Vinyl Dump and the electric gypsy record salesman

There is absolutely nothing fancily curatorial about Vinyl Dump Thrift Store in Cubao Expo. No retro font logos, no stylized posters celebrating the store as a purveyor of a lifestyle brand, no pandering to the fashionable and fashion-conscious… well, no nothing. What Vinyl Dump has: racks upon racks of records. Secondhand records mostly. Old records that are surprisingly pristine, shockingly inexpensive (titles for as low as P100). Records by bands and solo artists you’ve never heard of… yet should have. Records that you have fond recollection of (the first KISS, the last Death), records that may spin memories to come.

You enter the store and the owner will offer you a cup of delicious barako coffee (or sometimes of the equally delicious 3-in-1 sachet variety). When you’re a regular customer, you get a steaming-hot bowl of La Paz batchoy; on certain nights, even beer. If you’re a regular customer who bugs the bejesus out of the owner almost every day via SMS for old Sabbaths or Slayers, there will most likely be a white plastic bag (kept behind the counter) of records that you might be interested in — goodies such as a ’90s pressing of the Black Crowes’ “Shake Your Money Maker” or Deicide’s “Till Death Do Us Part” in blue vinyl or Marvin Gaye’s “I Heard It Through The Grapevine.” Loads of Stax and Sire titles. Beautiful Deutsche Grammophon records for as low as P300.

The place is not that swanky, no frothy cappuccino-makers or trend-sniffing hipsters around. But the music is throbbing — courtesy of a turntable running through a mixer and an old Carver solid-state amplifier paired with surprisingly crisp-sounding Konzert speakers. A couple of prog, jazz and Napalm Death LPs are stacked nearby to assault virgin ears, picture discs are hung.

The owner, Joel Devicais, holds court and answers customer queries about this or that album. A curly-haired Fil-Am girl about nine or 10 years old is asking if Joel has any Rolling Stones records. Whoa! How about Simon & Garfunkel? (You’d want to adopt her on the spot.) A young couple want to bring a vintage turntable to Vinyl Dump for restoration; another want to have their pre-nup pictures taken at the shop. A mustachioed man in a reporter’s vest and his shoe-shopping wife are imploring Joel for a ridiculously lower price on a P300 compilation album (starring Classic by Adrian Gurvitz and other hit-back, uh, hits). Wala na bang discount?/ Coz we are plaka addicts… (Dan the Hound starts laughing at the song.) They leave with a Tadao Hayashi LP and much complaining. No batchoy for you two.  

Just a day in a life for a record store in the Cubao X compound.  

This is what makes the area special, says Joel. You get to meet vinyl lovers of all types. “Cubao Expo is accessible to everyone. It is an artist haven as well.”

You’d see Devicais now as a record store owner by day and a musician by night (installed in a nearby bar with record-loving friends Allen Mercado and Bong Bello), but a decade ago things were different.

“I started my audio business 10 years ago as a fallback from my contracting business when the waterproofing/construction projects became more and more seldom,” Joel explains. “Wala akong projects, di ako makabayad ng apartment.”

The man had amassed a huge record collection (10,000 records which he started collecting when he was still in grade six in Iloilo), so he thought of selling some of his pieces. And then his family who lived in Daly City in California would send him $200 worth of vinyl every month.

“I started as an on-foot seller, supplying some vinyl-users in the Makati Business District, going up as high as 25th floor offices for deliveries.”

What a sight it must have been: Joel carrying two suitcases, two shoulder bags and a knapsack of records, riding the bus, walking along Ayala Avenue, going up the elevator and handing the goods to customers. A dealer of blues, soul, rock ‘n’ roll aural highs, pushing LPs. If you could soundtrack the man doing his errands, what would it be? Bob Dylan’s Mr. Tambourine Man perhaps? The Velvet Underground’s Waiting for the Man?  

“My father said, ‘Ano namang kalokohan ‘yan.’ But my brother kept on buying records for me in the States, believed in what I was doing.” Pretty soon even Joel’s father and mother even joined his brother in buying records in bazaars and garage sales.

Joel also hooked up with the WiredState audio community forum and was dealing vinyl via the Internet.  

He explains, “The reason for the resurgence of LPs not just in the Philippines but the rest of the world is because vinyl has a richer sound — as compared to digital downloads or CDs. Analog is a lot more natural-sounding, an un-tampered type of recording. For me, all the criteria in sound recording are met, everything is well-balanced.”

The once traveling salesman and online seller is now the proprietor of a thriving record store in Cubao. Nothing fancy about Vinyl Dump, not as lucrative as the chichi shops in other places, but the love for music makes it all worthwhile.

He recalls, “Nine-year-old kids — all girls — pumapasok dito at naghahanap ng Beatles or Frank Sinatra. Nakakagulat at nakakatuwa. Minsan may pumasok na mag-ama. Sabi nung tatay, ‘Alam mo anak, ‘yan ‘yung pinapakinggan namin na music dati.’” So the kid asked while looking at an LP, “Ah, Papa, is this a big black CD?” Joel laughs as he recounts the story.

The man personally goes for prog rock bands, Gypsy in particular. He also digs jazz guitar players such as Joe Pass, Kenny Burrell, Barney Kessel and Pat Metheny, among others.

“Do you have this?” Joel would ask me while holding an album I have not seen before by Frank Zappa, Johnny Winter, Tower of Power, or Triumph. “Sige, sa ‘yo na ‘yan.” The man is quite generous. I often would leave the store with free records — stuff he’d just want me to listen to (Zephyr, Ram Jam), stuff he knew I’d been looking for (Black Flag, Elton John).

“What I offer to my customers is not just a short-lived relationship,” he admits. “But genuine friendship over coffee, drinks and sometimes beer.” And a glimpse at his other collectibles: KISS toys, DC/Marvel comic books, cassette tapes (yes, he even has a compact re-winder to keep them in good shape), antiques, vintage cameras and sunglasses, loads of rock shirts and books as well.

Joel Devicais concludes, “My pieces of advice to would-be collectors are: expand to all the genres and not just one or two genres, and do your research before you start your collection.”

And if it moves you — even if it’s a saccharine love song by Adrian Gurvitz or a loud elaborate concerto by Bartók — that record is so worth it.

Especially at P300 a pop.

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Vinyl Dump Thrift Store is store no. 23, General Romulo St., Cubao Expo, Araneta Center, Cubao. For information, call 439-8558 or 0915-9267260. For the latest titles, call Marvin or Neressa at 0927-4682288.