Vinyl’s LAST STAND : At ‘alternative’ record stores, LPs’ days of extended play are safe from time and technology

The announcement came last month: 14 Music Plus stores in Southern California were pulling the records from their racks. A number of Wherehouse record stores revealed that they planned to follow suit.

Vinyl LPs simply aren’t selling enough, they said. Records are wasting space that could be stocked with more popular cassette tapes and compact discs. The public, they said, has spoken.

“The consumer, in a general way, has told us that he or she is interested in having their audio experience either on cassette or CD format,” a Music Plus official said.

But such words amount to blasphemy in certain circles. Dozens of small record shops across the city are refusing to submit to technological progress, digging themselves in as the last bastion of the LP.

These places tend to be out-of-the-way storefronts where the guy behind the counter is the owner. There usually isn’t much neon light or interior decoration, just wooden bins filled with used and hard-to-find records. An old Connie Francis album might cost a dime and a rare Elvis Presley single might fetch $1,500.

Vinyl ranks as gold in these quarters. Some of the shops don’t even sell cassettes or CDs.

Such “alternative” record stores have spent years eking out a living. Now, with the imminent decline of the LP, they are hoping for a windfall.

“People are going into chain stores looking for records and can’t find them,” said Ronn Jackson of Penny Lane in Venice. “Panic is being spread.”

“It’s a good time to be in this business,” said Kip Brown, who recently opened Ear Candy in Van Nuys. “People come in here and say, ‘Thank God you still sell records.’ ”

It may be too early for record stores to count their profits, industry observers say. The Recording Industry Assn. of America reports that LPs represented only 15% of all 1987 music sales. At Music Plus’ 59 stores, vinyl accounts for 4% of sales.

Yet no one is ready to dismiss LPs outright, and hopes for big business among small shops are not unrealistic, said a National Assn. of Recording Merchandisers official. If nothing else, records should continue to sell for economic reasons.

“The CDs cost $15. It’s too expensive,” said Len Kundstadt, publisher of Record Research Magazine, a bimonthly New York publication. “Kids can go out and buy two or three LPs for the price of one CD.”

In the bargain bins at alternative shops--where records go for 49 cents to $2--they can buy even more music for the dollar. Or, at a place like Ear Candy, they can spend $15 on a rare Partridge Family album.

“People laugh when the see that stuff,” Brown said. “But the Partridge Family sells well.”

Ear Candy, like most alternative shops, specializes in pop and rock. It is a bright, airy room where the stereo plays loud and house plants sit atop the record bins. The store’s more eccentric albums are displayed along the walls with accompanying notes of interest:

“The Best of Michael Jackson” has a $100 price tag because of some scribbles across the jacket. “Autographed (pre nose-change),” the note says. “Try getting his autograph now.”

Billy Joel’s “Cold Spring Harbor” sells for $30. The note reads: “Billy says about this album, ‘Slow down your turntable because when I went from tape to acetate the machine that does that was screwed up, so it came out a quarter note higher than I recorded it.’ And he’s right, y’know. Sounds funny.”

Jimmy Gordon’s “Hog Fat,” priced at $15, comes with this explanation: “This guy was in Derek & the Dominos. He’s now in jail for murdering his mom! Looks like the type, doesn’t he?”

Across town at the Record Collector in Hollywood, the atmosphere is musty and quiet--no music playing. Fourteen-foot-tall bookcases line the walls in several rooms. Classical, opera, jazz and sound tracks are stored with only the spine of the record showing.

Owner Sandy Chase says his shop “is like an old, rare bookstore where the owner knows every line ever written.”

“When you need to find a needle in the haystack,” he said, “we can find that needle.”

The shop, like others of its kind, survives on a cadre of loyal customers. Only a few of Los Angeles’ alternative record shops--Rhino Records in Westwood, Aron’s in Hollywood, Moby Disc in Sherman Oaks and Canoga Park--are as well-known as the chain stores.

The rest rely on word-of-mouth advertising.

“If you have the good music, they find out about you,” said Dan Alvino, who has owned Music & Memories in Sherman Oaks for 10 years.

Located in a strip mall above a 7-Eleven, Music & Memories specializes in sound tracks and bygone crooners. On a recent day, a teen-ager walked in, took one look at the place--Sinatra movie posters on the walls, pictures of Marilyn and Bogart as well--and left.

“I don’t get many kids in here,” Alvino said. “I don’t carry Bruce Springsteen.”

But he does offer a full complement of Steve and Eydie, “tons of” Judy Garland and a Sinatra section packed with 300 different albums.

“I had Mel Torme come into the store. He looked under his own section and said, ‘You’ve got more of my records than I have,’ ” Alvino said. “He bought a couple.”

Alvino tests each record he buys, and he won’t sell albums that are heavily worn or scratched. Some alternative stores will, usually in the bargain bins. Most let the customer listen to the record in the shop before buying it.

Maintaining an inventory of exotic, or simply old, albums isn’t easy. The work is best suited for avid music enthusiasts. Shop owners scour garage sales, swap meets, thrift shops and record conventions in search of merchandise.

“You have to be constantly on the go, trying to beat the other guy to records,” said Ernie Leal, who owns Sweet & Lowe Music in North Hollywood. “You always see people from other shops and you always say, ‘Oh shoot, he beat me to it.’ ”

During the 1967 Detroit riots, Bob Plotnik and a friend bought armfuls of rare jazz records that he feared would be lost in the fires and looting.

“There we were, two white guys running around the neighborhood trying to save the records,” said Plotnik, who recently opened a Melrose Avenue version of his Greenwich Village-based Bleecker Bob’s Golden Oldies Record Shop. “When people asked us what we were doing, we told them, ‘We’re trying to save the sounds.’ ”

The business is replete with such stories, and tales of fantastic finds. Alvino found a single of Frank Sinatra singing “High Hopes” with special lyrics written for John F. Kennedy’s inauguration. He paid $1 for the record and sold it for $300. Brown, at Ear Candy, bought a 1963 RCA sampler for 25 cents and, upon returning to his shop, discovered that it included a rare Elvis Presley cut that was worth $800.

“When you come across stuff like that,” Brown said, “it makes it all worthwhile.”

Shopping at alternative record stores can be just as arduous, or at least more difficult than dropping by a Sam Goody outlet to pick up Tiffany’s latest.

“Sometimes I’ll spend a couple hours looking to find what I want,” said John Hydo, 22, a record collector who was browsing through Ear Candy. “It’s kind of like a treasure hunt. I was at a store the other day and picked up the Beatles’ first album on the original label for only 94 cents.”

The shop owner who sold that Beatles album must not have known that it was worth more, Hydo said. Such is the lure of alternative stores--the promise of a bargain. Short of that, shoppers know they can find a wide selection.

“I don’t think I’ve ever come in here without buying something,” said John Rowan of Huntington Beach, who is a regular at the Record Collector in Los Angeles.

And the other day at Music & Memories, Alvino pointed to a customer named Chuck who was browsing through the bins.

“He collects Sinatra . . . everything,” Alvino said. “If Sinatra hums, he wants it.”

Chuck looked up and smiled.

“Absolutely.”