Miami, FL | Calling All Vinyl Enthusiasts: The Top Five Record Stores in Miami: For any vinyl record collector or audio enthusiast, the feeling of finally hearing a favorite album on vinyl is one like no other. The search for a vinyl, whether aimlessly scanning the isles of a local record store, scrolling high and low online or coming across it unintentionally, is an extremely rewarding process that will only keep a collector wanting more. In recent years, vinyl culture has made a comeback among Generation Z and the Millennial generation — with a majority of young people owning turntables and other sound systems, vinyls and CDs. Despite the development of streaming services and the digital age of music, purchasing vinyls and vinyl culture has been able to maintain its timelessness and potential to remain relevant. Throughout Miami, vinyl enthusiasts have taken it upon themselves to foster their love for the culture through establishing their record stores, keeping the vinyl culture thriving within the community.
Shropshire, UK | Newport record shop owner says thank you for the music and memories: A record shop owner, whose business has been at the heart of a Shropshire town for more than 20 years, has thanked customers and the community after retiring. Jude Paton has now completed her final day at Hey Jude’s but the shop continues to trade under the new ownership of Frankie O’Connor. But, after finishing her last day, Jude, who started Hey Jude’s in Newport Indoor Market in 1999 before setting up in Stafford Street, spoke of her gratitude to all those who have supported her over the years. She said: “I want to say a massive thanks to family, friends and my fantastic customers, all of whom have helped build the business and supported me through coming here. “I have made so many friendships through the music and sharing it with other people.” “I had an emotional final day and it hasn’t hit home yet. I well up in tears even now thinking about it because it was a passion as well as a business.”
Boise, ID | The Record Exchange Spins Local Magic with Vinyl: Seattle has Pike Place Market. Portland has Powell’s Books. And Boise has The Record Exchange. In 2021, The Exchange, which had endured for decades under the leadership of founders Michael Bunnell and Jill Sevy, made some changes. Bunnell and Sevy retired and welcomed some new faces at the top. Employees Catherine Merrick, Glenn Newkirk, and Chad Dryden, along with Erica Sparlin, bought the place, ensuring the business would remain an iconic retail marker for the city. Yet just like The Pretenders’ lead singer Chrissie Hynde’s famous lyric, Boise’s Record Exchange co-owners, Dryden and Sparlin, who are also married to one another, “went back to (their) pretty countryside” of Ohio. There, Dryden handles marketing for the most identifiable retail landmark in Boise. Of course, he misses a few things, but where he finds himself in time, moving to be closer to his family, takes precedence, Dryden said. “We miss our friends, and we miss the mountains. But we don’t regret the move to Ohio whatsoever. We love being here…”
Los Angeles, CA | Rare punk collection acquired by L.A. record store: L.A. landmark Rockaway Records recently acquired a six-figure punk collection of rare vinyl, memorabilia and vintage items. L.A. landmark Rockaway Records recently acquired a six-figure punk collection of rare vinyl, memorabilia and vintage t-shirts, featuring items from The Sex Pistols, Black Flag, The Misfits and more. Highly sought-after test pressings, picture sleeves and posters are among the items now available. The collection acquired by Rockaway Records also includes items from several groundbreaking Los Angeles based punk bands like The Germs, Social Distortion and Fear. Rare items including vinyl, concert posters, t-shirts and clothing, unique industry promotional items and more are currently available in their appointment only showroom and online. “In our 40+ years of selling vinyl, I have never seen a collection of any kind sell as fast,” says Rockaway co-founder Wayne Johnson. “The prices for punk era vinyl and memorabilia specifically have skyrocketed over the last few years! It reminds me of how Beatles collectibles were selling in the 80’s and 90’s.”
Chicago, IL | Reading house’s history from its used records: Vinyl owned by DJs in the 80s and 90s is still circulating in Chicago shops, and it offers a unique window into the ways house music came alive. Chicagoans don’t need an excuse to talk about house music, but when the biggest pop star in the world drops a record indebted to house, you can expect more than just a conversation. Beyoncé’s Renaissance has effectively evangelized for this Chicago-born sound since the album came out in July, not least because she shaped it with help from major players in the genre’s history. Pop critic, dance-music historian, and Reader contributor Michaelangelo Matos has noted in the New York Times that Renaissance track “Cozy” obliquely references Adonis’s 1986 Trax Records heater “No Way Back” with its sly bass line, and it also includes contributions from two Chicago natives who built careers during later waves of house: Honey Dijon and Curtis Alan Jones (aka Green Velvet, fka Cajmere). “Cozy” got me thinking about the old house records I own—the ones from the early days of Chicago house, when the local scene was still putting down roots. When you buy house records in the city that birthed house, you’re often shopping in stores where the staff and customers include people who still shape that scene.
Lodenice, CZ | A small Czech village is at the heart of the global vinyl record revival: Having steered through communism and revolution to lead the global comeback of the vinyl record, Czechia’s GZ Media is now confronting pandemic, populism and war, as Tim Gosling reports from Lodenice. Lodenice doesn’t look very much like the heart of rock ‘n’ roll. But the small Czech village, peering over the motorway linking the capital Prague with Germany, is home to the biggest vinyl record producer in the world. The vinyl revival of recent years has driven GZ Media to heights that owner and President Zdenek Pelc could barely have imagined as he steered the company through the tumultuous days of communism, revolution and transition to a capitalist system. “It was like the Wild West at times,” said Pelc, who joined state enterprise Gramofonove Zavody as a manager in 1983. He smiled as he remembered steering the privatized company through the unruly 1990s. The decade witnessed the birth of the Czech Republic out of the ruins of former communist Czechoslovakia, but also the near death of vinyl.
Pink Floyd album designer Aubrey Powell discusses ‘Animals’ reissue’s ominous new cover: The reissue of Pink Floyd‘s classic 1977 concept album Animals, featuring a 5.1 Surround Sound mix created in 2018, gets released in multiple formats this Friday, September 16. Along with the updated mix, the reissue boasts a reimagined and updated version of Animals‘ memorable cover art, which featured a photo of London’s massive Battersea Power Station with a giant inflatable pig tied to its chimneys. Both covers were created by Aubrey “Po” Powell, co-founder of Hipgnosis, the graphic-design firm that has worked on most of the band’s albums. The new cover features an ominous-looking recent photo of the building, which is covered in scaffolding, taken at night from a different angle than the original pic, with the pig added digitally. Powell tells ABC Audio that he had to act fast to get a good current photo of the building because the site is in the middle of a “massive regeneration project” that’s obscuring the view of the station. Powell says the new photo reflects Animals‘ cynical look at humanity, which was partly inspired by George Orwell‘s dystopian novel Animal Farm.
