Vintage Vinyl & Hi-Fi Rocking It In Brookline's Coolidge Corner

BROOKLINE, MA — It's a Saturday afternoon in Coolidge Corner and Village Vinyl & Hi-Fi is buzzing. Nick Branigan is spinning music on two turntables. Generations of customers are thumbing through the classic rock, punk, heavy metal and jazz sections looking for that diamond in the rough. Owner Jonathan Sandler smiles as he stands in the shadow of a framed David Bowie print. Sandler, a Brookline real estate agent, is living an improbable dream.

"I would have laughed in your face," he said when asked if he would have thought 15 years ago, when vinyl was on the verge of extinction, that he would be opening up a record store in the busy shopping district in 2019. "If you had told me five years ago, I would probably have laughed out loud. But the reaction has been very positive. People think it's cool."

Sandler, who grew up in Lunenburg, worked in record stores — including Nuggets Records in Kenmore Square — when he moved to Brookline 30 years ago. While music remained a passion, life eventually took over as he sold real estate and started a family. But after two decades of slowly growing his hi-fi collection amid an unlikely resurgence in the medium, he said he arrived at a crossroads for both his career and his hobby.

"It got to be so much that my lovely wife thought it would be a good idea if I started looking for some storage for it," he said. "So I did. But the storage was expensive. And I've always been a vinyl head. So I thought that maybe I should just turn this into a business. Do something I love. Cut down on the stress in my life because real estate was keeping me up at night."

He opened a tiny basement store in Brookline Village about a year and a half ago that he soon realized didn't attract much foot traffic. So when the chance to move to a bigger storefront in the area came up, he jumped on it and in April held a grand reopening at the new location in a former shoe store at 307 Harvard St.

"For those who know me," he said, "this was a logical progression."

Still, it is not exactly a logical business progression. Located in an area where rising rents have been a challenge to small businesses, during a time when traditional brick-and-mortar stores often fight losing battles against online giants, betting on nostalgia would seem to be a long shot.

Yet, for Sandler, that bet has been paying off in the two months since he’s expanded to Coolidge Corner.

"So far, it has been," he said, noting that he signed a five-year lease at the location. "This is a go-to spot for people to bring their used records. Word of mouth has been really strong. It's not just like a few Beatles records. We have all the Beatles records, all the (Rolling) Stones."

On Saturday, Village Vinyl's clientele spanned the spectrum from a couple of women in their 20s checking out the new arrivals, to a father having his young son stand on a milk crate so he could look through the soundtracks A-Z, to a pair of customers-turned-regulars hanging out near the register waxing poetic on music for the afternoon.

The store is about 80 percent used records, with some sealed new pressings, a small compact disc section, and handful of cassettes and even a box of vintage laser discs on a lower shelf beneath a collection of framed J.J. Gonson photos (all for sale) depicting famous musicians hanging out in Boston — including one of a very young Dicky Barrett of the Mighty Mighty Bosstones playing a show at the since-shuttered Rathskellar, and one of the late Kurt Cobain hanging out in Central Square in Cambridge.

In a time when folks mourn the slow passing of the corner hardware store, independent bookstore and local newspaper office, Sandler is looking to strike a blow for the powers of charm and quality over technology and convenience.

"For kids who grew up with MP3s on their phones the difference listening to vinyl is tremendous," he said. "There is also the tactile experience and active listening experience. Reading the liner notes. The little snap, crackle and pop adds to it. Just the fullness of the sound, the warmth, it jumps out at you. You just can’t get that from an MP3."