R.I.P. Patricia Keeney

With much sadness and heavy hearts, Downtown Elgin has lost one of their own, Patricia Keeney of Keeney's Sporting Goods and PK's Antiques passed away on Monday December 27th, 2010. Those who are associated with downtown Elgin are very proud of our downtown. Pat may have been the most proud of downtown Elgin.

Read more here from the Elgin Courier News: Elgin Businesswoman Pat Keeney Dies at 62

While most will talk of Keeney's as a place where you could buy a gym suit for U-46, some costume or vintage jewelry, great vintage clothing or hats (witness how stunning the women looked in a recent fund raiser for Pat at Villa Verone a few weeks ago), a place to buy fishing lures, or even a tux. I say that because I bought a tux at Keeney's with tails(!!!) a couple of months ago. What I am here to talk about is her records.

Pat had records. Pat had a lot of records! LP's, 45's, 78's in those old "albums", and many different styles of records. The best thing about them? They were helter skelter all over the store! No rhyme or reason to anything. In boxes by the embroidery machine, against clothes racks, up and down the stairway, and in the PK's basement. If you liked the thrill of the hunt as a record buyer, Keeney's and PK's Antiques was for you! So there I was, coming down fast, to PK's Antiques where most of the records were. "The light switch is on the ceiling", she'd say, as you went downstairs. Of course, I had to ask her 3 or 4 times where the switch was. She was patient with me and just tell me again but at the same time I could sense that if she had to come and turn it on for me, I'd get this feisty glare.

To paraphrase Robert DiNiro's character in "This Boy's Life", she knew a thing or two about a thing or two a bout records. At first I thought I might find few records at discounted flea market prices. No such luck. She knew her music. She knew what was what. I told her as much and she just shrugged it off, but I could sense....compliment taken. Some of the things I got there over the past few years was a MONO copy of The Byrds "Turn, Turn, Turn", a Roy Orbison's "Greatest Hits" on the Monument label, no less, and a wonderful Chet Atkins record that was still in the cellophane from the 1960's. Recently she had the rare Lynyrd Skynyrd album "Street Survivors" with the flames!

As a new record store in downtown Elgin, I was thrilled when she came walking into my store not long after we opened this past June. We chatted, she looked around, said something about how my records were all organized, and then she left. It's not like I was looking for approval (well maybe I was a little) but I was so grateful she came in, and gave me the unspoken "Record Store Blessing". Like I said, I was thrilled. So when people came to me looking for something and I didn't have it, I'd send them to Pat. If someone was in her store looking for a record and didn't have it, she'd send them to me. It was awesome. She was awesome.

If you haven't visited our snappy new website, what in the wide world of sports is wrong with you? It's at simply: www.rediscoverrecords.com. We have information about Rediscover Records, the Two Doors Down Shop, in which Rediscover Records is located, things to do around Elgin, things to buy in the store, and PayPal links to buy records and gear online. Wonderful.

One of the newest arrivals in which we are most proud is our new T-Shirt styles! They are white writing on the classic rock n roll black shirt. Here they are in their full glory. The shirt pictured in the upper left-hand corner is our "Mom Sez" shirt. Mom Sez, Rediscover Records! You were always told to listen to your mother, well, that continues to this day.

Our other new entry into our canon of great T-Shirts is the brand new logo, soon to be a classic logo, Rediscover Records. This is pictured to the right.

Both of these new styles of shirts are available at our website. Here is a link to both of them under our "Cool Stuff" banner. www.rediscoverrecords.com/cool_stuff. Included in this link are pay pal links to buy now. Yeah, why not buy now? Of course, we love foot traffic and "face-to-face" time. We have them in Small, Medium, Large, and XL, and 2XL. They are 50% Cotton and 50% Polyester and they are pre-shrunk so you won't have to worry about them shrinking to fit your "Ken & Barbie" dolls. They are $14.99 each plus a modest charge for shipping and handling. Since we love foot traffic so much, not only do you save on the shipping by buying in store, there may be a little surprise for you as well. Stop in to see!

Great shirts, get 'em while you can. Wear 'em out to concerts that you attend. If you say someone else wearing one, make sure you give 'em a wave and a hello.

Rediscover Records Web Site, it's alive!

Greetings music fans! Just as the subject line states, the web site is live and alive. It's domain name is simply:

www.rediscoverrecords.com.

Easy enough, right? Go and check it out & sign up for our mailing list. If you are not in the vicinity of the store, buy a record direct from the site via, our pal and your pal, paypal. Questions? Concerns? Please email us at rediscoverrecord@gmail.com.

Look to the site for reviews of records, shows, memories, updates, new releases, and hard to find collectible records. We think we're going to have fun with this.

Are you excited? We're excited!

When 400 Characters aren't enough

This blog is designed as a companion to the Rediscover Records website (still under construction as of this writing, please be patient), the Facebook page, and the Twitter page. As we have moved to this rapid fire, tweet, status update world, sometimes 400 characters (the space allotted for a FB update) or 140 characters for a tweet just aren't enough.

Sometimes 400 characters are not enough to say... where I was when John Lennon was assassinated.

By 1980, I was a freshman in high school and Beatlemania was in full force in my world. In the summer of 79 or 80, I had bought the "Red 1962-1966" and "Blue 1967-1970" and a batting glove for all of $20 at the K-Mart on Route 25 in Elgin. It was a big sale and to top it off, the "Red" record was on red vinyl and the "Blue" record set was on blue vinyl! By this time, I had fully realized that Paul McCartney was in another band before Wings. It had become my first musical passion.

Another passion was the Miami Dolphins. On December 8th, 1980 the Dolphins were playing the New England Patriots. In those days, I still *cough* kinda had a bed *cough* time and could only stay up until after Howard Cosell's "Halftime Highlights", except, when the Dolphins were playing I could watch the entire game.

I can still remember Cosell delivering the news that John Lennon had been shot outside his apartment in New York City. I was stunned. Here is some original footage of the announcement.

Sobering, isn't it? When the rest of the school was listening to bands like REO, Foreigner, and Styx, I was listening to the Beatles. I had a Beatles T-Shirt. I had my "Red" and "Blue" records, that I have to this day. Ironic how, for me anyway, that two of my fluff passions in this world, the Dolphins and The Beatles are forever tied together on December 8th, 1980. I was 14.

That night before bed, before I set my clock radio alarm, the song playing before I went to bed was "A Day In the Life". Some of this stuff I'll never forget, even 30 years on.

In the days thereafter, WMET in Chicago played all The Beatles songs A-Z. My Dad, bless his heart, started rolling tape that morning while I was at school. It took up seven 90 minute cassettes! I then listened to those cassettes all the time. All. The. Time. When tape 7 ended, I started again at tape 1. Over and over and over and over and over. There are Beatles songs that I hear today, I'll hear the next song alphabetically, Ticket to Ride to Til There Was You, Hey Bulldog into Hey Jude . . .I bought all the tribute magazines & saved the newspaper articles. One macabre story was from the Rockford Register Star that my aunt had saved for me. It was a photo that amateur photographer, Paul Goresh, took of John Lennon signing a copy of "Double Fantasy" for his assassin, Mark Chapman. Here is the photo. I still have the newspaper.

As time went on, I developed different tastes, styles, obsessions of different music, but there is one running current of water under all these other hip, slick and cool bands, and that band is The Beatles.

"There are places I remember all my life though some have changed."

Record Sleeves

As we know, collecting vinyl has a price. Sometimes that price is a great find from a dollar bin or it could be up to and over $100 for a rare out of print collectible record. One of the things we do to help preserve your records is offer poly record sleeves. We offer them up in packages of 100 poly sleeves for $16.50 (plus tax). They are the 2 mil poly sleeve. Protect your vinyl investment with record sleeves! Sure, it may be a bit of a headache taking the jacket out of the sleeve but the end result is well-protected records.

Often times, if you are buying records in store at Rediscover Records we will ask if you want a poly sleeve for the records you have bought. Now, excuse us while we show our music

snobbery, (as we grin mischievously) some records do not deserve a poly sleeve! Soooo, if we don't ask if you want a sleeve, either, one, we actually forgot to ask, or two, you just may have purchased a record deemed unnecessary for "sleeve-dom", usually those from the aforementioned dollar bins. We must make this point very, very clear though. No matter what records you buy here at Rediscover Records, the latest Pitchfork hipster band or even Englebert Humpedherdink from the dollah bin, we are *always* grateful that you are shopping at Rediscover Records and the Two Doors Down Shop. It's not like we're gonna go Jack Black's "Barry" from High Fidelity. Actually, if we do not ask, don't hesitate to ask for a sleeve. Some choose not to take them and that's fine too.

Thanks for reading, thanks for keeping the sound alive, and keep 'em spinnin' with Rediscover Records!

Black Friday

We're open early on Black Friday! Well, not 5 a.m. early but we'll be open at 9 a.m. on Black Friday. Remember, we're located in the Two Doors Down Shop in wonderful downtown Elgin. So with Black Friday in mind, we'll be offering 10% off everything in the store including new vinyl and new turntables.

Then with all things Black Friday, anything with the word "black" in the title, is 20% percent off! Bill Black's Combo? 20% off. AC/DC's "Back In Black"? 2o% off. Black Sabbath, Ritchie Blackmore, Blackfoot, Black Dog? All 20% off. How does that sound for a Black Friday sale? (Just a little fine print here, the word "black" must appear in print somewhere on the record, in song title, name, artist name. Now, let's not get greedy here, most records are "black" so we're not gonna take it that far with all "black records 20% off". Nice try. These ground rules seem reasonable enough and are here in black & white, for a Black Friday sale.) There will be other sales throughout the Two Doors Down shop, check with each "store within the store" for their own sales details.

In honor of Black Friday, let's get a watch of one of the great American Bands, Steely Dan, with their song "Black Friday" from their 1975 record, Katy Lied. Also 20% off with "Black" Friday.

Remember, we're not some Elvis museum or some dusty ol' nostalgia record store. We have the best in new releases and sealed vinyl. Here are some of our titles.

Broken Bells - self-titled

The Black Keys - Brothers

Arcade Fire- The Suburbs

Dave Alvin & the Guilty Women - s/t

Band of Horses - Infinite Arms

Broken Social Scene - Forgiveness Rock Record

The Cure - Disintegration Reissue on 180g. vinyl

Deadstring Bros. - Sao Paulo

Dead Weather - Sea of Cowards

Scott Lucas & the Married Men - Absolute Beginners

Mark Utley & Magnolia Mountain -Redbird Green (This record is a stunning alt. country record)

The Promise - Bruce Springsteen 3 LP set on 180g vinyl

Of Montreal - False Priest

Ra Ra Riot - The Orchard

The Roots - How I Got Over

The Rolling Stones - Exile on Main St. (Reissue)

Titus Andronicus - The Monitor

She & Him - Volume II

Versus - On the Ones and Threes

Also many other new selections and and reissues on vinyl. Rediscover Records is the place to buy your vinyl in the Elgin area.

Why go to a Ho, Ho, Ho, Hum shopping mall or a Big Box store for your shopping needs when you can shop in downtown Elgin and the Two Doors Down Shop. It's a great place to be. Come see for yourself.

When Rediscover Records was in it's planning stages, the main requirement for the storefront was to be in downtown Elgin. If it wasn't to be in downtown Elgin, it wasn't to be at all.

With the gentrification of the U.S. for several years, downtown businesses gradually dwindled, drifted, wept, and became tumbleweeds while the malls and big box stores were striving as they were strewn all over the country. Downtown Elgin is nothing like that. The tumbleweeds are leaving. Color me impressed with all things Elgin.

Downtown Elgin is historic as it is "cool". It has an urban feel, even though in the suburbs. It very much feels like a city without the suburban sprawl. Sure there are pockets along Randall Road in Elgin that look like "Any Suburb USA" but downtown has a very "Ma & Pa" feel to it. It is the best kept secret in the area.

There are wonderful book shops such as Elgin Books, several great restaurants like Villa Verone, Elgin Public House, Al's Cafe (Pictured at the top. It's an old bank building), El Faro Mexican Restaurant, Ravenheard Coffee, Domani Coffee, Top Notch Tattoos, Hill Top Skate Shop, Toom Toom Thai, Bangkok House, and so much more. I guess "so much more" acts as a qualifier for any businesses I may have overlooked or didn't link.

Also pictured is a image by loco artist Barb Broeske. This is of Medusa's Night Club with Elgin Books in the lower right. In case you were wondering, Rediscover Records is next to the book store.

This isn't your father's downtown Elgin. Sure, it may not be from the hey day of the 1940's and 1950's when it was a thriving downtown but it certainly is not the blighted monstrosity that it was in late 1970's to the early 1990's. To paraphrase an old Elgin slogan, "Elgin, It's Happening Here"

That's the PSA from Rediscover Records for the day. Now, let's go play some records!