Working at a record shop would be a dream job for a certain sect of people in life. You’d have to have a wide breadth of musical knowledge and appreciation. You’d have to constantly keep up with trends and new music and artists, and yet also know the sources of such trends and the influences of said artists. You’d have to have a mental file cabinet deep enough to know if this particular pressing of Led Zepplin II was the Robert Ludwig “Hot Mix” or not, and whether that rare Otis Redding “Hard to Handle” single that you buried in […]
Tokyo Record Style
Miles and Cameron
I caught up with Miles and Cameron in the alley outside of Josey’s Records after they had just scored rapper Freddie Gibbs and producer Madlib’s 2014 collaboration, “Piñata”. Something about them reminded me of myself when I started collecting records in my early 20s and I asked them if they were new to vinyl. Miles responded a resounding no, in that he had grown up with a house full of records, and that his mother, if I remember correctly, recently had given him her Prince collection, including Purple Rain and 1999. That must be something! That jogged my memory that […]
Tokyo Record Style
Aaron Hamby
While visiting family back in my hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA, Tokyo Record Style will only temporarily be recognized as “Tulsa Record Style” 🙂 Exploring the Tulsa Record stores has been interesting and enlightening. Busy with family activities, I haven’t had time to visit them all but I did manage to spend half a day running around to various locations. At Josey Records, on Historic Route 66, I spotted Aaron having just wrapped up a dig in a giant pile of 45s that I was coming upon. “They’re all yours,” he said with a friendly smile, having no doubt painstakingly […]
Tokyo Record Style
Koyabashi
I spotted Kobayashi san walking down the street carrying a Disk Union bag. When I asked him if he’d pose for Tokyo Record Style, I realized I was interrupting a live stream he was either hosting or participating in on his phone. Not wishing to derail his stream I told him not to worry about a photo but then he agreed so long as he could continue livestreaming while I photographed him, to which I of course was happy to oblige. Kobayashi san produced a “not for sale” promo copy of Hard Reversal by Amore Hirosuke & Love Machine which […]
Tokyo Record Style
Turistan, Tiger, Keita
At 17 years old, Turistan (@trippin_tree3) is the youngest person that I’ve photographed so far for Tokyo Record Style. I caught up with Turistan seminal classic “Enter The Wu-Tang” from ‘93, that’s 30 years ago. That would be the equivalent of a 17-year-old me in 1993 buying “With the Beatles” (which I probably did). Thats give me great encouragement to not only see youngsters (Oh, my god do I sound old) interested in records, but interested in GREAT records. Turistan was with his skating bros, Tiger and Keita, (Fellas, Turistan is our-cooling you! Time to score some wax!) They were […]
Tokyo Record Style
Mizuyu
“Everything’s too easy. Just one stroke of the ring finger, middle finger, one little click, that’s all it takes. We’ve dropped the coin right into the slot. We’re pill poppers, cube heads and day trippers, hanging in, hanging out, gobbling blue devils, black mollies, anything we can get our hands on. Not to mention the nose candy and ganga grass. It’s all too easy, too democratic. You need a solar X-ray detector just to find somebody’s heart, see if they still have one.” – Bob Dylan Dylan offered this social commentary in a recent WSJ article specifically about streaming music, […]
Tokyo Record Style
Aratame
I agreed to meet Aratame a few years ago at our mutual friend, Tomoko’s adamant insistence. Tomoko, having worked with us both, had reason to believe we’d get on like a house on fire, and when she arranged a dinner for us to meet, and as soon we started talking about obscure cameras, Polaroid film, iconic typewriter design, vinyl records, our favorite 80’s gadgets, toys, movies, and cars, all manner of sophomoric comedic pranks or borderline juvenile fashion trends that neither of us seemed to outgrow, music, books, baseball cards and so on, trading stories of adolescent antics and subversive […]
Tokyo Record Style
Natsumi
I met with Natsumi near the iconic Suzunari Theater in Shimokitaza, carrying a Disk Union bag. I stopped her for a chat and she very kindly agreed to be photographed for Tokyo Record Style. She had just scored the debut CD “Cavemen’s Law” by her friend’s new psychedelic pop band band, “Paddy Isle”. It’s not listed on Discogs yet, but I already listened to a few tracks from it on YouTube and it RIPS (Check the links in the comments.) Natsumi was super friendly and kind and shared with me that she is a ballerina and a ballet teacher. I […]
Tokyo Record Style
Koichi
This project is proving to be an interesting little vehicle for the perfect conversation with a stranger, particularly from one music lover to another. It seems that with nearly everybody I’ve met, spoken to, and photographed, we’ve come to learn something that we have in common beyond just a love for music. And it’s kinda remarkable how it starts. Just the sentence “Excuse me, are those records?” seems to simultaneously cause curious antennas to raise while initiating the diffusion of any tension or suspicion as if it’s some kind of secret password buried in subconscious that overrides all external perceived […]
Tokyo Record Style
Takashi
Takashi’s striped sweater had something Charlie Brown about it, his chain wallet and oversized rims had something Elvis Costello about them, and I have always wanted a pair of leather Chuck Taylors. Carrying a Union Record Bag, naturally, I had to spark up a conversation with him. I told him about Tokyo Record Style but he was expectedly hesitant to just pose for a stranger with a camera. That’s understandable, but since we were already talking, I asked what records he just scored and he pulled out the Ronettes! That very day, I had spotted Phil Spectors’s Christmas Album on […]
Tokyo Record Style
Shimpei
I met Shimpei on the streets of Shinjuku with his new vinyl scores from Disk Union: Peter Tosh’s Bush Doctor and Tom Browne’s Magic. I asked Shimpei why he collects records and he mentioned being a DJ, and when I looked at his Instagram, I can see he’s spinning music every few nights. Shimpei was super friendly as you can see by his warm smile – Looking forward to listening to these records and keeping tabs on Shimpei so I can catch one of his DJ sets. Peter Tosh – Bush DoctorLabel: Rolling Stones Records – CUN 39109Format: Vinyl, […]
Tokyo Record Style
Yuta
Yuta was hanging out with a couple of pals on the streets of Shinjuku holding a recent score from Disc Union. I told him about Tokyo Record Style and asked him to pose for a photo. From his Disk Union Bag, he produced 2 records, neither of which I knew, a repeating occurrence I’m finding. One record was Sweat by the System, Electro Synth-pop which Yuta described basically as Disco. The 2nd record was Teddy Mike’s instrumental funk record, On Point. Looking forward to listening to both these records. Thanks, Yuko for posing for these shots and looking so effortlessly […]
Tokyo Record Style
Anthony
First Tower Records spotting, at Shibuya Crossing! I caught up with Anthony and his wife walking along after what looked like a nice little shopping spree! I initiated a conversation in Japanese, wrongly assuming Anthony was Japanese but when we looked at me a little sideways, not completely understanding, he pulled back his mask revealing a giant and friendly smile, me having been to the “Land of Smiles” instantly suspected Anthony might be… “Where are you from?” “Thailand!” Bingo. Anthony scored Bruno Mars’ XXIVK Magic and told me he was debating between this and one other record, but I’m failing […]
Tokyo Record Style
DJ Bow
DJ Bow’s 12” x 12” square bag caught my eye on the back streets of Shibuya. I could see some friendly eyes behind his mask when I explained why I stopped him, but when I suggested we make a photo right here in the middle of busy Shibuya, he was much more keen to keep a low profile, so we ditched down a back alley and made this image. DJ Bow spins techno and house and asked me not to reveal his identity nor to photograph his face, nor mention the quite famous location he would be DJing the following […]
Tokyo Record Style
DJ Nishiyama
Spotted Nishiyama san on the streets of Shibuya. He was a bit taken aback by me suddenly accosting him with an interest in his records and a request for a photo, but we got some nice music talk going and he showed me his scores, an Akiko Wada double LP and a Hiromi Miyano 7”. Then he produced another curious looking 7” saying “I have no idea what this is, but I got it anyway” – I LOVE THIS, this notion of taking a risk on music, not entirely sure what you’re going to get. When I look back on […]
Tokyo Record Style
Saeka Shimida
A fellow photographer – Saeka! I caught up with her and a pal with a nice stash of records just scored from Jet Set which, a little like Big Love Records, keeps a highly curated inventory of mostly new-ish records, finds that for the more discerning listener. Maybe I’m imagining things, but walking around with records in a Jet Set bag says to the more basic (in that modern dismissive sense) listeners like me, “That gay/gal didn’t just score some records from Jet Set …that person IS A JETSETTER!” That could actually be true because when Saeka produced the records […]
Tokyo Record Style
Joshua and Madeline
I met Joshua and Madeline near General Record Store, and they were quite the photogenic characters. They had just picked up copies of The Ataris – Blue Skies, Broken Hearts… Next 12 Exits (a guilty pleasure admitted Joshua), and Adventures In Stereo / The American Analog Set – After Hours Issue #2, two more records whose bands I only really know by name. Madeline mentioned that she works in translation and Joshua that he works in fashion. They both were very hip and we had a nice chat on the stoops of General. A couple other things to mention is […]
Tokyo Record Style
Koji
I spotted Koji (and his GF, Yoshimi who battles the Pink Robots) on the streets of Shimokita. He had just scored this 1980 New Wave classic of Channel Good by Sheena & the Rokkets from Disc Union. I didn’t know the album but it looked really intriguing and just quite good. After photographing Koji I went home and immediately listened to this record, for the first time (follow link in bio), and as I had expected, it absolutely slays (with a killer version of Creedence’s Suzie Q). While listening to it, I learned about the Mentai Rock scene, the name […]
Tokyo Record Style
Yujiro
I met Yujiro coming out of Disk Union Shimokita as I was walking in. He was on his way to play a gigi with his band, “Blue Damp”, but stopped to pick up a copy of George Smith’s – Oopin’ Doopin’ Blues Harp before heading there. I wasn’t familiar with George Smith (I have a feeling I’m gonna not be familiar with 90% or more of what I photograph here on Tokyo Record Style) but I did mention owning a handful of harmonicas including a chromatic one, the kind with the button on the side that seems to make playing […]
Tokyo Record Style
Eric Jacobsen
Little did I know when I was chatting up Itaru (from the previous post) about Leon Russel, there was Tokyo Institution standing right behind me patiently waiting for me to finish rambling to say hello. If you have had kids in the last 30 years, you probably are familiar with the very famous TV show Eigo de Asobo – Let’s Play English, which like Sesame Street has a bit of a rotating cast of characters with a few major mainstays, and the person featured here has been THE mainstay of this series, and beyond, for a long as I’ve known […]
Tokyo Record Style
Itaru
What are the odds! I caught up with Itaru coming up the street pushing a bicycle and a tote bag on his shoulder and asked him if he might want to pose for Tokyo Record Style. With a warm smile he agrees, reaches into his bag and pulls out, much to my amazement, lo-and-behold, Tulsa hometown hero, Leon Russel, who, as legend has it (according to my parents) had a girlfriend who lived across from my first childhood home, and who used to come around and play with me when I was just a wee kid. I only became aware […]
Tokyo Record Style
Naohiro
Anyway, I had no clue what records Naohiro was showing me, but I’ll check them out and give them a listen in the coming days (All the records photographed are listed on Discogs with info – link in bio). Despite not knowing industrial/goth/metal music well (nor the -waves / -cores), I mentioned that my neighbor (and father of my son’s best pal) is part of legendary industrial outfit, Skinny Puppy, and Naohiro was quite impressed to hear that. We also discussed The Cure’s (one of his favorite bands) recent re-release of “Wish”, which was one of the first CDs I […]
Tokyo Record Style
Yukiko
I take my kids back and forth everyday to Japanese cram school and I pass right by Coconuts Record Shop. I’ve mentioned it here a few times already and will probably be mentioning it a bunch more. Since starting this project, I can’t seem to drive past it without starting to scan the area for people who maybe have just scored some records. Though the vinyl bags are quite cool, they’re quite subtle but I can still easily spot from across the street, which was the case for the one Yukiko was carrying. I stopped her and chatted her up. […]
Tokyo Record Style
Yuji
Stopped by a Tokyo institution the other night, Big Love Records, an independent record shop located in a nondescript apartment building in the backstreets of très chic Harajuku. Big Love Records is more than a record shop, it’s a gallery, an underground label, it’s a fashion brand, a cafe and bar that serves premium coffee and beer-on-tap to patrons and provides Tokyo not only with an amazing curation of new music but with events, art, fashion, pop-ups and tie-ups, and just cool lifestyle. It’s beyond a central cultural resource for Tokyo, but also for the world. So it’s no surprise […]
Tokyo Record Style
Sota
After I walked back to my bike after meeting Tets in the car park under the tracks, I bumped into Sota who had just scored 3 soul and funk records from HMV (where I had spotted him earlier) and Coconuts in Kichijoji. He asked me where I was from and told me the records would have probably been 1/10th of the price or less if he could score them in the American. He told me he got his taste for Soul and Funk from his father who used to bring them back from the States. Sota told me he is […]
Tokyo Record Style
Tets Igeta
I met Tets on the streets of Kichijoji with Matty Fresh (from the previous post). He hadn’t any records with him in that moment so I didn’t really think to make his photo. But it was nice to meet him. It was even nicer to run into him again about 15 minutes later at HMV digging through the jazz records, and chat him up a bit more. He mentioned knowing Matty from his days in Brisbane and we got to talking about DJing and he pulls out an image from his phone of 2 face-to-face dueling DJ decks, 4 turntables […]
Tokyo Record Style
Matty Fresh
I spotted a woman in a plaid jacket carrying a record store bag, walking along the opposite side of the street. If I could dash ahead and catch the green light, I could possibly intercept her at the crosswalk for a photo. I locked in on the plaid jacket, rounded the corner, bustled through the malaise of people crossing, got tripped up by a couple wheeling along a pair of suitcases. Wait, where’d plaid-jacket girl go? Search around. I lost her. Poof! Vanished. Dammit. Momentarily defeated, I leaned again the street rail to lament, when out from the shop right […]
Tokyo Record Style
Saki and Haruko
I hesitate to make a comment that could be so easily misconstrued as naive or chauvinistic …but throwing caution to the wind: record-collecting girls are just the coolest. I don’t know exactly why, but they just are. A girl with a record bag, in my eyes, is infinitely more stylish than one with a designer bag. I met these two lovely ladies, Saki and Tomoka outside Coconuts Records in Kichijoji, which has become one of my favorite record stores in Tokyo. I’ve lived just down the street from Coconuts for more than a decade but only discovered it in the […]
Tokyo Record Style
Dog Log x Tokyo Record Style
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Tokyo Record Style
Yasu san
Garageville Records Have I mentioned the “Goldilocks Zone” of Tokyo Record Stores yet? Stores that are located outside of the city center where they have a totally unique flavor, are never particularly crowded, not picked over and even slightly less expensive, but close enough to Tokyo to have all the good stuff and then some. Garageville is indeed one such shop in the Goldilocks Zone. It’s a bar and record shop, with a premium and tasty-looking bottle beer selection, pringles to snack on, heaps of great records, two Thorens TD 124s behind the bar with those big beautiful Ortofon SPU […]
Tokyo Record Style
Akio
I met Akio san outside of Disk Union in Shimokitazawa. His scooter was parked next to my bike and when I saw him about to stash some records under the scooter, I sparked a chat with him. He’s an acupuncturist caregiver with many patients around Shimokita. He said the kinda care he offers provides great relief to patients in pain but is quite exhausting and stressful work for him and that picking up new music every day provides him with his relief. I said, “That’s great work but, every day?” He said, yes, that he comes every day, without fail […]
Tokyo Record Style
Masuyama
Ever see video game soundtracks in the record store crates? Ever wonder who buys them? Well, I met one on the way home last night – Masuyama! I stopped Masuyama out in front of Disk Union in Shimokita and asked him what he scored and he pulled out this intriguing gem which I had no idea about. Masuyama explained it was released by Nintendo for a game …OK, interesting. We had a nice chat and he did a cool pose for me. Thanks, Masa for the photo and for sharing your record with me! But wait, there is more… I […]
Tokyo Record Style
Sue
I live about 20 min from my office by motorcycle and no matter which route I take back, there must be at least 20 records shops (if not more) that I drive right past. Being a photographer for these nearly 20 years here, I’ve always been attuned to the notion that Tokyo is a kind of photography mecca. There are so many (read: TOO many) photography galleries, camera shops, amazing scenic spots, photo-loving people and culture that it’s hard to keep up with it all. It’s everywhere, all the time. I’ve always known about Tokyo’s record store scene, and hi-fi […]
Tokyo Record Style
Yoshiki, Dani, Arita, and Jay
Good early morning from Tokyo Record Style. Thanks for all the follows, shares, and comments! This is gonna be a lot of fun 🙂 Next up is this 4-member squad (Yoshiki, Dani, Arita, and Jay) I also ran into at @flashdiscranch in Shimokita last weekend. They were cool and scored some pretty interesting looking records (see comments for titles and links). I’ll have to keep thinking of the best way of doing this, maybe a link in bio or a Spotify playlist. A lot came to mind in the last few days, the mental checklist the project needs. Anyway, more […]
Tokyo Record Style
Haruko
I met a cool record collector and saxophonist, Haruko at Flash Disc Ranch yesterday who scored Stanley Turrentine’s West Side Highway from ‘78 and No ‘Count by fellow saxophonist Frank Foster recorded in ‘56 on the Savoy label, both I think she mentioned being recommended to her by Flash’s aficionado, Tsubaki san. I want to point out that this project is called Tokyo Record STYLE for a reason. It’s not just about records, or music – it’s also about style (not fashion per se, cuz I couldn’t really tell ya, but style, yes). Haruko was rawkin’ a sweet gray leather […]
Tokyo Record Style
Masao Tsubaki
Flash Disk RanchHands down, the absolutely coolest record shop in all of Tokyo is, without a doubt, Flash Disc Ranch in Shimokitazawa, run by a consummate record store cult hero, Masao Tsubaki. I think Shimokita has been my stomping grounds for so long, since before iPhone days, that I actually witnessed the mp3/digital revolution, tragically wipe out a handful of awesome local independent record stores that had struggled to stay afloat (with no help from giants like Disk Union, Tower, and HMV). I remember lamenting almost decades now ago “There goes another one…” “…and another” and at one point I […]
Tokyo Record Style
Michael Warren
Tokyo Record Style’s first official victim! My dear pal, musician extraordinaire (check out one of his many bands including Honest People), fellow Top 5 Records Podcast co-host (links eventually is bio), Michael Warren, in town from beautiful Aomori. Michael and I came to know each other through record-collecting 4 or 5 years ago and have pretty much connected nearly every day since sharing musical musing on our imaginary radio show: “The Dog Log” (upon which we have logged thousands of hours). Love hitting the record stores with Michael when he’s in town, which is quite often. He always takes cool […]
Tokyo Record Style
Brian Scott Peterson
Hey! Welcome to my new Instagram where I am going to be documenting record-collecting, record shops, music-loving in Tokyo, and all the freaks, weirdos, and hipsters whose passion for music knows no bounds! I’m Brian, 20-year Tokyo resident and life-long record-collector and music lover! Follow me for a glimpse into this supremely cool subculture and share your passion for music with me! Pose for my camera and show me the records you just scored! See you out there, Tokyo! Look out for the guy with the records and the camera! Santo & Johnny – Sleep WalkLabel: Canadian American Records, Ltd. […]