VINYL: ALIVE AND WELL
Tom Little, owner of Syracuse Vintage Vinyl, opens a package on a Friday afternoon as his friends scatter the store.
Vinyl has grown a reputation of being hip and with it, a resurgence of an old medium that many young people are being pulled towards. Stores are marketing vinyl to people younger than the product, but there is a group of people who have held a love of vinyl since the medium dominated markets.
John Walsh (left), Tom Little (center left), Ronnie Dark, (center right), and Mike Adams (right) all gather at Syracuse Vintage Vinyl. John smokes his cigar, Tom-- the owner-- organizes the store, Ronnie and Mike look through the discount section.
The group of seven or so guys gather outside Syracuse Vintage Vinyl every Sunday to discuss their love. Tom Little, the owner, usually arrives with the bunch, opening the store, hanging the flag, and pulling the benches to the small front porch. He’s been collecting for decades, but chose to open a store three years ago after selling vinyl at the Syracuse Flea Market.
The group consists of a print manufacturer, a school district employee, a medical central service tech, and a few others from a gaggle of professions. When they get together on Sunday afternoons they all seem to go through the piles of newly discovered vinyl and bring some of their own collection.
Tom Little hangs the American flag that flag outside Syracuse Vintage Vinyl.
A corner of Syracuse Vintage Vinyl filled with vinyl and an old school arcade game.
Mike Adams looks through the discounted record section at Syracuse Vintage Vinyl.
Ronnie Dark uses his sound effect machine to aid in the comical commercials that The Wax Museum produce live.
John Walsh, a school district employee and mobile disk jockey, sits as one of the co-hosts of The Wax Museum.
This love of vinyl doesn’t stop at the doorsteps to Syracuse Vintage Vinyl-- Mike Adams, Ronnie Dark, and John Walsh all host a primarily vinyl radio show called The Wax Museum. The brainchild of Dark, the show aims to fill a void that most FM radio stations left. “They boil artists down to two or three songs, and that’s it.” Dark said. He had pitched his idea to the FM station he used to work at and they turned him down, so he went for it on his own. Financing much of the show out of pocket, it is a true passion project for Dark, a printing mechanic during the week.
Mike Adams looks through some of the vinyls he brought for the next track.