Vinyl record stores double the pleasure for LP connoisseurs
HAYWARD >> Aficionados of vinyl records can get back in the groove now that two downtown stores offering LPs and 45s are open.
Ska Dog Records and The Stacks Records are just yards apart on the same street. Both recently celebrated grand openings on the first of two national Record Store Days this year.
Ska Dog specializes in reggae, ska and punk, but also has jazz and classic rock among the approximately 6,000 albums on offer. The Stacks focuses on funk, soul and hip-hop.
“Serendipity,” is how Gabriel De La Cruz of The Stacks described the two shops opening on the same block at the same time.
“It was just a coincidence,” De La Cruz said. “But I think it’s great. It means more people who are into vinyl and records will visit the neighborhood. Having the same type of businesses brings people together, like what happens in the Haight in San Francisco and Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley.”
Chris Hill was a banker for 37 years before opening Ska Dog. But music always has been a passion.
“I have been collecting records since I was probably 8 years old,” Hill said. “I have been to 2,500 concerts. It’s been about music my entire life.”
De La Cruz said his aunt was one of the first Filipina DJs in the Bay Area. She inspired him to begin spinning records himself as a DJ.
“My love for music and my love for records has always been with me,” De La Cruz said.
For a while, he used a laptop to select tracks as he entertained listeners.
“I got bored with it,” he said. “I wanted to work with records.”
The advent of compact discs and downloadable music seemed to signal that vinyl faced the same fate as the eight-track
tape. But records are coming back, with fans pointing to the unique experience of holding a physical album in their hands.
There’s also cover art, liner notes and listening to a package of an artist’s work. It’s something that downloading, which sometimes might involve a single track, does not provide.
Others simply enjoy the nostalgia of hearing that scratch when the needle first touches a record.
“It’s something that’s tangible, you can hold it,” De La Cruz said. “That’s something you don’t get in a digital form.”
Last year, 27.5 million vinyl albums were sold, up 30% from the previous year, according to Statista. com, a German company that specializes in market and consumer data.
While LPs remain a niche market, the company said, some audiophiles and collectors argue the sound quality of vinyl records is better than digitally recorded music, helping drive the upsurge.
“The coolness factor is off the charts,” Kim Huggett, CEO of the Hayward Chamber of Commerce, said about the two shops opening. “Now I have the chance to relive the sound quality of the day when records were how we listened to music.”
Both Hill and De La Cruz live in Hayward. The men did not know one another when each decided to open a record store and began eyeing spots downtown.
Hill settled in Hayward because it reminded him of New Jersey, where he grew up. “I wanted to live in a diverse place,” he said. “I wanted to live in a bluecollar, not an uppity town.”
Born in San Francisco, De La Cruz grew up in various parts of the Bay Area. His wife is from Hayward, which led the couple to move here in 2019.
“I was walking through the city and I saw all these restaurants and other businesses,” he said. “I thought to myself, ‘All they need is a record shop.’ “
National Record Day also will take place again this year July 17, an event that will celebrate independent record stores and when some shops will receive limited release albums.
Hayward Mayor Barbara Halliday was on hand for the two recent grand openings.
“This is a really exciting day,” Halliday told those gathered. “The idea that we are opening not just one, but two record shops right across the street from each other.”
The Stacks Record Shop is located at 965 B St. Ska Dog Records is at 946 B St.
The Hayward Chamber of Commerce’s Huggett said he has a few dozen old LPs in his garage.
“The problem is I can’t play them,” he said. “Now I need to find a turntable.”