Tower Vinyl Grand Re-Open in Shibuya Tokyo Pt 1

[@brucevinyl3504]

I really enjoyed this trawl through Tower Records, Michael. I was out in Japan last summer but never got to Tower Records. I loved finding a stash of jazz vinyl in Book Off. Must look you up next time I'm over.👍

[@ricefieldrecords]

BookOff is an amazing source for used Jazz records. Their prices can be demonstrably lower than the other large chain stores. Thanks very much for sharing your experience. And yes, please look me up your next visit to Japan.

[@retromusings]

Fantastic to see this as I managed to watch recently the documentary "All Things Must Pass" about the rise and fall of Tower Records. It's wonderful to know the shop is still going strong and it's investing in updating its merchandising. Thanks so much for this great video.

[@uncleweed]

That is a great documentary… PS There are several other US legacy brands that are thriving in Japan because the operations were sold off as a cash grab, another example is Disney which is actually not owned by Disney but just licensed by a Japanese company. 7-Eleven is of course now a Japanese company and at least 1000% better than it was in those old days of Slurpees and Doritos, also, Yahoo is still a very active company in Japan whereas it’s deadwood elsewhere.

[@davidellis5141]

I worked at Tower Records in Westwood in the early 80's. We had three floors of records. Pay was lousy but you got promotional copies of any new release you wanted & free concert tickets. The store is the one Richard Gehr & Lauren Hutton shop at in American Gigolo.

[@ricefieldrecords]

Yeah, the Japan stores keep the memory alive. Every detail is retained. I miss the Tower at Chestnut/Columbus all the time. Thanks for viewing and commenting.

[@davystrangename]

Thanks for using the tune.Its like partlly AI. Every bar you can set the mood like quiet,mid,intense and extreme and which of the 4 instruments you play in that bar. And I did eq it. But the chords ,melody and arrangement is AI.

[@ricefieldrecords]

I think it fit in well. I’m going to use it in Part 2. Thanks again.

[@vcthunderdome]

Love Tower!! Thx for the vid.

[@ricefieldrecords]

Glad you enjoyed!

[@erikbaas2003]

great video !!! thanks for the work

[@ricefieldrecords]

My pleasure! Thanks for your acknowledgment.

[@colortura]

Thank you for showing the remodel Tower Records. Please show some more classical and jazz records when you go exploring vinyl in Japan.

[@ricefieldrecords]

Do you have any preferences or specific curiosity? I could show very expensive classical records as a video topic or if there are record labels or publishers? If I were to be in front of a classical area, my shooting would be willy nilly. With guidance that could change.

[@colortura]

Thanks for writing back. I'm actually interested in audiophile records and avant garde classical. Composers like Philip Glass, Xenakis, John Cage. What ever you choose to do, I'll be happy. :)

[@corporalcornealiaspheffer8296]

Another great video. You have really good at this.

[@ricefieldrecords]

Thank you Fred. You’re always there and always positive.

[@VinylBliss]

Thank you for this! The prices seem quite a bit more reasonable than I had anticipated, there are some decent deals to be had there.

[@ricefieldrecords]

One day at one train station location and you can likely find the same record 2-3 times

[@UncleDansVintageVinyl]

Man, I'm bummed that you didn't go through the Jethro Tull for my benefit. And, man, all those cassettes! Whodathunkit. "The Summer of Endless Levitation" is a great title.

[@ricefieldrecords]

The cassettes were a first for me. I’ll dig into American blues and female singers in an upcoming visit.

[@musicalarmchairs]

Nice work again. I noticed the lack of obi’s when going through the rock records at the beginning of the video. I presume that’s cause they were all recent foreign releases, curious to know the quality of releases they are filling the shelves with. I think Japan has only in recent years started pressing vinyl locally again?

[@ricefieldrecords]

Great question! I don't think Japan ever issued Dead Kennedys records so it's a perfect example. It's a mix of old US or other country import plus the new reissues from the newer publishers. And that's pretty much the case. Many times the Japanese issued their own pressings, but if they were late in doing so than customers would special order other country pressings and pick it up at the store. The customers were the driving reason for all those foreign pressings in Japan. That's why the bins are such a mixed bag of representative albums from a single artist. And the older stuff from the 60s on; a lot of those OBIs were torn off or fell off. And that's why there are used Japanese pressings without the OBI. Japan is definitely pressing records again.

[@uncleweed]

Just chiming in to say that Japan never stopped pressing records. There’s a great documentary hosted by the legendary Peter Barakan via NHK world’s “Japanology“ where they deep dive into this topic. Not only did they not stop pressing (esp jazz, classsic & city pop + engage), they kept up the great quality whereas a lot of US - especially pressings in the 80s (at least, as that’s when I started buying a lot of records) - are really poor quality & flimsy, both the vinyl and the packaging. PS a few years ago, one of the major record pressing plants in the US had a catastrophic fire and lost a lot of the lacquers (used to make the press masters), and there was a run on the lacquers from Japanese pressing plants.

[@richardriley4415]

New Age ? They had a good selection. I just wish that stores would separate old records from new. Cheers from CA. Lol.

[@ricefieldrecords]

All the New Age was brand new, which surprised me. The other bin sections were new and used together; but you saw that…yeah the mix has been typical to see.

[@АлексейКузнецов-с5з7й]

i need COSMIC GAL-KEEP ON MOVING (1979) The record was released only in Japan.

[@Grooverski]

Giant of a store. Wow

[@ricefieldrecords]

And there’s a Part 2 for the same store and floor

[@Grooverski]

@@ricefieldrecords Show us what kids in Japan are listening to Michael.

[@ricefieldrecords]

@@Grooverski For starters, check out my earlier video titled, "Tower Records Shibuya Tokyo タワーレコード渋谷店" I think you saw it already but I give a taste of each J-Pop and K-Pop floor and some of the music.

[@Grooverski]

@@ricefieldrecords I’ve seen it M. Can you guesstimate size of this store? Looks huge.

[@LloydGutteridge]

Hi Michael. Thank you for your informative videos. I am going to be in Tokyo in early september and am looking for Japanese pressings of Casiopea, Steely Dan and Level 42 among many others. In your view what is the best second hand vinyl store which I should check out? Thank you for any advice you can give.

[@ricefieldrecords]

Assuming you have one full day to devote to record shopping, Shinjuku is as good as Shibuya and Disc Union will have everything you are searching for. Disc Union Shinjuku Rock Record Store 4F/5F Shimokiku Building, 3-34-12 Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku Disc Union Shinjuku Used Center T&T III Building 3F, 3-17-5 Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo Disc Union Shinjuku Indie Alternative Rock Hall Yamada Building 6F, 3-31-4 Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo

[@LloydGutteridge]

Thank you again Michael This is very good info. I am planning to have a viewing day when I first arrive and purchase anything which I may have extreme FOMO for. Then travel around japan before returning to Tokyo to purchase the bulk as I do not wish to carry them around with me ( I am aware of storage but I am a fussy collector and want to avoid knee jerk purchases unless Mint Jams by Casiopea appears which is very expensive to buy on Discogs and ship to NZ where I am from) I am an experienced crate digger and if previous experiences are anything to go buy, I will allow time to get over the jet lag. I think spreading the load over a few days is the way to go. Go well@@ricefieldrecords

[@ricefieldrecords]

You can enjoy a 10% tax refund upon your return flight from the big chains like Disc Union. Wear super comfortable shoes. A number of the stores sell sturdy shipping boxes for 25-50 records that you can use as luggage. Look into the credit cards for travelers with zero exchange rate fees. Hit me up for any answers if you get stymied.

[@LloydGutteridge]

Thankyou. I just booked the flight yesterday. Will certainly contact you nearer the time and if possible we could meet up? Lunch on me :)@@ricefieldrecords

[@ricefieldrecords]

@@LloydGutteridge Absolutely 👍

[@mymixture965]

I see a lot unofficial stuff in the Jazz section, so are there DOLL/WAXTIME/JAZZTIME crap records available in Japan too? I hate that stuff....

[@ricefieldrecords]

Yes. I made a point of showing that. They bring in a lot of imported pressings. Whether they sell well or not is another question. I don’t know offhand. Only the publishers know and that’s not public information. Thank you for watching and commenting.

[@mymixture965]

@@ricefieldrecords I am in Austria/Europe and here they are not selling as well as they did in the past, my local records store does not sell them anymore. I think and hope that record lovers get more educated. I bought them in my beginning too so if you don't know it better, you make these typical beginner mistakes.

[@uncleweed]

Definitely not uncommon to see “Grey market“ releases sold in shops. I’ve gratefully, but someone begrudgingly, found some great live bootleg - always from bands i’ve given tons of money to + the entrepreneurial spirit to get these releases out feels a little bit of a Grateful Dead vibe, whether "right or wrong" - The official labels would do well to figure this out on their own (noting that rhino records does a great job of this sorta deep catalog retailing.

[@Z-eb]

@2:03 i spotted CAN, and you LET ME DOWN not showing whats in stock....aaaaargh ;((((((((((((((((((((( (LOL)

[@ricefieldrecords]

There may be more CAN in Part 2

[@Z-eb]

@@ricefieldrecords More CAN, More krautrock, More SpaceRock, More PROG, Please ! (of course you dont have to overdo it, but it seems there is so little of it showed in videos like this......or is it only me?!?!) Have a nice day/evening !

[@ricefieldrecords]

Maybe I’ll live-stream a record store dig in Japan and take requests for pulls.

[@vinylmartini3377]

Whew!! Overwhelming Michael. One day I will make it to Japan, I’ll be sure to bring an empty carrier to fill with records. Cheers.

[@vinylmartini3377]

@@ricefieldrecords Great idea!

[@TS-ef4tb]

For CDs and cassettes, is it only new or they carry used ones also?

[@ricefieldrecords]

Cassettes are new and used. CD’s are lees than 1% on the floor and what they had on display was new issues.

[@TS-ef4tb]

Thanks!@@ricefieldrecords

[@Leaman001]

Tower records is all New records? Any used

[@ricefieldrecords]

Both new and used. The New Age section was 100% new. Every other section I captured was new and used.

[@VinylPro]

....is something like that in Osaka ?

[@ricefieldrecords]

Yes, there are three Tower Record Stores in Osaka

[@VinylPro]

@@ricefieldrecords rush , rush there !