Orlando, FL | 5 places to find vinyl records in Orlando area: You can visit all these hot spots in about an hour. With all things digital taking over the world, it’s a bit more difficult to find some things we used to love, including vinyl records. Although vinyl has made a big comeback in recent years, a lot of stores only offer a limited selection. For many people, the hunt for that special memory is a big part of the fun. If you are willing to invest the time, you might even find that gem for as little as $1. News 6 has five hot spots where you can find almost anything you’re looking for — and a whole lot more. Here’s the best part: You can visit all the stores in just a few hours.
Kincardine, CA | COMICS: Lorenz Peter’s On Vinyl may be 2018’s best graphic novel: Lorenz Peter’s On Vinyl is my early pick for graphic novel of the year. This tale of a technologically challenged record-store owner who tries to ride the so-called “vinyl resurgence” into the future is as funny as it is thought-provoking. On Vinyl can be enjoyed as a narrative of retail tribulations, with our blundering hero Lenny dealing not only with psychopath customers, but also his own interior monologue. There’s also something else going on, a simultaneous commentary about how we’re not all thrilled to be living in the computer age. In that sense, it’s a book for those who are yearning for a deeper meaning, who desperately need to grab onto something permanent because their values are out of place in a world soon to be filled with self-driving cars. And then there are the album covers.
Buffalo, NY | Spotify all day, vinyl all night: How does Buffalo listen to music? In my teen years, I never left home without my music. At the time – the mid-’80s – that meant hauling a boom-box and a case of cassette tapes around to parties, bonfires and the like. More often, it meant carrying around an armful of vinyl records to be played at the home of whomever I happened to be hanging out with. Music was such a major part of my identity that I never wanted to travel anywhere without it. So much has changed since then, to the point where I look back at that kid carting his record collection around with him and I’m not sure whether to laugh or cry. Yet, despite the abundant changes in technology over the past 30 years, that desire to carry our music with us remains. It’s now taken for granted you can fit your entire music collection in your pocket and, via Bluetooth or an aux cord, you can play it pretty much anywhere.
Taipei, CN | Yilan man promotes vinyl by sharing vast collection: Former Yilan County Government Department of Education commissioner Lu Chien-chi is making his private collection of vinyl records available to the public in an effort to promote the format. Lu said that he began his collection in junior-high school, and has accumulated more than 10,000 records and posters in the past four decades. When vinyl was at its most popular in Taiwan, a record sold for about NT$30, Lu said, adding that collecting and listening to records was his main form of entertainment when he was in junior-high school. “There was nothing else to do aside from listening to music, reading and studying,” Lu said. Comparing the audio quality of vinyl records with digital formats, Lu said that digital music has a harsher, flatter sound.
Chatham, CA | Record and Collectables show in Sudbury on Sept. 9: The annual fall edition of the Sudbury Record and Collectables show happens Sunday, Sept. 9, at the Caruso Club, 385 Haig St. Dealers will be offering thousands of vinyl LPs as well as 45s, CDs, DVDs, posters, books, magazines and rock and pop memorabilia. Doors open at 10 a.m. and the show runs till 4 p.m. Admission is $3. Early birds can get in at 8:30 at a cost of $10. For more information call 920-1821 or Google Sudbury Record Show.
Gardendale, AL | For the Love of Vinyl: 34th annual Birmingham Record Collector Show comes to Gardendale: Ray Edwards loves records. He loves listening to them, he loves collecting them and he loves talking about them. “The argument has always been that you can’t replace the sound of original, analog music on vinyl with digital music,” Edwards said. “It just doesn’t sound the same. I can put on a record and I can FEEL the record. It’s hard to explain.” That feel led Edwards to start volunteering at a radio station in Irondale as a teenager. He took on the Sunday morning shift that no one else wanted, just to be around the music. After high school, Edwards majored in broadcasting and education and worked at radio stations around the country before returning to Birmingham in 1988.
Halifax, NS | Black Buffalo Records hosting 16th record fair: Record label owner Kevin Beal has been collecting vinyl since he was five years old, and twice a year, he gets to share his passion with Haligonians. Black Buffalo Records — specializing in bringing local hip-hop to the forefront — is having their Fall Record Fair at the Halifax Forum in September. “We’re very excited for this. We started in 2011 and do two a year, and the response ahead of this one has been overwhelming,” said Beal. “Typically our fall one is quieter, but this year everyone seems pretty game.” Normally, the event happens in October, but it was bumped up to find a location for the event. “I’ve been a long-time collector. This is a 39-year passion spent looking and trying to find things I want in my collection,” he said.
NZ | Nelson’s record fair a de-vinyl day out: It’s that time of year you can swap your old records for new ones at the annual record fair. Organiser Grant Smithies said the fourth edition of the event would be a “nice community event where music fans gather”. The Family Jewels Record shop owner said people didn’t need to be vinyl fanatics to be able to sell their stuff at the fair. “Usually we’ve had about 20,000 records being sold in 20 or 30 stalls.” “People just bring along crates of their own records and sell them on the day. “Anything from funk and soul and old hip hop to heavy metal to whatever. Smithies said people could roam around in, hopefully, the sun with a beer in their hand if they wanted to. “When we’ve done it in the past there’s been hundreds of people drifting in and out through the whole afternoon. “It’s good fun.”
Perfect Vinyl Forever’s deep cleaning process resuscitates your LPs: Send your precious LPs or even 45 RPM singles to Perfect Vinyl Forever and they’ll come back with their sound transformed. I started collecting records as a teenager, and as the years roll by my vinyl collection means more and more to me. I play these LPs all the time, and since I’ve upgraded my turntables over the years the music sounds better than ever. Even so, there’s always room for improvement. So when I heard about Perfect Vinyl Forever’s record cleaning service I had to give it a try. Perfect Vinyl Forever clean your records at their facility in southeastern Wisconsin with a drop-off service for local and Greater Chicago residents, or there is a mail-in address for everyone else.
