Albany Vinyl Records store makes a comeback

Albany Vinyl Records store makes a comeback

Vinyl may have been a dying media, but now it’s becoming more popular than ever.

Jim Furlong is the owner and operator of Last Vestige Records in Albany NY.

Jims history

He has been in the business for 30 years. He has seen the fall of Vinyl, both the rise and fall of CD’s, the rise of electronic music, and the resurgence of Vinyl.

Furlong has been in the business for a long time. He first started out listening to records in the 60s. In 1977, he took a job at a record store in Albany, called Just a song on Central Avenue.

“They were probably one of the greatest local record stores ever to be, they had loads and loads of new releases,” said Furlong reminiscing about the shop.

He then left his first job to work at another local record shop called Worlds Records, in 1980. Worlds Records was the first used record store according to Furlong.

Furlong then moved to New York City with his band to “make it”, but while he was there he started working at another record shop called Midnight Records.

Midnight Records was a mail-order business, meaning that the shop mainly sold records via the mail. This would allow the shop to sell records anywhere, not just locally.

“He dealt primarily in hard to find out of print records and rare imports, so I got my background in mail-order, by working for him,” Furlong said.

In 1984, Furlong moved back to Albany and started a mail-order business out of his apartment.

After five years, he decided to open up a small shop.

His first shop was located across the street from where his shop currently sits. His first shop was located in the same building as a famous popular Albany bar called Franks Living Room, which had been vacant until Furlong put his shop there.

Last Vestige was opened on Halloween in 1989.

After three to four years, Furlong’s business had grown too big for the space. He decided to buy the space he is currently in, in a count auction.

After seven months of remodeling, Last Vestige was ready to be reopened and has been there ever since.

Thanks to his mail-order business, Furlong sends records all over the world to places like Japan and South America.

“In ’89 when I opened, records were becoming a thing of the past. So, there were lots of great Vinyl out there people were unloading, and I would buy it because I had a niche market with my mail-order and there were still plenty of people coming in locally, regionally, and out of the country to the US to buy Vinyl.” Furlong said.

At this time, Furlong was the only record store in town, so anyone in the area who still wanted to buy records went to him.

Vinyl’s resurgence 

According to Furlong, midway through this decade: vinyl began a comeback, “Suddenly, everybody was getting back into vinyl again.”

Even vinyl factories have started reopening to accommodate the higher demand.

As a result of this, it has been more difficult and more competitive for Furlong to get collections into his shop like he used to.

According to Furlong, the records everyone wants that he would have stocked up in backorder have now diminished.

“Whereas five years ago I might have had 15 or 20 Led Zeppelin albums or Black Sabbath, or ACDC in backup of each title, now I have none, or I have one or two at any given time, and they disappear as quickly as they come in, because a lot of people are back into it again,” Furlong said.

However, Furlong is not upset about this problem, he thinks it’s great that so many people are back into and buying vinyl again.

According to Furlong, there are many reasons why vinyl has come back into style.

One reason is that many people are fed up with the music industry. He also thinks that people like to gravitate to the punk and do it yourself or DIY crowd.

He also believes that shops like his have been doing better because of mainstream vinyl prices being too high.

“You go into Barnes & Nobles and they have a ‘gigundus’ record department now, but the cheapest albums are 20-25 bucks, and it just annoys me.” Furlong said, “If I get the originals in, I’m selling them for what the new ones are costing, if not less.”

Furlong also thinks that the fact that people like the physical album covers along with watching the pin go over the record itself and the whole novelty of it all is a large reason for the resurgence of vinyl.

Furlong has a big mix of customers now, “it’s loads of young kids who discovered their parent’s turntables and are grabbing onto it and buying stuff. There are people who sold me all their albums 15-20 years ago, who are now back rebuying and getting back into it again. There are the older people, my age, older baby boomers, who just like it.”

Whatever the case may be, vinyl is making a comeback and people like Furlong make sure to keep the art of vinyl alive.