Numero Group’s pop-up archival record store coming to Philly for one day only
The Chicago-based label is touring their pop-up shop along the east coast and through the midwest, offering diehard and casual music fans the chance to scoop unique selections from Numero’s 20-plus-year history.
Numero Group pop-up in Lousiville, Kentucky | Photo courtesy of Kristin Thomson
After founding Numero Group 23 years ago, Ken Shipley is taking the archival record label on the road across a large swath of the United States, offering its deep music catalog to eager listeners. And their first stop is right here in Philly.
Shipley, along with Simple Machines Records co-mastermind and Tsunami founding member Kristin Thomson, will be at Nostalgia in Fishtown from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday to launch the 11-day Numero Group Going Home Pop Up Tour after posting up in Manhattan all summer. Those looking to attend Wednesday’s pop up are asked to RSVP online here.
So what’s to be expected at Wednesday’s event?
”The latest and greatest from Numero’s wide range of products, including CDs, LPs, cassettes, 45s, T-shirts, and all the flotsam and in-between things that we make, like nail polish and bats and whatever other kind of stuff that comes out of the dream factory,” Shipley said.
The pop-up is more akin to a band on tour than a traditional retail setting.
“We’re doing something that nobody else is doing,” he said. “You can’t name me one record label that’s doing this.”
The response from the New York residency—and previous pop-up tours—is giving Shipley high hopes for the new tour.
“ The response has always been, I think, pretty amazing amongst the people who know what Numero is,” he said. “The great thing is that more and more people are just finding out about [Numero]. Every year that goes along, this thing just gets a little bigger.”
While Numero attracts underground music fans, it’s also been able to grab the attention of more casual listeners who are intrigued by Numero’s sign that reads ”The Alternate History of Popular Music.”
”If you think that the greatest music ever made is Taylor Swift, this probably won’t be for you,” he said. “But we probably have something that can scratch that itch, you know? There’s a way for me to go, ‘Oh, you like Taylor Swift? Let me show you somebody who’s made some other interesting music across a lot of eras, too.'”
Putting new music in listeners’ hands is what the tour is all about, despite the grueling hours of setting up, tearing down, and traversing vast swaths of the country.
Shipley compared himself to Johnny Appleseed, but instead of leaving apple trees behind he leaves new music. (Fun fact about Johnny “Appleseed” Chapman: the trees he planted grew nearly inedible apples, which were intended to be used for hard cider production.)
”It feels amazing to leave a thousand records behind in a town,” he said. “Because you know that every single one of those is gonna go out and either help somebody start a band, it’s gonna be on a radio show, it’s gonna be in a film and television show at some point in time, it’s gonna be covered by somebody.”
Turning at least one person on to some new music makes all the work worth it, though.
”I always love when I turn somebody on to something that they didn’t know they were gonna love,” he said. “Then you always hear from people later say, ‘Oh, man, you put that record into my hands,’ and ‘we ended up doing X, Y, or Z with it.'”
Numero is in an “interesting place,” Shipley said, in that it’s a gateway to a whole other world of music that has nothing to do with hits, what’s on the radio, and what was on TV.