BY STAFF WRITER KARMA AVEDON
Who does not like hanging out in the record store?
In real life, I know I have spent hours upon hours walking through the stacks of vinyl at an old record store, trying to find some gems among the dusty stacks of records. The local record store was always a great place to hang out, hear some good music and maybe make a few friends and debate such musical questions as, “Who is the better, Roger Daltrey or Bon Jovi?”
Now you can enjoy that same experience and more right here in SL at Rag Tag Records, a unique music venue which recently opened on the Wisteria sim. RTR is the concept of Sicavit Flux and Zenn Ely. Zenn is a five year resident who has done a significant amount of building and design work. She discovered a love for indie music two years ago and has been toying with the idea of opening a club ever since. Sic is a fan of music who has been Djing and operating clubs since arriving in SL two years ago. Ely and Flux said they wanted to create a place that did not lock itself into one particular style of music, but instead offered people a chance to come hear different styles of music and meet different types of people.
And what better place to do that than a record store?
“The record store idea came when we started the building process,” said Flux. “We wanted something, that again, reflected the eclectic nature of our place. What could be more eclectic than a record store?”
RTR is a club stuck inside a record store design. There is a dance floor, and live DJ’s play a wide variety of music with an emphasis on punk and alternative. But again, don’t be surprised if you hear a song by Queen or even some dubstep. You will also find rows and rows of album covers stacked throughout the store. I could not help but to walk the rows and check out all the classic album covers. Upstairs, you can find Flux’s line of original punk clothing. Flux made one of my all time favorite shirts, a version of the famous “Frankie Say” tee from the 80′s.
Flux and Ely said that they hope the interesting mix of people will draw just as interesting a mix of visitors.
“We both think the most important aspect of a music type hangout is the people,” said Ely, “So we hope we appeal to cool people who like to listen to music, chat and hangout out with other cool people.”
So, if you are wanting to check out some interesting music and enjoy a visit to your old record store, go take a walk to Rag Tag Records.
Visit Inworld: Rag Tag Records
What a great concept!
There are so few ‘proper’ record stores left in the real world – places where you can ‘hang out’ and the people are as important as the music – that it’s great to see ventures like this in Second Life. Let’s hope it’s hugely successful.
I’ll certainly be checking it out!
Seems like such a short time ago that my partner and I spent over 2 hours in Ragtag Records without being greeted or even noticed by Zenn Ely or Mitzy Madsen…. except for Mitzy playing hateful music the whole time. Zenn didn’t hesitate to feed me to the lions later on for coming in drunk and having bad feelings about Paolla Flux and her mutual admiration society. Avoid at all costs.