We have once again made the local paper it looks like. Yesterday the article, “There’s a fierce battle in downtown Springfield and Dumb Records is the epicenter” went up online over at sj-r.com, and it appears as if this is going to be in print tomorrow for the big Sunday newspaper in the local business section. Thank you to Brenden Moore for writing the article. From the article:

“Running a small business amid a global pandemic is not easy. Many conversations center around how to adapt to the current reality of social distancing and capacity limits and simply surviving in order to reach better times.

This is perhaps most pertinent for business owners running brick-and-mortar stores in downtown Springfield, who have been hurt by the loss of foot traffic as much of the downtown labor force continues to work from home while tourists have stayed away.”

WordPress, why won’t you let us do quote-blocks anymore? Why did you have to take that away? You can check out the full article online right here. You also should be able to find it in tomorrow’s Sunday print issue of the State Journal-Register.

We are downtown now (and have been a year), so we guess this is news to us. Yesterday’s front paper headlines in the State Journal-Register read “City To Replace Outdated Meters,” meaning our parking meters, including the ones directly outside of our store, will soon be replaced. The meters themselves are around 25 years old, which means they are surpassing their typical life expectancy. What exactly they are going to be replaced with and when is not yet clear. The city will be holding an open house meeting this Thursday (February 20th) open to the public to discuss the future of the meters, the possibility of two-way streets replacing one-way streets downtown, and other upgrades. From the article:

A solution is coming — Mayor Jim Langfelder has set aside about $170,000 in his proposed budget for new meters, which will be among the topics discussed at an open house the city is hosting on Thursday. What exactly that solution looks like is less clear.

But what is clear is that fixing metered parking is just one piece to the larger downtown parking puzzle. While traffic studies routinely show an excess of spaces available on-street, in parking lots and in parking ramps, downtown business owners say there is still a disconnect between that reality and the perception that downtown parking is difficult.

You can check out the full article online right here. We would also like to point out that parking meters are enforced outside of our store from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm on week days – any time outside of that (and all day on weekends) parking is free.

Our store was once again in the newspaper today because the press just can’t get enough of us. This time it wasn’t about anything we have been in the paper about before – The State Journal Register has us featured inq a small article in the City/State section for a surprise marriage proposal which took place in our store early Sunday! The article was published along with this photo – “Andy Krisak, right, proposed to Cori Claycomb, left, by spelling out “Cori, will you marry me?” over five different vinyl record sleeves and hiding them among the stacks of records at Dumb Records.” We posted a video of the proposal as well to our facebook page yesterday.

Pick up a copy of The State Journal-Register while you still have time to today, or check out the article online right here.

Just one day after our big announcement that we will be moving Dumb Records and Black Sheep downtown at the end of this year / beginning of 2019, local paper The State Journal-Register put us up on the front page yesterday, less than 24 hours after our big announcement. Owner Brian Galecki spoke to the SJ-R about the decision to move. From the article:

“I’ve talked to a lot of people (including former owner Kevin Bradford) and there hasn’t been anyone who didn’t think this was a good idea. We truly view this as a step in the right direction for us. For other show-goers and me, a move downtown feels right.”

Check out the full article online right here. We’re not sure if it’s easy to pick up yesterday’s paper… but you can find the physical article on the front page of yesterday’s paper if you are able to hunt one of those down.

We plan on announcing more details on the move as far as what we need help with, more final shows, and where we are moving to later on.

Looks like once again Dumb Records has made the news. This time it’s for something a little on the wacky side. In yesterday’s paper (Monday) the paper published an article: “Dumb Records Uses Mayor Langfelder’s Likeness In Web Ad”. The article is a reference to this online video advertisement ran by our store on facebook, created by Evan Mitchell that premiered during his showing of Star Wars fan fictional film “The Lost Sandwhich” which premiered in our store at the start of this month. A newspaper reporter interviewed store owner Brian Galecki, video creator Evan Mitchell, and also the mayor himself. From the article:

“If they feel like I can sell some records, you know how I love music,” Langfelder said. However, that doesn’t mean Langfelder wants to see a barrage of ads using his image to sell products. “I don’t want a bunch of people out there doing that,” Langfelder said. Langfelder has a collection of albums on vinyl. His favorite song is “Stairway to Heaven” by Led Zeppelin.

Check out the full article online right here. Will there be any sort of follow up with us reaching out to the mayor to team up somehow in the future? We will see. Stay tuned to find out what happens next.