Los Angeles Record Club (is better than SF record club)

[hippityhip]

I might be interested in this. I'll bring amazing beer!

[getbetter]

Ok so far i got Dogfish Head's Pearl Jam Beer but that's mostly for Tallguy, but i got an Angel City's brewery beer called Rahsaan Roland Kirk Bright Moments Stritch Stout,also a Ruben and The Jet's(Frank Zappa) from Lagunitas Brewery.I'm going keep an eye out for Wilco Foxtrot and some other beers named after bands til this meeting happens.

[greghead]

bump

[Goatchella]

Have y'all done this yet?

I got a lot of records.

[bmack86]

We haven't. My weekends have been super busy.

[kitt kat]

Yeah I've been super busy as well.

[Goatchella]

More busy than san francisco people?

[TallGuyCM]

This weekend's no bueno for me. But what about Saturday 3/03 doing it in the late afternoon/early evening at bmack's place (or anyone who wants to volunteer), then heading over to the Troubadour to catch Ty Segall?

[kitt kat]

3/3 is Ty Segall / Mikal Cronin / White Fence at the Troubadour (AKA: Night of ALL THE CUTE BOYS MAKING MUSIC)

I will be too busy prepping how I will make Mikal Cronin fall madly in love with me.

EDIT: Just read all of the post. But I still stand by my "too busy that day" excuse. The next day works, though! Saturdays are generally bad for me.

[greghead]

More busy than san francisco people?

Hahahaha. They're busy saying how busy they are.

Someone just needs to drop the hammer and host an event, even if only one other person shows up. It gets easier to herd folks once the ball gets rolling in a certain direction.

[greghead]

Man, this thing almost made it. Better luck next time, LA.

[Drinkey McDrinkerstein]

Kitt kat is the worst

[bmack86]

Yeah, sorry guys, moot court has taken over my life. And then the bar is gonna take over my life. If someone else could host it, I'd put it in my schedule, but I can't take the extra time to plan anything.

[greghead]

Jeez, Bryan. It's like you're trying to be a real lawyer or something. Get your priorities straight.

[TallGuyCM]

Ok, I have a proposition. Many have said that Saturdays work best for them, and Cinco de Mayo is a week from this Saturday, and since it's such a lame holiday out and about at bars and what not, how about we have our inaugural record club meeting sometime in the early evening and then head over to Los Globos for Demdike Stare?

[fatbastard]

Murray Gershenz’s 300,000-plus record collection is no bestseller

Murray Gershenz has spent nearly three quarters of a century collecting the albums that fill the dusty wooden shelves of his two-story West Adams record shop. From opera classics to big band, country western, jazz, R&B and rock, Gershenz has lived up to his business credo, “You name it, we find it.”

The problem is he can’t rid himself of it. For the last three years, the 89-year-old has been trying to sell the entire collection, more than 300,000 records, to one lucky bidder. Gershenz’s attorney said a conservative estimate places the value of the collection at $1.5 million; an average of $5 a record despite the amount of rare items he boasts, including original Edison cylinder recordings.

“Every month or so there is somebody who’s interested. But there’s never anybody who’s really interested,” Gershenz says from behind a desk piled with records he’s preparing to ship. “People are biting. But nobody seems to have the money, the place to put them, or knows what in the hell to do with over a quarter million records.”

Gershenz’s struggle to sell is the subject of an upcoming film, “Music Man Murray,” which aired Saturday, national Record Store Day, on the Documentary Channel and NPR's “All Songs Considered.”
Although most octogenarians have long settled into retirement, Gershenz would like to dedicate himself full time to his second career, acting. Having enjoyed bit parts as a character actor in film (“Smashed,” “The Hangover,” “I Love You, Man”) and television (“NCIS: Los Angeles,” “House,” “Parks and Recreation”), he says the burden of the store keeps him from pursuing more auditions.

He apologized when he interrupted the interview for this story to take a call from someone he assumed to be potential buyer. Instead, it was a casting agent inquiring about his availability for a Doritos commercial.

“I have made a lot of money doing the acting stuff, but a lot of it has gone to maintaining this place,” he said.

Gershenz, a former opera singer and synagogue cantor, admits the shop is now hemorrhaging cash. He pulled out a few months sales receipts to prove business isn’t thriving: a buyer in New York paid $25.99 for a record by an obscure violist, another went to a buyer in Germany, and an old 45 of jazz trombonist Grover Mitchell went to a customer in Spain for $11.

His musician son, Irv Gershenz, believes if they were able to get more of their inventory cataloged online, business would pick up. But they’ve had the manpower to log only about 12,000 records.
“Here’s someone in Germany; they are only looking at 12,000 records,” said Irv of a buyer interested in the collection. “Imagine how many they could find if the whole collection was there.”

Director Richard Parks decided in 2010 to make his first documentary about the elder Gershenz after he read about his plight in The Times. Parks shot the film last year, and it had its premiere in January at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival before getting distribution by the Documentary Channel. The picture also won best short documentary at the Chicago International Movies & Music Festival and will screen at festivals in San Francisco and Berlin.

“When I first got into records, my dad [composer-lyricist Van Dyke Parks, who scored the film] would tell me you have to go to Murray’s,” Parks said. “It was like the temple so he brought me here all the time.”

Gershenz would still like the collection to go to a museum or university, but “the trouble there is they want it free. I’m not in a position to donate it. If I was a very wealthy person, I would.” Though he balks at the idea of splitting up the records to different sellers only looking for one genre, he knows he might be forced to do so.

Gershenz’s asking price has dropped from more than $1 million to $500,000 — a bargain considering the 12,000 records in the online inventory alone are worth $360,000.

Gershenz says the monthly operating costs to upkeep the store and three storage warehouses, which contain enough records to refill the shop a few times over, has reached more than $6,000. He said despite a renewed interest in vinyl, the digital age has stunted his business as today’s generation has quicker access to free or low cost music.

“You have to be practical. If it turns out nobody can use the whole thing, then you have to break up the collection. I’m not doing enough business to maintain it,” Gershenz said as he shuffles through some of the rich history he’s also collected: autographs from Mae West and Tiny Tim, memories of talking to Elvis and a handwritten note from Louis Armstrong on Satchmo letterhead.

As of press time, Gershenz is entertaining one offer that he believes is promising. Although he was mum on details in case other offers pour in after the film airs, he says it’s for more than a quarter of a million but drastically less than the $500,000 that he’s asking for.

“I don’t have the money and time, and besides I’m gonna be 90 years old,” he said. “I’m tired.”

[kitt kat]

Los Globos is one strange place. I wish they didn't change the sign to whatever weird ghetto/industrial crap it is now. I miss the balloons.

[TallGuyCM]

Sounds perfect for an act like Demdike Stare.

[kitt kat]

No, it's like bad horrible photoshop.

[Drinkey McDrinkerstein]

I just googled it. yeah, doesn't have the same charm.

[getbetter]

Damn it,I cant make it(Ill be out of the country ) .I have been getting some amazing records that I would love to introduce you guys to.Plus I still have a small collection of beers named after bands for tasting while the listening party is going on....well next meeting I can make.

[kitt kat]

I just googled it. yeah, doesn't have the same charm.

What is it even supposed to be? I can never tell.

Long story short, it sucks.

[guedita]

This club was started in January, purporting to be better than the SF club, and still hasn't even met?

Crushing blows.

[getbetter]

This club was started in January, purporting to be better than the SF club, and still hasn't even met?

Crushing blows.

Well we wanted wait and see how SF's progresses.Then surprise y'all with a nude drunken record listening party with a bounce tent but since you want us to rush your not going get to see our junk.The main delay is diffculties in choreographying the group synchronized ball sack bounce for a gif on your guys thread.

[TallGuyCM]

hahahahahaha! That has to be the best getbetter rebuttal/imaginative post yet.

[fatbastard]

http://thespace.org/items/s000004u

[Phunkevil]

This club was started in January, purporting to be better than the SF club, and still hasn't even met?

Crushing blows.

Well, the OP seems to be terrified of people from the internet. Not sure how this is going to work.

[Drinkey McDrinkerstein]

HEY GUYS!

BEERS & BEATS VINYL NIGHT
Public event · By Tony's Darts Away
Sunday, 1 July 2012

We are so excited to announce the first ever vinyl night at Tony's Darts Away. We'll be making this a regular event during Summer, so start dusting off your albums.

For our first vinyl night, two turn tables will be manned by guest DJ Dave Newton.

Don't be shy, you can bring your fave albums too -- we will have more open sessions again in two weeks and after Dave is done with his set, the turntables are open to anyone here with good* tunes to share.

8:00 - 8:20 Mike Regalado
8:20 - 8:40 Ry Amidon
8:40 - 9:00 Mike Wetzel
9:00 - 10:30ish Dave Newton
At approximately 10:30 it's an open floor

Come in for a Sunday night pint or two with some tasty jams! To sign up for upcoming vinyl nights, email travis@tonys.la

Follow us on Twitter at @tonysda

*Please be aware that this is a public space to enjoy & appreciate music on vinyl. Though we embrace all kinds of music, we have the right to switch things up if what's presented is not enhancing the listening pleasure for everyone.

[nosurprises12]

That sounds like a lot of fun; I live about a mile from Tony's Darts, so I'll definitely be there.

[TallGuyCM]

bmack, getbetter and I held the inaugural LA Record Club meeting this afternoon before D'Angelo. It was a rousing success.

We listened to quite a variety of good stuff - Otis Redding, Parenthetical Girls, Jeff Fahey, Kyuss, and a few more.