Addison Moore

Last Saturday, Bowdoin students and staff joined the Brunswick community to celebrate Record Store Day. Brunswick’s three record stores offered customers limited-edition albums, food trucks and one-dollar vinyl records.

Mason Kahn ’28 was excited about attending Record Store Day. In particular, Kahn appreciates Deep Groove Records and the community fostered by its founder, David Kowalski.

“Deep Groove is probably my favorite spot just because [Kowalski] really knows his stuff. He really takes care of the records. He knows almost every customer by name,” Kahn said.

Kahn also pointed out how community oriented Deep Groove feels to him. On Record Store Day, he noticed other members of the Bowdoin community joining in on the event.

“I saw Bowdoin students there…, some of whom knew that it was Record Store Day and some of whom didn’t. I talked to townspeople going to get records too. So I’d say the community extends past Bowdoin to anybody who’s going to record stores,” Kahn said.

A handful of Bowdoin students and staff appear to be regular customers at local stores, but the on-campus vinyl community is not as prolific. Currently, most students listen to personal records alone or with friend groups.

“I don’t know if there’s a vinyl community per se, but there’s definitely a vinyl scene. It’ll range from ‘I have a tiny record player that I brought from home, and I have a few records’ to ‘I have an enormous collection and this super fancy sound system,’” Kahn said.

Courtney Burnett ’26, drummer of campus band Far From Juno and employee at Bull Moose, shared insights into the campus record community from her time working at the store.

“There’s a fair amount of Bowdoin students I see in Bull Moose but surprisingly not that many. There are certain people I see over and over again. I don’t see many different people from Bowdoin coming to buy records,” Burnett said.

When asked about a larger vinyl community on campus, students expressed interest in communal spaces for playing records.

“I know in the [Beckwith Music Library] they used to have a record player. It could be fun: a music department [event] where you go in and everybody brings a record,” Kahn said.

Others expressed interest in a vinyl club, but the physical fragility of the records themselves is a barrier. Burnett said that this fragility is also what makes the listening experience of vinyl records so attractive.

“It kind of enhances the listening experience, even though technically it’s deteriorating. When CDs are scratched, [they] will just skip over the scratched part. But with records, you can hear the dust, which gives it a story. When you’re flipping [the record] over, it’s like putting yourself into the process of listening physically, which is really cool,” Burnett said.

Joe Hinkle, owner of Slam Tilt Records and Games, voiced his desire to get students involved in the local record community and physical media. Slam Tilt is located on Maine Street below Social Goose Restaurant and Bar and features vinyl records and pinball machines.

“Folks are getting sick of the digital age and want to feel ownership of the stuff that they’re participating in,” Hinkle said.

Hinkle’s goal to build community around physical media echoes the sentiments of Bowdoin students. Kahn also articulated that part of the appeal of records is owning the music physically.

“It’s cool to have the music in your hands, not just on Spotify,” Kahn said.

Slam Tilt and Deep Groove are both independent small businesses, while Bull Moose is a chain founded in Brunswick by a former Bowdoin student.

Hinkle emphasized that the three shops work in community and refer customers to each other based on stock availability. Hinkle upholds that young people buying physical media is important.

“I think we’re constantly rooting each other on. If I don’t have something in stock, I’ll send somebody across the street. There’s people coming in all the time saying that another store sent them over. More people buying physical media is better for everybody. Rising water lifts all ships,” Hinkle said.