We are very excited to announce that some of us involved behind the scenes at Black Sheep are teaming up with some of those at Error Records in Champaign to bring you DUMB RECORDS – a brand new record store in Springfield opening early next year.
Everybody here around Black Sheep Land are very excited! We are pleased to announce a partnership between people from our local BXS community and Error Records in Champaign, IL to produce our very own record store here in South Town called DUMB RECORDS! We know this will be a tremendous boom for the neighborhood, having a one stop shop for all things music. Now not only can you see cool shows at Black Sheep but now you can buy cool records and hang out in the new shop! We will be offering records, CDs, tapes, and all sorts of cool schmoz! Be sure to come down! We will announce the grand opening in the near future. In the meantime we are looking for any used music items for the shop, so if you want to help us do this thing we will have a drop off box at the sheep. We appreciate it! We are stoked to say the least! We are excited about the future of South Town and our underground music scene here in Springfield!
-Kevin Bradford
We know that with this huge and exciting news brings up a lot of questions about the record store and about Black Sheep. Before going any further we thought we would answer some of the questions that you probably have.
What is Dumb Records?
Dumb Records is a new record store that will be opening early next year in the South Town neighborhood. It will be ran by people involved with Black Sheep and Error Records, but it will also be a separate entity. We will be selling new and used records, CDs, cassettes, and other band merchandise. There will be a focus on local music and bands that have played Black Sheep, but we will also feature music of all sorts of genres and eras.
Is Dumb Records a record label?
No. However, we will be carrying a lot of local and Midwest releases inside of Dumb Records. We will be working closely with local and Central Illinois labels such as Patch Records and Error Records to make music easily accessible to anyone visiting South Town.
Where is Dumb Records?
Dumb Records will be located at 1107 South Grand Avenue in Springfield. This is the space that once was the Artifacts Art Gallery.
When will Dumb Records be open?
There is still some work that needs to be done to the space and we are currently working on collecting stock. Right now we are shooting for a grand opening sometime in early 2014. You can expect another announcement with a more definite opening date sometime before the end of the year. Once Dumb Records is up and operating, we plan on having limited hours during shows and on weekends. A more definite schedule will be announced later this year.
How will this affect Black Sheep?
Black Sheep will not be going anywhere any time soon. Shows will continue at our normal pace. The record store will be ran separately from Black Sheep, but the two will be working together so that Dumb Records is always open during shows. You might also see Dumb Records become tied in with Black Sheep special events such as art shows and summer festivals. Dumb Records will help our neighborhood become even more of a hub for local and touring bands and musicians.
It is 2013. Why are you opening a record store?
Because we are dumb. Other than that we are doing this because we believe it will be something that will benefit our local music community in Springfield. Aside from selling records and other stock, we intend for this new store to be a safe and fun hangout spot during the day.
What can I do to get involved?
We will be taking donations of used records, CDs, cassettes, and band merchandise at Black Sheep during shows. We will have a bin set aside for these donations. You can also check out our get involved page to find a more detailed list of what you can do to get involved around the Black Sheep community. Also on the page we will be details on our upcoming meetings regarding Black Sheep and Dumb Records.
Again, those of us at Black Sheep would like to thank all of you who have been supportive of what we have been doing over the past eight years. We would have not made it this far if it were not for the tremendous amount of support that we have received from the community here in Springfield. We will take on this new and exciting project with a positive attitude just like we have with other new things that have come up at Black Sheep and South Town over the years.
As you may know, we are just a matter of days away from having a dumb record store in our own Southtown neighborhood. It is called Dumb Records and the grand opening celebration is this Saturday, which will be happening all day all over Southtown. Since we know all of you can not hold your excitement for the new record store, today we are giving you a small sneak peak and the things to come with a few photos of our progress. Check them out above and below.
You might be able to spot some goodies in those photos. Don’t forget that our grand opening is this Saturday, January 11th. The celebration will be from 12:00 to 9:00 pm at Dumb Records and at Black Sheep, but Dumb Records will be open at 10:00 am so come early if you want to have first dibs on some of those records! There is also a very good chance that Dumb Records will be having a soft opening on Friday, January 10th. You can follow Dumb Records on facebook to be more up to date on what time that soft opening will be. Check out the facebook event and find more information on the Dumb Records grand opening celebration and Black Sheep art show right here.
Dumb Records 