The world gets smaller through music!
Last weekend’s Tokyo Record Style Day Vol. 7 was a total success. If you didn’t catch it, our record-loving homies all met up at シェア音楽棚tent or “Shared Music Shelf Tent” in Nishiogikubo, a shop of shops of sorts, run by the kind Akezawa san, who rents small cubby-type shelves to anybody wishing to sell records or music-related goods. This day was not only our chance to meet up with like-minded music friends but also the “grand opening” of our OWN “Tokyo Records Style Co-op,” a rented-shelf stocked by me and my Top 5 Record cohorts, bemsha and Michael Warren. After we all gathered and Tent, and officially “launched” our Co-op concept (as shop in a shop in a shop), and after a few more friends arrived, we all began perusing what the other shelves and shops had on offer while chatting away at the various discoveries we were making, on records that you don’t often encounter at typical Disk Unions and HMVs, even records you rarely see at indie shops. As we shopped away, trying not to completely overwhelm the store, more patrons arrived, several of whom were other シェア音楽棚tent “tenants” including smiley Cheri and Yoshi, pictured here.
My pal Christopher, who was among the event’s attendees and whose son also runs a shelf at Tent, was friendly with Cheri and Yoshi, from both from the Tent community and from having recently interviewed them for a research project he’s working on. Christopher insisted we meet, introduced us, and it turns out that Cheri and Yoshi not only rent the box JUST below Tokyo Record Style’s, but they also have a bar and cafe in Koenji by the same name “Howl the Field” where they too cater to music-lovers and record collectors and even have THEIR OWN rental shelf concept where they sell records and other music-related goods on consignment just like Tent! WHOA!
I haven’t visited “Howl the Field” in Koenji yet, but I grabbed some photos of their channels and website for us to get a glimpse of their world and to get excited about my own future visit. It looks amazing, and maybe especially for musicians as they seem to have some musical equipment on offer too!
Great to meet you Cheri and Yoshi and happy to be neighbors at Tent! Thanks for the smiles and see you at Howl the Field in Koenji someday!
More TRS on the way.
