swain. “People used to tell me, ‘We’d get off work just to listen to you,'” says Haynes. “When WIBB went to R&B, Black people had something to listen to, it was brand new.”
Everett, WA | Pop into this Everett pop-up store for new vinyl records: Upper Left Records will offer albums from local bands and new pressings of classic recordings. Success for Ryan Taylor and Brooks Smothers would mean a six-foot folding table and, if sales really take off, an eight-footer. The two partners recently launched Upper Left Records, a pop-up store that sells new vinyl records. “Our store is a four-foot table. We’re just going to be a little pop-up table,” Smothers said. “We’re starting small, but our goal is to grow to a six-foot and then an eight-foot table,” Smothers said. The two friends, who share a love of music, were camping with their families in June. Over a campfire, they began musing about how rare it is to find places in Everett that sell new records. “I said, ‘Let’s do a little research and see if this is viable,’” Smothers said. What they found is that recent music industry studies suggest that vinyl records are having a resurgence.
JP | City Pop on Vinyl brings back the glitzed-out sounds of Japan’s bubble: On Aug. 8, an event organized by record maker Toyokasei Co., Ltd. called City Pop on Vinyl 2020 takes place online and at stores throughout Japan, such as HMV, Tower Records and Diskunion, as well as smaller record shops. Think of it as a neon-tinged Record Store Day, with dozens of older albums and singles being reissued on vinyl. The event includes a lot of the cornerstones sparking this global curiosity in city pop — releases from Taeko Onuki, Takako Mamiya, Ryuichi Sakamoto and Mai Yamane among others — but adds on more obscure full-lengths, works from the ’90s influenced by the economic good times slowly coming to an end and contemporary artists inspired by the style. City Pop on Vinyl 2020 functions as a chance to explore what the vocabulary of the genre is at present, and it couldn’t have come at a better time.
High Fidelity Reboot Canceled By Hulu: The Zoë Kravitz-starring TV series ends after one season. The Zoë Kravitz-starring TV reboot of High Fidelity has been canceled after one season by Hulu, Variety reports. The show, based on Nick Hornby’s 1995 novel, aired in its entirety earlier this year and featured Kravitz in the lead role as Rob. John Cusack played the part in the 2000 film. The series also starred Da’Vine Joy Randolph, David H. Holmes, Jake Lacy, and Kingsley Ben-Adir. After the show was originally announced in 2018, Cusack offered some criticism on social media. “They want to brand their thing with our thing—they’ll fuck it up,” he wrote. “The woman part seems good / the rest not so much—but it’s Nick’s book hope at least he’s involved—if he’s not—it’ll suck.”
New Order announce remastered ‘Power Corruption & Lies’ boxset: The collection will be comprised of an LP, two CDs, two DVDs and a book. New Order have announced a special boxset for their seminal second album ‘Power Corruption & Lies’. Released in 1983 via Factory Records, the LP features the tracks ‘Blue Monday’, ‘Age Of Consent’ and ‘Your Silent Face’, and was hailed as New Order’s best album by NME back in 2018. Today (August 5), it’s been announced that the record has been remastered for the ‘2020 Definitive Edition’ collection, which is set to arrive on October 2. The boxset will be comprised of an LP, two CDs, two DVDs and a book. An extra CD will contain previously unreleased writing sessions from New Order’s rehearsal space in Manchester as well as their BBC John Peel Session from 1982. The DVDs will feature classic live footage, rare TV appearances and the band’s 1984 documentary Play At Home. Also included in the boxset, designed by longtime collaborator Peter Saville, will be a new 48-page hardback book of rare photographs and original text.
