September 2008 (PDF) - Antigravity Magazine
September 2008 (PDF) - Antigravity Magazine
September 2008 (PDF) - Antigravity Magazine
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COVER FEATURELOCAL BUSINESS<br />
THE MUSHROOM<br />
The Mushroom might look like it grew from hippie roots, but its birth<br />
is a far more extreme story than their subdued black light posters may<br />
lead you to think. As legend goes, the Tulane student body became<br />
radical with protests of Vietnam in 1969, occupied the university center<br />
and burned down the ROTC building. During negotiations between the<br />
protesting student body and the upper crust at the university, a settlement<br />
was reached where the students would receive their own book store and thus<br />
the Mushroom was born—in a back room of the Phelps dorm, selling books,<br />
comics, incense and soap, with music not coming until later. But when it did<br />
the place blew up quickly, inviting many non-students to the campus shop to<br />
talk and trade. Soon it swelled to where the Mushroom became the largest<br />
vinyl record store in the southern United States, but they got kicked off the<br />
university campus in 1971 and set up shop above Eddie Price’s, now known<br />
as the Boot.<br />
The Mushroom has been there ever since—right on what has become<br />
Frat Row, within walking distance to two of the city’s major universities<br />
while selling everything: new and used CDs, vinyl records, movies, posters,<br />
incense, jewelry and a plethora of pipes that allow you to cleverly and<br />
creatively smoke tobacco.<br />
It’s hard to be a college music store when the majority of the college kids<br />
are strictly downloading songs, both illegally and through legit means. Only<br />
about 30% of the Mushroom’s business comes from the Tulane and Loyola<br />
crowd. The rest comes from locals—collectors who will show up week after<br />
week, looking for something. The Mushroom is one of those places that<br />
decided to eschew the technological dawn of the twenty first century, with its<br />
internet-based sales and corporate chains—they come from a time where a<br />
record store was something much more than a place to simply buy a CD or an<br />
album, and the Mushroom’s owner, Tim, stresses this. “We believe its gotta<br />
be worth the trip. We gotta give them something to find. The collectors gotta<br />
be able to hunt, They gotta come here and walk away with treasure.” That’s<br />
what makes the Mushroom worth it, the idea that people can leave with<br />
something worth coming out for. And, as Tim said, “They got something<br />
that means something to them.” —Caroline DeBruhl; Photo by Dan Fox<br />
The Mushroom is located at 1037 Broadway St. in New Orleans. For more info,<br />
call 504.866.6065.<br />
JIM RUSSELL’S<br />
In the late ’50s and early ’60s, James Russell was a local concert promoter who was put in jail again<br />
and again for booking white musicians in black clubs and vice versa. Russell, who invented the term<br />
“sock-hop,” was also a manager who represented Deacon John, Eddie Bo, the Dixie Cups, Ernie K-<br />
Doe and many others. He was selling records out of his car when he decided to get more serious about<br />
distribution and in 1967 opened a wholesale store at 1837 <strong>Magazine</strong> Street. He closed and re-opened in<br />
1969 as a retail store in the same location. This was the beginning of Jim Russell’s Records, which is now<br />
the longest-lasting music store in New Orleans.<br />
Walking into Jim Russell’s is overwhelming. Countless boxes of .45s are stacked high and hundreds,<br />
maybe thousands, of ten-inch vinyl records line the bottom of the CD aisles, out of sight. That’s just the<br />
beginning. There’s a side room where vinyl is stacked with no particular reason, a scavenger’s wet dream.<br />
The back room is the rock room, which easily wins the prize for the largest selection of rock vinyl in the<br />
city. During a tour of the store by co-owner Denise Russell, wife of Jim Russell, Jr., she led me past the rock<br />
room to what looked like a dead end. Then she pushed open a door and there was another huge room full<br />
of vinyl that could be a<br />
store unto itself. And<br />
then to know there’s<br />
more upstairs! Russell<br />
said she and her<br />
daughter are constantly<br />
rummaging through the<br />
unseen back room and<br />
selecting quality vinyl<br />
to bring to the front.<br />
Jim Russell’s had<br />
a particularly good<br />
JazzFest in <strong>2008</strong>.<br />
The record players<br />
used for listening<br />
were always manned,<br />
usually by foreign<br />
DJs in New Orleans<br />
to attend the festival.<br />
Unfortunately, the<br />
store seems to be better<br />
known internationally<br />
than locally. Russell<br />
said locals frequently<br />
walk in and say, “I’ve<br />
never been here before.<br />
How long has it been here?” She said one time a local woman even<br />
apologized to her for not having visited the store sooner.<br />
Despite the JazzFest sales, the store is struggling. The city raised<br />
her property tax from $1600 per year to $5400, and her regulars from<br />
before Katrina have either not returned or understandably don’t have<br />
the disposable income for records. So we have to be careful not to lose<br />
this internationally known treasure trove—if you’ve got a turntable at<br />
home, swing by Jim Russell’s because you’ll likely find a couple, or ten,<br />
quality records to load onto your deck.—Jason Songe; Store photo by Dan<br />
Fox; Denise Russell photo by Zack Smith.<br />
Jim Russell’s Records is located at 1837 <strong>Magazine</strong> St. in New Orleans. For<br />
more info, call 504.522.2602 or visit jimrussellrecords.com.<br />
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