New store defines ‘culture-fusing’; Alcala’s German mix
By DAVID DAY | February 27, 2007
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DJ Dan Alcala |
This Saturday, March 3, a new record store opens in Boston. Hard as it is to believe, the store will sell wax and CDs alongside the latest in apparel, vinyl toys, and accessories. It’s called L.A.B. Boston, and it unlocks the doors at 113 Brighton Avenue in Allston. Maine native KIMBERLY HARRIS is the force behind the shop, and she knows what it takes to succeed. “She ran a nightclub by the time she was 17 years old,” says DJ MELEE (a/k/a JAY GIACOPPO), former manager at Satellite Records on Mass Ave and an L.A.B. partner. “Kim has always been very driven and realized that nothing in life is going to be given to her. So she was working full-time while going to high school.”Harris was a high-school senior when she got an opportunity to run a weekly night at Club Heaven in Lewiston. Since then she’s worked in Boston at Avalon, where she met Melee. He’ll the music buyer and manager for L.A.B. — “As Nietzsche said, ‘Without music life would be a mistake,’ ” he explains via e-mail. And he promises to carry a full spectrum of DJ music: from reggae to techno to electro. “You can go out and listen to a handful of DJs playing all the same tracks that have been downloaded from the same Web sites. Internet music downloading is quickly becoming the Wal-Mart of electronic dance music.”
We’ve even heard it called “blog house,” after the lengthy list of music bloggers who’ve picked up on the dance-music trend. “Most people don’t realize that what they are missing almost never hits the Internet,” Melee continues. His position as a member of the Shadows of Society collective (which runs TENSION Wednesdays at Phoenix Landing) and as the promo coordinator for Avalon (where he is also a resident DJ) allows him to see what works before it hits the shops in form of “white labels, bootlegs, the more underground sounds that cater to vinyl purists.” He also misses the interaction the community used to have at a shop like Satellite. “Whether it’s new and upcoming DJs trying to be heard or local producers looking for feedback on their music, you just don’t have that same interaction on-line as you do speaking with someone in person.”
The third element of the shop is co-owner TODD MACLEOD, a local video editor and DJ who brainstormed the idea of “culture fusing.” “We wanted a store with diversity,” he says of the 1300-square-foot shop. “We think that with the broad spectrum of brands and labels carried here we can cater to various clienteles with different tastes in style. It’s all about selection.” The owners elaborate that the idea is to create a “unique scene by drawing influences from various music and culture scenes that are typically known for being insular.”
L.A.B. stands for Limited Apparel Brand. Alongside hip urban wear and accessories, the store will offer limited-edition collectible toys from Toy2R (Hong Kong) and Rockaway Bear (Germany), all housed in a sleek stainless-steel storefront. “We found the location in September of 2006,” Melee says. “The store was in rough shape and needed to be completely redone; but we felt it would be worth our time, energy, and money because the size and location work great.”
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