New record store giving business a spin in St. John’s: Other retailers in the industry have come and gone, but Sunrise Records is expanding, taking over more than 80 locations across Canada vacated when HMV went out of business earlier this year. One of those locations is the Avalon Mall in St. John’s, with the store expected to open in early October. But how will Sunrise Records grow in the new age of digital music streaming, sharing and downloading when so many others have closed? “Right now we’re carrying a deeper selection, we’re carrying more vinyls, [“Vinyls” is not a word. —Ed.] we have almost 3,000 titles in every store,” said Ben Trepanier, the regional manager for Sunrise Records in Eastern Canada. “So I think the depth of the selection is really what’s different, it brings us back to 20 years ago.”
Must move: 200,000 items as Record Theatre closes doors: After 42 years as a cultural touchstone in Buffalo, Record Theatre on Main Street will go quiet for good Sunday. But before that happens, customers will have a few more days to pick through more than 200,000 CDs, LPs, DVDs and books that remain after the store announced it was closing in June. The flagship store is the last of the local retail chain’s locations, which once had 21 locally and in Cleveland, Cincinnati, Baltimore, Rochester, Syracuse and Philadelphia. “I don’t think Buffalo will ever see a store like Record Theatre again,” said Mike Pierce, president of Transcontinent Record Sales, Record Theatre’s parent company.
7 places to buy vinyl records in Victoria: As John Lennon once said, “I like rock and roll, and I don’t like much else.” Now, we’re not going to force you to like rock and roll. In fact, we probably couldn’t if we tried. But we will acknowledge that despite the death of the CD, vinyl records have made a resurgence in the 2010s. So, with a little help from our friends, we’ve highlighted seven of the best record stores in Victoria!
Best Album Art 2017: Nominees & past winners of Best Art Vinyl Awards to be exhibited: Best Art Vinyl is entering its 12th year of celebrating record cover art, photography and graphic design among the modern music scene, especially appreciated with the resurgence of vinyl purchases. Many designers rose to fame by creating album artwork for high-profile bands, like Peter Saville for New Order and Joy Division or Stanley Donwood for Radiohead. The awards ceremony is usually held in London, but this year the exhibition – Best Art Vinyl: 12 Years on 12 Inches – will showcase the sleeves simultaneously in Barnsley, Bologna and Budapest. Visitors to the exhibition will be able to vote for which record sleeve they think deserves to win the Best Art Vinyl award.
Queens Of The Stone Age Tracks Accidentally Appear On Aus Artist’s New Vinyl: A few Queens Of The Stone Age tracks have accidentally been pressed on vinyl copies of Aussie artist Gordi’s debut LP, Reservoir. As Pitchfork reports, Reddit users noted that the B-side of the Canowindra songwriter’s vinyl featured QOTSA songs intended for the B-side of their own upcoming record, Villains, including Fortress, Head Like a Haunted House and Un-Reborn Again. Both Reservoir and Villains are set for release on 25 August. Chris Swanson of Secretly Group (which contains Gordi’s US label Jagjaguwar) told Pitchfork, “This is a pressing defect that we’re working diligently to resolve as quickly as possible.”
‘Josie and the Pussycats’ Soundtrack Getting A Vinyl Reissue From Mondo: Mondo Records is releasing a reissue for 2001’s Josie and the Pussycats soundtrack. The company announced the reissue today. Josie and the Pussycats was a box-office failure but has become a cult favorite in the decade-plus since its release, and the soundtrack went gold, selling more than 500,000 copies. “Re-issuing the soundtrack to Josie and the Pussycats has been a holy grail for us,” said Mo Shafeek, Mondo Record Label Manager. “Even though the band doesn’t technically exist, it falls on our list of essential debut albums and deserves to be treated as such. It is an absolute honor to reissue it on vinyl for the first time ever.”
