The Other Side with UHF's Scotty Hagen

After many weekend trips from Essexville, Michigan to Detroit to visit record shops and see live music, it was only a matter of time before Scotty Hagen made the Motor City his new home. Hagen crash landed in Ferndale in the late 90’s. By 2002, he tuned up his bass, teamed up with Stevie Michael on vocals, and put together the Grande Nationals, who after a few line-up changes are back in the studio to finish their latest album, which is set to be released on Hagen's own record label, Bellyache Records, in January 2011. As an avid record collector, Scotty Hagen spent much of his free time in record stores, which eventually lead to a management position at Rock-a-Billy’s in Utica. After spending five years as an independent record store manager, he moved up to the corporate world to work for Borders’ music department in 2004. Last winter, when Lost and Found Vintage’s Tommy Dorr and former record store owner Jeff Bubeck approached Hagen with the idea to open an all-vinyl independent record store in Royal Oak, Michigan, he jumped at the opportunity to become the UHF general manager. On September 11, 2010, the doors of UHF opened for business next to Lost and Found Vintage on Washington Street and the local vinyl shop has been thriving ever since.

Green Light Go was able to catch up with UHF’s Scotty Hagen (who is pictured to the right of UHF owners Jeff Bubeck and Tommy Dorr) in between helping customers and pricing records to find out what it’s like to be on the other side:

Green Light Go: UHF has a ton of used vinyl, where do you get the inventory?

Scotty Hagen: The records mainly come from a number of connections around town. Jeff (Bubeck) has been hunting for people selling record collections for years, so a lot of the UHF records were stockpiled in storage units before the store opened. When Jeff was trying to persuade me to work for him, he took me over to the storage units in Fraser, MI. I took one look and thought, “Oh my God!” I spent hours looking through crates of crazy records that I had heard of, but had never seen in person before. UHF carries many new releases by independent bands and labels, but we have repressed vinyl as well. [Our customers] are overwhelmed by the sheer volume of rare and "hard to find" records we have.

GLG: Are UHF customers able to buy records online as well?

SH: We have an eBay store, but that is temporary until we have our website up. Right now, we only have a domain, which is uhfmusic.com. Soon, customers will be able to buy records from our website as well as in the store. Every day we are chipping away at something else.

GLG: With so many record stores closing in Detroit, what made you take the plunge and open a new record store?

SH: Well, opening a record store is always a gamble, but location is key. Royal Oak has always been one of the only window shopping cities in the Metro Detroit area. We get so many people coming into the store that are just walking by, because we’re in an ideal location and we’re next door to Lost and Found. The businesses go hand in hand.

GLG: We’ve heard you also get a number of celebrity window shoppers, like Glenn Danzig?

SH: Yeah, he just popped in! Danzig was playing at the Royal Oak Music Theater, so Steve Zing (Danzig’s bassist) was in here first. Steve was looking around the store, he saw our Elvis records and said, “I have to call Glenn and let him know there are tons of Elvis Presley records here.” I am sitting in UHF thinking, “Is he calling Danzig?!” Sure enough, 20 minutes later, Glenn Danzig walked through the door. It was crazy, he was super cool. Danzig posed for pictures with us, bought some records, and took a few of our business cards.

A few weeks before that, Paul Simonon and Mick Jones from The Clash dropped in. We have only been open for two months and we’ve had all of these punk rock gods in the store…it’s really cool. We’re hoping that UHF will become a destination, because [touring bands] are always telling us that when they’re on the road, it's difficult to find record stores to shop at.

GLG: I know you’ve started to host in-store performances recently, so when are those scheduled and how might an independent artist go about booking a show at UHF?

SH: So far we are doing an in-store every Saturday at 4pm through the winter. We’ve been scheduling the in-stores at 4pm because it has been a peak shopping time for us. We had The Wall Clocks in last weekend and right before the band started playing, we had [a surge of] people pour into the store and start shopping. If a band would like to do an in-store at UHF, they can contact me at the store by calling (248) 545-5955. We’d prefer that the band has an album to promote, so when people come in to see the band, they have something to take home with them.

GLG: Can local or independent bands sell their records in the store?

SH: Absolutely, we have a consignment program. We let the band pick the price and we’ll set up an 80/20 split. Since I play in bands, I know how tough it is to make the money back [that is spent on recording]. Many record stores offer a 70/30 split, but we want to be fair and do a good thing for [local and independent] bands, so we stick with 80/20.

GLG: Since you work in a record store, I’m sure you get this question all of the time, but what have you been listening to lately?

SH: Everything! I really like the new stuff on Jack White’s label, Third Man Records, especially the new Greenhorns album, Four Stars. I am really into the 5,6,7,8’s reissue, re-press stuff like Blues Magoos and The Lollipop Shoppe, and I'm forever listening to The Monkees and Alice Cooper. I always look for weird records to put on in the store, like the Dick Hyman album, The Age of Electronicus, which is a compilation of Beatles’ songs and other covers played on a Moog synth.

The Other Side highlights the talented folks behind the scenes of the music we listen to. The Other Side features producers, engineers, booking agents, photographers, radio DJs, management teams, and label representatives.

This week’s The Other Side is brought to you by: Lauren Roberts

UHF Staff Photo Credit: Jeremy Carroll

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Music Monday - The Mad Mackerel Talks Wordpress, Joe Strummer and Black Angels

John Grain's music blog The Mad Mackerel is relatively new, sprouting up in England in February of last year. Working out of the U.K., (Charlbury, Oxon, if you want to know exactly where), Grain and his staff use Wordpress to its best advantages. We forgive his British spelling (as in colour), because Grain's blog comes from one thing: his love of music and sharing it with other music fanatics. Mad Mackerel's number one goal is to introduce readers to underground music, (often the first bit of press a band has received) with smart writing and legal MP3s to download. Oh and Grain loves a good murder ballad. Don't we all?

Music Monday Q&A

1. How long has The Mad Mackerel been operating?
Mad Mackerel first came into being in February 2009, just before we went to SXSW for the first (and so far only) time. We were hosted on Google Blogspot, but suffered at their Draconian hands with their ridiculous crackdown that arbitrarily punished those of us who were posting authorized tracks as well as those who weren't. So we got wiped out after 13 months, but overcame our depression to relaunch the next day on Wordpress where we have been much happier.

2. What makes Mad Mackerel different from other websites?
We'd like to say our writing. So many music blogs just post the song with no more than a line or two, so you can't be sure on what you're getting. We try and add some depth and some colour to our posts and figure that someone who has taken the time, trouble and effort to craft a song (which is far more difficult than writing about one) deserves a bit of time, trouble and effort from us to describe it and how it makes us feel. And no one writes on a Friday like Mrs. Mackerel!

3. Do you think Mad Mackerel has a specific musical niche?
We have a wide specific niche if that's possible. We like folk, country, Americana, garage, rock 'n' roll, indie, punk, and psychedelia. We love songs that tell a story, break your heart or dwell on the fringes of society. We love the swamp, the desert, the barroom and the seedy side of town in songs. And we adore a good murder ballad! We don't go much for electronica, disco, house, soul, R&B, hip-hop or rap as good though it undoubtedly is, it just isn't our music of choice. We're not much one for remixes either so it is rare for us to post those.

4. What contemporary albums are you looking forward to coming out?
There are lots and lots. If I had to pick three I would say the planned new ones from Black Angels, Wooden Wand, and Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan have got us most excited.

5. How does the Mad Mackerel support independent music and what is important about doing so?
Obviously the music industry is changing massively and unpredictably. Business models are different and new challenges are there to be overcome. We can't offer a solution to that so our approach is simple, we love music and it is our passion. Mad Mackerel is a way for us to share, with the artist's blessing, songs and videos that we like and hope others will too. We always give links when we can, options to purchase and try to ensure we only post authorized material. We also try and listen to everything that we get sent, though that is becoming increasingly challenging as the volume increases almost daily.

6. Do you think online publications are taking precedence over print? What kind of effect do you think that has on bands?
I think that there will be a place for both. We subscribe to five music magazines in print and love getting them and reading them. We have 30 - 40 blogs we like and visit regularly. We listen to 6 Music (BBC Radio) all day long. All are relevant and important, and all have a place and a role to play. Print magazines face the hardest job I suppose, as they are there to make a profit and need advertising and subscriber revenues whereas 99% of music blogs are labours of love so we can't be influenced as easily in the sense that we don't do it for profit so we can be truly independent.

7. What blogs/publications do you read other than your own?
We read Uncut, MOJO, Q, The Word, and Spin by subscription. We buy NME and Clash Magazine sometimes and The Big Takeover when we can get it. We read lots of blogs, but especially like Song By Toad, Raven Sings The Blues, The Finest Kiss, Sonic Masala, Slowcoustic, Hear Ya, Ninebullets.net and Get Off The Coast.

8. What has been your most definitive moment since you started Mad Mackerel?
There have been a few - the first post obviously (four reads in total), getting on Hype Machine... increased traffic enormously, getting 20,000 site hits in a month. Best of all have been the friends we've made all over the world, and particularly the musicians we've really admired who almost with exception have been lovely, gracious and humble.

9. If there is any musician/band you could interview (dead or alive) who would it be?
Joe Strummer without a doubt. Our youngest is named after him and he is my number one all time, put on a pedestal, complete icon and hero.

10. If you could be in any band (of all time), who would you rock with?
I can't imagine anything better than playing in The Clash in their heyday. I am sure my love for America comes from their love for America and playing a part in their New York residency would have been beyond compare.

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