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On Saturday morning, a new record store, Endless Planets, opens in a 400-square-foot, simply configured space in the basement of the Cherokee Place Business Incubator. Saturday is also Record Store Day, and Endless Planet will host a slew of live performances in a space just down the hallway from the shop. For the owners, a pair of friends who take the curation of their collections very, very seriously, the day will bring to fruition a fast-moving idea.
Moving things to the moment of their first sale will take one last blast of fast.
Yesterday afternoon, the proprietors were hard at work on all sorts of activities within their new, subterranean, home-away-from-home. From pricing albums to putting together a handful of IKEA Kallax units, the duo were at work on the finishing touches to a project that’s got a unique backstory. It’s unique enough that we’ll just let them pick up the story from here, via a personalized press release...
My name is Scott Trausch. Together with my business partner, Jeff Michael, we will be opening a new record store—Endless Planets—on the lower level of 2715 Cherokee Street in the Cherokee Place Business Incubator building. Both of us are native 314/618’ers who returned to the area [from] NYC and Toronto, respectively, where we individually pursued Masters Degrees in philosophy. Alongside our formal education we also continued to build our record collections that began here in St. Louis. I delved into the golden era of 12” dance singles; and Jeff into obscure jazz, soul and world LPs.
We met by happenstance outside Master Pieza on Cherokee while I was spinning records and just happened to throw on a locally made boogie 12” from an East St. Louis underground hero. We couldn’t believe the other was familiar with the artist, or that we had just returned home from MA programs with very similar interests. We began talking about having a store one day, but as an eventuality, a dream that would likely never come to pass. But, here we are, and the two of us could not be more excited to announce our grand opening this April 16, Record Store Day.
…. We have every intention of becoming an integral part of the music community here.
While the two hope to (and, we’re guessing, will) become an integral piece of that puzzle, they’re doing it on their terms. Let’s start with the most-important elements: the stacks.
At Endless Planets, each will bring their own collections into play, though they’ve admittedly been on a few, last-second buying trips of late. Their interests are listed above, and there’s no exaggeration in saying that the stock is heavily defined by the pair's interests. In the St. Louis section, for example, there’s a specific, deep-crate nature to their stock that boggles the mind; even a serious collector of local music will find items that’re 90 percent unknown or untouched, with no Head East albums to be found.
“We want to differentiate ourselves from other stores," Trausch says. "We’re particularly deep in some areas.”
Taking the idea further, the pair say that if the album wouldn’t hit their own players, they won’t buy vinyl purely for sales potential.
“It's not something we’d buy for ourselves,” Trausch says, “it won’t be on the floor.”
To that end, they’re also pointing at a selection heavy in “original jazz, funk, soul, dance, and hip-hop 7”s, 12”s, and LPs.”
While records are the biggest part of their retail stock, they’ll also stock stereo components (receivers, turntables, speakers) and already possess a good-sized collection of cassette players, which they individually inspect and insist will find homes; they sell tapes, as well as the players, suggesting there’s already a contingent of buyers.
“I’ve made tapes for a while, mixtapes," says Trausch. "All of my friends make tapes. But where do you go to buy tape players? We go to flea markets, other places, then clean them up and bring ‘em out. Everyone I know in a band makes tapes instead of CDs.”
At this point, the hours of the store are being finalized, but this Saturday is set, with live sets from DJ tapes-one, The Austin Cebulske Jazz Trio, DJ Chilly C, Jung Bae Academy, DJ Mark Lewis and The Domino Effect. The store will open at 10 a.m., with entertainment following and running through the day.
Michael suggests that the underground nature of the space reflects the underground nature of the music they’ll sell, as well as vibe they’ll create.
Yesterday afternoon, with little on the walls, and only a chunk of the stock stocked and a variety of tasks left to do before Saturday’s first key-turn, suggests there’s a good chance that these two are going to say true to their roots, offering a specific, niche selection of 2,500 sonic-sprawling albums.
“Records for us,” they say, “open up new planets, endless opportunities. We’re trying to share that feeling with other people.”
Check out Endless Planet's website here, and its Facebook page here. And here is the Facebook event page for Saturday. (You can also go old school and call them on their landline at 314-376-4566.)
Additionally, the pair DJ together on the third Fridays of each month at the Night Owl, a very small, very cool bar above Tree House Restaurant on South Grand; this month, though, they’ll spin on the fourth Friday, April 22, from 10p.m. to close.
