Epic day yesterday for Tokyo Record Style Day Vol. 7 at Tent Record in Nishiogikubo …and then on to Replace Records! A great crew of homies gathered and we talked music and records stores, and style and on and on. It was a particularly special day because it was the “Grand Opening” (you could say) of our “Tokyo Record Style Co-op” a shared record store INSIDE a record store, currently stocked by my Top 5 Record pals and fellow DJ friends, Tat Fukutomi AKA bemsha, and Michael Warren. Together we went in on renting shelf in Tent, each pulled out 20 or so records and singles from our respective collections, designed some slick Obis (the iconic Japanese media belts) as price tags and opened shop on this very day!
If you’re new to Tokyo Record Style, or haven’t heard about Tent (which is actually called シェア音楽棚tent or “Shared Music Shelf Tent“), it’s a unique record shop on Tokyo’s west side in the hip neighborhood of Nishiogikubo, and run by the friendly and kind Akezawa san. Essentially it’s a consignment shop, but that’s really selling it short, because it truly is like 100 record shops in one, each shelf run by a different person with unique tastes making it a really interesting exploration every time you go, unlike any other record shop in Tokyo. When I just randomly stumbled upon a year and a half ago, and figured out what exactly it was, I was so excited to share it with my other record-loving friends both overseas and in Japan.
As expected a blog post I wrote about it that day was like, shared, and commented on heaps, and I thought to myself, “Well, I’m at record store all the time, and each one is it’s own little universe, maybe I should start documenting more records stores, and shop owners, and more record-loving people.” And that’s actually how Tokyo Records Style got started (also I was deeply inspired by my genius photography pal John Sypal of Tokyo Camera Style.) So in a way, I really owe Tent Records and Akezawa a great deal of gratitude for helping to spark this project. My only regret is that we didn’t open “Tokyo Record Style Co-op” sooner …because very sad to say, it seems this shop that has really become quite beloved, will be closing in May for unexpected but necessary reasons. I’m still a little in disbelief and denial about it, but that’s a topic for another post.
Everybody scored some records, some new, some old, some obscure some less. For the first time in AGES I took a gamble on a record that I knew nothing about, “Tar Water” from Idaho, perhaps their only album titled “Tarnation” – I couldn’t pass it up. Outside I made photos of all the homies and their record store purchases, most which I didn’t know and which I will be featuring in the coming days. Thanks for all the smiles, gents! And for broadening my musical horizons!
After our visit at Tent, (where we serendipitously met some of the other shelf owners), we said goodby to Akezawa and and our new TRS Co-op, and at the suggestions of our pal Christoper, headed to another newcomer to the record store scene in Nishiogi, fairly new, having opened a year or so ago in a old bonsai/flower shop, Replace Records, run by the charismatic Kojima san. I’ll save a write up about him for another time, but we had a great time there too!
Some of the photos in the collages are mine and some are from bemsha and my other pals. Thanks, Christopher, Marcus, Sean, Michael, and bemsha for coming out to Tent and Nishiogi for another edition of Tokyo Record Style. Maybe for Volume 8, we’ll head to the far east side of Tokyo. Until then, be on the lookout for upcoming post of the growing gang of music-loving pals.
More TRS on the way.
