THE QUESTIONS 1. 2. 3.
How long has your store been in business?
4.
What are the three most interesting things for sale in your shop at the moment?
5. 6.
And your three biggest sellers this year?
What does your store specialise in? How is your store celebrating Record Store Day?
There have been huge changes to the way people consume music – what is your store doing to stay relevant in the digital age?
3. “We are celebrating Record Store Day this year with live bands that we feel have been important to our scene over the past year. Chaos Kids have a great four-track seven-inch EP they will be sampling on the day, Bitter Sweet Kicks have a double A-side seven-inch with local legend Spencer P Jones, and Money For Rope have just released a swinging surf’n’roll single Slow Dance. All releases will be available on the day. We are also looking forward to vinyl releases from Vice Grip Pussies and Burn In Hell later this year.” 4. “The Birthday Party – The Birthday Party 4AD (BAD307). We also have many other original Bad Seeds related gems currently on the shelves; Velvet Underground – Singles 66-69 new limited edition seven-inch box set; Rolling Stones – Beggars Banquet early English pressing (Decca SKL4955).” 5. “Radiohead – King Of Limbs; Gill Scott/Jamie XX – We’re New Here; The National – High Violet.” 6. “We’d like to somehow bring the physical store to life via the internet and social networking rather than use digital media as a substitute for coming to a record store. The amazing cross-section of characters that visit Record Paradise provide interesting content to help promote our shop online. There has been a noticeable drop in the number of CDs and DVDs we have been selling; as a mainly vinyl store catering to the collector, we haven’t felt the impacts of digital downloads and online sales like the majority of music retailers.”
NORTHSIDE RECORDS 236 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy 9417 7557 northsiderecords.com.au chris@northsiderecords.com.au Mon-Wed and Sat 11am-6pm Thu-Fri 11am-7pm Sun 1-5pm
CHRIS GILL, OWNER 1. “Nine years.” 2. “SOUL! Be that funk, hip hop, dub, reggae, Latin, new electronica or African grooves. LPs, 12”s and 7”s – oh, and new CDs. It’s all got soul!” 3. “The Firemen [members of The Bamboos] are coming down to play a free set at 2pm. Delving into the vaults of Blue Note, Prestige and more, they play some of the coldest funky jazz you could imagine!” 4. “There is an original poster from the movie Coffy (starring Pam Grier) – man, it’s pretty; Bobby Marin You’re Movin’ Much Too Fast/Got A Groovy Thing Going On (Speed) $600 – one of the rarest Latin boogaloo 45s ever, featuring Bernard ‘Pretty’ Purdie on drums; The Bamboos’ live 2006 cassette - that’s right, cassette –$10!” 5. “Little Ann Deep Shadows LP – unreleased Detroit super soul; The Bamboos’ 4 double LP – it never stops selling; The Cactus Channel Pepper Snake/ The Dap 45 – local high school funk. AWESOME!” 6. “Sell ace music. People will realise integrity in their life is better than listening to bad quality…”
RECORD PARADISE !00 Chapel Street, St Kilda recordparadise.com info@recordparadise.com 9534 9344 Open seven days 11am-6pm
PAUL ALLEN, CO-OWNER 1. “Warren’s Record Paradise was established in 1956 and had been operating for 20 years before Record Paradise took over in 2008.” 2. “I guess you’d say we specialise in vinyl, original pressings, local and international releases as well record accessories and styli. We also stock CDs, DVDs and music related books but we mainly cater to the record collector.”
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THORNBURY RECORDS 591 High Street, Thornbury 9942 0754 thornburyrecords.com thornburyrecords@gmail.com Sun, Tue-Thu: 11am-7pm Fri-Sat: 11am-9pm
MEGAN SHEEHY AND CLAYTON PEGUS, STORE OWNERS 1. “Just over two months!” 2. “Our specialty is new vinyl and local Melbourne releases – genres range from rock, grunge, psych, indie and folk to some crazy electro and noise. We are both musicians so feel that it is a really important part of what we do to help promote and sell local artists’ music. We take local releases on consignment in any format, regularly feature local releases in the store and our digital listening stations give punters the opportunity to hear local releases that are for sale.” 3. “While we are still going through permit processes to have live music in the store (and therefore can’t on the day), we have a few alternative treats to make the day special! There will be 10% off all vinyl for the day, giveaways every hour with an experiment we are going to try called TRecs Musical Chairs, exclusive Record Store Day releases, free Galaga all day as well as a number of limited edition rock photographs by Kate Griffin. All photographs are beautifully framed and feature artists such as Jarvis Cocker, Dirty Three, You Am I, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Flaming Lips, The Dead Weather and Eddy Current Suppression Ring.” 4. “Without mentioning a huge selection of amazing releases, some quirkier things we have for sale at the moment are Numark portable turntables (which include software to digitise your vinyl); the brand new issue of Melbourne zournal (zine/journal) Death Of A Scenester; and hand-made skateboards by Fat Rhino Design.” 5. “Gareth Liddiard – Strange Tourist LP; My Disco – Little Joy LP; Warpaint – The Fool LP.” 6. “As a brand new store we put a lot of thought into making Thornbury Records relevant to current and future music lovers. While we specialise in the sale of new vinyl, we love the idea of all releases coming with digital downloads as well – it’s just convenient unless your car has one of those rare in-built turntables. For those who love to try before they buy (without the guilt of file-sharing and illegal downloading) we have created touch screen Digital Listening Stations (DLS) in the store. The DLS give customers the opportunity to listen to any of the releases we stock and features a brief bio and a photograph of each band. We are currently developing our online store and website, which will enable customers to purchase online and connect with us even better than they do at the moment through our Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, blog and eNewsletter.”
READINGS 112 Acland Street, St Kilda Mon-Sat 10am-10 pm Sun 10am-9pm Check out readings.com.au for full list of Readings locations
DECLAN MURPHY, MUSIC BUYER – READINGS ST KILDA 1. “Almost six years as Readings in St Kilda and for many years previously as Cosmos Books And Music. The flagship Readings Carlton shop was founded in 1969 and has since been joined by shops in Hawthorn, Malvern, Port Melbourne and St Kilda, with the recent addition of a boutique shop in Palmer Hall at the State Library Of Victoria.” 2. “Our vinyl range is increasing all the time but in terms of genre we stock lots of indie and homegrown stuff as well as world, jazz and blues. The great thing about Readings is that each store has its own personality so if we don’t have what you’re after at St Kilda but it’s in stock at our other shops we can generally have it for you the next day. If not we’ll do our best to order it in for ya.” 3. “We have a 10% off vinyl promotion happening throughout April and we will have 20% off vinyl this Saturday to celebrate Record Store Day at Readings Hawthorn, St Kilda and Carlton. Bring your funniest LP cover down to Readings St Kilda between midday and 4pm and let us take a photo for our blog. The best (worst!) cover judged by Readings will win a prize pack of music goodies!” 4. “A collection of Johnny Cash Sun singles on vinyl; a super deluxe Stones – Exile On Main St box set; and a Phillip Glass retrospective box set. Tasty.” 5. “The latest Radiohead and Lucinda Williams albums are going great guns. The So Frency So Chic collection is always a big one for us and the 2011 edition is flying out the door.” 6. “I personally think diversity is the key. It’s become more and more difficult to stock a deep catalogue and with this in mind I’ve tried to focus more on a broad range of interesting stuff. Quality over quantity I guess. It’s really about knowing your customers.”
COLLECTORS CORNER/ MISSING LINK 405 Bourke Street, city 9670 8208 recordcollectorscorner.com.au missinglink.net.au Mon-Thu: 10am-6pm Fri: 10am- 7pm Sat: 10am-5pm Sun: 11-5pm
NICK ANDERSON - MANAGER COLLECTORS CORNER 1. “Collectors Corner 20+ years as a stand alone store, now sharing premises with Missing Link – 30 years+.” 2. “New and used, import and local indie CDs and vinyl, also DVDs, and music merchandise, hard-tofind title location service, mail order service, etc.” 3. “Storewide discount, free CD compilation (mainly Melbourne acts, 100 numbered copies) with each purchase and the release of Lou Barlow Live At Missing Link cassette.” 4. “Cosmic Psychos limited edition hand-crafted box pack; rare and collectible vinyl range, original pressings, Beatles rarities, out of print Australian titles and Japanese pressings, etc; original Man’s Ruin Desert Sessions ten-inches.” 5. “The UV Race – Homo; Queens Of The Stone Age – Queens Of The Stone Age re-issue; Dirtbombs – Party Store.” 6. “You can buy physical product online from Missing Link’s website or the Collectors Corner and Missing Link eBay stores. So far as downloads go, we regard them as the 7-11 microwave hotdog at 4am of music formats – okay when that’s all that’s available but not intended for regular human consumption. Physical product is king.”
POISON CITY RECORDS
WHITE RABBIT RECORD BAR 176 Bellair Street, Kensington 9376 5441 Wed 11am-11pm Thurs-Sat 10am-11pm Sun 10am-9pm
ANNIE MULRONEY, OWNER/PROPRIETOR/LICENSEE 1. “We opened May ‘06 – we are almost five!” 2. “Our speciality is vintage vinyl. All genres are special on wax! We have a strong jazz collection, extensive rock/pop and blues, folk, indie and punk, world and Latin, soundtracks, hip hop, house and new jazz, pre-loved dance 12”s, re-issues of many classics and some obscure comedy/spoken word LPs.” 4. “The Lemonheads – Hate Your Friends LP on yellow vinyl; Jimmy Tait’s new CD – a local artist who played a gorgeous solo semi-acoustic set in our courtyard at White Rabbit about two years ago and now has a five-piece band touring Europe; an extremely obscure, kinda spooky narration LP, Dr Murray Banks Speaks On The Drama of Sex.” 5. “Adalita’s self-titled CD; PJ Harvey – Let England Shake (vinyl sold out, CD still available); Radiohead – King Of Limbs.” 6. “I’m strictly analogue myself, and trust in the value of vinyl. I love the size, the sleeve notes, the dance tips, the side lines, the gate folds, the paper cut outs! I’m a completer sucker for the art form; CDs are still good for the car though.”
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400 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy 9077 0563 info@poisoncityrecords.com poisoncityrecords.com Wed-Mon from 11am
ANDREW HAYDEN, OWNER 1. “The Poison City record label has been going since 2003 and we’ve had the store open for about four years.” 2. “The concept of the store combines local and overseas punk/indie/hardcore music with skateboarding (and a few other odds and ends in between!) We specialise in vinyl, CDs and music merch from good independent labels like Dischord, No Idea, Bridge 9, Hobbledehoy, Resist, Paper & Plastick, Revelation and SST, plus a more traditional flavour of skateboards, Vans Shoes and ‘80s skate t-shirts.” 3. “With coffee, good people and some extra special goodies on the racks! You’ll have to pop in to find out what we got.” 4. “MYC – Happiness & Authority LP (gold vinyl!); Jen Buxton – Don’t Change Your Plan LP (test press – one only!); Hot Water Music – Live In Chicago seven-inch.” 4. “Off! – First Four EPs box set; Fires Of Waco – Old Ghosts Never Sleep LP; Iron Chic – Not Like This LP.” 5. “As Poison City was a record label before we had the store, we were forced to move with the times a few years back, getting ourselves a digital distributor for the label. If anything, I think it seems to have helped people outside Australia connect with the label – so for us, online outlets like iTunes have generally been a good thing. I feel like the best way for the shop and label to stay relevant and continue to sell physical CD/ vinyl albums is to keep contributing to the local music scene; putting on shows, touring bands, helping artists on our label, etc. In my opinion, shops and labels that aren’t giving something back to their local music community don’t deserve to be selling records.”