What’s Spinning in the Triad Record World

What started as a gathering in 2008 has helped reinvigorate a medium. Record Store Day has officially blown up and grown up. And as record lovers rejoice for RSD2024 on April 20, here’s a look at what’s spinning in the Triad record world this year.

Talking Shop: My Favorite Things and Soul Relief Records

Buffalo Boogie and Remember When keep laying grooves in Greensboro; and Hippo keeps hopping in both the Greensboro and Winston locations. McKay’s has abandoned the Gate City for Mebane (their Winston location continues — and will be stocking RSD titles). Winston-Salem’s Underdog Records holds it down with an impressively curated inventory (though they won’t be stocking RSD titles), and it’s a similar situation at WHOA!TONE Records in Kernersville. King Records in Archdale, however, is holding court with RSD stock for folks digging the 2024 selections. 

Meanwhile, my favorite record shop news revolves around Soul Relief’s new College Hill digs and the mighty return of My Favorite Things.

As Record Store Day turns “Sweet 16,” the world of record collecting has sure changed since Jackson Lee last opened the first incarnation of My Favorite Things — the hallway shop that anchored and echoed Glenwood’s DIY music’s glory days with venues like Square One and Legitimate Business. 

While the latter two are likely gone for good, My Favorite Things has reopened, following a 15-year hiatus, in a new location at 807 W. Gate City Blvd. 

“This will be my second attempt at having a mellow divey vibe record store,” Lee explained, with affection for the shop’s first “2009-2011-ish” era. “The first one was sustainable because of the cheap rent; now it’s thanks to sharing the space with my bestie Fahiym Hanna and his rad oil shop.” 

Located inside Sensuous Scents, Lee is still getting things off the ground, with a current stock mostly spanning classic psychedelic, rock, and soul. “We’re actively building our jazz collection and trying to get more classic punk stuff, but record collecting is super different than it was 15 years ago,” Lee said. “We do, however, have more original press Prog rock records than anyone else in town.”

“Our stock is growing,” he continued, “but I do want it to be more curated and not so daunting to newer collectors.” Lee’s stock is primarily used — with the notable exception of new releases from local artists. “I encourage any local musicians to bring me their stuff so I can stock it. I think that is one of the most crucial parts a store can play in the architecture of a local music scene.”

While My Favorite Things won’t be stocking RSD2024 titles, Lee fondly remembers RSD’s early days. “We had a huge show with like 11 bands,” he said. “We sold a lot of titles. None of them like Alex Chilton’s demo tape fart outtakes — but we did sell a lot so it was great.”

“I want to put on shows again, he continued, “but I gotta convince Fahiym that I’m responsible enough and no one will spill a 40 on any of his stuff. Also, I’m now actually old and don’t know as much of what’s going on so I gotta get back in the scene. I play ping pong competitively now so I’m around a much different community.”

Lee’s still plugged into local stereo, though, praising “whip appeal,” the self-titled album Brian Haran (from HypogeumGSO) released in February with Philadelphia’s Rose Actor-Engel. “People call it ‘dark concretè ambient synth and tapes’,” Lee said. “I like to call it good solid yoga music.” 

“The new Old One-Two album [“Cropduster Stunt Show”] is also great,” he continued. “They were one of the first bands to play at the first store; it’s been great being able to watch them grow — and you can hear it on the record. I’m proud of them.”

Over at Soul Relief, owner Harley Lyles agrees. “The Old One-Two are good people, all around,” he said, “Hawke lives in the neighborhood, and I’ve got their new album in the shop.”

Professing a similar desire to carry titles more from local artists, Lyles is still getting settled into Soul Relief’s new space at 908-B Spring Garden St. in Greensboro. Record lovers of a certain age might remember the space as the first home for Crunchy Music Stuff and the last for Boutique Hypnotica. (Side-note: fans of Crunchy’s, and its successor, should enjoy knowing Andrew Dudek has resurrected Gate City Noise in a booth at Design Archives on Elm Street.)

“College Hill is a great change for the shop,” Lyles said. “If I actually try a little bit harder it will grow into a great spot,” he added, referencing his “most likely to sleep through graduation” high school superlative when listing the shop’s hours (technically, noon to 6 p.m., Wednesday-Saturday).

A little lackadaisical on logistics — Soul Relief might occasionally open late — Lyles remains passionate about the medium; and trucks around to vinyl events across the southeast (he’ll be at the Carrboro Record Show on Sunday). Getting serious: “I declare I’ll finally finish decorating the walls by Record Store Day; and we’ll open at 10 a.m. with tons of new and used stock, including RSD titles. I’m working on hosting DJs during the day, too.”

Locals on Wax

While Record Store Day is all about the brick-and-mortar, records themselves are all about the artists. 

Totally Slow - “The Darkness Intercepts”

For local record lovers like Scott Hicks, every day is record store day. “I buy records all year,” he said, turning to his band Totally Slow’s latest album, “The Darkness Intercepts.” 

“Vinyl is such a fantastic analog representation of the work. It’s expensive to produce, takes forever, and is absolutely worth it — a very gratifying end-product after working on a recording for over a year.”

Marking their fourth vinyl release overall and their second with Refresh Records, “this is actually our first to have actual retail distribution, which means stores can stock it without me having to personally walk-in and place items on consignment,” Hicks noted, with hopes fans make requests to their local shops. “Soul Relief recently established some space down where we used to have Crunchy Music, which is so rad!” he said. ”No doubt our record will be available there.”

Recorded with Scotty Sandwich at his Sandwich Shoppe. “The album feels like a cohesive work of art, rather than just a collection of 11 random songs,” Hicks explained, praising Eddie Sanchez’s addition on bass; and cameo appearances by Shehehe and Man or Astroman.  

Athens-based Shehehe will come up for the release show with Wolvesx4 and Instant Regrets, on May 4 at the Flat Iron. “We’re super stoked to throw a party there!” Hick exclaimed. “Shehehe is incredible. Instant Regrets of course are just amazing. Wolves are longstanding punks. Flat Iron is being managed by very kind and thoughtful folks who know what they’re doing. We’re Stoked.”

Farewell Friend - “The Silent Years”

From punk to folk, a love for vinyl — and reverence for its process abounds. With Farewell Friend’s Tom Troyer mirrors Hicks in their resolution. “The end goal of producing an album of a caliber worthy of vinyl sets a tone in the right way.” 

Due in May, “The Silent Years,” is a “culminating project and I feel proud of how it represents my personal arc of learning how to write, record, produce, and collaborate,” Troyer explained. “Releasing on vinyl raises the bar because it’s not easy and it’s not worth the investment if the end product won’t sound good.” For that sound, Troyer credits working with Fred Kevorkian who mastered The National’s “Boxer” and Ryan Adams’ “Jacksonville City Nights.”

“It’s been critical to this time in my own creative endeavors,” he explained, blending the tones of the album with the nuance of production — “overcoming grief and trauma and burnout” — and the excitement for booking its upcoming release show with Minor Gold, May 17 at the Flat Iron. 

“I can’t wait for Greensboro to hear Minor Gold,” Troyer insisted, praising the efforts of the “Greensboro Sound Artist Co-op,” (a group comprised of himself, Laura Jane Vincent, Ashley Virginia, Emily Stewart, Colin Cutler, Grey Hyatt, and Chris Dreyer) who pooled together on a networking mission at Folk Alliance International, with the goal to attract regional and international acts. “It’s all about bringing the best music to Greensboro.”

When We’re Sober 

Troyer isn’t the only “Greensboro Sound Artist Co-op” member with a vinyl release under their belts and underway: Greg Hyatt’s group, When We’re Sober, has an album on the way. As does his other project, Folkknot, with Chris Dreyer. 

“The resurgence of vinyl shows that a large portion of music fans still care about a feeling of ownership in music, which is cool to see,” Hyatt said. “I’m a strong believer in releasing proper albums despite the constant pressure to release everything as a series of spaced-out singles in order to work streaming algorithms.”

“Local bands are making vinyl because they love it, not because they’ll make any quick money from it,” he continued, musing their choice to release the 2022 EP debut, “The Bottle,” on vinyl. “It’s a large financial commitment to invest in yourself with a vinyl run, and even though we’ve sold quite a few it may still take years to recoup those costs. Let alone sell the entire run and turn profit.”

“That being said, we’ll certainly be forking over another chunk of change to have our upcoming release — likely a double LP — pressed. We just can’t help ourselves.” 

Fans can snag a copy at Hyatt’s “favorite shop in town,” Soul Relief (and at Schoolkids Records in Chapel Hill). 

Folkknot - “All Good Things”

As a member of Folkknot, Hyatt’s been pulling double-duty in the studio — joining Dreyer and the rest of the crew on their upcoming album “All Good Things.”

Exploring the depths of their range, the “Wake Forest Sea Shanty Orchestra” considers “All Good Things” as their official professional debut — building on the instrumentation established over their prior demo releases. “We were always planning on getting the album printed on vinyl upon its completion,” Dreyer explained. “It’s a unique feeling to be able to hold something in your hands that you’ve created. Looking at the songs on Spotify just doesn’t hit the same as picking up a physical record of the last year-plus of work and practice.”

On the live end, Folkknot will perform as part of Laura Jane Vincent’s Glendonfest, May 4-5; and are gearing up for a double-release show with the Shoaldiggers at the Flat Iron on June 22. “We’re especially stoked for this one,” Dreyer said, “from the double-release excitement, a Saturday night show, and getting to share the stage with The Shoaldiggers, it’s shaping up to be a real fun evening!” 

The Shoaldiggers - “Striking Fire”

Shoaldigger, Daryl White, echoed the excitement. “We’re thrilled to be teaming up with Folkknot,” he said. “It’ll be a great night and we plan to try to record some live material for a future record — we love crowd noise so come on out and hoot n’ holler!”

The 2023 NC Folk Festival’s “Not Your Average Folk” contest winner, the Shoaldiggers turned to Citizen Vinyl for pressing their last two albums — and are already working on the follow-up to their upcoming “Striking Fire.” 

“We actually just recorded a new song, ‘Sangoma,’ at Black Rabbit Audio in Greensboro,” White explained, referencing their contest winnings in the form of studio time. “We’re so pleased with the song and Tom Troyer’s engineering, it’s already slated for the next record.”

They’ll spend RSD playing a free show with Brown Mountain Lightning Bugs at Yonder Bar in Hillsborough, and are scheduled to appear at Shakori Hills and Rooster Walk in May. Then comes the “Striking Fire” album release — fresh off the presses from Citizen Vinyl — marking the Shoaldiggers’ second album pressed at the Asheville-based plant. “They’ve been a joy to work with each time.”

Colin Cutler - “Tarwater”

Colin Cutler agrees — having used Citizen Vinyl to press his 2023 “Tarwater” LP. “They were quick, but quality, and very communicative.”

Turning to his own take on the medium, “Carolyn [his partner] and I both love records: albums in general let the artist tell more of a story than do singles, but putting together the tracks with vinyl’s time limitations forced me to think in terms of acts of a play, and I really love how all the songs work together as a musical drama,” Cutler said. 

“I love the space it gives me to display Kelley Wills’ artwork,” he continued. “Tarwater was a blast to put together.” A project eight years in the making, Cutler considers the material a “marriage of my academic background in Southern literature and my own blend of folk-Americana music, all of which are inspired by Flannery O’Connor’s characters and short stories.”

Characters and stories brought to album life in song thanks to an “all-star cast of Carolina artists,” including: Dashawn and Wendy Hickman, Rebekah Todd, David Childers, Momma Molasses, Laura Jane Vincent, Aaron Pants, Evan Campfield, Christen Blanton Mack, and Bob Worrells and Emmanuel Rankin. 

Tracked at Earthtones Recording Studio — Eric Gales walked in at the end of mixing — Cutler praised the work of everyone involved, including shops stocking the record. “Huge thanks to Hippo, Buffalo Boogie, and Soul Relief for carrying Tarwater — and Oden Brewing, too!”

Already tooling a potential folk opera, Cutler will be at the Flat Iron on May 16 with Pink Stones and She Returns from War. He’ll also host a workshop on the interplay of literature and songs at the Greensboro Bound Literary Festival on May 18, and is looking forward to playing the NC Folk Festival in September. 

The Old One-Two - “Cropduster Stunt Show”

Nathan Myers and the Old One-Two are stoked at the prospect of home-state pressing and the record revolution. Crediting record stores with their development as musicians, it’s only natural they’d end up laying wax. “Growing up in Hickory, there was a great spot called Flight Test Records that used to put on killer shows too and gave us some of our first experiences with live music,” Myers explained, with affection for both the bygone CFBG and current shop like Soul Relief and Hippo.

“We’re super excited that My Favorite Things is back on the scene,” Myers said, echoing Lee’s and Lyles’ local dedication. “It’s cool we’re in a moment where vinyl is back on top and there are a lot more places pressing records,” he added. “It’s made it a lot more realistic for independent artists to release their records on vinyl. Definitely made it possible for us.” 

Pressing News: Citizen Vinyl and Pour House Pressing

Talking to NC musicians, Asheville’s Citizen Vinyl is often praised for helping ease the perils of production — with massive backlogs and limited supply of the industry being a challenge and the double-edged sword of RSD. 

“I’m glad RSD happens and it’s good to raise visibility for this medium,” Hicks said, “but honestly my main relationship with it is when it causes giant delays of things we’re having pressed, which is frankly kind of annoying. Smaller bands, who’ve been pressing records uninterrupted for decades, get back-shelved.”

It’s a challenge the folks behind Pour House Pressing — a new full-service pressing plant from the team behind Raleigh’s Pour House Music Hall and Record Shop — are looking to alleviate. “We’ve transformed our passion for music into a mission: to get your music onto turntables.”

With operations officially up and running, PHP is “ready to drop the needle” with hopes of filling the void for local vinyl production — focused directly on independent artists in the region. But the pressing is really only one element of the Pour Houses’ venue-shop-plant triple threat. For RSD, they’ll also drop the mic with special events and serving titles according to the official pledge: first-come/first-serve, no holds, in-person only. On the stage, Hank Sinatra, Lenny Kaye, Reese McHenry, and Charles Latham will perform a free, all-ages show for the occasion. 

Hank Sinatra and Lenny Kaye will also pull double-duty, appearing at Schoolkids Records for a special RSD show (and kick off Schoolkids’ 50th-anniversary show series) with MC Homeless (whose duo with Kool Keith is getting its own 2024 RSD special release). 

Schoolkids plans to stock both titles; as well as host Kaye at the Chapel Hill location’s RSD show. For a guy celebrating his album’s 50th anniversary, Kaye really gets around: three shows in one day. He’ll share the Chapel Hill bill with Pillow Foot, Wish Queen, and Jeffrey Dean Foster. Proceeds from Foster’s “I’m Starting To Bleed” (a RSD2021 regional title) and Kaye’s RSD 2024 title, “Lenny Kaye and Friends, Live At The Cat’s Cradle - A 50th Anniversary Celebration of Nuggets,” both serve to benefit The Shalom Project, a Winston-Salem based nonprofit aimed at helping “shoulder the burden of poverty” around Forsyth County. 

Stereo and Stage

Speaking of Forsyth County: Winston-Salem’s Withdrew (who put out 2023’s “Holding Court” on vinyl) will be with Old Heavy Hands (who release “Small Fires” on vinyl in January) and jphono1 at Monstercade on April 19. Winston’s posthardcore kings, Codeseven, chose to release their 2023 resurrection record, “Go Let It In” on vinyl (they’re heading off on a U.S. tour. Meanwhile guitarist Eric Weyer is shifting Hoots from a brewery to a venue). 

Victoria Victoria’s upcoming album with Charlie Hunter is due on vinyl (following her 2022 vinyl release, “To the Wayside,”); they’ll celebrate a joint-album release show with Maia Kamil at the Ramkat on May 31. Hunter also appears on “People Please.” the new album from Greensboro’s Sam Fribush Organ Trio.

Meanwhile, Greensboro folk darling Ranford Almond is currently taking pre-orders for a vinyl release of his latest album, “Old Soul”; and will appear at a number of festivals this summer, including the Casual Campout, Shakori Hills, Boomerang, and FloydFest. He’ll be in Greensboro at Tailgator’s on May 9; and at Little Brother Brewing on May 12.

Katei Cranford is a Triad music nerd who enjoys spotlighting artists and events.