Phono Select

Posted on September 2, 2010 – 8:19 AM | by OldManFoster

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By Dennis Yudt  photo by Scott Duncan

It was a glorious din even from a half-block away. Was it junk percussionists Einsturzende Neubauten’s seminal Kollaps album or maybe an early slab by Japanese destructo-merchants Hanatarash cranked up to 11? Something from the Merzbow box set? New Blockaders’ latest? K Street had never sounded so cutting edge.

Several steps later, the source of the sound is revealed – a concrete saw going full bore while Dal Basi and Nich Lujan, owners of the incoming Phono Select record store pound away at a distressed shelf with sledgehammers in roughly 4/4 time. They look tired but their smiles betray the labor of love as they convert a one-time clothing boutique into one of the most-anticipated businesses in Sacramento in a long time.  While the dust in the air settles, Basi and Lujan take time to give me a grand tour of the new digs. They point out where the 33 feet of vinyl will be in the 1200 square foot space and where shelves for the 5000 CDs are going. It’s a long, narrow room, and it’s easy to visualize throngs of music-hungry people rifling through the new and used inventory, much of which is coming from Basi’s huge collection of vinyl and compact discs.

Most people in the music community agree that there are not two people better suited to open a record store than Dal Basi and Nich Lujan. Both are life-long music collectors with an encyclopedic knowledge cutting across every genre. Basi cut his teeth in Stockton, slinging wax as a teen at the local Tower Records, and then worked his way up to become the independent music buyer for both Valley Media and Tower. When Tower closed, Russ Solomon tapped Basi to manage record buying for R5 Records – their closing was the final impetus for Basi to go out on his own.   He made a call to Lujan, who was then working at the Academy of Arts in San Francisco tutoring graduate students in graphic design and teaching Photoshop.  Lujan and Basi met six years ago; by the end of their very first conversation they were talking about opening a record store together.

“Our biggest bonding thing was we realized we grew up the same way: skateboards, comic books, cartoons and punk rock. It’s nice to meet someone who likes punk but knows that the world is bigger than that.” Basi says of his friend. Now, several years later, here they are deciding which shade of blue the walls will be and where the 7”s will be displayed. This dream-turned-reality has been a long time coming.
“The genesis of this goes back to us being kids,” reminisces Basi “Who didn’t want their own record store? It’s one thing to work at a record store but you’re always thinking ‘I want my own store and do things my own way’. I’ve been in Sacramento for 20 years and this is what I’ve always wanted to do.”

“Sacramento is a record nerd town, more so then the Bay Area. There are people living here that blow them out of the water:.” adds Lujan.

But Lujan and Basi insist they aren’t just opening a record store. They’ve seen Midtown become an area where one can follow one’s own muse and thrive. Their goal is for Phono Select to be an epicenter of musical and artistic creativity.

Part of their game plan is sponsoring off-site music events. “We really want to get involved as much as we can in the music community. Sacramento has all this cool stuff: Noisefest, the electronic music festival at CSUS, In the Flow music series…we even have the Jazz Jubilee. But there’s still people who say, ‘There’s nothing to do in Sacramento,’ and I’m like, ‘Are you serious?’ Any given night there’s three, four things to do!”  Their mix-tape exchange idea is brilliant: bring in a mix-tape you made that looks like some artistic effort was put into it and you can trade it for someone else’s  tape. It’s a very grass roots, community-based approach and a novel way to hear new music. Phono Select will not just be selling records, they want to expose you to a whole culture.

The store will have a website/blog where customers can comment on and critique records in addition to posting on Sacto-centric musical musings. Another novel idea is posting pictures of new and used arrivals in the store on-line. “We’re both  also into graphics, so we see all these cool t-shirts and music-related stuff and we all need ‘real life’ stuff, like we all need a watch. Why shouldn’t you have a cool music-related watch?” Basi says.

As most music lovers know, the record-selling business is one of the hardest hit in the current economy. Why open a record store, especially when the business of selling music has seen – and is still undergoing – huge changes, including the death of thousands of record stores over the past decade? Lujan weights the question carefully.

“We did a lot of research. We’re not going into this blind. Vinyl sales are on an upswing and it’s coming at a time that people realize how disposable some things are and the people that really care about music – people like us – people who are creative, tend to flock to music, and that type of person wants something tangible. That business model, the ‘everything under the sun’ record store doesn’t work any more especially with technology and the internet. To get them to come out and spend the money, you got to show people that you’ve gone out and made an effort for them. That’s what we want to do.”

“Customer service, selection and community. Those are the things that matter to me,” adds Basi. “We want to supply something to the music community, because if you don’t, why would they support you? It’s tough to earn money, why would you give your money to someone you can’t stand? Why would you support a business that doesn’t care what your input is? They’re not listening to you, why would you want to go there?”

“We’ve got a lot of souls to save!” jokes Lujan.

Basi smiles at his friend.  “We’re just trying to make the world a more beautiful place.”

Tags: Dal Basi, Midtown record store, Nich Lujan, Phono Select