TJ Jordan plucks a copy of a Seals & Crofts album from the top of one of many cluttered piles at the store’s front desk.
“Records are just works of art,” said Jordan, the co-owner of Revolver Records. “I love this album! There’s 40 minutes of music, you have to flip it over, and if it’s a great album every song’s good.”
Jordan is a record enthusiast in the truest sense. This week he has plenty of reason to celebrate the venerable music format, as his store and countless others around the world prepare for the fifth annual Record Store Day on Saturday.
Downtown’s only record store, at Roosevelt and Second streets, is set to open its doors at 8 a.m. tomorrow for a day of limited-edition releases, live performances and the “record store experience” Jordan values so highly.
“We’ve been able to do this in this economy because we try to focus on that experience, that record store experience as a whole with live music,” Jordan said. “We got into that right from the get-go. Our mission is to keep record stores around for as long as possible. But it’s not a glamorous business to be in anymore. It’s hard work.”
Record Store Day, which falls on the third Saturday in April, began in 2008 to promote and revitalize the fading industry of shops selling physical records and CDs. Revolver, established in September 2007, has always had its biggest-selling day of the year on Record Store Day.
Jordan hopes to attract 150 customers at the store’s morning kickoff — double the opening crowd from last year. Attractions include live performances from the Love Me Nots, The Tongues, DreamCookie and others. The store will also sell limited-edition records from popular artists including Arcade Fire, The Flaming Lips and more.
The past several years have seen a significant increase in appreciation of vinyl records, by all accounts an archaic format. But troubles in the music business have been apparent since the advent of iTunes and mp3 downloading a decade ago, and Jordan is realistic about the uneasy outlook.
“Every record store’s time is going to come eventually,” Jordan said. “It’s true. They’re all on the horizon. That’s why it’s a fight.”
Despite the seemingly apocalyptic forecast, Jordan remains cautiously optimistic about Revolver’s future. In fact, he’s looking to open a second location in Phoenix, which could include a cafe and performance space.
“You want to get bigger, but on some level you have to be conservative,” Jordan added.
Revolver moved to its current spot on Roosevelt Row from a smaller location in June 2009, seeking the heart of the First and Third Friday events.
The shop also needed room to accommodate its growing library. Currently, Revolver has the largest collection of records in the Valley, with 25,000 records for sale, another 10,000 unpriced and 30,000 in storage. An additional 7,000 CDs are on sale with 10,000 in storage, not to mention DVDs, cassettes, VHS tapes and books.
“The problem is — well, the good problem is that we’re never going to run out of product,” he said.
If Revolver stopped buying up used records — the store’s bread and butter — it could run on a profit for two years before eventually exhausting its catalogue, Jordan estimated.
In some sense, Jordan still has to compete with digital music titans like Apple, Amazon and others. He disparaged digital music as a “fad” and “sensory overload.”
“We’re trying to sell an 80- to 90-year-old technology in the midst of the whole world going digital,” Jordan said. “But it sounds better, it’s cooler, it’s going to retain its value. It (digital) cheapens it (music) and it’s gonna take a while for people to figure that out. Hopefully, they’ll figure it out before all the record stores are gone.”
Jordan’s no technophobe, but he has a way of explaining the pros and cons of different formats.
“Records have a certain amount of effort you have to put into them,” he added. “We all know from history that the easier things get, the worse they get. Humans need a struggle for greatness. But I don’t have a problem with discovering music online. I have a problem replacing this,” he said, hoisting a record in the air, “with that,” pointing to his laptop.
Dazia Pierson, 29, has worked at Revolver since May 2009 and looks forward to the energetic crowds.
“People act really crazy when they’re in line, you can feel their anxiety, it’s really fun watching people get together,” Pierson said.
Lawn Gnome Publishing owner Aaron Johnson has worked on Third Friday shows at Revolver, creating psychedelic visual accompaniment to DJ sets.
“I get excited when people buy records the same way I get excited about people buying books,” Johnson said. “We’re both dealing with this outdated thing, and there’s a weird kind of crew of people that buy books and buy records now. They’re all these arcane, ancient technologies, but there’s still something to be said about them.”
Contact the reporter at bkutzler@asu.edu
