My first album was TLC.

Crazy Sexy cool.

First experience with my own money was, set copies of Will Smith's Big Willie style and Rage Against the Machine Battle of Los Angeles, b The Dave Matthews Band.

The first L I bought with my own money was, I went to my local record stor and I found a 1973 copy of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the moon, and I got so excited.

Johnny, anywhere and love.

Now, this is a media storage unit that's called a vinyl LP.

And this is a media storage unit called a seven inch 45.

Both of these have been around the block.

Both of them are a little worn, but they still sound better than that MP3 or iPod.

Remember, there's nothing like a good vinyl fix.

So the question is, what else are they lying to you about?

This is a beautiful, sunny, wonderful day in the neighborhood.

And the road show has come to Toledo, Ohio.

And we are the nerve center for independent record stores in this town.

A place called Culture Clash right here.

The owner, Mr. Tim Freeman, and, I know why I decided to open up a record store, because I've been working in the music business, and I knew that no one was going to give me a job at that point.

Yeah.

What was the point where you said, damn, I'm going to have a record store?

I mean, I'll tell you, it was late teens.

I was realizing there was nothing else I wanted to do.

Other than run a record store and or record label.

So I went to college to study business because I thought that was, what you did.

But, the reality was, what that did was it made me fall in love with the Toledo area, made me fall in love with the existing culture clash records and the owner.

And when he met his, unfortunate, untimely demise, I stepped up.

And that was the moment when I realized I needed to run this store.

I remember the first day that I met Pat O'Connor, and, you know, he was one happ warrior in the music business, and he was exactly the kind of person that you expect to have an independent record store under his grasp.

He inspired everything that that came after.

I still tell people that it was because Pat would shoot his arm up and say, hey Tim, what are you listening to?

That I felt so much at home in his record store.

And that's what we aim to do every day here.

It seems to me that the independent record stores that I go to without fail, are doing what I would call constant musical missionary outreach.

A store like this.

So not only serves the community, but it's always a reflection of the musical heritag and the scene in their own town.

Absolutely.

The, you know, whether it's m or whether it's employees behind the counter.

Hi, I'm John, I've been with the store for about two years now.

I'm from Toledo, Ohio.

I've been collecting records for the past ten years of my life.

Hello, I'm Lizzie.

I'm actually married to Tim so I'm a co-owner of the store, and we've owned the stor for just about seven years now.

All.

Hi.

I'm said Gottlieb.

I'm assistant manager at the shop, and I've been here for about three years now.

One thing I was really stoked to pick up lately was, promo copy of, John Prine Sweet Revenge.

My first music of any sort that I remember buying with my own money was Mariah Carey's Music Box on cassette classic.

My dad introduced me to Fleetwood Mac, so we got Mystery to Me on CD because Emerald Eyes was my song.

Green Eyes, and also probably a handsome tape.

First vinyl was Big Science that Laurie Anderson, you said it is curating and doing this mission work.

Of under standing the person on the other side of of understanding their tastes and saying, you know, I've got something that I think is for you, all the way from the other side of it is, you know when we bundle records together and put them in a blind bag and we.

So these are three records that kind of go together a little bit if you, if you want them to, you know, it's all of that which comes down to knowing, understanding and appreciating all the music that's in here.

I'm reminded of the fact we one time we did a radio commercial for a rock station, and one of the people doing it with me, eventually became the pop critic for the LA times.

And I had him say a line that, why buy your music online?

Why buy your music?

From a download that's like phone sex?

All right, all right, I can I could see that.

And, once more, every indie store I go into has its own personality, its own collective thrust.

It's just, you know, its own style.

It's not a cookie cutter thing.

No.

It's the reason that you and I both walk into record stores, across the country, and we say, oh, that's really cool.

Oh, that's a cool idea.

Oh, I wish we did something like that.

It's because every one of these places is so different and so representative of of the people, that make it up to me.

The indie record store shouldn't be described as an organization.

It should be described as a community organism.

I love that, maybe a maybe nonprofit community or some well, hopefully that sometimes profit enough to be able to make the, payroll and, bring in new records.

Exactly.

And, everybody that I know that has their little happy corner of capitalism tend to be able to keep that going.

Yes.

I also have, as, one of my employees onc said, hey, have you noticed that all those big record chains that went out of business, they all have one thing in common.

They quit caring Vinyl and the stores that such as thi who are around ten, 20, 30, 40 years ago never quit carrying vinyl.

I mean, we did certainly have CDs and, stores like this sell both and cassette, but it still comes back to the vinyl.

Yeah.

Toledo has a history of being what would be referred to as a an open, open town.

Well, what what term would you use?

Mobbed up?

Yeah, I maybe, you know, a mobbed up town with proximity to Canada and to Detroit, which of course, was, an interesting dynamic for a town during the era of prohibition.

And, I understand this building that you're in has a very interesting history as far as that.

If you could tell us about it.

Yeah.

It was, built the turn of the century, and it was mob owned.

So a lot of it is just kind of word of mouth and that sort of history.

But we know that the basement was, mainly like, you know, moving illegal contraband.

And there's a bunch of crazy little rooms and doors that lead to nothing.

And there used to be a tunnel that went underground to what is now the gas station next door.

But it used to just be a place for them to run liquor or to escape.

The main floor was mainly like the business fronts, you know, things to make it look legitimate.

The second floor was there were phone booths or phone lines, switchboards.

They took bets on horses, that kind of stuff.

And then the attic was a brothel.

So first of all, 95% of our business is vital.

In general.

And of that, it's varied over time.

But at this point, I would say we're about 60, 40 new versus used.

I can see that you have enough physical space for this to be an ongoing, work in progress.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

You're absolutely right.

We're going to only grow from here.

You haven't even seen the basement roof.

Well, I've seen, that very nice, personable bar.

And I've seen your stage for bands to play in, so, like I say, we built that.

We built that stage, immediately when we moved into this building, which was, during Covid, we we knew, you know, we were kind of calling our shot or like, you know what?

There is, an artist that Toledo is, known for, Art Tatum, who's a, amazing piano player who lived through some really hard times, was able to play some beautiful musi and played with some incredible trios and groups, who passed well before his time and kind of indicative of that Midwest hard workmanship.

That, that I think Ohio and the Midwest area is known for, hop in a skip from, Motown here.

And that has had as much influence, on the style, on the scene as anything else.

And as far as the city of Toledo, we can't forget Anita Baker and Shirley Murdock.

Those are two women who had long and successful careers as recording and touring artists, both from that city.

And I myself can remember a fabulous show outdoors.

Going to see Miss Anita Baker, who I consider to be one of the greatest singers of the past 30 years.

Right Above Our Heads is an album that I would have neve thought would be a best seller, but this record and both Culture Clash here and Toledo, as well as any other store I know of, including our own, we have sold hundreds and hundreds of copies of a record made for plants to listen to.

It's wild.

We we talk about it in the same breath as we talk about, Fleetwood Mac's rumors, or as we d Taylor Swift records or Sabbath.

I mean, we'll know I expected Fleetwood Mac rumors to sell, for Christ's sake, but, So I got a suggestion.

Next time you go to an indie record store, take the time to check out their t shirt.

Wear their hoodie.

Cause it's always an iconic image or something that is humorous, satirical.

It's tied into the community that it comes from, and, looks pretty damn good when you go to a concert.

That city on the Great Lakes, Cleveland Pay Pier does have their share of musicians and legendary bands.

How about Tracy Chapman?

How about nine Inch Nails, the pop band the raspberries, and that infamous punk band, the Dead Boys, hip hop, Bone Thugs and Harmony and the 80 soul act, the Dazz Band, as well as that category of one band that defies description.

Pere Ubu Out of all the artists I just mentioned out of Cleveland, I'm pretty confident that Ubu is the least commercially successfu band of all the nearly 20 years before the dark vision of Nine Inch Nails, caribou was a model of an urban, dark, dystopian rock band.

The founder of Nine Inch Nails, Trent Reznor, has gone on to mainstream success, but his albums were real signposts for a particular generation of young, frustrated people who had a bleak view of America, a bleak view of their existence, and were just looking for music to reflect those moments of doubt that they may have one of the most impressive rock shows that I saw in the 1990s was when Nine Inch Nails wa opening up to David Bowie movie.

They called that tour and I should be wrong.

Looking back in anger later, Trent Reznor did a video with David Bowie on the song I Am Afraid of America.

Oh dear hearts, we're here in Cleveland and we're here in Cleveland for one reason.

We have come to the sweet spot, the G spot for audio file.

Vinyl manufacturer at the Got a Groove record plant.

And I'm standing her with the president head honcho.

We've got a groove Mr. early.

You know, at one time there were a whole lot of pressing plants in the United States.

Virtually every major label owned one.

And, it wasn't unusual.

It wasn't that hard to get, vinyl pressed.

But when the era of CD came out, suddenly those pressing plants disappeared.

Fewer and fewer every year.

You opened up, got a groove in 2009.

So you must have already seen that there was a place for a new audio file plant to fill that space.

What was your thoughts?

Well, I was working in record wholesale at the time, and every year vinyl sales grew.

And I mean, even back in 2000, well before Record Store Day started, vinyl was important to independent record stores, and it was hard to keep it in stock.

It was hard to get things pressed, and when they were pressed, they sold out right away.

And it took months and months to, have them repress.

So I said to my wife, I think it might be a good time to open a pressing plant.

She thought it was a little crazy, but I convinced her.

Well, there was something else that was a problem for an independent record store or a band or an artist.

And I would call that quality control.

Ther wasn't a lot of quality control at some of these, plants that there were around.

And, what I've seen got a groove do is totally up the game.

Thank you.

You do presses for as few as 500 records.

What do we do?

Let's.

We'll do 100.

Actually, 100 and upward.

You do, limited edition presses from, from stores such as myself.

You, do really, strikingly visual presses.

And, what what do you think about this whole mania now for colored vinyl?

Well, it's fun.

I mean, it pushes the outer limit of what you can do with records.

Especially when people are talking about mixing different colors or we get a lot of request for putting things into records that are not even vinyl for visual effect, flower petals and metallic items, which just doesn't work out that well.

Usually.

But yeah, it' certainly pushing the envelope.

I think it's als just making a younger generation even more interested in the format, just because of the striking visual nature of it.

You're not just listening to it, you're watching it spin, watching it play.

In 1989, Tracy Chapman introduced her first album to the Grammys.

Fast forward to 2024.

The highlight of that Grammy presentation was Tracy doing her song Fast Cars with the country singer Luke Combs, who you could tell was just over the moon to be doing it with his musical idol.

So right now, how many pressing plant are there in the United States?

I think we're getting close t 30, that are actually operating at this point.

I know there's a few that will soon be opening but in terms of operating today, I think it's about 30.

Now.

We're here in Cleveland at this plant, but you also have another one in Columbus.

What does that plant do?

So in Columbus, we don't press records.

We make the stampers, which are the metal molds that stamp the grooves into the vinyl.

And, we actually ship stampers to other pressing plants as well.

So it's not just supplying our own needs.

We're we're supplying really the whole country.

And, how many employees do you have now?

We're up over 60.

Wow, wow.

Have you any idea how many LP projects got a groove has manufactured?

Yeah, it's it's probably around 13,000.

Maybe a little more than 13,000 individual projects over the years.

Yeah.

It's crazy.

Does that include seven inch 45.

Yes it does.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well I know that when I was in, coal mine records in, Loveland, Ohio, there was an entire wall of items that you would manufactured.

And I've looked at their seve inch before and their audio file and the room we're in right no is, is one of the four quality control rooms.

We have.

The pressing plant where normally someone is sitting here listening to records all day long.

So there's a lot of listening involved in making sur that the records turn out right.

You know, Bone Thugs and Harmony, to my mind, was the closest hi hop ever came to a ballad group.

1997 bone Thugs and Harmony hit the charts and got a Grammy for their song The Crossroad, which was their tribute to the late Eazy-E. You know, we mentioned Bone Thugs and Harmony and their song about Eazy-E. That gentleman from Compton on the West Coast actually came to our store one day with an in-store, was done almost like a military operation.

And in walk this very, very short gentleman in immaculate ghetto finery.

And I turned to on of my employees and said, man, I guess if you talk enough, you need four big refrigerator sized bodyguards.

And from that industrial town of Akron, less than 40 miles down the road from Cleveland, we can't forget Devo, the satiric sci fi theme jokesters and foundation new wave band that became a mainstay cream commercial success with an art punk attitude.

What artist have you had come in?

I mean, have you ever had a notable artist come in?

They wanted to see the plan or, you know, came to you with the project and visited.

You know, it doesn't happen frequently that we have artists come by less than Jake.

When we were doing Less Than Jake records a long time ago, this and this was 7 or 8 years ago, probably, if not more.

Well, Matt, you have 60 employees.

You have not one.

But two factories for what you do.

Things seem busy.

I didn't see any of your employees frowning, and, life looks good.

It got a groove, and it looks like the groove is going on here.

I want to thank you for your time, and, needless to say, I have a musical day.

Likewise.

Thank you very much for your time.

So check it out while we're on our way to the Cleveland airport.

Behold, here's another record store that's unique, has an unusual approach to hours of operation, and is giving access to customers who want to try their hand at a DJ set in the evening hours.

Let' go check out late night records.

The first record I ever bought was Ennio Morricone's The Good, the bad and the ugly soundtrack on vinyl.

My very first album purchased was in Philadelphia on Samson Street, and it was Frank Zappa's freak out.

Hi, my name is Andrea.

My first cassette tape was Thriller and Michael Jackson.

My name is Kelly Polinsky, and the very first album I bought with my own money was Pat Benatar Heartbreaker.

It was between that or Madonna, and I saved my money hard from babysitting, and I just loved Pat Benatar Video so I got Pat Benatar for me, primarily for the CDC and Back in Black.

I remember my very first piece of music was on 45 of the Beach Boys called, Good Vibrations.

The first album I ever purchased was The Monkees.

My first album was by Aretha Franklin, who sent me.

The first album I ever bough was Michael Jackson's Thriller, and I bought it at the Record Swap in Homewood, Illinois.

My first album was, the Billy Idol.

My first album was the Let It Be album by The Beatles, and it was fantastic music.

It was just the best.

So that's my favorite and first album ever that I paid for with my own money.

My first album was Slippery and Wet by Bon Jovi.

Even worse by Weird Al Yankovic.

First album I got was thriller.

I got it for Christmas one year and my brother got his first album, which was Z.z top, and then we fought over who got to play theirs first.

Unfortunately, I think he might have won.

My first album was Yellow Submarine by the Beatles, the very first album I ever bought was A Charlie Brown Christmas.

My first album, white from yellow, Electric Light Orchestra, I think it was 78.

Maybe 79.

They came out with an album called out of the blue.

It had a UFO on the cover, and I bought it, and almost probably 90% because the album Yamaha, my first album I remember really getting into was Elton John, Captain Fantastic and The Brown Hair Cowboy, which had some of the best album artwork ever, and that was probably 1976 77.

I can't remember exactly, but those are the two, and that was the first one I bought with my own funds was definitely the first 45 ever.

But when I was a little kid and I went into the Woolworth's in the mall and bought the 45 for, The Monster Mash by Bobby Bori Pickett, it's almost Halloween.

My first record was actually the Harlem Globetrotters 45 that they had.

I forget the name of the song, but it was their little theme song.

I'm Living Right Next door to an Angel by Neil Sedaka.

Punisher by Bobby.

The first record I ever bought was Queen's White Album that had Bohemian Rhapsody on it.

Blew my mind that I bought Yes, let's just say that.

Yeah.

So my first album was Elton John, Captain Fantastic and Brown Haired Cowboy.