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Weirdo Records winds down in Central Square

Weirdo Records in Central Square closed for the last time this week. Owner Angela Sawyer writes:

Weirdo began as a myspace experiment ('How hard could it be to build a website?' I thought). It exceeded every possible expectation I ever had for it by quite a bit, and then some extra. It was able to have such a good run and run for so long, in the face of a culture that is in no way interested in art, culture, avant garde music, music in general, or vinyl (I think you probably know that all those vinyl is back fluff pieces are lying thought their bullshit corporate teeth, right?). All that was possible because of the great record collectors in Boston and around the world who contributed to the shop against their better economic judgment, over and over again.

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"It was able to have such a good run and run for so long, in the face of a culture that is in no way interested in art, culture, avant garde music, music in general, or vinyl"

Because he couldn't keep his business selling music in a novelty format, people are in no way interested in art, culture, or music?

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SHE could have kept HER buisness going, but I'm sure they jacked the rent on the closet sized space Weirdo resided in. She also held live performances there and is well known in the Boston art/culture/performance scene. The fact you didn't know the owner was female (aisde from missing her name being Angela, reading is fundamental ya know?) speaks volumes about how much you know of the art and culture scene in this city. If anyone can speak with authority on the subject, it's Angela.

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her statement is pretty broad. To say that our "culture", in the broadest sense of the term, is not interested in those things (i.e. "no way interested") is silly and is really not fair.

Took a peeky at her website. Maybe the reason she feels the ways she does is that her "music" (a sampling of a couple of bands she is in), is too, well, weirdo for the rest of us?:

"Duck That is a jazz quartet, where everyone in the band plays hunting calls."

"Party Waters is a free jazz trio with a fair amount of screaming."

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If you haven't seen Duck That! you're missing out. Maybe the rest of the city just needs to get on the right level and start supporting artists and musicians instead of thinking shelling out $60 to see a private concert on public land does anything to help.

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Yes, I didn't notice the owner's name, I was skimming the article and noticed the quote which stood out to me more than the person's name. I apologize for that laziness/inattention. I do know about the store, although having lived 2 blocks from there for five years I only went in once to check it out. I didn't see anything for me as I do not collect records or consume music in that way, but I always appreciated having it around and for what it stood for.

I just took offense to the fact that her parting quote was to pat herself on the back for surviving as long as she did while insulting everyone in the community who is apparently not as hip/interesting/worthy of her. I also have to admit I hadn't read the whole article when I first commented, only the snippet Adam posted. Now having taken the time to read it, it doesn't come off quite as abrasive as I initially took it to be.

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who's "he" ???

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I was just there about three months ago... had no idea they were going to close down. Sad to see a place like that go, I've been going there since I was about 17. They didn't have the greatest selection of Hip-Hop vinyl but they had some gems here and there. Make sure to shop at local spots like this so we don't continue to lose awesome stores to big-chain corporate whackness. Rest In Power Weirdo Records.

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I was there about a month or so ago and didn't realize they were closing. I would have stopped in and scooped up a ton of LPs if I had known.

Oh well.

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...went to Weirdo to find Hip-Hop vinyl? It's called WEIRDO. If you want weird 70s Russian folk-psych fusion records...yeah. Ghostface's new album?..mmmm....notsomuch.

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Obviously they didn't have any new releases in stock. I was looking more for local artists and classic albums. I've found Raekwon's Incarcerated Scarfaces, some Almighty RSO...etc. Not a Hip-Hop record store but they still had a few goodies.

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Discogs is your best bet with those. Almighty RSO records are probably pretty hard to find in any given store.

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it's seems you discount the joy of finding random cool stuff buried in the stacks.

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No more TTs. no more Weirdo. Residential towers going up. The building where All Asia was is gone and a generic building has replaced it.The gentrification of Central Square has begun and soon it will look like the Innovation District.

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Gentrification in Central Square has been going on since I moved here 17 years ago.

Check out rents and property values in the area. That residential tower is not the cause.

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My first experience in Central Square was in 1995 and I was able to notice active gentrification by 1996. It's certainly not new.

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by anti-car Cambridge City planners a couple decades or so ago, and yet, remained as one of the state's most dangerous pedestrian and cyclist locations despite all the unmet promises to the contrary.

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Shut up, you fucking moron.

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City planners promised that widening the sidewalks would make the road safer and it it failed to do that miserably.

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Can you think of something a bit more coherent? Telling people to fuck off over and over again on universalhub is obnoxious.

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What's your favorite record from the minimal wave movement of the early 80s?

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...once the Green line arrives.

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Sad to see you go, you had a nice, focused curated collection. Visiting your store was like looking through a friends stacks.

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I thought this post was going to be about a zany weather-spotter recording the official wind speeds in Central Square for the NWS.

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In central square?

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Disregard.

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That was pretty funny.

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Weirdo was a regular stop for me after Cheapo. She didn't have the best selection but you could usually find something obscure used or new. I disagree with her assessment of our culture, however; at least my role in it. I sense some bitterness there. I buy vinyl every week, unfortunately not always at Weirdo. The store was painfully small, too. That must have been a contributing factor in its demise. But Somerville Grooves is a cool store, as is Planet on Mt. Auburn and Armageddon on Eliot and Stereo Jack's on Mass Ave. But good luck to her, I hope she lands on her feet.

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The bitterness is strong in this one, and this is total bullshit:

(I think you probably know that all those vinyl is back fluff pieces are lying thought their bullshit corporate teeth, right?)

Tell that to the 30-year+ veteran record store owner who paid me $1600 for my (not particularly exceptional) vinyl collection before I moved to NC. I think he might just have a slightly better sense of the current state of the vinyl market than this woman.

I'm not one to rejoice in the failure of any music store, but if you're complaining that there's no market for vinyl in 2015, you need to pull your head out.

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Reed would never spend that much

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When you see an improbable venture with unusual longevity, there is an excellent chance it is a 'hobby business'.

The hobbyist is usually from an affluent family. A trust fund may be involved. There are several of these remnant things around here. They all seem to involve aging Gen X music scenesters from fat families. The Forced Exposure guy still has some biz with his missus over by Wellington. The cohort isn't aging well and struggles to cope with a world that doesn't have its almost militant OCD handle on music as a significant status basis.

The whole thing will subside into an antique biz niche.

Possessing music is less urgent. It is at the point where people barely bother to steal it.When I feel like revisiting some obscurity like Lonely Android by The Shirts, it's waiting to be clicked over in you tube.

And there is so much stuff that never made it into the music industry. When I want to provide an example of Rabab music from Afghanistan, something the Taliban would crush, I do a search and there's a great clip of a a teen Rabab whiz kid in Waziristan.

https://youtu.be/q0PfCw1hLNg

And where else would you find a Lao toddler trying to figure out a khean?

https://youtu.be/OirhZMo2Oqw

When I look for something to express appreciation and sympathy for the ordeals visited upon every day people stuck in the lethal tumult gripping the Arabic world, there is a Dabke clip to answer me.

https://youtu.be/Ccy-EQPH3LU

So don't get too hung up on the transience of it and try discovering what replaced it and why it is a great improvement over hauling 60 pound record crates up 3 flights of stairs.

What's even better is when you get to compare thoughts on the Lao toddler's tune with another Lao who is fluent in English and then share the whole thing with people in Croatia and Bretagne.

If you get the hang of it all, you may well wonder why you ever missed the strange crumbling things we once put up with to get to music.

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So bummed!!! I loved that place. I got so many amazing compilations and cheap used CDs there. Angela is so knowledgeable and nice. I hope she gets a well deserved break.

I can't believe TT's is closing, too.

Cambridge changed so quickly the last few years I lived there, in Area IV. (The rent for my dumpy apartment also went up $1000 in 3 years, ugh).

At least there's still Deep Thoughts in JP (for now).

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What are other local vinyl stores?... any 78's stores!?

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Somerville Grooves in Union Square, Planet on Mt. Auburn, Armageddon on Eliot, Stereo Jack's on Mass Ave., Nuggets in Kenmore, Store 54 in Allston, Newbury Comics (specifically on Newbury St., they have the biggest city selection.
78s are pretty much worthless unless you find some very specific old blues or jazz from the 30s and 40s. Most stores don't bother with 78s because the market is miniscule.

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Cheapo in Central Square.

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Cheap Thrills in Dedham is A++.

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Has anyone ever worked 90 hours a week for years at a time? Even when it's doing something you're passionate about, it can wear you down over time. Sometimes you have to look past your enjoyment for your work and ask yourself "am I a lifer, or will I look back fondly for having done this for a few years?"

Weirdo didn't carry many records I was interested in buying, but they filled a niche and it's a shame that fans of experimental music won't have it as a resource.

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Weirdo's being in Cambridge. Maybe one less will be a start.

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There's this thing called the interwebz....been around for awhile.....seriously, you can find pretty much anything on it and download....95% free if you know where to look and what apps / programs to use.

I sold my hundreds of vinyl LPs in, I think, 1998 (after making cd copies), and have never looked back. It of course is going to be a very rough business to make some scratch aside from the odd collector now and then. The music industry, especially at the retail end, has been practically annihilated by the internet.

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What a depressing thing to read

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Most older recordings are not available for download.

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Hollywood Express, which I think was the last movie rental place standing in the area (and a really well-stocked one), is closing down too.

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Wow, I didn't realize that. Closing June 30 according to their web site.

At their height, they were a full-fledged mini-chain with 3 other stores in Davis Square, Central Square, and Twin City Plaza.

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Radio Dismuke
http://www.dismuke.org/

Recorded Sound Reference Center
http://www.loc.gov/rr/record/onlinecollections.html

Boston Public Library Sound Archives
http://soundarchives.bpl.org/

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Once upon a time printed sheet music was all the rage when the parlor piano was the home music system.

Then it went and has a diminished role in music ed. At this point, the concert is something of an anachronism. That is what hit TT's.

Watching music can be a snooze and there's always some idiot coughing or hacking.Concerts are another relic from a time before recording.

So, while the implosion of music artifact retail is permanent, music gets around. An even bigger problem is what to do about all the Music School Ponzi suckers who end up stranded here after their 6 figure credential at Berklee won't even get em a wedding gig.

You Tube is where it goes. I recently figured out that you can discover new classical repertoire artists by just picking the live clip without ad pre-roll.

And then there is Vincent Moon https://youtu.be/RiBE3aLrotw

He is a French ethonographer and film maker who roams the world making stunning clips that bring the entire field to a new level.

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Thank you!

Any music notation?... from/for any of the performers?
Vu Nhat Tan
Ngo Hong Quang
Jyen Thuy Dung
Nguyen Thu Thuy
Nguyen Thuy Chi
Dom Dom Ensemble
Ngoc Dai
Pho An My
Nguyen Van Viet
Luong Minh
Him Ngoc
or Hinh Ho

The problem of concert venues is that better conditions and treatment of the general audience members needs to be provided than has been done traditionally for general audience members. It's 2015, audiences would do better with the same conditions as provided for VIP events. For example, consider Boston Symphony Orchestra Concerts... how are all Symphony Hall attendees made to feel as welcome as the VIPs? as the season tickets holders?
http://www.bso.org/

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