TIME FOR VINYL

Independent shops celebrate Record Store Day.

The annual Record Store Day celebration today is a tribute both to the tribe of independent neighborhood shopkeepers who help set a tone for the local music scene in a city as well as the culture that spins off from these hubs of creativity and conversation.

Implicit in the events planned at stores around South Florida is the idea that the earembracing warmth of vinyl is the only way to experience such desirable RSD releases as the Eurythmics “1984” or David Bowie’s live album “Welcome to the Blackout.”

Nowhere is the resurgence in popularity of vinyl records felt more acutely than at SunPress Vinyl, which opened in 2017 in a small Opa-locka warehouse with a storied history in music. Once the home of the Final Vinyl factory, founded by reggae pioneer Joe Gibbs, SunPress produces records on the same machines that printed classic music by Bob Marley, Toots and the Maytals and Lee “Scratch” Perry for the renowned reggae label Studio One.

That history has come full circle as SunPress recently collaborated with Tuff Gong International to press reissues of such classic Bob Marley and the Wailers albums as “Exodus,” “Legend,” “Burnin’ ” and “Catch a Fire.”

RSD crate explorers today may come across other releases printed at SunPress by artists ranging from Ty Dolla $ign, Cardi B, Brandy Carlile, B.B. King and Cafe Tacvba to locals including Viniloversus, Deaf Poets and Locos por Juana.

SunPress opened with two pressing machines, now runs three, and hopes to have three more online soon, with crews working double shifts five days a week, sometimes six, to keep

up with the interest in vinyl records. They have plans to expand into the warehouse next door.

Co-founder Dan Yashiv, a recording engineer who’s worked with the Pet Shop Boys and Britney Spears, says it’s not just consumers who are driving the demand — artists who come to SunPress to listen to their albums also appreciate what they’re hearing.

“Some of them have never heard their music on vinyl,” Yashiv says of a generation raised on the compressed sound of digital music. “The experience of listening to vinyl, that warmth and richness, is new to them. And you watch them smile as they listen. They love it.”

Here are some places in South Florida where the vinyl community will gather today:

Downtown Fort Lauderdale’s Radio-Active Records (845 N. Federal Highway) will open at 8 a.m. and feature its traditional $1 album and CD sidewalk sale, with a day of DJ shopping music followed at 4 p.m. by live sets from the Heart tribute band All Heart (4 p.m.), AnastasiaMax (5 p.m.) and Woolbright (6 p.m.). The party continues across the tracks at Laser Wolf at 10 p.m.

New kid Technique Records (853 NE 79th St., Miami), the spawn of Mikey Ramirez of Radio-Active Records, will go large with South Florida-bred EDM star Diplo signing copies of his EP “California” and Bauhaus drummer Kevin Haskins autographing the book “Bauhaus – Undead: The Visual History and Legacy of Bauhaus.” Visit TechniqueRecords.com.

Sweat Records (5505 NE Second Ave., Miami) will host a day of special releases and DJs (Arthur Baker, DJ Hottpants, Gabe Kardashian, DJ Skidmark) leading to a 7 p.m. afterparty nearby at Churchill’s Pub. Highlights there include performances by Millionyoung and Charlie Pickett, celebrating the RSD release of a colored-vinyl 45 collaboration with REM’s Peter Buck. Ms. Cheezious will feed you. Visit SweatRecordsMiami.com.

We Got the Beats shops in Fort Lauderdale (5130 N. Federal Highway) and Lauderhill (4588 N. University Drive) will open at 8 a.m., when in past years employees have been greeted by people who slept there overnight. The Fort Lauderdale store will have live music by Hollywood’s irreverent Mongoose Triple Threat.

In Wynwood, RSD events at Lucky Records (143 NW 23rd St., Miami) will be hosted by Jarobi White from A Tribe Called Quest, signing whatever you’ve got. WuTang Clan original Masta Killa is also scheduled to drop by, and there will be nonstop music by local DJs, from Tom LaRoc to Velvet Jones.