Portland, OR | Portland Brewing Collaborates with Music Millennium Owner on In The Groove Black Vinyl Lager: Vinyl junkies and beer collectors have cause to celebrate–Portland Brewing and Portland’s legendary music retailer and owner of Music Millennium, Terry Currier, has announced the upcoming release of In The Groove Black Vinyl Lager. This collaborative beer is brewed in honor of Currier’s substantial contribution to keeping Portland weird and beautiful. Proceeds from In The Groove benefit the Oregon Music Hall of Fame, which Currier co-founded. The beer releases in seasonal on draft throughout the Pacific Northwest beginning August 10, and in 12 oz. 6-pack cans later in the month. In The Groove is the second beer in Portland Brewing’s “Keep Portland Weird” rotating series…
Odessa, TX | Vintage Deluxe ready for large showing at vinyl and comic show: Vintage Deluxe manager Apryl Patino said there’s a rumor floating around that there will be a line of people waiting outside the front door of the shop this weekend. The antique store is expecting between 200 and 300 people to attend its vinyl and comic show from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Patino said a majority of the vendors will have their own booths set up inside, but depending on the size of those booths some of the merchandise could spill out into the parking lot. “The fact that we are able to host something like this and bring everyone together is pretty cool,” Patino said. “They tend to like everything else that’s in our shop. It all works out.” Vintage Deluxe owner Keith Camp, who lives in Kerrville, plans to be at the store on Friday to help put the finishing touches on the vinyl and comic show. The 52-year-old Odessan said there be two more additional record vendors and more than 1,000 comics brought into the store this weekend. “It should be a really good showing for the people coming out to see us,” he said.
The Beatles revisit ‘Abbey Road’ with special anniversary releases: ‘Abbey Road’ Presented with New Mixes in Stereo, 5.1 Surround, and Dolby Atmos; Expanded with Previously Unreleased Session Recordings and Demos. …This is the first time Abbey Road has been remixed and presented with additional session recordings and demos. The album’s sweeping new edition follows the universally acclaimed remixed and expanded anniversary editions of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and The BEATLES (‘White Album’) released in 2017 and 2018, respectively. To create Abbey Road’s new stereo, 5.1 surround, and Dolby Atmos mixes, Martin and Okell worked with an expert team of engineers and audio restoration specialists at Abbey Road Studios. All the new Abbey Road releases feature the new stereo album mix, sourced directly from the original eight-track session tapes. To produce the mix, Giles was guided by the album’s original stereo mix supervised by his father, George Martin.
Burien, WA | New vinyl record shop, print studio & art space Clone Press opens in downtown Burien: Clone Press Studio & Records has opened its doors in Burien as a multipurpose print studio, art and community space. Formerly operating since 2001 as screen printing studio Clone Press in Ballard and Sodo, co-founder and owner Brandon Bay is expanding his business in this new downtown Burien location. Bay is also co-founder of Sinister Torch Records, a reissue record label founded in 2014. The new space combines his longtime passion for sharing great musical finds with his print studio, which has been serving small business clients with t-shirts, garments, and posters for the last 18 years. The carefully curated selection of both new and used vinyl includes the new must-haves and current reissues as well as rarities and hidden gems across genres. You can also peruse an impressive collection of poster art representing a broad span of historic Northwest music and events, featuring some of Seattle’s most prominent graphic artists.
How Video Game Music Is Driving A Vinyl Record Resurgence: Cuphead. Persona 5. Undertale. Sunset Riders. The Legend of Zelda. Fans know these titles first and foremost as video games, but they all have something else in common, too: each of them has inspired a vinyl record that has charted on the Billboard 200. iam8bit, the first label dedicated predominantly to vinyl video game soundtracks, told me that they’ve sold 200,000 albums to date, a number that includes six Billboard chart-toppers (the titles above plus a record based on the animated show Steven Universe). “When we first started minting vinyl in 2010, iam8bit was the only label dedicated to producing videogame soundtracks on wax,” co-owners Jon M. Gibson and Amanda White told me in an email interview. “Vinyl was something that was trending upwards in the music industry, but still it took a beat to recognize that this would become a major thing for videogame soundtracks.”
White Stripes’ first album getting special 20th anniversary re-release: Detroit’s White Stripes will celebrate the 20th anniversary of its first album with a new, limited edition release of the title. “The White Stripes XX” will be part of The Vault series operated by Jack White’s Third Man Records, releasing this fall. The two-disc vinyl set features a newly remixed version fo the original album along with unreleased studio uttakes — including early versions of “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground,” which turned up on 2001’s “White Blood Cells” — a live album from a September 1999 concert in Raleigh, N.C., a DVD housing 1999 concerts in Hamtramck and Detroit, and a 24-page booklet featuring archival photos, flyers, lyrics and more. Fans can sign up for The Vault through Oct. 31 to get “The White Stripes XX” via thirdmanrecords.com.
Metal Church’s Kurt Vanderhoof Says Streaming Makes Music More Disposable: “This generation of people that live on streaming — yeah, it’s convenient, and yeah, it’s fine, but if you’re an actual real music fan, you’re missing half of the art form,” he told Australia’s Metal Mal in a new interview (hear audio below). “To me, it’s the music, yes, but the other half is the art that goes along with it and the lyrics and the packaging and all those kinds of things. ‘Cause I only listen to, pretty much other than my iPod when I’m working out or traveling, but at home, I only listen to vinyl. And I’ve been rebuilding my vinyl collection. And I’m thrilled that most records are coming out on vinyl now. Because you can see the artwork and pictures, and us old guys can read the text [laughs], and all that kind of stuff. I mean, CDs are fine, but they don’t sound as good. Vinyl sounds better…”
