Today we celebrate Record Store Day 2017. This day has a special place in my heart, as I had the honor and privilege of growing up in a record store. In 1984, my grandmother, Christine Madden and Govindan Kartha partnered on a business venture and opened New World Record in the Evans Plaza, Williamsville, NY. Eventually, they moved to a location on Elmwood Ave. Soon after, Christine Madden retired. The store remained open until 2008, when after 24 years they were forced to close, mostly due to the drastic shift in how customers accessed and purchased music.
In celebration of the day, here’s a short Q&A and some epic throwback photos.
What inspired you to own and operate a record store?
Govindan Kartha: I worked at Cavages in the Boulevard Mall, and when I was inevitably wrongfully terminated, as Cavages was wont to do, your grandmother, who was the assistant manager, quit in protest. I remember we were sitting on the back patio at the house on Wellington, moping a bit, when your grandfather came out and said, basically, “Look, why don’t you just start a record store yourselves?” And we couldn’t really think of a compelling reason not to. So many of the things we had tried to implement at Cavages we couldn’t really do for institutional reasons, and we imagined that we had a chance to make them happen if we were in control. At the time, I think our “vision” was pretty much to create the Buffalo record store equivalent of CFNY, the alternative radio station in Toronto. We already knew and liked the people at Home of the Hits and we weren’t trying to imitate them, so we kind of ceded the iconoclastic post-punk persona to them in favor of a more expansive, and, we hoped, inclusive approach to indie and alternative and progressive music. Really, we wanted to carry all kinds of music, as long as we thought it was good. And, we wanted to be a CD specialty store at a time when the local stores were just tentatively dipping their toes in the digital waters.
Christine Madden: Love of music and the sense that there was an audience beyond the mainstream. Because we were part of that audience. We knew that the compact disc would be the desirable format at that time. Cavages was a store that served the mainstream Billboard Top 100 and in 1984 “New Wave” and “Alternative” music was just beginning to reach an audience beyond the mainstream. And as Go said, CFNY was a huge influence on the direction we wanted to go. See Go’s comments, he is the more articulate of the two of us.
What is your best or most cherished memory of your time owning New World Record?
Govindan Kartha: One of my favorite memories was the first release of the Beatles music on CD, thirty years ago this year, and how we made a huge deal out of it, especially the release of Sgt. Pepper; the LP had been originally released 20 years earlier, so Capitol got all kinds of mileage out of the line “it was 20 years ago today…” Astonishing that it was 50 years ago now. We promoted the CD release with an appearance and performance by the cast of Beatlemania, at midnight on release date. I don’t think ANYONE in Buffalo was doing midnight sales back then, and we sold hundreds of copies that night, In fact, Marty Boratin, God bless him, drove to Albany and back that day to get more from the closest distributor that had supply. We weren’t personally making any money running the store, but I loved that time.
Christine Madden: The Beatles event is the first thing I thought of as well, though it is impossible for me to limit it to one moment. For me, the opportunity to share music with our customers and to recommend that which we thought was outstanding was the most satisfying.
Curveball question. Best medium for music: vinyl, cassette, or CD?
Govindan Kartha: I loved vinyl personally, but I was all in on CD as a new medium. I loved the portability and the (ostensible) durability. As much as I loved vinyl, it killed me that I was destroying the record every time I played it, and I was enraptured by a medium that supposedly wouldn’t ever wear out. For that I was ready to sacrifice the scale and tactility of the record sleeve and gorgeous slab of black vinyl. Now, of course, it’s the sensual appeal of vinyl that has led to its comeback, but the economics of it completely elude me, so it’s best I’m not in the business anymore. As for cassette, we carried them for a while, but I never cared for pre-recorded cassettes. I mainly really liked them for the ability to make mix tapes, which was the means of dissemination for so much musical knowledge, and was also a preferred method of wooing the object of one’s affection.
Christine Madden: Vinyl for warmth, CD for clarity, Cassette – not anymore.
“Irreplaceable,” directed by Yuichiro Yamada
A short documentary about the closing of the beloved music store in Buffalo, NY
“Irreplaceable” (2009, 24 min., color) is a film about the independent CD store, New World Record, in Buffalo, NY. New World Record’s owner, Govindan Kartha, decided in early 2008 to close after twenty-four-years serving the music community in Buffalo, in part because of the dramatic changes in the music industry with the advent of the internet and the downloading phenomenon. This film documents the store’s closing weeks, while showing us Govindan and his store’s way of spreading the love of music and recognizing his and the store’s contributions to the local music lovers in Buffalo. Director : Yuichiro Yamada.
Year : 2009. Length : 24min. Location : Buffalo, NY, USA.
For more information on Record Store Day, check out Buffalo Rising’s previous post or click the links below.
To find out what is in store for Record Store Day 2017, click here. The website will direct you to your nearest independent shop, while this link will tune you in to the new releases that are being timed with the special event. Typically, each of the local record stores features live in-house performances, record signings, and other fabulous fanfare events.
Bonus Content: Yup, that’s me. Rockin’ out at 6 months.