The New Face of Vinyl

June Update!

It’s been a busy summer so far for Ben and I and we apologise for leaving you all in the dark these past months. Now that Ben has graduated and moved to NYC and I have finished some unfinished business, I can finally sit down to update you all on the progress of the book.

For the most part, the majority of our research is complete—the interviews and photographs are finished and we have moved onto the composition of the text. As many of you might know, writing a book is a lengthy process; the research has to be synthesised, analysed, and organised in such a way that will bring together our project full circle. The first step is to finish a rough outline of the books contents. After that, we have to create a digital layout for the “look” of the actual publication which is almost if not just as complicated a task as the actual writing of the work.

You have all been very patient so far, and we continue to ask for your understanding as Ben and I continue to write The New Face of Vinyl: Youth’s Digital Devolution. We wish it were as easy as it sounds, but writing, printing, and marketing a book takes time. As we move through the process, we will try our best to keep you all in the loop as things move on.

As of right now, we have a tentative goal of having the book designed and ready to print by fall of this year—in hopes of being ready for printing before the holiday season. However, we can only give that as an estimate—not an exact date.

In regards to gifts to donors: we will ship everything once the books have been printed and are ready for distribution. We will have more details on how shipping will work and how to request different images (for those of you who have that gift in your donation bracket) for prints.

I know I can speak for Ben too when I say that we wish we could have this book ready in a month but we want to get this publication perfect. We’ve worked very hard and you’ve all been very generous—we want to make your donation worthwhile.

If anyone has any comments, questions, or concerns don’t hesitate to contact me directly. You can reach me by e-mail vinyl@benmeadors.com or by phone 646-543-4394 if I don’t pick up, leave a message and I’ll get back to you.

Thanks again for all of your support and encouragement. We look forward to presenting you with this great book.

Best,
Owen M. McCafferty II

Last Call: Looking for people 15-25 for our book The New Face of Vinyl

We are specifically looking for record collectors and vinyl enthusiasts between the ages of 15-25 for our book The New Face of Vinyl: Youth’s Digital Devolution. If you are located in Portland, San Francisco, or Los Angeles and are interested in being in the book, fill out a survey at our website: http://www.benmeadors.com/vinyl/the-new-face-of-vinyl-survey/

For more information about the project visit our home page at http://benmeadors.com/vinyl or our former kickstarter funding site: http://kck.st/newfaceofvinyl

You can also follow us on Twitter (@newfaceofvinyl) Facebook (http://www.Facebook.com/newfaceofvinyl) YouTube (http://www.YouTube.com/thenewfaceofvinyl) and of course this Tumblr.

Shoot me an e-mail if you have any questions: vinyl@benmeadors.com

Thanks for all of your support guys!

-Owen

New Face of Vinyl Heads to Portland, San Francisco, and Los Angeles in March; Oh, and a Long Needed Update As Well

Let me begin by apologizing for the lack of updates—after returning from NYC and Chicago, Ben and I found ourselves in a pile of work that we are still trying to catch up on.

Nevertheless, the trips out to the big apple and the windy city were a huge success. We took in a lot of material and we are both eager to visit the west coast and wrap up the traveling. Soon enough we can actually start to write this thing!

Ben and I met some great people in both cities—in and out of record shops. As someone who has spent the majority of his life in Cleveland, I can already notice the stark contrasts in vinyl culture between all three cities and that makes me even more excited to report our findings for the final book.

While not giving away too much (we need to save the details for the book), here are some sneak peeks at the places we visited:

Halcyon the Shop located in Brooklyn boasts an interior that you won’t find at any other record store in the country—it’s like stepping into a Zen garden. When not functioning as a night club of sorts, the record store is filled with people from all over the world looking for dance, electronic and house music.

Making our way out to the East Village near NoHo, we stopped into Good Records on 5th street to chat with John, the owner. A music lover and a Scotch aficionado, he had an interesting take on youth’s new found interest in the format. The small basement type store featured intoxicating antique wood floors that moaned with pleasure as you move from rack to rack flipping through almost exclusively used and out of print pressings.

Fast-forward about 800 miles and now we are in Chicago; more specifically the neat and tidy Ukrainian Village to have a look around Permanent Records. Lance, the owner, was away at his L.A. location (which Ben and I will be stopping at while we are in L.A.) getting things set up. Lance has been a great help in spreading the word about the project.

While the trips proved to be slightly exhausting and quite a lot of work (the bitter cold weather didn’t help), the support we’ve received has been overwhelming, and everyone’s enthusiasm will make sharing this book even more rewarding than we originally anticipated.

OK, now that NYC and Chicago are out of the way we get to enjoy some warmer weather. Portland is our next stop on March 5th; we will spend about three days there until heading down to San Francisco, and then finally Los Angeles.

While we don’t have a final list of stores for the west coast, I’m working on it and will release the locations when they are set in stone. We are still seeking individuals in these cities aged 15-25 who would be interested in having their photographs taken and featured in the book. If you or someone you know would be interested, fill out our survey at the project homepage (http://BenMeadors.com/vinyl) and provide as much information as you can. If you have any questions, comments, or overall complaints, write me via e-mail: vinyl@benmeadors.com

Thank you to everyone in Chicago and New York City who were so accommodating to us—we couldn’t have done it without you.

California here we come!

-Owen (and Ben)

Oh yea, follow us on Twitter (@newfaceofvinyl), Tumblr (newfaceofvinyl.tumblr.com), YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/thenewfaceofvinyl) and like us on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/newfaceofvinyl)

Original Article