Especially if you live in the US, if the last couple of years have felt like an extended episode of the The Twilight Zone, I’m here with some news that’ll likely prolong and enhance that feeling more than any other singular event: Bandcamp is voluntarily on the verge of opening an in-person music store, where clicking will be useless, and where the phrase “add to cart” doesn’t meaningfully apply absent the choice to bring your personal grocery cart into the doubtlessly cart-less shop. The otherwise-online music company plans to open their Oakland store on February 1, and lest you wonder about the business sense behind opening a physical music shop in the year 2019, there’s a little more to it than what you might think (it’s not all about the habitual flicking motion as you browse through that rare vinyl).
Per a press release last week, the shop — located at 1901 Broadway — will double as a performance space. The Bandcamp folks are also partnering with (among other local outfits) Oakland School for the Arts, Bay Area Girls Rock Camp, and Transgender Law Center to throw “music-focused community events.” Bandcamp isn’t taking their neighborhood for granted, and photos of the interior suggest something quite atypical for a record shop and perhaps typical for a Bay Area arts space. I mean, I’d see a show here:
Again, the Bandcamp store in Oakland is opening February 1. Bells Atlas, Sol Development, Queens D. Light, Jazz on the Sidewalk, and MJ’s Brass Boppers are scheduled to perform beginning at 7 p.m.
(take that, digital revolution!)
