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Webster-Kirkwood Times
August 30 - September 5, 2013
Popularity Of Old Vinyl Records On The Rise from page 1 Schwab has been in the record business for almost 35 years. Twenty years of his sales were in the Central West End. Then he moved his store to Old Orchard in Webster Groves, and now he’s moved his music marvels to the store in Old Webster on Gore where he has been since May. “This business has been a roller coaster from day one for me,” said Schwab. “When the CD generation came along, I thought that was the end of vinyl except for collectors. Then the MP3s and downloads came along and really hurt us. “But now there’s a real craze for vinyl,” noted Schwab. “We have young people coming in. We have emptynester baby boomers who have more time to listen and find the stuff they loved when they were younger. And we still have the serious collectors.” One dramatic signal that vinyl is back involves how many music groups are now cutting their music in vinyl – rock, jazz and classical. A growing number of gold albums, including Beatles, Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan, have had vinyl reissues in recent years as well. According to the New York Times, more than a dozen record pressing plants have found new life in the United States. Companies like Rainbo Records in Canoga Park, Calif., are turning out upwards of seven million LPs annually. Amping Up The Audio Barry Hufker has been teaching audio recording for several decades at Webster University. He said the program has never discarded all of the old turntables of yesteryear, and now students are taking a renewed interest in what they can do. “I know there is a mythology that vinyl has more depth and warmth than digital,” said Hufker. “I am not
Vinyl LPs run from A to Z, ranging from Alice’s Restaurant to Zodiac Mindwarp, from Arlo Guthrie and Fiona Apple to Frank Zappa and Jay-Z. photo by Diana Linsley sure I buy into that. I do think that people like the ritual of buying an album cover with great artwork, holding the plastic record, getting the needle down on a track and watching the spin – this just doesn’t happen with CDs and MP3s. “For me, it’s still about the music,” added Hufker, who chairs Webster’s Audio Aesthetics and Technology Department in the School of Communications. “Quite frankly, the music was better in the 1960s and 1970s than it is now, and that’s an added plus for the return to vinyl from those times.” Hufker said there are tradeoffs with every medium used to record audio. He said with vinyl, you really need to remember that the sound is just recorded in one long scratch. And then you begin adding your own scratches, depending on how careful you are with your collection. Scratches have distorted some of the vinyl in Hufker’s own music collection, but he still has some pristine memories from his younger years of
buying his favorite music in 45s and LPs in pressed plastic. “I have everything I ever bought,” said Hufker. “I still have my first 45 that I bought when I was 5. It was Elvis doing “You Ain’t Nothing But A Hound Dog. My first long play was Beatles ’65. I still spin them.” Hufker’s audio program has more than 150 majors. He said a lot of students come to audio recording because of their music interest, just as he got interested in it from listening to music at an early age. “Audio is about a lot more than music,” said Hufker. “We teach audio design for live theatre, audio production for video, special effects audio in post-production, audio maintenance and management. We teach audio wherever you can find it.” Anything You Want The audio you will find on vinyl on North Gore includes the greatest hits of Leslie Gore as well as Grand Funk Railroad. Vinyl LPs run from A to Z, ranging from Alice’s Restaurant to
Zodiac Mindwarp, from Arlo Guthrie and Fiona Apple to Frank Zappa and Jay-Z. “Part of what we do is offer cash for old vinyl for resale,” said Schwab. “Much of the time, people will come in and spend the dollars they got for their old stuff, for other vinyl records that we have available. “One of the things we found moving to Old Webster is that we are offered older stuff like Montovani from grandpa’s old record collection,” said Schwab. “We can’t do anything with that. We will always take Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Rush, Beatles, Frank Zappa, because we can move that.” Generally, Schwab said the store tries to offer 30 percent to a seller of what they intend to resell the records for. He said that policy is usually a winner, but sometimes it can be a loser for Euclid Records. He does have some big win stories. For example, a flawless 45 by The Corvettes, a band that hit it big from 1977 through 1981. That solitary 45 sold to a collector for $4,500, according to Schwab. Euclid Records does assist local bands in getting some vinyl cut to help launch music careers or to simply provide a nostalgia piece for some older ears. “I have a friend in Salina, Kansas, with Quality Record Pressings, who is doing well,” said Schwab. “But I help arrange for local bands to get their vinyl records cut at United Record Pressing in Nashville, Tenn. They had record cutting parties for Elvis back in the 1960s.” Schwab keeps plenty busy with music and promotions — doing some things with LouFest, Old Webster Jazzfest and an October outdoor sidewalk sale. He goes to Nashville for cutting vinyl deep tracks and hits the Big Easy for visits to a Euclid Records store serving the New Orleans area for three years now.
Eliot Unitarian Chapel Names Barbara Gadon Lead Minister
Rev. Barbara Gadon
Eliot Unitarian Chapel of Kirkwood has named Rev. Barbara Gadon as its new lead minister. She is the first female to lead the 550-member community. Gadon said she
plans to build on the rich tradition of the church, which was founded in 1959. The church is located at 100 S. Taylor Ave. “Newcomers will find that this is not your ordinary church. We are an important resource for progressive people looking for community and for an opportunity to make a difference,” Gadon said.
Gadon, known for insightful, often funny, always inspiring sermons, comes from serving the First Unitarian Church of Chicago. “My passion for the church right now is to minister to the different generations with their different perspectives, including Millennials, Gen X-ers, Boomers, Silents, and even a few still here from the World War II
generation,” Gadon said. Since her earliest days in the seminary, Gadon has been a leader of social justice issues, including LGBTQ. She is married to Robert Gadon, an instructor of Iyengar yoga, garden designer and web designer. Gadon’s first sermon at Eliot is on Sept. 8. For more information, visit eliotchapel.org.
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