Spotify, Tidal, and Apple Music be damned. Some of us have got a serious emotional attachment to our music, and we miss holding it in our hands, carefully rubbing off its little smudges, and hugging its sleeve close as we cry into our pillows or dream about the big world outside. As most of us volunteer every last piece of our lives to the ravenous content cloud above, we know that special things deserve to exist and survive IRL. Great music deserves to be prized, cared for, and collected, not just as a blip of data streaming through space, but a physical token of the aural art it is. Launched in September 2015, Hollywood Vine-nyl Society's quarterly pop-up record store in downtown Hollywood is the latest encouraging sign for modern music lovers embracing the old vinyl format. Helmed by walking music encyclopedia Steve Toth, the meet-up brings together vendors and collectors for a few fleeting hours four Sundays a year to exchange wares, enjoy DJs and live music, sip craft beer and wine, and celebrate a culture that in some ways is dying off, but in others is finding all-new life. Local legend Bob Perry of Blue Note Records, Michael Dean of Yardbird records, and "Doc" from Jack's House of Wax have all set up shop at the event, which makes its home at the casual local wine shop Hollywood Vine. "It's Hollywood. We don't really have a record store or a bookstore here," Toth says. "So, for one day every three months, we have the best record store in town."
Readers' choice: Radio-Active Records