Spotlight on Ohlone
Former student opens vinyl shop in Niles
By Andrew Cavette, Staff writer.
Thursday, October 18, 2007 — Monitor.
Eddie Jimenez and storeowner Dan Bernal admire a copy of Yesterday and Today by the Beatles with the rare 'butcher' cover art..
— Staff photo.
Fremont has a new store for some old merchandise.
Former Ohlone student Dan Ber nal opened his vinyl record store, Needle to the Groove, in May of 2006. The store is located at 150 H St. in Niles, Fremont.
Original releases make up 95 percent of the store’s inventory, and many are near mint condition, but squeezing out maximum profit is not the point of the store. Bernal said, “If we didn’t love [vinyl], we’d be out of business.”
Self-described vinyl junkies like Bernal and his buyer Eddie Jimenez have long touted the advantages of vinyl recordings over more popular formats like CDs and mp3 files. Jimenez explained, “When you are recording in digital, you can only go so high before (the recording) starts to peak out and distort, but in vinyl it goes forever and that’s what gives you your warm sound.”
The store specialized in classic hip hop, break beats, classic rock, disco, oldies and old-school funk.
While vinyl stores are going out of business across the country, Ber nal said his business is only grow ing and new records are constantly coming in the door.
On Sunday, Bernal acquired a highly coveted copy of the Beatles’ Yesterday And Today with the in famous “butcher” cover art. The original cover featured bloody baby doll parts and was thought too provocative upon release.
Capitol Records recalled it and glued a tamer version to each sleeve. The copy in the store has had the tame cover sticker removed and will probably go for close to $700, but according to Bernal, an original, non-sticker copy of the album re cently sold online for $29,000.
The store has become world re nowned in its brief year and half of existence. It attracts crate diggers from as far away as Utah, Japan and New Zealand, including a visit from famous Los Angeles DJ and producer Chris Manak, aka Peanut Butter Wolf. “Actually, we have a record on hold for him,” Bernal said. “He was DJing in San Francisco and the guy he was DJing with said: ‘Hey man, you’ve got to check out this shop in Fremont…’ He was in here the next day. They spent four hours digging through everything.”
Jimenez is active on many DJing internet forums. He says the store’s notoriety has come mainly from word of mouth on the internet. Both the young and the old seek out the little Niles store front and the inexperienced are just as welcome as the veterans. Bernal said, “We have an 8 year old kid that comes in every two weeks. He buys (mostly) Elvis and Beatles records, and he knows his stuff. I just got him Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen. I found it for him, kept it under the counter and when he came in… he was glowing.”
Bernal and Jimenez often track down the albums people request that are not in the store. Both men have extensive personal collections and also scour other vinyl stores for the things people have requested. Ji menez said, “It may take us a while, but if we come across it, we’ll get it for them.”
In addition to the vinyl, they provide DJ gear like the popular Ortofon brand needles. The store of fers vinyl related services including: in-house record surface cleaning, turntable repair and vinyl-to-CD transfers (though you must buy or own the vinyl, Jimenez does not believe in pirating music). In Febru ary the store will purchase a vinyl de-warping machine, something that Bernal is very excited about. “They just came out with it last year…” Bernal said, smiling, “It’s a really cool machine.”
Bernal and Jimenez will be selling at the Music Swap Meet taking place on Oct. 21 at 9 a.m. in the Newark Pavilion. “People talk about vinyl making a comeback, but to us it never went anywhere,” Bernal said. Jimenez added “To me, it’s all I know.”
Neddle To The Groove is open Wednesday to Sunday from noon to 5 p.m.
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