Boulder, CO | Illegal Pete’s has ‘every intention’ to expand into Albums on the Hill’s Boulder space: Pete Turner, owner of 12 Illegal Pete’s fast-casual burrito restaurants in Colorado and Arizona, said today he has “every intention” of expanding his flagship Boulder eatery into the space soon to be vacated by the now-shuttered Albums on the Hill record store next door. And if he succeeds, he says he will bring live music back to the combined properties at 1124 and 1128 13th St., located across from the Fox Theatre and just a few steps off the University of Colorado Boulder campus. “It is 100 percent definite that we will be pursuing this,” Turner told The Denver Gazette. “It’s an absolute no-brainer.” Andy Schneidkraut, who has operated Albums on the Hill since 1987 in the basement of a building owned by Gary Cook, decided to close his record store after a series of health scares this year. After five months closed, Schneidkraut reopened the store for an emotional, five-day closing sale that ended Monday.
Phoenix, AZ | Gilbert’s Rock This Town Records Is a Sight for Record Store Eyes: I’m not sure why, but I’ve never associated the town of Gilbert, a suburb of Phoenix and a neighbor of Mesa and Chandler, with record stores. This changes, though, with the addition of Rock This Town Records to the Valley vinyl landscape. Open for roughly two months, Rock This Town Records is on the north side of Warner Road and just west of Lindsay. Located at 732 East Warner Road, #101, in Gilbert to be exact, the comfortable and truly welcoming store is easy to miss if you aren’t sure what you are looking for or listening to the little bossy lady in your phone. Owned by Jenn and Malcolm Michaels, Rock This Town Records is to be a labor of love. The store is well appointed and has a really nice collection of new and used records, used CDs, and a good assortment of turntables. Most recently, the store included an excellent selection of both new and vintage rock and roll T-shirts, too.
New York, NY | Indieplaza Comes to Rockefeller Center: A free two-day music festival reflects the strength of the independent music scene. Indieplaza will take over Rockefeller Center on the weekend of September 17-18. A free two-day music festival hosted by Rough Trade and Rockefeller Center, indieplaza will feature several emerging musicians and is poised to reflect the ferocity of the independent music scene in New York and beyond. Headlined by hip-hop pioneer and former A Tribe Called Quest member, Ali Shaheed Mohammed, the inaugural edition of the outdoor festival will also put the spotlight on many new artists who are making genre-meshing music. Among these are the New Wave band Automatic, the singer-songwriter Claud and the Chicago garage rock trio Horsegirl, as well as the local musician June McDoom and the Queens-born R&B musician, Yaya Bey. Several other artists will perform, including the acclaimed harpist/composer Mary Lattimore and the hip-hop group They Hate Change, yet headliner Mohammed’s appearance is especially notable.
St. John, NL | How a 1988 folk album kick-started the modern N.L. music industry: All The Best: Folk Music of St. John’s, Newfoundland is the all-time best seller at a St. John’s record store. Albums by Van Halen, Def Leppard, and George Michael were some of Billboard’s No. 1 albums of 1988, but the most popular album at Fred’s Records in St. John’s area the same era was something a little more traditional. All the Best: Folk Music of St. John’s, Newfoundland was such a hit, says Tony Ploughman, the manager of Fred’s Records, that it remains the store’s best-selling album of all time. “Everybody bought it.” said Ploughman. “Locals, tourists, all ages.” “People who worked here [at Fred’s] as far back as 32, 33 years ago — this is the soundtrack to their summer.” After several years out of print, All the Best has been re-released by Atlantic Music in one of its original 1988 formats: the CD.
AU | Cooking Vinyl Australia Warns Musicians of Scammer: ‘Please Don’t Fall For It.’ A catfish is swimming online, attempting to dupe cash from unwitting musicians by posing as Cooking Vinyl Australia’s top brass. “Some dickhead is going around impersonating Melbourne’s hottest independent record label,” reads a social post from Cooking Vinyl. “Please don’t fall for it.” The post captures an email, sent from a bogus Gmail account which claims to be Cooking Vinyl Australia co-managing director, Leigh Gruppetta. It isn’t. The scammer walks through the services provided, including marketing and distribution, and graphic design work. The clincher is the “small fee” of $200, which would supposedly position their music to be considered for either a distribution or publishing deal. “Might seem obvious but a good rule to live by is you don’t need to pay cash up front for your record deal,” reads the Cooking Vinyl post. “If you did receive this email please report it.”
Ikea’s Swedish House Mafia record player is actually going on sale next month: It’ll cost you $159.99. Ikea’s record player made in collaboration with music supergroup Swedish House Mafia is set to go on sale in October. The all-black device sports an unsurprisingly minimalistic look and will cost you $159.99 once it hits Ikea’s maze-like stores. The record player is part of Ikea’s overarching Obegränsad (the Swedish word for “unlimited”) collection, which includes an equally-as-modern armchair, desk, LED work lamp, record stand, laptop stand, and shelving units, among other items. Ikea first announced the record player in June, marking the furniture maker’s second attempt at creating and selling a record player. The record player it was working on in 2018 never went on sale, but it looks like we have a much better shot of actually getting our hands on the device this time around.
Vinyl Outsells PlayStation in the UK – Next Challenge? Nintendo Switch: Vinyl is the UK’s second most popular physical media format by year-to-date sales figures. According to an analysis by the Digital Entertainment & Retail Association (ERA), the format is only second in sales to the Nintendo Switch. UK consumers have spent more on vinyl than on PlayStation 4 & 5 games combined – and other formats like CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray discs. Another interesting bit from the report is that the £80.9 million ($93.3M) spent on vinyl LPs so far in 2022 is up 12.2% on the same period in 2021. That number is nearly 20% ahead of the next music-based format, the CD. “Vinyl’s rise and rise seems to be unstoppable,” says ERA CEO Kim Bayley. “For a 74 year-old analogue format to eclipse the digital-age technology of games platforms is quite extraordinary. Ten years into its long climb back to favor, the vinyl revival is most definitely here to stay.”
