Dig, drink, listen.
That’s the motto at Vinyl Index, a hip little record store on the second floor of Bow Market in Union Square. A standout Somerville stop on our Cambridge Day Record Store Walk.
The “dig” refers to “crate digging,” the zen art of guiding your fingers along the squared-off, sometimes weathered, edges of record inventory until you find the hidden gem. Like ditch digging or grave digging, you’ve got to put your back into it, but the rewards beat a hole in the ground by a mile.
The “drink” refers to the list of cocktails you can enjoy at the store, a feature presumably intended to placate the “good and goddamn ready to go home” crowd while their vinyl-fiend significant other can’t be extracted. Order a Carmen San Diego (rye, plus a bunch of other shit), a Pleated Khakis (bourbon, plus a bunch of other shit) or a Transition Lenses (rum, plus a bunch of other shit), and quaff in good health at a high table on the sunny deck.
Just don’t order a drink before the next-door bar, Nook, opens – it’s the one making all the drinks. An actual record store with an actual bar sounds too messy to exist in real life. No points deducted.
The “listen” seems obvious. But there’s more to it than taking the records home and giving them a spin. Regular events such as a “Turntable Takeover,” “Kids Dance Party” and pop-up live music shows give you something to listen to in-store beyond the impeccable house mix.
Fine, good, great. What about the records? No single genre predominates. There’s rock, reggae, electronic, jazz and more. The deepest category in terms of volume is “indie,” an anomalous categorization that can sound like anything (though, let’s be honest, it usually sounds like middle- and upper-middle-class young adults doing things with guitars, drums and sometimes keyboards). So much the better in terms of flexibility for a store without the physical footprint to accommodate a massive inventory.
Hat tip to the bins highlighting releases from local acts. In fact, Vinyl Index will do you one better – it has its own label venture and offers a catalog of music by local artists released under its own imprint. How about that for commitment to the local music scene?
The record selection is almost entirely new, consisting of recent releases and blue-chip reissues. That means you’re not going to find a lot of used inventory or any “mystery bag” discounts like at Planet Records. But if you’re looking for a mint copy of a local pick such as Cape Crush’s “San Souci” or the self-titled debut by Alvvays (playing at Boston Calling!), or 2xLP compilation of Alice Coltrane’s “ecstatic music,” Vinyl Index has got you covered.
One last word about the store’s residence in Bow Market. The market location kickstarted in 2018, offering space for shops to lease bricks-and-mortar storefronts in what was once a more-or-less lifeless storage facility. The business model targets small, local and experimental versus large, national and established brands. Lots of food, lots of drink, lots of knick knacks and a ton more energy than a place such as The Garage, the location of Newbury Comics in Harvard Square. If you’re rolling through Bow Market on a record store walk, plan to stay a while.
Hit this
Saturday: Lane, Animal Hospital, The Keira Knightleys (Lilypad, Cambridge)
Hit the Lilypad late show to celebrate a record release with indie rock outfit Lane. The album, “Receiver,” is a precision post-punk stir fry, quick-firing guitar-driven ingredients culled from the ’70s and ’80s underground. The textures are all rock ’n’ roll, but the penchant for rhythmic repetition – in short, grooving – speaks to a deeper sympathy with funk. Is Lane a funk band? If you’re the type of person who regards Devo as funky (which is an opinion far too few people hold), then the answer is “maybe.”
May 16: Dave Bryant and Friends (Harvard-Epworth Church, Cambridge)
Third Thursday strikes again! The jazz series, underwritten by the mysterious Appalachian Springs Foundation (and your $10 at the door), convenes every month within an “acoustically perfect” church at Harvard Square. The raison d’être of the series is promoting the harmolodic jazz concepts of Ornette Coleman. A typical bill will feature an out-of-town act who played with the jazz legend at some point in their blessed career, preceded or followed by emcee and musician Dave Bryant jamming with his friends. All to the greater glory of Coleman, though if you crunch the numbers it’s probably Bryant who’s gotten the greater shine out of the series by now. May 16 is all about his new album “Wire and Bone,” written, recorded and immortalized on compact disc with the generous financial support of … the Appalachian Springs Foundation.
May 17: Buck Meek (of Big Thief) with Jolie Holland (Crystal Ballroom, Somerville)
“You know a band has really blown up when their members start going on solo tours.” There’s a kernel of truth to that, but it’s mostly wrong, because full-time (and aspiring full-time) musicians always have a lot of irons in the fire: side bands, solo records and industry-adjacent hobby horses of all varieties. It’s just that you never hear about it if the musical main squeeze isn’t big enough to turn your head in the first place. Big Thief is big enough. Guitarist Buck Meek brings his sparkling six-string into the spotlight and exercises an alt-country voice credible enough for Big Thief’s label 4AD to release his solo effort (rather than gently showing him the back door). Now he’s label mates with himself, which sounds like a very indie-rock episode of “The Twilight Zone.” He’ll be joined by Americana chanteuse Jolie Holland.
Live: Rock N Roll Rumble finals
Let’s cut to the chase: The Ghouls win!
After a full month of the storied rock ’n’ roll tournament plying its wares in the clubs of Central Square, you deserve a straight answer. And you got one at the Rock N Roll Rumble finals on Saturday night at Sonia.
The bill included three bands in it to win it: Gut Health, Other Brother Darryl and The Ghouls. Plus a chaser, Halfcocked, a veteran act of the 1999 Rumble, closing presumably to give the judges adequate time to tabulate the scores.
The Ghouls triumphed on the strength of a set that showcased solid composition, tight ensemble work and a breadth of emotional moods and sonic dynamics. From the stage or pit, the band from Lowell could go loud, soft, hard, poached, pickled, scrambled and sunny side up, all within the space of a few songs. Chapeau!
The Rumble, though, is about competition only at the surface level. There’s a deeper purpose in its machinery, which serves as one of the few reliable touchstones for a Boston and Greater Boston music community that now spans generations. At a time in which culture and society is starting to memory-hole history before the advent of the Internet (upload or it didn’t happen), where else can you overhear a local band in 2024 talking about a local band in 1986? And vice versa?
With the 2024 edition concluded, lead mountain mover and Rumble organizer Anngelle Wood (DJ, Boston Emissions) can take a night off. But will she? Wood serves as the central hub of a wagon wheel that spins all year long, rustling up sponsors, venues, bands and support staff for the tournament. When she asked the crowd on Saturday night whether the Rock N Roll Rumble should run it back in 2025, you could already feel the wagon wheel start to spin again.
Michael Gutierrez is an author, educator, activist and editor-in-chief at Hump Day News.
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Glad to see these Ornette-inspired productions get some attention. The Prime Time crew have valuable stories to tell (see the video interviews @ youtube.com/@davebryantmusic) and they play fantastic, ear-opening music! Lucky for Cambridge there’s a small foundation interested in supporting these performances, regardless of where it’s based. Dave Bryant is a too-little appreciated professor of Harmolodics, with a mission — I cheer him on!