“We are drowning in a sea of Myspace, blather and too much information. Music is everywhere and nowhere. The independent record store is the solution: a place staffed by friendly – or not-so-friendly – people who are actually paid to weed through this crap and help us find the good stuff.” – Dean Wareham (Galaxie 500, Luna)
Restaurants, book stores, movie theaters, ice cream parlors, bowling alleys and bars. People like these places. People go to these places. Often. Among this list, once upon a time not too long, were record stores – which were, to many, every bit as essential as grocery (or liquor) stores. Not so much these days. The people who do still patronize record stores (and, yeah, there are still plenty of us), tend to love record stores. Need record stores.
And thus we have Record Store Day, a Nationwide celebration synchronized by independent shops around the country once per year. This year’s event, schedule to take place on April 16, will be celebrated at four Fort Wayne record shops: Wooden Nickel’s North Anthony, Clinton Street and Time Corners stores; and at the newly opened Neat Neat Neat Records & Music (located at 1836 S. Calhoun Street). Having been privy to some of the planning behind both operations, I highly suggest that you plan to hit both spots. Stay for a while. Flip through all those exclusive Record Store Day releases (including Panda Bear’s long awaited Tomboy , whose release date was pushed up specifically for RSD 2011). Hear some music. See your friends. Feel warm and fuzzy. Buy some stuff.
PERFORMANCES, LPS + HISTORY AT WOODEN NICKEL
“Wooden Nickel was up 12.6% in 2010, with the biggest impact coming from the new addition of our Amazon marketplace site online,” Wooden Nickel owner Bob Roets told me in a recent conversation about this years Record Store Day. ”We listed nearly 2,000 new and used CDs, DVDs and Vinyl pieces on the site and had days of up to nearly 30 orders shipping out – nearly 100 percent of which was out of state!”
Roets, who is currently celebrating his 31st year at his flagship Clinton Store (where he still opens the shop every day), has a pretty cool family. Well, I don’t know that for sure, but I do know that they all share his love of music and music stores – which is very cool by me. “My wife Cindy has been working evenings helping out Tim Hogan at the Anthony store. My son Andy has been helping during his college breaks and my other son, Christopher, has continued to expand his role this year, not only managing the Jefferson Store but also handling Internet sales and updating our websites.”
For this family, RSD is the biggest day of the year . Last year, for example, Record Store Day was Wooden Nickel’s biggest grossing sales day of 2010 – even topping Black Friday and their busiest Christmas season days. “We had a record amount of RSD exclusives, which really had an impact on sales,” Roets explained. “We probably could have sold at least 30 percent more if the rationing of releases hadn’t occurred the way it did. Also, the 16 bands that performed did a great job, so store traffic was solid all the way through the late evening.”
In addition to an order of 117 different RSD releases this year, Roets will once again have a healthy lineup of live performances, including 21 (14 at N. Anthony and seven at Time Corners) sets by a diverse batch of artists that features names like like Mike Conley, Kill the Rabbit, John Minton, RP Wigs, Teays Vein, Three Rivers Jenbe Ensemble, Black Cat Mambo and more. And while those performances will surely be a highlight, for many, it’s those RSD exclusive releases that matter most.
“I’m pretty confident that we will do very well again this year,” Roets said. “As far as product goes, I think I’ve had the most requests so far for the Nirvana, Springsteen, Petty, Ozzy, Ryan Adams, Pink Floyd, Dio, Deftones, Pearl Jam and Bob Dylan pieces. I’m personally looking forward to the Rush, Ray Lamontage and Decemberists releases. On the local side, I really like the new Wooden Satellites CD/LP combo that will also be available.”
All of these releases, for those of you not familiar with RSD, are available exclusively at independent record shops like Wooden Nickel and Neat Neat Neat. No Best Buy. No Barnes and Noble. In fact, those places have continually shifted their focus away from music over the last 10 years, especially as of late.
“When I first opened Wooden Nickel 29 years ago there were nine music stores in Fort Wayne that were our competitors. They have all closed long ago. I think the fact that [North Anthony store manager] Tim Hogan and I have been involved with the music industry since the 1970s has helped us to know our customer’s needs and shape the store inventories to fit them. Many of our competitors have gone under due to undercapitalization. We have no debt, which has kept us out of trouble even in lean times. Even when I look at the last few months, we have added five more bins of CDs (that’s about 1,400 more titles) at the Clinton Street store, which has brought our total selection to just over 32,000 pieces. Our Anthony location recently passed the 13,000 mark on LP vinyl selections. So while the Circuit City’s and Borders are going out of business, we are rapidly adding to our inventory to strengthen our position in Northeast Indiana.”
Roets, who has participated in RSD since it started, is proud to be a member of a small club of indie store owners who keep the event growing each year, claiming that he has seen how this single day effects his store through the year. “We gain new customers every year from this event,” he says. “So it’s especially great to see it grow each year.”
In addition to the new pieces of product and 21 bands, Wooden Nickel will give away 600 goody bags (200 at each store), some Guggenheim Grotto tickets and over $750 in prizes, including The Jimi Hendrix Experience box set, the Exile On Main St. box set, the Genesis 1970-75 six-LP box set, a $200 Wooden Nickel gift card and, last but not least, a new turntable valued at $160. Whoa! Also, if you head into one of Roets’ stores before April 16 you can pick up a 10 percent off coupon good for use on Record Store Day only!
Not bad, Roets Fam. Not bad at all.
NEAT NEAT NEAT’S NEW BLOOD + HARD-TO-FIND GEMS
While working full-time in record stores for 10-plus years I saved every cool promotional poster and sticker I could get my hands on. I’d drive for hours just to check out a store in a different state that I hadn’t yet been to and I’d e-mail far away store owners and ask them to send me photos of their store. Why? Because I planned to one day open my own store. Then came Napster, then greed, then everything else. Needless to say, I gave up on my record store dream and either trashed or gave away the bulk of my boxed-up decor. Years of planning and dreaming, down the drain. So to say that I was at first skeptical of Neat Neat Neat Records & Music would be an understatement. Not because I knew anything about owner Morrison Agen, but because, well, I kinda/sorta hate most of the record stores I walk into – and downright despise the cliche record store employee.
You know the type: ignores customers; plays nearly unlistenable music at intolerable volumes; seems completely uninterested in anything other than original 7″ singles from The Fall (or whoever); will maybe ring you up after they finish their cigarette; offers you 50 cents for a trade-in, then puts that same album on the sales floor for $10; etc. With no prompting at all, Agen quickly cleared my apprehension, saying the following: “I will never, ever make a customer feel bad about something they’re buying. And if someone I hire snobs someone, they’ll be out the door.” That bit, coupled with a mix of deep product knowledgable and friendly customer service (not to mention a unique and tasteful inventory), won me over immediately. “Oh, and I don’t think I’ll ever charge more than $4 for a used CD.” Again: Won. Over. Talk about a guy who is doing it right .
That said, interviewing Agen can be quite the task. This because, before he has the chance to complete a thought, Agen often takes off, darting around his new store – answering questions, flipping the “now playing” record as needed, merchandising his tasty inventory or even making coffee for customers. While in NNN, Agen and I were able to do very little Q+A; regardless, I left with both a good impression and plenty of stories, most of which I overheard while watching Agen engage each customer that came through his doors.
One thing I heard while collecting bits and pieces of conversations was Agen telling customers – multiple times, even – was “after Record Store Day.” Someone would ask, for example, if NNN planned to sell high end turntable cartridges? “After record store day,” Agen would explain before showing the customer a wall in his store that he’s decorated with Stereophile ads, next talking his new friend through all the different moving pieces that make up the audiophile experience. Want to talk about records? Agen can do that too, with the best of them. Want something ordered? No problem. A cup of coffee? A sleeve for your new record? You got it!
“Where are you folks from,” he asked two customers buying a stack of choice LPs. “We live here, but we’re from Italy,” they replied. “Well Fort Wayne is such a great city. I’m from Chicago originally and I can’t imagine living there again. For so many reasons,” Agen said while tossing a free Grave Robber 7″ in the bag, “this is the best place in the country to raise kids. I’d never live anywhere else.”
Getting back to business – the ideal of starting up your own shop in 2011 (Agen has no investors and plans to take on no debt) is not something to be done passively. And a record store? Well, unless you’re doing it the right way , it can be quite a gamble. So yes, RSD is a big investment for Agen. Like Roets, Agen is spending a whole lot of money on exclusive RSD stock. The more he sells, the more he’ll put right back into his store. “If you but these records,” Agen told me, “then that means I can turn around and stock even more great album for you to buy.” And so I did: LP copies of Slint’s Tweez and Songs: Ohia’s Magnolia Electric Co. , to be exact.
“I’ve been in the audio industry for 13 or 14 years. I worked for Sweetwater for six years then I worked for Guitar Center for five years … and I’ve collected records forever,” Agen said when asked about his background, also talking about his tasteful 5,000-piece private LP collection. “I had a 1,500-piece science fiction book collection that I sold on Amazon so that I could start buying record lots. Then I’d sell those records and buy more record lots … then sell those. To feed my habit, mostly.”
Before going on to explain how he built his stores already impressive stock, Agen’s eyes shift from the conversation. He spot’s the Italian couple’s young son looking at his gumball machine. “Hey, you want a gumball?” he asks, already on his way across the store, towards the sugar-hungry son of a man holding a copy of the excellent new Wooden Satellites LP. “Gnom, gnome, gnom,” he jokes, giving the kid a fist bump.
For RSD, Agen plans to stock as many of the RSD exclusives they’ll send his way. Additionally, he’ll have Fresh Ben djing RSD tracks all day; an Al Hirt Lookalike Contest; and much more. “We’re hoping to have our T-shirts ready to go and some turntables for sale, amongst other things. If people want to bring in a record or two to have cleaned, I’ll have a guy here who will be properly cleaning records all day. But, mostly, I plan to sell a lot of records and play a lot of records.”
Agen then stops again, mid-conversation, and bounces over to his turntable, putting on a first pressing of John Coltrane’s classic Blue Train – a record valued at more than $600. His eyes widen and he smiles, “they’re made to be played, right?”
