Miami, FL | New record shop Terrestrial Funk in Design District offers collections of vinyl records, cassettes, CDs and more: Streaming music on your phone is cool and all, but man, do we miss the days of physically holding an album. Lucky for us, there is a new record shop in the Design District that can give you what you’re missing. Deco’s music expert, Alex Miranda, is here to tell us more. Deco is all about the sights, sounds and, most importantly, vibes. That’s why our ears perked up when we heard about one pop-up record shop with the funniest-sounding name: Terrestrial Funk. Remember the days of vibing out to a classic album at a record store? Well, those days have come again, thanks to Miami’s newest record shop, Terrestrial Funk. Ivette Lozano: “Terrestrial Funk has been an online record store for almost a decade now, and now we have this pop-up here in the Design District.” This pop-up didn’t just “pop up,” though. It’s been a long time coming.
West Bend, WI | Behind the scenes as John McGivern visits The Beat Goes On in West Bend, WI: Joe Zaremba is the owner of The Beat Goes on with his wife Mary. Below is a look back at the evolution of the store formerly known as The Exclusive Company. There’s a lot of history behind one of the landmark businesses on N. Main Street in downtown West Bend, WI. Believe it or not The Exclusive Company had a couple name variations, locations, and specialty services as it blossomed downtown. In 1959 the Tel-a-City Directory listed The Exclusive Record-Shop at 146 N. Main Street. The phone number was listed as FE 4-7101. Other local businesses in that era included City Bakery, Bob Boltz Photographer, Peters Resort, Koth’s Motel, and Meyer’s Cigar & Newsstand at 219 S. Main Street. Jack Bandy recalls the original Exclusive store at the southwest corner of where Elm Street once intersected Main Street. Bandy said the store “not only sold Magnavox (Philips) hifis, but it was THE record shop in West Bend.”
Bangor, UK | Snow Patrol fans get in a spin for midnight vinyl signing: Snow Patrol super fans will be setting their watches for a special midnight signing of the band’s new vinyl album in Bangor’s Bending Sound Records. To secure their place in next Thursday night’s signing, fans had to pre-order Snow Patrol’s new LP The Forest Is The Path on limited edition forest green marbled vinyl. With all the places snapped up for this late night signing at the popular Banks Lane store, lead singer Gary Lightbody is thrilled to be returning home ‘to keep the vinyl flame burning so brightly’. Writing on social media, Lightbody fans: “We are so excited to launch the album vinyl at midnight in my local record store in Bangor, at Bending Sound Records. We’ll be signing albums at midnight going into Friday, September 13, so midnight Thursday night. “Bending Sounds is an amazing record store and I have found so many incredible vinyl albums there over the years. And they are such a lovely bunch of people.”
Nairobi, KE | Melodica: The Kenyan vinyl store preserving African deep cuts: Writer Peter Yeung meets Abdul Karim, the owner of a legendary Nairobi record store. Mfangano Street in Nairobi’s Central Business District is in the throbbing, working-class heartbeat of Kenya’s capital city, a constant racket of honking matatu transport vans, packed no-frills restaurants and cheeky street traders who line the pavements. But up a flight of stairs at the end of a nondescript corridor, Melodica Music Store is an oasis of calm. That’s not to say this legendary record store, the oldest in Kenya and perhaps in the whole of east Africa, is quiet. Far from it: through the day, the vinyl shop is powered by a playlist of customers who come to listen to deep cuts of pan-African music and beyond, from Kenya’s upbeat benga pop to Arabic-influenced coastal taarab ballads, Congolese rumba and even more standard fare like Western classic rock and jazz. “Everybody walks in here,” says Abdul Karim, the 62-year-old owner of Melodica, puffing on a cigarette as a rare version of Fela Kuti’s iconic 1973 album Gentleman, pressed in Kenya, spins in the back.
Vinyl Record Emissions: How bad for the environment is a record? A new report outlines the environmental damage from vinyl record emissions. It’s not great—but there is some good news. A new report from the Vinyl Record Manufacturer’s Association (VRMA) and Vinyl Alliance outlines the environmental impact of the manufacture of a vinyl record, including packaging. The stated longterm goal of the two groups is to understand the carbon impact of the vinyl pressing industry “from cradle to grave” – that is, from pressing to disposal. The first-ever report focuses on the “cradle-to-factory gate” footprint of a vinyl record, taking into account the activities of a pressing plant, a stamper manufacturer, and a lacquer-cutting studio. The report indicates that the footprint of a standard 140g weight vinyl record is about 1.15 kg CO2e. This is roughly the same as a pint of cow’s milk. To continue the breakfast analogy, boiling a liter of water in an electric kettle for coffee or tea consumes 70 kg CO2e while an orange requires 90 kg CO2e to grow.
Does vinyl really sound better than other formats? Vinyl is often lauded for its warm sound, but is the experience of listening to a record tangibly different from digital or CD? We take a closer look. Collecting vinyl records is fun. Big, beautiful sleeve art, liner notes and lyric sheets, the tactile step-by-step of prepping your turntable and hi-fi – all in service of actively and purposefully listening to something you treasure. The format survived near-extinction in the late 20th century, having bounced back on a wave of format nostalgia – and for a keenly-held view on how they sound. Everyone’s heard it before, whether from a frenzy-eyed friend or from an enthusiastic music-forum regular with an Electric Wizard album cover as their profile picture: the immortal, oft-cited and never-sourced words: “Vinyl sounds better.” We’re often even inclined to nod a bit. But why?
Mercyful Fate: Metal Blade Records to Issue 40th Anniversary Vinyl Repress of Legendary “Don’t Break the Oath” Full-Length on November 1st. Don’t Break The Oath, the second studio album by Danish heavy metal icons, Mercyful Fate, will see a special vinyl repress on Metal Blade Records on November 1st. Initially issued in 1984 through Roadrunner Records, the Metal Blade edition celebrates the ground-breaking record’s 40th anniversary! Comments Metal Blade founder and CEO, Brian Slagel, “We’re here to celebrate the anniversary of one of the most legendary albums of all-time: Mercyful Fate’s Don’t Break The Oath. At Metal Blade, we’re extremely honored and happy to be repressing the album on vinyl and the band will be celebrating the anniversary by releasing a whole bunch of really cool merch. So, check it out, go get the repressing, and enjoy and celebrate the 40th anniversary of Don’t Break the Oath!“
‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ Soundtrack Available for Pre-Order: The official soundtrack for “Joker: Folie à Deux” is now available for pre-order on vibrant red vinyl and classic CD. The soundtrack, which will include 16 tracks, is produced by Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, and Jason Ruder, with executive producers Phoenix, Gaga, director Todd Phillips, Randall Poster & George Drakoulias. Its track list will feature music performed by the film’s cast, including Phoenix and Gaga. It is not confirmed whether Gaga contributes original music to the film. The soundtrack is set for release the same day as the film, Oct. 4, 2024.
