TRADITIONS
Inside Record Krate
TURN it UP A nationwide celebration of vinyl with roots in Raleigh by BILLY WARDEN photography by EAMON QUEENEY
“W
ait!,” exclaimed the mop-topped man who would one day be a hero on several continents. “You know Todd Rundgren, but you don’t know Utopia? Oh, you gotta hear this!” With that, store manager Michael Kurtz yanked a Duran Duran record off the turntable at Raleigh’s Schoolkids Records back when it was in Quail Corners Shopping Center, off Falls of Neuse
Road. It soon bubbled with the synthsoaked hooks of Utopia, a side project for Rundgren, one of the high priests of experimental power pop. This was 1982, decades before Kurtz would collect a knighthood across the Atlantic and countless other accolades for his pivotal role co-founding Record Store Day. Billed as “the world’s largest single-day music event,” it returns to locations around the globe — including the Triangle — on April 23. I met Kurtz before I could drive, im-
pressionable and hungry for new sounds to feed my big ears. Back then, record stores were a kind of college, a place to explore and discover. The courses were curated by deeply opinionated, ubercool clerks: political science according to The Clash, advanced poetry with Patti Smith, Prince on human biology. Eclectic in both taste and personality, Kurtz played the part of pop professor with effortless elan. He laughed loud enough to drown out the tunes he spun. He knew every note Jimi Hendrix ever The Art & Soul of Raleigh | 29
