MUSIC: Record Store Day celebrates indie store owners

April 16, 2008 02:07 pm

— FrizB’s CD Exchange in Kenmore is like a lot of other independently owned music stores.
The new release section doesn’t feature any American Idols, but recent albums from Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, The Black Keys and Gogol Bordello stare you in the face.
VHS or Beta is playing over the store’s speakers. Nobody in a blue shirt is asking whether you need help.
When you walk out of an independent store, you’re not just buying a piece of music — you’re buying an experience. It’s an experience that, with the prevalence of downloaded music and big box stores, seems to be getting harder to find.
Home of the Hits left Buffalo. New World Record is on its way out. With the recent closing of Record Theatre’s Niagara Falls store, record stores in Niagara County are a thing of the past.
But Saturday is Record Store Day, a celebration of independently owned music stores. It’s a time to keep the spirit of record stores alive.
Here comes a regular
FrizB’s owner Jeff Avery worked in a Rochester music store until he started his own. Ten years later, his business is still alive and well.
Like many independent music stores, FrizB’s survives because of its regular customers, cheap prices and a solid used CD selection. But Avery has also embraced a common nemesis of independent stores — the Internet.
“We do about 50 percent of our business online now,” Avery said.
FrizB’s sells used CDs online, which is a much better deal than what many other people buy on the Internet, Avery said.
“The silly thing about iTunes is that my music is cheaper than 99 cents per song,” Avery said.
Which leads to the question of whether customers even want full albums anymore.
“The death of album culture is the saddest part of downloading,” Avery said. “It’s like going into a movie and seeing only the scenes with explosions.”
The key to keeping album culture alive comes from finding new music fans who want every component of an album, Avery said. It comes from the fans who want the packaging and liner notes, and the physical piece of music itself.
“There’s always going to be a generation gap,” he said, “the generation who wants to possess music and the generation that finds it disposable.”
There’s always a new audience waiting to be found, Avery said. He pointed to the success of Record Baron, a Kenmore store that specializes in vinyl.
“Who would think that selling vinyl would be a marketable thing now?” he said. “That gives me hope that CDs won’t fall by the wayside.”
Vinyl comes alive (again)
Dan Doherty, owner of Record Baron, takes the idea of Record Store Day quite literally.
“There’s only one record store in Buffalo,” he said. “Records are records. CDs are CDs.”
Record Baron’s emphasis on vinyl makes Doherty’s business different than many independently owned music stores. It also gives Dan the Record Man his own niche.
“The future of my business is fine,” Doherty said. “The bad years are behind me.”
New records sound better than anything else on the market, Doherty said. And there are new records to be had. The White Stripes and Morrissey are just a few modern acts that have placed an emphasis on vinyl.
“I think a lot of bands are encouraging it,” he said. “They’re doing it on purpose. A lot of times, an artist will put out a normal release and put tracks on vinyl, but not on the CD. They’re doing it because they like the format.”
Closing time
Record Theatre, the local independent chain, will be an active participant on Record Store Day. The stores will give away “bag stuffers” and some free stuff Saturday, said Steve Galbraith, manager of the north Buffalo Record Theatre at 3500 Main St.
“It’s just a universal awareness that record stores still exist,” he said of Record Store Day.
Three Record Theatre locations exist now with the closing of the Lancaster store. The Niagara Falls location in the Fashion Outlets mall closed due to increasing rent, Galbraith said.
Record stores should always remain within cities, but there are some troubling signs for the future, Galbraith said.
“I’m not going to lie and say it’s going OK,” he said. “We lost Home of the Hits, and New World (Record) is going down. I think the record stores don’t evolve.”
It may be hard to evolve in a world where a younger generation treats albums — and songs — like samples.
“From what I hear, they don’t even listen to full songs,” Galbraith said. “What’s going to make a kid listen to (an album)?”
Large chain stores certainly haven’t been a blessing for record stores, either, Galbraith said.
“I know we still get it to this day,” he said. “(People say), ‘I can go into Target and get it for this much.’ ”
But record stores are still set apart by knowledge and deep catalog collections that you can’t find at national chains, Galbraith said.
“We’re providing a service that no one else really provides anymore,” he said.
Just like starting over
Though some record stores may be reaching their ends, there are always new beginnings.
Rob Bourque used to be a truck driver. When he got sick of the road, he turned to his music collection. Bourque is opening his own store, Music Matters, in the City of Tonawanda. He hopes to have it open within a month.
With other stores closing nearby, isn’t Bourque concerned about getting involved in such a business?
“Definitely,” he said. “But I think there’s enough collectors that want a physical CD, video game or DVD.”
And so the record spins.
Contact Phil Dzikiyat 693-1000, ext. 308.

Photos

Jeff Avery of FrizB's CD Exchange in Kenmore will take part in Record Store Day events Saturday. Dan Cappellazzo