In rotation: 5/15/24

Tokyo, JP | Tokyo Record Shop Offers Precious J-pop Memories of Bygone Era; No Age Restrictions When It Comes to Being: Showa-era idols, American automobiles and different hanging photos catch the attention at Diskunion Shinjuku Showa Kayou Store in Tokyo. The document store carries tens of 1000’s of vinyl records from the Seventies and Eighties, and retailer supervisor Kenji Shinoki, 48, allowed me to hearken to Showa idol Akina Nakamori’s 1983 album “Fantasy.” He positioned the LP on a document participant, and as I listened to her document by earphones, I spotted that she sounded a bit clearer than after I hearken to songs on my telephone. “Songs made again then had been meant to be performed on vinyl, so you may hear them at their greatest,” Shinoki stated. Showa Kayou Store opened in Shinjuku in 2013, when the recognition of Showa-era (1926-1989) J-pop was rising. The store moved to its present location final yr. I used to be anticipating the shop to be stuffed with middle-aged males and older clients shopping for records they might not afford once they had been youthful. But to my shock, I noticed fairly just a few foreigners and younger individuals within the store, too.

Athens, GA | Sense of Place: Wuxtry Records is the center of Athens’ musical legacy: If you had been to plan a musical pilgrimage to Athens, Ga. — one of many birthplaces of other rock and residential to bands like R.E.M., Pylon, Drive-By Truckers and The B-52s — you’ll be sensible to schedule in an entire day to go to Wuxtry Records. It’s the type of document store you could possibly spend eternally in. As a part of our Sense of Place: Athens sequence, World Cafe stopped by the impartial document retailer to seek out out why it’s such an necessary a part of the Athens music scene and its music historical past. In this session, we’ll meet the parents who run Wuxtry, like proprietor Dan Wall and longtime supervisor Nathaniel Mitchell. Wall talks about a few of Wuxtry’s former staff who went on to develop into well-known, and about how this document retailer has survived due to their dedication to vinyl.

AU | Vinyl revival: What went flawed for music megastores like Sanity and Brashs. Major music chains like Brashs, HMV and Sanity have largely disappeared from the retail panorama, but small impartial document shops are nonetheless going robust. How did we get right here? During the Nineteen Nineties – the final actually profitable decade for bodily music gross sales – brick and mortar document shops had been discovered on each excessive avenue and in each shopping center throughout Australia. In Sydney alone, greater than 50 document shops existed inside an eight-block radius of town’s CBD – not together with the 20-plus specialist shops in neighbouring Darlinghurst and Surry Hills. Today, inside those self same eight blocks, solely three shops stay – Birdland, Red Eye Records and Utopia Records. All of them are impartial.

Portland, ME | Maine’s classic document sellers thrive on the chase of discovering vinyl treasures: There is nothing like strolling right into a document retailer and seeing the cabinets and rows of various vinyls simply ready to be gone by. The pleasure peaks when one retailer might have the Def Leppard “Pyromania” vinyl you’re after, and the opposite has the Fleetwood Mac “Rumours” album that you just’ve searched excessive and low for. As quickly as you step foot into Electric Buddhas, you might be immersed into one other world of every little thing retro. You are greeted by the proprietor, Mike Breton, who’s cashing out clients at his tiki-inspired money register stand surrounded by all kinds of issues — every little thing from a “Godzilla” poster to albums to outdated online game methods, cassettes and VHS tapes. There are rows and rows of various albums to file by, starting from Frank Sinatra to Elvis to Duran Duran. There’s a variety of rock and roll, nation, R&B, jazz, classical, hip-hop and every little thing in between.

South Bend, IN | Music lovers flock to South Bend Record Show: Billed because the “largest, one-day sale of music,” the South Bend Record Show made its method again to Michiana on Sunday for the third time in 2023. Vendors from a number of midwestern states crammed 85 tables with 1000’s of vinyl records, CDs, memorabilia, and extra on the Gillespie Conference Center. From 9 a.m. to five p.m., a whole bunch of individuals got here to speak about music, add to their assortment, or discover a music lover’s good vacation present. “I simply hope individuals can proceed to benefit from the medium that they will come out right here, swap tales with our distributors who’re all actually educated,” stated Jeremy Bonfiglio, proprietor of South Bend Record Show. “Whether you’ve been doing it for 50 years or 5 minutes, you’re model new to vinyl, it’s a fantastic expertise to return out.” The subsequent document present takes place on Aug. 6.

Red Bank, NJ | Red Bank: Vinyl followers bask on Mechanic Street: Bright sunshine, good spring temps and the prospect of scoring a traditional by Menudo or Zamfir the Romanian pan flute legend introduced a whole bunch to the road the place music legend William “Count” Basie grew up for the primary annual Record Riot. The out of doors document honest sponsored by Jack’s Music Shoppe introduced two dozen sellers to the road and the individuals watching proved nearly as good because the crate digging. Scroll down for enjoyable images and extra sunshine than a Katrina and the Waves track.

Hillsborough, NJ | The Hillsborough Record Riot! Over 10,000 vinyl records in ONE ROOM! CDs too. Music group! The Hillsborough Record RIot RETURNS! It’s a WONDERFUL winter vinyl document POP-UP sale! Over 40 vendor tables in a single room! Great music and household enjoyable. LPs, CDs and 45s. Door prizes too! Don’t miss it! An enormous document retailer lands in Somerset County! Dealers from far and broad converge for a large music sale! LPs and 45s and CDs too. All varieties of music from punk to funk to nation to traditional rock, hip hop, soul/jazz and extra. Dust off that turntable and are available on down. DOOR PRIZES TOO! Regular admission begins at 10 AM ($5) with early admission at 9 AM ($15). Don’t miss the BIG VINYL DIG!

Salt Lake City, UT | Grab your Walkman, the Salt Lake City cassette revolution is right here (once more): The buzz of audio system. The click on of the eject button. The hiss of a tape. These sounds may need light into obscurity, however cassettes are seeing an unlikely resurgence. “The large factor that kicked it off for me was again in 2015,” stated Salt Lake City tape collector and proprietor of tape label Salt Vault Records Joe Maloy. “I purchased a Jeep from my uncle. The CD participant didn’t work, nevertheless it had a tape deck and I used to be like, OK, properly, I suppose I acquired to start out shopping for tapes.” After shopping for a few tapes and connecting with the group on-line, Maloy was absolutely down the rabbit gap and hasn’t seemed again since. While it’s develop into extra frequent to personal a document participant and vinyl collections, tapes would possibly simply be the subsequent large factor to return again round once more in bodily media. Physical music releases have seen a historic rise in recognition in recent times. According to leisure knowledge perception firm Luminate, cassette consumers spend round 227% extra on music than the typical listener, exhibiting a dedication to the format.

Edinburgh, UK | Lenny’s beautiful document assortment to be bought: Lenny Love adored music and following his dying in February, the gathering of vinyl which he gathered throughout his lifetime can be bought. At an occasion organised by his buddies The Lenny Love Vinyl Archive can be supplied on the market on the Voodoo Rooms on Sunday 19 May from 2 to 5pm. All monies raised can be used to pay for the Lenny Love After Party which may even be held at Voodoo Rooms. Tim Maguire is a very long time buddy who additionally launched Lenny to turning into a celebrant. Tim stated: “And It’s Goodbye to Love can be Lenny’s method of shopping for everybody a drink on his birthday. The thought is that individuals get collectively have a drink and discuss someone they knew and beloved. We will play music however will probably be at a stage so that individuals can discuss over it. It may get thrilling later if some dancers flip up. Lenny used to DJ for the Edinburgh Swing Society so there could also be dancing, though it isn’t formally that.”