I've been totally hyped about this place opening ever since the York grapvine started buzzing 'bout it a couple of months back. This is Attic Records, a brand new vinyl emporium operating out of a third floor bedroom above a Barbers in the Ancient Cathedral City Of York. And it's just as cool as it sounds. You gotta hand it to the cats (a couple of local faces called Gaz & Foxy) who run the place - opening up a record store in the Current Economic Climate takes mammoth titanium balls. But somehow you can actually see the store really working, surviving and thriving, 'cos Attic Records has got something about it which is undeniable and un-buyable - it's got a great vibe.The Attic ain't just a place for record junkies to score a pile of the black stuff. Attic Records is simply an exceptionally hip place to hang out. A place to rap with good folks about good music, and generally make the scene. Y'know - like a Real Record Store. Attic Records is an exercise in straight-up record store old schoolness. The suits told ya this sorta place just couldn't make it no more, not with everybody hooked on free downloads and cheap-fix mp3s. But everybody knows that this analysis is baloney - there'll always be a market for funky downhome vinyl shacks, just as long as the stock is right, the price is right, and the vibe is right. People still like going to quirky, interesting little places where they can Buy Records. With LPs displayed on the mantle piece of a cast iron victorian fireplace and the walls plastered with posters, Attic Records is literally like somebody opened a record store in their bedroom. How great is that?
Most record stores have the stench of death about 'em these days. Attic Records feels fresh, psyched, and ready to Take Care of Business. But they can't make it on their own. A righteous venture like this like this needs support. Your support. Yeah: YOU! Luckily supporting a place like this don't take no effort at all - all you gotta do is go in, shoot the breeze with the guys behind the counter, pick a couple of records, and buy the damn things. Then you can feel good about yourself all day 'cos you've contributed to A Totally Positive Thing, and have landed some new tunes to boot. I'm tellin' you, dude, I laid down some greenbacks for a pile of rekkids in there at the weekend and I feel great. Dig what I dug outta the crates!
So I was pretty knocked-out to find a top-drawer copy of Alice Cooper's 'Billion Dollar Babies'. I'm on a massive Alice Cooper kick at the moment. 2009 has been the year of my personal Glam revival. Mr Cooper was pulling his freaky guy-liner shtick back in late 60s Detroit, and his early stuff is a whole lotta wacked-out oddball Zaapa-fied wonkiness. It's OK, but when he got pop, he got better. Billion Dollar Babies is Cooper's number one all-time pop-shlock horror-show multi-million sellin' stadium slaying gatefold-sleeve concept monster, the tunes are sweet and the riffs are rockin...it's The Best Non-Stop 70s Death-Jams And Doom Rock Album In The World...Ever! S'all pantomime, of course, buy whadda performance.
Maybe even better still is the mondo-bizzaro super-heavy Glam-Psycheness of Wizzard's 'Wizzard Brew'. The whole album is like this dark, acid-fried glitter nitemare, cosmic-weirdness of a genuinely unsettling and creepy kind. Anybody expecting 'I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday' is gonna be mighty freaked by the pure hallucinogenic dirge offered here. Roy Wood made some kick-ass records in his time, from his garage-fuzz experiments with The Move to the shiny orch-pop classicism of ELO. But 'Wizzard Brew' is some whole other thang. Check out LP centre-piece 'Meet Me At The Jailhouse.' 13 minutes of buzzing, squarking, megaton-funky prog rock heaviosity. With a ridiculous backwards sax interlude. Bonkers stuff. Attic Records has my eternal gratitude for stocking this cult masterpiece of distorted scuzzadelia.
And to round out my purchases, I picked up a copy of Kylie's first LP - a definitive SAW pop album no home should be without, a nice Nutbush City Limits-era Ike & Tina collection, the deathless 'Return Of The Mack' by Mark Morrison on 12", and some budget Miracles best of. (I didn't even get a chance to look at the 45s.) Like I say - I'm just doing my bit to support a righteous venture. I invite y'all to do the same.
Check the Attic Records facebook, here.
4 comments:
Right on. The record shop is the new comic book shop. It's fulla nerdy people who just want to buy stuff and find new vibes.
The secret to a great record shop is simple. Get good, non-judgemental staff, brightly coloured posters and sleeves that look cool and nice tunes coming from the speakers.
Of course, it's nigh-on impossible to pull off as these ventures can tinker and tinker until it feels like a Starbucks, when all you want is a decent brew and some good chat.
I can't wait to pay this place a visit. I'm hoping I walk in and immediately imagine a bunch local kids using it as a springboard to making their first tentative steps at forming a band or whatever.
That shit ticks all kindsa boxes for me.
Yeah, you're right to make the point that even 'good' 'indie' ventures can totally fail to get the vibe right. This place is proper tiny, literally a single-bedroom size, but it's just...cool. Not cutting edge. Not fashionable. But cool, friendly. Does it stock hundreds of mega-obscure polish funk 45s? No. It's a solid secod-hand record store , where if you're lucky you'll find a copy of 'Wizzard Brew'. Yeah, dude, you'd be well into it.
I'd love to open a similar place in my local area - it'd be fabulous! Not knowing exactly what you're after or what you'll find is appealing in itself! It's always worth a browse.
Can't wait to pay my first visit :) x
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