Some
people are missing restaurants and theaters, but a lot of us are feeling
serious withdrawal for our favorite record stores. Of course, it is probably
best that we are not pawing through grubby stacks of new arrivals right now.
Yet, indie record stores have become important community cultural centers. Pip
Piper analyzes the surprisingly robust state of the vinyl business (or at least
it was then) in the short documentary, The Vinyl Revival, which releases
today on DVD.
Of
course, there should be an asterisk attached to this review, because absolutely
none of the record store proprietors who appear in Piper’s film ever state a complete
shut-down lasting well over one month would really help grow their businesses.
With that caveat, things were surprisingly optimistic a few week ago. Piper
informally surveys the field, using Graham Jones’ (then and hopefully now
still) somewhat inaptly titled book The Last Shop Standing as a guide. Dozens
of independent record stores were opened last year and the year before. While
the “music industry” has been stagnant, the vinyl format has posted dramatic
and consistent year-over-year growth.
Frustratingly,
Revival is very indie-rock (or whatever) -centric, but many of the
reasons cited for the format’s renewed appeal are consistent across genre.
These include cover art you can actually see and enjoy, as well as the tactile
please of holding a gatefold album while listening the music it holds. Nobody
really goes into the superior sound of vinyl, but that is a very real thing.
Most
of Piper’s talking heads relate to vinyl through very contemporary music, but
he gets a jazz perspective from Portishead band-member Adrian Utley, who also
played with Big John Patton and Art Blakey’s Jazz Messenger. It is definitely
pleasant to listen to him wax poetic over Blakey’s Blue Note album, Like
Someone in Love (which he hand-sells quite effectively). The biggest
musical celebrity featured would probably Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason, who you have
to respect.
It
is encouraging that there is a growing market for the old school authenticity
LPs represent. However, anyone who has been a part of the vinyl renaissance
will find Vinyl Revival rather basic. It is nice enough, but it really
only skims the surface. Recommended mostly for patrons of the many British
record shops it visits, The Vinyl Revival is now available on DVD.
