3 Seattle Record Store Owners Wax About Their Favorite Albums
In honor of Record Store Day, store owners from Silver Platters, Beats and Bohos and Sonic Boom dig their favorite LPs out of the crate
By Gwendolyn Elliott April 3, 2018
This article originally appeared in the April 2018 issue of Seattle magazine.
This article appears in print in the April 2018 issue. Click here to subscribe.
Saturday, April 21 marks the 11th annual celebration of Record Store Day, the retail event credited with single-handedly saving the independent record store and reviving demand for vinyl (according to Billboard, “2017 marks the 12th straight year of growth in vinyl album sales,” and last year, for the first time, vinyl outperformed digital music downloads).
In celebration, a few local record store owners weigh in on their favorite albums.
Mike Batt, Silver Platters
Various locations; silverplatters.com
“The first is Ken Nordine’s Word Jazz, from my parents’ record collection. He has been called ‘the voice of God.’ It’s just this spoken word over a bed of jazz, intellectual, but humorous. It was the first record that got me thinking about recorded sound, and listening on different levels. The second is Five Leaves Left by Nick Drake. No matter which mood I’m in, it always puts me in the right place, and brings me right back to where I’m supposed to be.”
Omaima Wolf, Beats and Bohos
Greenwood, 7200 Greenwood Ave. N; 206.395.4468; Facebook, “Beats and Bohos”
“There’s just so many. I love Can, Velvet Underground, Patti Smith, Soft Machine, early proto-punk music. Good music is good music. There’s something about The Feelies’ first album, Crazy Rhythms, that I really like. It’s different than all their other albums. I heard they were drinking chlorophyll when they made it.”
Mike Pitts, Sonic Boom
Ballard, 2209 NW Market St.; 206.297.2666; sonicboomrecords.com
Iron Maiden: Live After Death. “It was the first record I ever owned, the first I ever loved. I didn’t know about [collecting] etiquette at the time; I used it as a poster for years, [the cover] is a pretty elaborate painting, with the band’s gross zombie mascot on it. It’s not hanging up at home now, but I still have it.”
Find information about participating local stores and specials at recordstoreday.com.
Follow Us
Holiday Hunt in Pioneer Square
A daily ornament drop turns December into a neighborhood-wide scavenger hunt.
The holidays tend to bring out the kid in all of us. And if opening presents and eating too many treats weren’t enough, there’s also a scavenger hunt in Seattle’s oldest neighborhood. Pioneer Square’s Holiday Ornament Scavenger Hunt has returned for its third year. Twenty-five handblown glass ornaments—all made at Glasshouse Studio—are hidden across 25…
Chit-Chat Kids
Phone a friend.
Twenty years ago, before everyone walked around with a device in their pocket, kids used to call each other on a landline—often tethered to the kitchen in their home. It was a simpler time, when parents didn’t have to worry (nearly as much) about a potential predator contacting their child. Nowadays, things are different, which…
A Plate for Pickleball
The design celebrates the state’s official sport. Additional plates are on the way.
Washington served up a new license plate last week, honoring the state sport of pickleball. In the works for three years, it’s the second of seven specialty plates to hit the market since getting approved by lawmakers earlier this year. “We’re thrilled to see our efforts become reality,” says Kate Van Gent, vice president of…
Seattle-Based Agency Brings Real Voices to NBC’s New Campaign
DNA&STONE built the project around candid conversations to understand what audiences want from reporting.
“I turned off news altogether. I want to be able to form my own opinions. Just tell the truth.” These lines open NBC News’ new national campaign, a 60-second ad that drifts over forests, farms, neighborhoods, and cityscapes while Americans talk about how worn out they feel by the news. The landscape carries the conversation…