RPM Pizza and Records Returns for an Encore Under New Ownership, The Pioneer Square restaurant and vinyl shop has a new recipe for pizza dough and plans for live acoustic shows thanks to new owner Richard Cano: Like vinyl, RPM Pizza and Records is back and better than ever. Also known as Revolution Pizza Music (240 2nd Ave. S #120), the Pioneer Square pizzeria and record store closed December 2017 with no hint of a revival, but thanks to a tipster who spotted a sandwich board, Eater confirmed that Richard Cano purchased the company from previous owner Harvey Ward Van Allen (Casco Antiguo) and reopened the business this month with plenty of similarities and also some fresh ideas…Van Allen turned the former home of Pizzeria Gabbiano into a pizza place again last summer, with RPM pairing local vinyl and hot pies, mostly straightforward combinations like margherita, Hawaiian, and sausage and pepper complemented by a couple salads, beers, and wines.
Go on a trip through the NYC’s best vinyl shops for Record Store Day: Take a trip through all the city’s best havens for vinyl on April 21, as Warner Music Group hosts its third annual record store crawl for Record Store Day. For the past three years, this international celebration of independent brick-and-mortars has escorted lovers through the city’s best record stores accompanied by special performances at some of the stops. Similar crawls will take place in other cities around the world from May through October. While last year’s NYC trip featured the Heliotropes, this year’s dates include pop-up shows from artists including Lionize, Eddie Berman, SISTERS and Walker County among many others. You can find tickets at the official website here, which will provide you with a seat on the Record Store Crawl bus.
No music, no life. And now, no Russ Solomon. “No Music, no life.” That was his motto. Sadly, after 92 years of lots of music and lots of life, we no longer have Russ. Tower Records founder, the visionary Russ Solomon, died last Sunday at his Sacramento home of an apparent heart attack while drinking whiskey and watching the Oscars. The man who showed so many of us how to live life well has now set the standard for dying well also. And he did live an incredible life. From selling used records at age 16 out of his father’s pharmacy on the corner of Broadway and Land Park Drive in 1941, this high-school dropout eventually owned 200 stores in 15 countries with over a billion dollars in annual sales.
Third Man Records lays off 7 Nashville staffers to ‘streamline’ operations: Third Man Records laid off seven employees at its Nashville office in a move to cut costs at the high-profile music business. Third Man, founded by rock star Jack White, is a multi-faceted business including a retail record shop, mail-order vinyl operation, live music venue, event space, small recording studio and record label. Margo Price and Joshua Hedley are among the artists signed to the label and a litany of superstar artists have recorded at the Third Man complex in Nashville’s SoBro neighborhood. A Third Man executive said through a publicist this week that the layoffs were done to “streamline” operations…Laid-off employees were asked to sign separation agreements that would pay them cash in exchange for not divulging information about the company.
Jack White wants to be individualistic: Jack White always tries to do something “no-one else is doing.” The former White Stripes frontman has revealed that he enjoys going against the tide when it comes to his music, as he believes it is his “job” as a musician to “not take the easy way out.” Speaking about his passion for vinyl records in the age of digital, he said: “If it was 1999 and I was asked: ‘What do you think about digital music?’, it was my job to say: ‘Is that what everyone else is doing? Then I don’t like it.’ “If the world had been into analogue, I would’ve said I loved digital. As an artist it is your job not to take the easy way out. I want to be turned on when I listen to an artist speak: I want them to show something that no one else is doing.”
Audio File: Groovy tunes are why vinyl has a major following in the digital age of music: …So why, in the midst of this steady progression toward portability and unlimited music inputs, are folks buying records and setting up a decidedly nonportable record player? It’s not because a record player is analog and doesn’t need to be converted from digital, which makes it sounds better. It’s not even that records force you to get up and be involved in the music. It’s not because of the big artwork and extensive liner notes. Many well-informed music lovers have preferred vinyl for so many years simply because music on vinyl often sounds punchier and more exciting than the same music over digital. Why? Well, it has a lot to do with what I’ve been talking about in recent weeks, which is the dynamics of the recordings, i.e. the difference between quiet and loud. Mostly it has to do with keeping that needle in the groove.
Michigan Record Club Facebook group reaches 1,000-member milestone: MIDLAND – In an age of digital music and online streaming, vinyl records have regained a strong following over the past decade. In Michigan, there exists a community for vinyl enthusiasts to come and discuss their record collections and favorite music. Michigan Record Club, a Facebook group started by Bill Young, recently reached a membership of 1,000. Formerly known as RecordClub MidMichigan, Young started the club in the early 2010s, when the vinyl revival was starting to take off. “I kept thinking to myself, you know, I love my music, how can I share that love of music with other people? Facebook was kind of new back then, and I thought, boy, this is a perfect avenue to share the love of records,” says Young.
