Record Store Day hype fluctuates from year to year—It’s great! It’s awful!—but there’s no denying that for at least one Milwaukee record store, Record Store Day 2022 will be special.
On Saturday, April 23, the Milwaukee location of The Exclusive Company (1669 N. Farwell Ave.) will celebrate its final Record Store Day. Back in March, the location announced its imminent closure; soon after, it was announced that all remaining locations of the once-mighty Wisconsin record store chain would close up shop. Say it with us: NOOOOO!!!
BUT! There’s hope! Two soon-to-be-former Milwaukee Exclusive managers, Tanner Musgrove and Brian Kirk, have plans to transform the Farwell location into their own Lilliput Records. “As the Milwaukee location’s current assistant manager and manager, we knew we had to save our store,” the two said. “Without a second thought, it was clear that our next step was to open our own shop: Lilliput Records. We have negotiated a price for the Farwell location to keep our store alive and are turning to our loyal customers and community to help us make this a reality. We are looking to switch hands in July, so it has become a time-sensitive endeavor.”
To that end, the Farwell Exclusive’s Record Store Day festivities will double as a donations-suggested fundraiser for Lilliput Records. (There’s an active GoFundMe, too, which has already raised $20,000.) The store will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Oh, and from 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Spoon frontman Britt Daniel will treat customers to a free DJ set. Neat! Spoon will play The Rave later that night, and free tickets and other Spoon-y items will be hidden throughout the store. Also neat!
Happily, the Milwaukee Exclusive isn’t alone in finding new life. The West Bend location (the company’s first) has already transformed into Beat Goes On Records & More. The Greenfield location, meanwhile, has plans to become That Girl Records. And there are plenty of other Milwaukee record stores celebrating Record Store Day, too: Rush-Mor Records, Bullseye Records, We Buy Records, and more. Oh, and Lion’s Tooth book store will donate 10% of its Saturday sales to benefit the Exclusive/Lilliput transformation.
Say it with us: YESSSSS!!!
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• The Exclusive Company on Farwell will close, be replaced with new record store, Lilliput Records