Memphis, TN | The Vinyl Countdown: It’s no secret that vinyl is resurgent. After being eclipsed first by CDs in the 1990s and then by streamed digital music, records were nigh impossible to find in mainstream stores for many years, until around 2008, when the manufacture and sales of vinyl albums and singles began to grow again. Since then, the trend has only accelerated, with market analyses predicting continued annual growth between 8 percent-15 percent for vinyl musical products over the next five to six years. What fewer people realize is how every step of the process that makes records possible can be found in Memphis. “The Memphis Sound … where everything is everything,” ran the old Stax Records ad copy, and that’s especially true in the vinyl domain: All the elements are within reach. Johnny Phillips, co-owner of local record distributor Select-O-Hits, says “There’s not very many cities that can offer everything we offer right here. From recording to distribution, from inception to the very end. Everything you need, you have right here. Memphis is like a one-stop shop for vinyl right now.”
Hot Springs, AK | Buried Treasure: There’s a new record shop in the basement of the Arlington: On Monday around lunchtime, a Facebook post circulated among musicians and vinyl collectors noting the arrival of a new record shop in the basement of the Arlington Hotel Resort Hotel & Spa, a hulk of a structure in downtown Hot Springs that opened its arms in 1875 to the upper crust who came for the town’s healing thermal spring waters and libertine charms — Babe Ruth and Al Capone among them. The hotel’s “basement” is a sort of precursor to the shopping mall, with a handful of ventures (Mamoo’s Creamery, for one) doing business among the vestiges of the bathhouse district’s heyday — vintage mosaic tile, an antique barbershop swivel chair. The newest of those underground storefront enterprises is the Downtown Record & CD Emporium, a 4-day-old vinyl record shop owned by vinyl lifer Tom Coleman. Buy, sell, trade, or just come in and look around. 78s, 45s, cassettes, CDs. The shop will do a soft opening this month and a grand opening on Friday, Sept. 2, in conjunction with Hot Springs’ monthly First Friday Gallery Walk.
Phoenix, AZ | How a Phoenix record store owner set the audiophile world on fire: MoFi Records claimed its expensive reissues were purely analog reproductions. It had been deceiving its customer base for years. Mike Esposito still won’t say who gave him the tip about the records. But on July 14, he went public with an explosive claim. In a sometimes halting video posted to the YouTube channel of his Phoenix record shop, the ‘In’ Groove, Esposito said that “pretty reliable sources” told him that MoFi (Mobile Fidelity), the Sebastopol, Calif., company that has prided itself on using original master tapes for its pricey reissues, had actually been using digital files in its production chain. In the world of audiophiles — where provenance is everything and the quest is to get as close to the sound of an album’s original recording as possible — digital is considered almost unholy. And using digital while claiming not to is the gravest sin a manufacturer can commit. There was immediate pushback to Esposito’s video, including from some of the bigger names in the passionate audio community.
Cloverdale, CA | Elevated Music to celebrate two-year anniversary with special sale: Music shop opened during height of COVID. Cloverdale’s Elevated Music is turning two. Owner Bill Haggerty can’t believe it’s already been two years since he opened his music store. “These past two years have been amazing,” said Haggerty. “Our expectations were blown away. The entire experience has been incredible.” Haggerty said several highlights from the past two years stick in his mind, such as the multiple Record Store Day sales they’ve hosted, his Clovie Award win, and the store’s one-year anniversary celebration, but the biggest highlight for him has been the customers. “The community support has been massive,” said Haggerty. “Every month it just grows exponentially.” Last year, Haggerty said he was “absolutely thrilled” to be nominated for a Clovie Award for Young Entrepreneur of the Year. At the time he said it was “a real honour to be recognized” alongside other deserving entrepreneurs. Haggerty ended up winning the award and he said the process was humbling.
Queensway, UK | The Amazons announce intimate in-store gigs: They’re the band of the moment – and they’re playing an intimate gig in a Southampton record store. Following two huge Top 10 records and sold-out shows across the globe, one of the UK’s most exciting bands, The Amazons, has announced its stratospheric, anthem-packed new album How Will I Know If Heaven Will Find Me will be released on September 9. The following day, they will appear at Vinilo in Queensway to a tiny bunch of lucky devotees. The record sees the Reading four-piece emerging from the darkness of 2019’s Future Dust full of post-pandemic hope. It was premiered by Jack Saunders on BBC Radio 1 earlier this week. Locked down in Brighton a week after returning from a US tour, The Amazons thought they had their third album mostly written. But the prolonged lockdown proved otherwise. After months of seeing his LA-based girlfriend only online, frontman Matt Thomson started writing songs for her which he assumed only the pair of them would ever hear.
Pro-Ject helps vinyl lovers find True Balance: Sales of music on vinyl have been steadily rising for the past few years, which has also meant the return of turntables to the living room hi-fi setup. Austria’s Pro-Ject launched a disc spinner back in April aimed at folks looking for true balance, and has now added another to the family. The new model is essentially a “True Balanced Connection” update to the company’s existing X2 turntable, which now makes it compatible with balanced hi-fi systems for the promise of improved dynamics, lower noise and a better signal-to-noise ratio. Like its pricier series sibling, the X2 B turntable ships with a Moving-Coil cartridge pre-installed, though Pro-Ject has opted for an Ortofon Quintet Red instead of the Blue on the X8. Moving-Coil cartridges can pull out more detail from a record’s grooves than the more common Moving Magnet counterparts, but a lower output signal does put them at risk of interference from other electronics and wireless devices, which Pro-Ject calls electrosmog.
Riseley, UK | Smooth soul and jazz in a vinyl encounter at The Bull at Riseley: An afternoon of smooth soul and jazz is promised at the Riseley pub later this month. The B Side will be playing vinyl records from 1pm to 6pm on Sunday, August 14, at The Bull. The aim is to perform some of the best lesser-known and B side tracks for audiences’ aural pleasure. This month will feature Paul and Sue Bennet, who DJ for Soulpower Radio. If the weather forecast is promising, the event will be held in the pub’s beer garden, and its kitchen will be open. The pub, in Basingstoke Road, serves beers from Britain’s oldest brewer, Shepherd Neame.
