B-Bop Records, which reopened a brick and mortar store earlier this year after being online for 17 years (it was previously located on Reynolds Road from 1987-1990 then on Dorr Street from 1990-94) is continuing its tradition of hosting in-store concerts. Amjad Doumani, the owner, brings in local talents as well as touring bands with unique and rare sounds.

Many times bands come are looking for a nontraditional venue where patrons can focus on the art that is going on instead of being preoccupied with bar activities.

“We have adventurous music that other people would not necessarily book and that goes with the bigger picture, to provide a space where people can feel community and get alternative ways of thinking,” Doumani said.

The space Doumani is speaking of is Third Space, where B-Bop Records is located. I am a “keyholder” to Third Space, which is also home to B-Bop Records as well as the Lucas County Green Party and Media Decompression Collective (check out the film “Garbage Warriors,” there, 8 p.m. Sept. 19).

I try to stop in at every show, at least to hear the sound and check out the scene. Last Saturday, the attendees were treated to homemade pasta made by the headlining band, Tubax. The Italian band was on its second American tour. Accompanying Tubax was Bulldozer from Erie, Penn., and Toledo’s Jesus Time Machine.

If you’re looking to expand your musical taste, check B-Bop Records’ Facebook page and go through all the bands that have played there. Then start checking out some shows. They are all on a sliding scale donation so no one is turned away. It is a relaxing atmosphere where you can sit on a couch and get into the peformance, dance to the music or browse through impressive vinyls, rare memorabilia or the progressive library.

Sept. 22, Paul Stranahan’s Insomnia will perform at B-Bop Records at 8 p.m.

According to a news release about the northeast Ohio band, “PSI was created by drummer and composer Paul Stranahan to facilitate his band to be more creative than the standard jazz gigs were allowing. Since the band’s creation PSI has evolved a sound all its own, grabbing inspiration from multiple sources from Mahavishnu Orchestra, John Coltrane, King Crimson, Tim Berne, John Zorn, and even Meshuggah mixed into their brand of improvisational mayhem.”

“PSI is treading, experimenting and dominating groundwork that has been established long before, but never perfected. Every show is as fresh as the last because of the way they improvise. Though there is framework to every piece, PSI is a terraforming musical machine. They adapt to the environment, adapt to the sounds that happened, are happening, and will happen, and adapt to their audience. These variations create musical mosaics that are beyond genre and form, but toward tranquility and headed for mayhem.”

See you at the show.

Tags: Amjad Doumani, B-Bop Records, Insomina, Stacy Jurich

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 18th, 2012 at 2:35 pm and is filed under Arts and Life, Music.
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Third Space is going into full bloom, having developed conceptually and physically during the winter months. Third Space is home to three entities and offers a “third space” in addition to a person’s typical two spaces — work and home. Located in the Davis Building, a hard-to-miss yet somehow-missed building Downtown on Michigan Street between Monroe Street and Jefferson Avenue, Third Space encompasses headquarters for the Lucas County Green Party, B-Bop Records and the Media Decompression Collective (MDC).

The concept of sharing a common space is not new, yet it is still considered unconventional. What is new is the manner in which a political party walks the talk of grassroots democracy, decentralization, sustainability and community-based economics. By collaborating to share expenses, the Green Party fosters a sustainable way to support a space for itself and a local business and for a community space for arts and activism.

A portion of the art aspect in Third Space is the Media Decompression Collective Toledo (MDC), which MDC supports efforts toward collective social change by providing screenings of independent films and documentaries that have a focus on social, political and environmental issues. Before its new home in Third Space, MDC had semipermanent locations but mainly traveled with its projector to various establishments in Toledo, including screening at an outdoor film series.  MDC typically screens films once a month. Since it is a collective, MDC is always open to community members who are preselecting independent films and organizing screenings.

The business and most visible tenant in Third Space is B-Bop Records. Amjad Doumani has owned B-Bop Records since 1987. He had operated online since closing his brick-and-mortar shop in 1994. Third Space has allowed B-Bop to reopen a storefront and put an extensive selection of new and used LPs, CDs, 45s, videos, books, magazines, memorabilia and rare music collectibles on the shelves once again.

In addition to stocking the shelves, B-Bop Records has a calendar stocked with an eclectic assortment of events that, otherwise, may have never found their way to Toledo. On May 5, Third Space is welcoming Dr. John Fielder of North Queensland, Australia as he presents “Basic Principles of Natural Healing” from 2-4 p.m. He will explain why and how we need to change some of our usual habits in order to regain or maintain our health into old age.

This spring and summer, Third Space will be open during the Arts Commission’s Art Walk. The first one is May 10, and local independent writer and published author Craig A. Combs will perform a solo reading at Third Space. A former resident of the Old West End, Combs has returned recently with “a transformed, and some would say visionary, perspective on life, following two decades of living in the Deep South and traveling around the world on his personal quest for truth and self-discovery.” He will share stories from his recently published book, “Taking Tea in the Black Rose: Singing Through the Shadows Until We’re Dancing in the Light,” from 7-9 p.m.

Following the Art Walk will be a live concert by Tim Kaiser: Live Electro-acoustic & Electronic Music Soundscapes, starting at 10 p.m. sharp. An international performer for more than 30 years, Kaiser will bring his own custom made electro-acoustic and electronic instruments to create ethereal sonic atmospheres. Doumani says this is a show not to be missed.

To top these off, Toledo native artist-expressionist Wade A. Harrison will be conducing a live painting demonstration all day May 15. Wade will be painting a portrait of Sun Ra, which will then be gifted to B-Bop Records for permanent display. The demo will be during B-Bop’s regular store hours from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Third Space can be rented for meetings, fundraisers, book clubs and performances. It has been home to organizing for groups such as Shut Down Davis-Besse, Justice for Danny Brown and Occupy Toledo. There is a progressive library, free Wi-Fi, coffee and tea and a lounge area.

An appreciation and passion for art and music, forward thinking and community engagement permeates the air at Third Space. Social justice and the betterment of the community, its people and the environment are at the forefront. Third Space is paving its way on an unprecedented and truly progressive path.

To stay up to date with events and to get involved, visit www.thirdspacetoledo.org or on Facebook.

Tags: Amjad Doumani, B-Bop Records, Dr. John Fielder, Lucas County Green Party, Media Decompression Collective, Stacy Jurich, Third Space, Wandering Roots

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 1st, 2012 at 11:40 am and is filed under Star, Wandering Roots.
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Amjad Doumani, owner of B-Bop Records, has tapped into what he calls the “vinyl resurgence” and opened a brick and mortar version of his online music store.

In the modern world of MP3s and iPods, Doumani said he still believes vinyl has a place.

“[Vinyl] involves some sort of interaction. Whereas on the computer with MP3 files, all you do is push a button and go about doing what you’re doing. People can easily stop listening to music and it just becomes a background noise,” he said.

B-Bop Records first started out as a brick and mortar store in 1987 before closing in 1994 and going online the following year. The first store mostly specialized in alternative CDs and vinyl records.

Best Buy and Media Play’s low-priced CDs were part of what forced B-Bop online.

“We could not compete with those kind of prices. It costs us more to buy wholesale a CD than they would be selling at retail,” Doumani said.

Amjad Doumani opened the first B-Bop Records location in 1987. A grand opening celebration for the new store is set for March 26-31.

Doumani kept his first store in mind throughout the years.

“In my heart and in the back of my mind, I always wanted to reopen the store,” he said. “What was driving me to reopen was that I missed the contact with the public, having a relationship with clientele.”

In late 2011, Doumani worked as the fundraising manager for the Lucas County Green Party’s city council candidates. He realized the space the group rented at 137 N. Michigan St., might be perfect for a store.

“When the campaign was over, we got to talking [and said] ‘This is a beautiful space, but it’s way too big for an office,’” Doumani said.

The result is Third Space, shared by B-Bop, the Lucas County Green Party and the Media Decompression Collective, which offers screenings of films on political, social and environmental issues. Third Space is also available for meetings, gatherings and events. The new, cheery yellow store now specializes in secondhand collectibles, vinyl, CDs and other memorabilia.

“In the very near future, we’re planning on delving into new vinyl, but vinyl only. We may order new CDs, most likely on a special order basis, and we’re not gonna carry any Top 40 stuff you hear on the radio,” Doumani said.

The store has been open since late January, but will have its grand opening celebration March 26-31. B-Bop Records will offer 20 percent off all purchases throughout the week. Doumani has also organized a lineup of artists for the week, made possible through his Toledo connections.

“Even though I closed the store in ’94, I never stopped being involved in the community. Through the arts and activism and over the years, I’ve built a lot of connections,” he said.

Donations are accepted, but the free events include:

• Poet T. Miller will sell and sign copies of her new book “Coming Out of Nowhere” at an open mic event at 7 p.m. March 26.
• Area DJs Todd Perrine and DJ Psycho will spin tunes 7 p.m. March 27.
• The Media Decompression Collective and Miserable City present films celebrating Toledo’s art scene at “Toledo Art: Past, Present & Future” at 7 p.m. March 28.
• Puppeteer Joyce Davis presents “Who’s in Rabbit’s House?” an interactive, all-ages story 7:30 p.m. March 29.
• Slumberjack, a Toledo singer-songwriter, and Nadwy Auddy, an emcee, jam at 7 and 8:30 p.m. respectively March 30.
• Artist Melanie Harris has her opening reception and exhibit kickoff 4 p.m. March 31 with light appetizers.
• Soul Fingers, a jazz/blues act, plays at 7 p.m. March 31 followed by The Socialist Party at 8:30 p.m. and Phantom Limb Syndrome at 10 p.m.

B-Bop Records is open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. For more information, visit http://www.thirdspacetoledo.org or www.bboprecords.com.

Tags: Amjad Doumani, B-Bop Records, DJ Psycho, Joyce Davis, Lucas County Green Party, Media Decompression Collective, Melanie Harris, Miserable City, Nadwy Auddy, Phantom Limb Syndrome, Slumberjack, Soul Fingers, Third Space, Todd Perrine, vinyl records

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 22nd, 2012 at 3:18 pm and is filed under Arts and Life, Music, Retail.
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Many Toledo musicians expressed the same emotion regarding Amy Winehouse’s July 23 death — a lack of surprise.

The British singer, 27, was found dead in her London apartment on July 23. A cause of death has not yet been determined.

“I wasn’t too surprised,” said Amjad Doumani, owner of B-Bop Records, who found out on Facebook. “But it’s always sad when someone so young dies.”

The petite songstress with the big voice famously sang about her troubles with love, alcohol and drugs on her 2006 album “Back to Black.” The album won five Grammys and featured the hit single “Rehab” about Winehouse’s refusal to seek help. Pat O’Connor, owner of Culture Clash Records and a self-described former addict, said that song stuck out to him because “it’s so anti what I think.”

Aaron Brown, a Toledo-based DJ who also learned about Winehouse’s death on Facebook, said, “I was surprised that many of my friends A. cared, B. were surprised.” He added that although Winehouse had a good voice, “past that she was just a famous junkie.”

Other area musicians also said they noticed the irony of the song’s shocking lyrics.

“Based on her escalating self-destructive behavior, her death came as no surprise. ‘Rehab’ foretold it,” said Doreen Robideaux, lead singer of the Frostbite Band.

“It (‘Rehab’) was kind of funny and maybe a little tongue-in-cheek and a little rebellious,” said Ryan Bunch, performing and literary arts coordinator for the Arts Commission of Greater Toledo. Still, he added of her attitude, “Ironically and ultimately, that’s what killed her.”

Danni Stinson, poet, spoken-word artist and entrepreneur, said the song “Tears Dry on Their Own” inspired her and helped her through bad relationships.

“She was actually one of my favorite artists,” Stinson said. “I was hoping she’d get back on track.”

However, Stinson said when she saw footage of Winehouse’s last public performance in Belgrade, Serbia, she knew the opposite was true.

“I remember thinking to myself, ‘this poor baby’,” said Kim Buehler, singer for 6th Edition and jazz educator, of Winehouse’s onstage slurring. Winehouse canceled the rest of her European tour after being booed off the stage.

Chavar Dontae, a local musician who just signed with Submerge in Detroit, said he learned of Winehouse’s death on Twitter.

“I hope people don’t make her whole legacy the problems she had,” Dontae said. Winehouse’s honesty in her song lyrics inspired Dontae. “I believed what she said and that’s the way I look at songwriting.”

Others also noted Winehouse’s upfront approach to her music.

“Amy was a natural talent, and what I mean by that was that she did not have to contrive a sound or an image. She was who she was,” said Megan Yasu Davis, an area musician.

O’Connor said he doubts Winehouse’s problems will cause anyone to give up drugs.

“Not one drug addict thinks, ‘That’s going to happen to me’,” he said.

Calvin Cordy, guitarist for Prayers for Rain, also said he didn’t think Winehouse’s death would motivate anyone to give up drugs or alcohol.

“It’s just the same as Courtney Love — predictable,” he said.

Still, many like Stinson found Winehouse’s sudden death “heartbreaking” if not surprising. Like Dontae, Stinson said she found inspiration in Winehouse’s lyrics and would write with Winehouse’s music playing.

Buehler, who felt sick after reading about Winehouse’s death, said that although many people wish they possessed talent like Winehouse’s, people with “creative talent are often tortured by it.”

Winehouse among music talents gone too soon

By Jake Coyle

Associated Press Entertainment Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Amy Winehouse released only two albums in her life, one of which sold more than a million copies, won five Grammys and sparked a retro soul movement that hasn’t yet stopped.

The small output, in inverse relation to her outsized talent, made her death July 23 in London all the more tragic. Fans will only be able to imagine the unrecorded singles, the never-to-be concerts and the comeback album that didn’t come.

It’s a sadly familiar script in pop music, the history of which is checkered with greats and would-be greats snuffed out too early in life.

Almost as soon as news of Winehouse’s death broke and spread across social media, fans were inducting her into the unfortunate pantheon of music talents gone too soon. Many noted that Winehouse, 27, shared the same age at death as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Brian Jones, Kurt Cobain and Jim Morrison.

“You would think that Amy Winehouse would clean up her act given that,” Danni Stinson, poet, spoken-word artist and entrepreneur, said.

“Americans talk about Jim Morrison and Janis Joplin in this kind of romantic way,” said Ryan Bunch, performing and literary arts coordinator for the Arts Commission of Greater Toledo. “I would hope that it’s at least a wake-up call for kids that it’s really not that glamorous.”

The British singer-songwriter Billy Bragg, though, realized that a meaningful commonality was being mistaken for coincidence.

“It’s not age that Hendrix, Jones, Joplin, Morrison, Cobain & Amy have in common,’’ wrote Bragg on Twitter. “It’s drug abuse, sadly.’’

Those names were touted on the Web as the 27 Club, a ghoulish glamourizing of rock star death that makes it sound as though even in death VIPs remain behind a seductive velvet rope.

It’s a term, sometimes called the Forever 27 Club, that has spawned a Wikipedia entry, an independent 2008 movie (“The 27 Club”), numerous websites and at least one book (“The 27s: The Greatest Myth of Rock & Roll’’).

The causes of death vary. Jones, the Rolling Stones guitarist, was found dead at the bottom of his swimming pool in 1969 and was ruled dead “by misadventure.’’ Hendrix, having mixed sleeping pills and wine, died in 1970 in a London hotel room. Joplin, also in 1970, died in her Porsche in Los Angeles, with heroin suspected as the culprit. Morrison died of heart failure in 1971 in the bathtub of his Paris apartment. Cobain killed himself in 1994.

Some have claimed Cobain was aware of the so-called 27 Club. After his death, his mother, Wendy O’Connor, was understandably fed up with the concept, saying: “I told him not to join that stupid club.’’

Early death typically mythologizes pop stars, inflating their reputation. Pop culture writer Chuck Klosterman, in his book “Killing Yourself to Live,’’ wondered why “the greatest career move any musician can make is to stop breathing.’’

The posthumous releases from Winehouse will surely follow, and her legacy will grow. But hopefully mythologizing will be resisted.

Winehouse’s death, an unfortunate but unsurprising end to a long, public decline, might be best remembered not just as another tragic loss but as a modern portrait of how untrue those rock myths really are.

Tags: Aaron Brown, Amjad Doumani, Amy Winehouse, Arts Commission of Greater Toledo, B-Bop Records, Calvin Cordy, Chavar Dontae, Courtney Love, Culture Clash, Danni Stinson, Doreen Robideaux, Facebook, Frostbite Band, Kim Buehler, Megan Yasu Davis, Pat O'Connor, Prayers for Rain, Ryan Bunch

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 26th, 2011 at 1:15 pm and is filed under Featured, Music, Star.
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