On Friday, April 3, Echo Park gets a brand spanking new record store, so hip you got to have a record player to shop there or an excessive amount of storage space on which to organize a vinyl collection. Origami Vinyl specializes in that wondrous species of music appreciation that's existed longer than the oldest grubby record lover alive. Sort of an opposite to Amoeba Records, Origami will carefully select its stock like fine wine: the best of the old and new on 7 or 12 inches of thick plastic.

Origami Vinyl crops out of Origami Records; a digital only company housing bands such as Wait.Think.Fast., Summer Darling, and other young soft rock/pop outfits, many from the Los Angeles area. The label distributes its bands to 300 online retail and promotional outlets, taking only 15% of profits (that's a sweet deal) while the artists retain ownership of their music and freedom to expand themselves as they please. Origami seems to like doing it one way at a time: only digital, only vinyl. What might be next? A restaurant serving only mashed potatoes, hopefully.

Settling into the heart of Echo Park's fun spot, the store opens on the same block as The Echo, and will serve as the exclusive box office for that venue, as well as Echoplex and Spaceland. They plan to host in-store performances, art events, broadcast radio, and offer a free unicorn with purchases of $50 or more. (One of the benefits mentioned in the last sentence is not true). Join all the cool kids in the neighborhood for Friday's opening, with performances by Wait.Think.Fast and Nico Stai, as well as 10% off purchases.

See Origami being built here.

Origami Vinyl
1822 Sunset Blvd
Los Angeles 90026