January 31, 2008
Rebirth Of a Record Store, and the Death Of Another
Time magazine has declared the next big thing in music media to be the rebirth of vinyl. The news couldn’t come at a better time for DJ Hut. We told you about the fire last summer that devastated the businesses, located at 2010 P Street NW, and the reopening of Alberto’s in the dwelling’s basement. Tomorrow, DJ Hut will be back in business at noon.
DJ Hut was established in 2002, taking the place occupied by the well-regarded 12-Inch Dance Records. It sold vinyl almost exclusively, specializing in hip-hop, reggae and house.
It’s been a long road back, according to Hut co-owner Chris Stiles. The store was a total loss, with damages well in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and destroyed items including an aquarium, along with numerous records.
“Aesthetically, it’s completely changed,” said Stiles. The post-fire DJ Hut will feature more record bins, as well as a larger stock of rock, jazz, and 180-gram vinyl reprints. Additionally, there will be more merchandise available for purchase such as microphones, cords, and DJ bags.
Along with these upgrades, there is also a noticeable change to the store’s web site. Online, customers will now be able to purchase music files, as well as records. “In this day and age, you can’t mention music without mentioning MP3s,” Stiles said. This follows suit with what other online music sellers have found, however, those merchants have gone even further and eliminated their vinyl sales all together.
While there's seemingly been a resurgence in the popularity of LPs and 12-inch vinyl, there has also been a death of brick and mortar record retailers. This truth became even more evident with a Post article that ran Sunday announcing the imminent closing of Clarendon’s notable Orpheus Records.
Photo of Orpheus Records by zenfrisbee.
Orpheus, which has been in existence at the Clarendon location since 1999, started in Georgetown in 1977. On its web site, the shutter date is listed as March 31. Currently, they're undergoing a store-wide sale in the hopes to move product. In the piece by Marc Fisher that ran this weekend, owner Rick Carlisle noted that:
"It would be easier to sell the stock and store if this was still a vibrant business," says Carlisle, the bearded, barefoot, denim-clad music lover who has presided over Orpheus since it opened in Georgetown in 1977, when there were a dozen music stores in that one neighborhood. "If music was still a vibrant part of everybody's disposable income, it might be worth finding a new location. But for a record store to have a real future, you have to sell on the Web, which I don't do."Without a doubt, there's a certain appeal to the record itself as well as the record store. Whether it’s the artistic nature of a cover or the smell of aggregate aged acetate, vinyl and vinyl stores have a special place in our hearts, despite the ever increasing dominance of online music purchasing in our lives. We've mourned the passing of stores before. Today, though, do folks out there still lament such occurrences? Or are we too far down the digital music highway to stop?
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Stores like Strangeland and Orpheus have been employing an outdated business model. DJ Hut will likely survive if they are offering a digital alternative. I can't say it wouldn't be an awesome job to have a "High Fidelity" type music store* and listen and talk about music all day, but it's not going to provide enough revenue to keep a business afloat in this town.
Credit should go to all independent music stores simply for being there, but my hat off to DJ Hut for adapting their business properly.
*Though I have issue with any movie that claims Stiff Little Fingers has anything to do with Green Day.
i know that, if you pine for music in a hard copy format in any way, you're a dinosaur. i'm probably the last person in the universe who has never owned a portable digital music device of any kind.
and i damn well miss this place, though at least it's still open. it was my favorite place in east lansing.
I think I may have gone to Flat, Black while visiting my friend at MSU. Since I was in Ann Arbor, I always stopped by Encore Recordings.
No doubt, though, I'll be checking DJ Hut and Orpheus in the coming week.
I loved 12" Dance Records....
Time magazine has declared the next big thing in music media to be the rebirth of vinyl.
Well, for some of us, it never went away. But don't let that spoil Time magazine's bulletproof tastemaking record.
In other news, juvenile delinquents can be identified by their wearing of "dungarees" and fondness for "reefers" and "jazz" music.
I visited 12" for the first time in '97 while in town on a high school trip. I remember there was a guy who worked there who had a stencil-like design in his beard. I came back a year later and he was still there.
From what I remember, they had a really good selection.
As stated above, the reason Orpheus records is going out of business is the fact that they're completely out of touch with reality and today. The staff is unhelpful and unfriendly. They are the prototypical record store nerds, who don't want to be bothered by you and assume a condescending air whenever troubled for assistance. Talking to them is like reading a list of DON'Ts.
For instance, "we don't have any listening booths, because 90% of people don't know how to handle vinyl." Okay, want to bring in a portable--possession of which denotes record obsession--and you'll get the same reactionary response.
That'd be fine, if they didn't over price their records horribly as well. Finally, as they go out of business and everything is marked down 30%, the prices are within reason. Even still, you're still likely to pay just a buck or so less than Ebay prices. With prices like that, there's no way you can take a chance on a record, because you know the producer or the label. Bring that up, and you'll hear "Well, you can always buy it, and sell it back if you don't like it." Great option. I bet that happens regularly.
Also, their store is old and overstocked with 180g copies of Neil Diamond and Elton John records. The back HALF of the store is an off limits store room filled with countless copies of the same crap records that no one wants.
The owners so obviously stopped listening to music after rock "died" in the 1970s with the birth of disco, it's a joke.
So, all-in-all, it's tragically unsurprising that they're going out of business. I feel sorry for them, but because it's tragic to watch someone become so painfully irrelevant with such unfounded hubris.
This area needs more Trance/EDM and less rock and hip hop. Both on the venue side as well as the record sales side. No, House doesn't count.
When people ask me why I DJ off of the computer I tell them it's because compared to any other major city, DC record stores are pathetic. It's not all MP3's fault -- Philly, NY, LA, Toronto, and Miami all manage to support decent stores of all genres.
Every time I went to DJ hut to look for some good new tunes all they stocked was crappy pop, hip-hop, and some weak house. Orpheus is fun to rummage around in for some strange oldies - but that's about it. Cracked records is good for alternative and punk... But somewhere to spend a few hours exploring and buying? You need to take a flight first.
When people ask me why I DJ off of the computer I tell them it's because compared to any other major city, DC record stores are pathetic. It's not all MP3's fault -- Philly, NY, LA, Toronto, and Miami all manage to support decent stores of all genres.
Every time I went to DJ hut to look for some good new tunes all they stocked was crappy pop, hip-hop, and some weak house. Orpheus is fun to rummage around in for some strange oldies - but that's about it. Cracked records is good for alternative and punk... But somewhere to spend a few hours exploring and buying? You need to take a flight first.
There are plenty of ravers around here, you just have to know where to look.
@smitthdc You are totally right and I don't quite get it either. We've got tons of 20-somethings in this city. I think it's that they are all too wonkish to really appreciate music. (I'd say this is why there isn't a place in town that has a decent sound system, if people really cared about music it would extend to all parts.)
Not only to New York, Philly, Chicago, SF, LA, Austin, hell even Knoxville, have decent record stores -- there are new independent record stores opening up all the time. The first thing a musician does when they move to SF or New York is get a job at a record store. The bands and artists that have come out of Amoeba (SF, Berkeley, LA) alone could fill their own concert venue.
And with these great record stores, comes great in store appearances. I saw some of the best music of my life in the SF Amoeba. Bands that were in town, drop by there before a show later. And play for free. And sign autographs.
So perhaps that's it. Record stores should be the hub for a community with places to hang out, get to know the staff and soak in the experience of the store and its people. DJHut gives it a shot, but it has a long way to go. Perhaps it will be like the Phoenix and be a new creature as it resizes for the ashes.
I still miss DCCD & the cute cute girls who worked there...
melton: yeah, encore's a pretty good store too. i was in ann arbor last weekend, but wasn't able to stop in (was in too much of a hurry)
ontarioroader: at least you can still see the DCCD sign at wonderland (i know, that ain't gonna cut it)
I like Crooked Beat on 18th St., and Melody in Dupont Circle. The staff at both of those places have been, in my experience, friendly and helpful, and the selection at both is not too bad.
Also, the CD Game Exchange on 18th St. is a great place to shop for used CDs: their turnover is really high, so if you go in there every couple of weeks or so, you're sure to find a bunch of different stuff (i.e., it's not just a thousand copies of REM's Monster and the Spin Doctors).
I guess what I mean is, while there's certainly no place in DC like Waterloo in Austin or Other Music in NYC or [insert other legendary record store here], there are still some good places to go in DC if you still like to shop for records in record shops. It's not a complete desert.
@edporter: I have to disagree with on just about everything you've said. If anything the staff at Orpheus would be guilt of being *overly* friendly. I've never seen a person successfully exit the store without first being asked by Rick if there was something he could help them find. He might be the creepy barefoot hippy with long fingernails, but he's refreshingly helpful and non-elitist.
As far as his pricing goes, yes it's a big expensive. But I wouldn't say it's "overpriced". First off all, they take the time to carefully grade each record. Second, they consult Goldmine and price a record according to its actual worth. Just because it's too rich for your (and often my) blood, doesn't mean it's overpriced. The new records are expensive...but when you factor in the amount you'd pay for shipping buying your records online or via ebay, it's probably comparable. Trust me, they don't make much money off of new records. They charge the lowest amount they can and still make money.
Selection wise, how do you even *know* what they have in the back half of the store? As far as the front half goes, I've found a lot more than Neil Diamond and Elton John records. I think you'd have to have pretty narrow tastes to not find at least one interesting record in that store.
I find it sad when places like Orpheus go out of business. I can find any record I want on the internet, but you can't really replace the thrill of walking into a store and leaving with something I didn't even anticipate purchasing.
Don't forget about the Sound Garden up in Fells Point, probably the best record store in the Mid-Atlantic region.
but you can't really replace the thrill of walking into a store and leaving with something I didn't even anticipate purchasing.
Sure you can. It's called randomly hitting some shite online when you was looking for something else. Or doin a Google image search for band names and running across something you'd never seen before. Not as fun as trolling Orpheus, but you don't have to deal with the hipper-than-thou crowd either, and that's worth the cost of admission.
true, 202. forgot about that place.
It's been beaten to death elsewhere, but the business model the LABELS should adopt (and a few do -- Merge comes to mind...) is offering a free Mp3 download of a release to the vinyl LP buyer. So, both your turntable's happy as well as your iPod.
Disagree with some of the comments here regarding Orpheus...Rick's always helpful and the prices are reasonable. Really... Their closing is a HUGE loss. Good news about DJ hut, however...glad there will be diversity in what they stock as well.
Lastly - we attempt to support the local DC brick-and-mortar shops each day. Come visit!
http://vinyldistrict.blogspot.com/
I've had pretty good luck with musticstack.com, although they tend heavy on UK and Europe music shops (but that's not necessarily a bad thing). Kinda like an abebooks.com except for music; used stores upload their inventory database to a central search engine.