Irving Place Records is celebrating its 1st birthday by doubling in size
Irving Place Records, 1627 E. Irving Pl., on the East Side will celebrate its first anniversary on Saturday April 19, but soon after it will also grow, according to co-owner Terry Hackbarth.
From 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Hackbarth and his co-owner Don Kurth will offer free limited edition record shop T-shirts with a $50 purchase and offer 10 percent off all vinyl and 20% off compact discs, cassettes, shirts, hoodies, sweatshirt jackets and hats.
They will also light a grill and cook up some snacks and Luke Lavin, who owned the shop when it was called Bullseye Records – and has been dealing music since – will also bring hundreds of records to sell.
But the real news is something Hackbarth let slip last week.
Photo: Domino
“We are very excited to announce that as of May 1 we are taking over the other side of our building, 1625 E. Irving Pl., which will double our size,” he wrote in an email.
The total square footage will grow to 1,542.
“What will we do with all this newfound extra space you ask? We will be expanding our vinyl, music DVD (and select movies), book inventories, making our CD selection easier to shop, adding a budget section, a stage for in-store performances an d a DJ booth. We hope the expansion will be ready by the end of the Summer!”
Hackbarth and Kurth are looking into reopening an interior connection between the spaces that existed back when the Constant Reader used bookstore used to occupy both sides of the retail space.
"We're hoping for more than a doorway," he says, "as much as possible. I've talked to several people about Constant Reader/Shrunken Head/Granfalloon, but everyone's memory is different of course. Ideally two-thirds of of the wall will be open."
Hackbarth and Kurth bought the store from Lavin, who opened it in 2006 after relocating his store, then called Farwell Music, from the Landmark Lanes building near North Avenue. Hackbarth, a well-known local musician, was also a long-time employee at the store.
Late last year, the store was the driving force behind a compilation of local music released on vinyl by Label 51 Recordings.
The new space was most recently occupied for about a year by a video and record store called Blast Radius, which recently closed and is believed to be moving to Riverwest.
All proof, I guess, that vinyl is indeed not dead.
"Physical media in general," says Hackbarth. "(We) will expand our CD selection, among other media. Heck, a bunch of my favorite albums are not on streaming services." - Bobby Tanzilo (OnMilwaukee)
