Corbin, KY | Downtown Corbin thriving despite pandemic, vinyl record store opens: Despite several challenging months, the streets of Corbin are coming back to life. “We really do live work and play here and so I knew we were gonna come back and we’re doing great,” said Corbin Mayor Suzie Razmus. The city recently held a dedication for its new splash pad. Razmus says Corbin wanted to give the kids something new. “You don’t want to just be a destination for a certain demographic right. We want to be something for everybody and so this is gonna be a great place for families to come,” said Razmus. After an inspection next month, Razmus says they hope to open the splash pad until sometime in October. The splash pad is not the only thing opening in Corbin. Tuesday, White Rabbit Records opened its doors. “I love vinyl records I’m a child of the 70s so I’m going to be in there finding some new tunes to spin I’m really excited,” said Razmus. The shop has 6,000 vinyl records and owner Zach Hensley says he hopes to triple that by December.
Penticton, BC | Iconic record shop turns 30: Iconic Penticton record shop celebrates 30 years in business. It’s not always easy being a record shop in 2020, but Penticton’s iconic store The Grooveyard on Main Street has been growing and adapting for 30 years, maintaining a place in the hearts of locals and visitors alike. What started as a music store selling vinyl records has come full circle as LP records become popular again. Founder LeAnne Jakubeit remembers the origins of the shop. “Back in 1987 after being the music department assistant manager at Kelly’s Stereo Mart and when they closed an opportunity came up for me to start my own business,” LeAnne said. “It was a little scary because I was a single mother with two kids and had never ventured out on my own. I started sub-letting a small space within a stereo shop and after two years moved to my own standalone store. Being a store within a store was the inspiration for the name – The Grooveyard. I also considered SoundGarden but there was a band by that name starting to get popular.” Soon, she and her now-husband Andrew Jakubeit, former mayor of Penticton, struck up a partnership in the business.
St. Louis, MO | For the record: PBS special spotlights Vintage Vinyl’s cultural impact: When it comes to St. Louis treasures, few places rank much higher than Vintage Vinyl in the Delmar Loop, especially if you are a music lover. Seems as if Nine PBS (Channel 9) agrees, too, because Thursday, Sept. 3 at 8 p.m. it is airing “Papa Ray’s Vintage Vinyl Roadshow” (with encore presentations on Sept. 5 at 6:30 p.m., and Sept. 8 at 8 p.m.) as part of its fall membership drive. This hour-long documentary tells the history of the independent record store, with archival footage and videos from in-store performances and signing events. It includes the history of the man who has owned and operated it for decades, Tom “Papa” Ray. So what, exactly, is Jewish about all of this. That’s where Ray’s wife, Laura, comes in. After two marriages and divorces from the same man, Laura Roodman-Ray, whose Jewish grandparents, father, and two uncles (the late Louis, Essie, Jerry, Harvey, and Herman “Muni” Roodman) owned and operated Roodman’s Delicatessen on Easton Avenue (currently Martin Luther King Drive), had pretty much given up on finding love again. Luckily her good friend thought otherwise…
Cape Town, ZA | Covid-19 lockdown impact: A tale of two streets – Long Street and Vilakazi Street: Cape Town’s famed ‘party’ street, Long Street, usually bustles with vibrant nightlife, and is home to bars, clubs and restaurants. But when the lockdown was implemented on 26 March, Long Street became eerily quiet overnight. …Jacques Vosloo, co-owner of famous record-shop Mabu Vinyl, also made fewer sales during lockdown, but survived through local clients and reduced rent. Mabu Vinyl also branched out to deliveries. “We weren’t selling via post, anywhere. But then from the lockdown we started selling to other parts of South Africa,” said Vosloo. The curfew and alcohol ban hit clubs and restaurants hardest. Outside Blue Bar was a sign advertising coffee and other hot drinks. “We maybe get three to four customers for coffee a day,” said Victor Moyo, an employee. They filled the profit gap by beefing up their gambling section. Beerhouse manager, Prince Gapare, said bar turnover fell from roughly 90% to 15% after the alcohol ban was introduced. They had survived by selling food on apps such as Mr Delivery and Uber Eats.
New online record store Objects & Sounds sorts music by moods: Releases from labels like RVNG Intl., Music From Memory and Efficient Space are filtered by feelings. Objects & Sounds, a newly opened online shop, claims to be the world’s first mood-based record store. Started by two music fans in Ghent, Belgium, the site filters its stock into sections like “a sense of melancholy,” “lost in dreams,” “having a blast” and “calm & collected.” The store’s catalogue exclusively features independent labels like RVNG Intl., Efficient Space, Smalltown Supersound, Music From Memory, Beats In Space, Running Back and Erased Tapes. “We don’t come from a music background,” says says co-founder Alec Seynaeve. “I am a web developer and my partner Aimee is into branding and storytelling. Not coming from a music background gives us a somewhat different perspective on things. Instead of classifying music according to genres, we feel it’s more natural to classify music into moods, so we defined eight moods where we often feel ourselves to be in.”
