Memphis DJs – Memphis Flyer

On the whole, Memphis is a vinyl-crazy town. Long before vinyl singles and LPs staged a comeback in the music market, this town had anything the collector of dusty old platters could want. So it’s only fitting that the vinyl medium is roundly honored by the Stax Museum of American Soul Music, where so many classic sides were created in the first place. Indeed, the label’s players and producers regularly researched the hip sounds of the ’60s via customers at the front of the Stax building, in the Satellite Record Shop.

Those record shop roots live on today. Case in point, the gift shop of the Stax Museum carries an impressive array of vinyl. And much of that will be available this Saturday, May 29th, at their Memorial Day weekend Sidewalk Sale. Running from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., this event, much beloved by vinyl aficionados throughout the region, will offer vinyl records, CDs, books, clothing, housewares, souvenirs, and more, at significant discounts. Hundreds of soul 45s, including deep Stax cuts, will be available, causing many a collector to flock to the event. (We recommend showing up early.)

Rounding out the day, DJ Superman, aka The Soul Brother, will be spinning R&B, soul, and funk vinyl all day. Food trucks will also be on hand, so you can grab a quick bite standing, then get back to digging through those crates.

Among the platters available will be many examples of vinyl devotion from Stax and Craft Recordings. The latter’s painstaking reissues of classic Stax releases, such as the 2019’s Soul Explosion double LP, speak volumes about how seriously they take the art of the lathe.

And this appreciation of wax stacks doesn’t just stop at the gift shop doors. The interior’s permanent exhibit features walls covered with every 45 released on Stax and its subsidiaries, but that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Recently, the museum also acquired one of the premier collections of Chicago soul vinyl in the world, originally curated by the late Bob Abrahamian.

Consisting of more than 35,000 singles and LPs, along with related high school yearbooks, photographs, scrapbooks, and other artifacts, the collection was begun by Abrahamian when he was a volunteer DJ at the University of Chicago in the 1990s. After his suicide in 2014, Abrahamian’s family searched for an appropriate home to house the collection, eventually settling on the Stax Museum this year. As such, their donation not only honors the profound connection between Stax Records and Chicago-area artists like the Staple Singers, it recognizes the museum’s commitment to all American soul and the vinyl medium in particular.

Abrahamian’s archive of rare records has nothing to do with Saturday’s sale, of course, but will be highlighted in various ways in the museum’s future exhibits, and made available to researchers. Nonetheless, it’s just one more example of why Memphis and the Stax Museum are a vinyl lover’s dream.

Marcos Almendarez

DJ Scotty B

Lightclub Memphis, a community of like-minded individuals whose emphasis is to provide a safe, drug-free environment for members to dance, connect, and enjoy electronic music, has been hosting bi-weekly or monthly events since 2014.

Their goal has always been for the group’s members to enjoy “love and light” while also reveling in an immersive experience, with a state-of-the art 3D projection mapping installation and holograms serving as a backdrop for an evening of free meals cooked up by longtime member Antonio Sanders and multiple genres of electronic music performed by local DJs.

“I made it a personal mission to create a safe space where people could come and connect, dance, and not have to escape life with drugs,” says Lightclub founder Scotty Bollinger. “I feel like people take drugs to escape reality and to mask pain. Our hope at Lightclub is that if you will take a risk and come as you are, you can feel the same acceptance and escape the pain of life for a bit without having to do damage to your body.”

However, by 2018, Lightclub’s community grew so large that Bollinger could no longer safely host events at his property, so he took a hiatus from hosting private parties and began to focus on performing shows at local venues like Black Lodge, The New Daisy, and CANVAS.

But when the outbreak of COVID-19 forced all venues to close for the unforeseeable future, Bollinger wanted to figure out a way to continue to get his and others’ music out there.
“I saw a lot of other DJs starting to post online sets, and a couple of friends reached out to see if I was interested,” says Bollinger. “After tuning into other people’s sets, I realized it was a great way to still have connection.”

Jacob Platania

3D projection mapping installation and holograms

So Bollinger arranged a weekly Friday night online Twitch stream, kicking off the series with an evening of melodic techno with special guest DJ AD on April 10th. Since then, Bollinger has hosted six other local DJs, including Tree, Mylon Webb, Alora, Shinobi Senses, mado, and Jordan Rogers.

“The reception has honestly been better than I had hoped,” says Bollinger. “People are happy to connect and hear the music they love. Some of the local hula hoop community sent me pictures of the stream on the TV and them hooping while we were performing. It’s really cool to see people getting to do what they love in this challenging season.”

Although members of Lightclub Memphis can no longer meet in-person to enjoy the atmosphere, Bollinger says he’s grateful for the opportunity to provide an online space for the core community to engage with each other while also enjoying the audio and visual aspects of what Lightclub has to offer from the comfort of their homes.

“Most people are bored at home and this is a small reminder of normalcy,” says Bollinger. “Music is a universal language that soothes the soul. Around half of my performers DJ for a living and are out of work, and this gives them a chance to still be expressive and connect with their friends. In some ways, it’s as much for the DJs as it is for those who tune in.”

Tune in every Friday night at 8 p.m. by heading over to twitch.tv/lightclubmemphis. Free. Visit lightclubmemphis.com for more information about Lightclub Memphis.