It’s Tuesday evening. About a dozen people are gathered in a quaint studio in Kingston taking turns at the turntable. With every instance of the needle hitting a record, there’s a conversation started, a memory unburied. It’s Vinyl Night at Paper Kite Studio and Gallery, a free, open-to-the-public night of music appreciation in analog.
While CDs, and more recently digital files, have taken over mainstream music consumption, there still is an audience for vinyl, and, as of late, that audience is growing. In Northeastern Pa., bands are releasing LPs, record shops are expanding collections and events like Paper Kite’s Vinyl Night are breathing new life into wax.
In fact, the resurgence of vinyl is bringing the format back to the sales charts. Nielsen Soundscan reported that record sales were up 37 percent from last year. Many audiophiles say record sales have been on the rise for a while, but because independent stores don’t report to SoundScan, there was no hard evidence. Now that larger chains are carrying vinyl again, it’s easier to monitor and report sales more accurately.
Tuesday is new release day in the music industry and the day Jim Warner of Wilkes-Barre religiously buys new music. He always grabs some used vinyl, too. Afterwards, he’d stop at friend Dan Waber’s house to play his finds. Waber and his wife, Jennifer Hill, run Paper Kite, and one night while the vinyl was spinning, so were their noggins.
“We thought, we’ve got the space. We’ve got the turntable. We’ve got the PA,” says Waber. “If no one shows up, we’d be doing what we’d be doing anyway. Vinyl Night fits the art and community mission of Paper Kite well. It’s been a total success. Every week there is always new people, and always returning visitors.”
Warner, whose personal collection contains more than a thousand records, enjoys the company and conversation.
“What’s the point of having a record collection if you can’t share it?” Warner says. “I like to find out why people love what they love and remember songs I forgot. That ‘Ooh! Ooh!’ moment makes it worth it.”
Waxing nostalgic
Bill Orner, who runs Scranton record label Prairie Queen Records and manages local band And the Moneynotes, is drawn to album art and has old covers framed. He admits he was never a fan of the CD jewel case and cramming art into a 5-by-5-inch square.
“(Cover art) is a visual expression of the album and what the music is,” he says. “You have more space to express yourself. The album cover is back.”
Orner and three other artists collaborated on the cover art for the recent And the Moneynotes vinyl EP “On The Town, On The Vine.” The band recently released — and is nearly sold out of — the four-song 7-inch. The decision to release it on vinyl was part following the market and part wanting to do something enticing; the album is “tomato red,” playing off “On The Vine.”
“A lot of people were buying vinyl and doing downloads, so we thought we’d forego the CD. But you really have to be a fan of vinyl or of the band to buy the record,” says Orner, adding that since they realized many people are still looking for CDs, they are going do a limited run of discs in early 2010.
Other NEPA bands release vinyl, like The Sw!ms and Kid Icarus. Eric Schlitter, of Kid Icarus and president of Summersteps Records, says the area label has released three projects on vinyl, including an 8-inch clear wax EP by Brother JT.
“We utilized the services of this cat from New Zealand, Peter King for that one,” Schlitter says. “He cuts these clear polycarbonate records by hand using a few record-cutting machines he built himself.”
Schlitter says Summersteps also released a split 7-inch between Kid Icarus and Das Black Milk, and while it was conventionally pressed, it was done so on randomly mixed colored wax so no two are alike.
Schlitter enjoys vinyl projects because they are more personal and artistic, allowing for larger artwork and more variety in presentation, such as colored wax. Additionally, the format allows for smaller runs so projects are more limited and more unique.
“A CD is quickly becoming an antiquated way of conveying that information, whereas a vinyl LP still has some mystery,” he says. “It is more of an art object with its size and also a form of patronage between the musician and/or label and the consumer. Plus, vinyl simply has a much purer analog sound. It’s a better format for people who are audiophiles and music fans.”
The vinyl difference and disappearance
Most audiophiles would argue vinyl never died. Gone into hiding is more like it. Gallery of Sound’s Joe Nardone Jr. feels CDs only artificially killed records when the industry took away return privileges. That meant fewer local shops were stocking vinyl. Then, the advent of the Walkman made cassettes more portable.
“People thought, What am I going to do with these big records? That made vinyl go out of style. Then, it went out of print,” Nardone says.
Jack Skutnik of New York CD & Record Fairs annually produces two local record fairs in NEPA and shares Nardone’s sentiments.
“A lot of big names, like Bob Dylan, still continued to put things out on vinyl, but because local music stores were no longer really carrying it, people were unaware it was still being made,” Skutnik says. “When CDs came out, people said they’d be the death of vinyl, but my prediction is that CDs will be dead before vinyl.”
When Gallery of Sound opened in 1972, it sold LPs and has evolved to accommodate each new format: 8-tracks, cassettes and CDs. But Nardone says vinyl is becoming an interesting part of the business again.
“It was a dead market for a while, and it’s coming back to life, that’s for sure,” says Nardone. “The cover and artwork is the selling point of records and always has been. That’s the appeal of records and the new fans are realizing that. They may say, ‘Wow! Look at all this cool stuff.’ They can open it and look inside. People want to collect things, and records are a huge thing to collect. It’s definitely a collectors market.”
Nardone named several memorable, even controversial, covers, the Beatles “Butcher Block,” for one. With special covers, die-cuts, inserts (often reversible), large booklets and removable stickers, there’s so much the digital age could never replicate.
“You’ve got the oral part and the visual part,” notes Skutnik. “People can fall in love with vinyl both ways. It’s a perfect marriage of sorts.”
And not only are CDs compressed in art, but in sound.
“With CDs, you have this compressed file read by a laser,” Skutnik says. “But people with high-end stereos, when they really want to show off their systems, they use vinyl.”
Nardone agrees that playing vinyl has more of a routine and is more social. But sometimes, it’s also personal, like with Orner. Most of his listening is in the car, but when he’s home and ready to relax, he’ll open a bottle of wine, throw on a record, cook a meal and unwind.
Buying and Making Vinyl
Sure, you can search for vinyl from your favorite artists on eBay, but looking through crates, bins and racks at local record shops is a completely different experience.
“There’s something about going to a store and finding something that you didn’t know you needed. That’s a beautiful thing,” says Warner.
Gallery of Sound’s new location on Mundy Street in Wilkes-Barre features an expanded vinyl section. While the store already boasted a large collection of used vinyl for about a dollar or two, the inventory is growing. The company found unopened vinyl in its warehouse and are buying up old vinyl collections. That, coupled with reissues and new releases, means new and used vinyl at every price point.
“You can rediscover old music for a dollar. It’s just interesting,” says Nardone. “We’ll also be putting out some rare stuff that nobody’s seen for sure.”
Musical Energi on North Main Street in Wilkes-Barre opened in 1986 and first dealt exclusively in vinyl. Owner Jay Notartomaso says that over the years his store has evolved but still has an inventory of more than 100,000 used albums. In 1999, he started selling online, and vinyl still continues to be his biggest seller, with Musical Energi shipping vinyl around the globe.
“We now buy and sell CDs, DVDs, cassette tapes, as well as vinyl, but records are still my passion,” Notartomaso says. “If you see me cleaning and grading LPs, you know I am in the center of my happiness at work. So although we have succumbed to the digital age and have a fantastic selection of CDs and DVDs, used iPods and video game systems, our passion is in the groove and it always will be.”
What do you have in your attic? Nardone encourages everyone to take a look.
“If anything, people should be looking through their old vinyl,” he says. “Put it on display or sell it because now is the time. People are interested in vinyl for sure.”
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Buy & Sell Your Vinyl in NEPA
Embassy Vinyl, Adams Avenue, Scranton
Gallery of Sound, Mundy Street, Wilkes-Barre
Hoffman’s Comics & Music, Bennett Street, Luzerne
Musical Energi, North Main Street, Wilkes-Barre
Wayne’s World, Route 309, Dallas
Record Fair, Next one slated for March at The Woodlands (e-mail Jack at jakknik@webtv.net)
… and don’t forget Salvation Army, thrift stores, yard sales, antique shops, estate sales and flea markets
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