Steve Manley, who has worked at B-Side Records at 436 State St. since 1983 and has owned the shop since 2007, is moving his store this fall to 514 State St. His current leased space is likely to be demolished to make way for a new development.
Steve Manley is bullish on vinyl and the Downtown but has no confidence the city will reject a plan to level his building to make way for a mixed use development that includes retail and apartments.
He sees what’s happening a half block away where buildings that once housed Community Pharmacy, Room of One’s Own Book Store, Casa de Lara restaurant and Red Rock Saloon are being leveled to make way for a $100 million project from a Chicago-based development company.
That’s why Manley, who has worked at B-Side Records on State Street since 1983 and has owned the business in 570 square feet of leased space near Lisa Link Peace Park since 2007, is on the move.
There have been several records stores in Madison’s downtown over the years but B-Side Records is the lone survivor. The shop nearly closed in the mid 2000s but a resurgence in vinyl has brought new life to the business.
Manley, 65, has signed a five-year lease for a 1,200-square-foot space at 514 State St. that is currently home to a tattoo shop. It not only doubles his space, provides more room for customers and offers up valuable storage, but ensures that vinyl still has a place in the city’s downtown after almost perishing due to CDs, iTunes, You Tube and rising rents.
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Young listeners, including the thousands that attend UW-Madison, are among some of Manley’s biggest customers, which is why he wants to remain on State Street and not relocate to a spot outside of the Downtown that would come with cheaper rent.
“They want a real-world experience away from the screen,” Manley said of his young customers. “There’s a lot of foot traffic and students are our key demographic for us now. That wasn’t the case 20 years ago.”
The confines of B-Side Records are narrow but will soon more tan double with this fall to a space at 514 State Street that is twice the size.
According to industry data, vinyl album sales in the U.S. grew in 2021 for the 16th consecutive year as LP sales jumped by more than 50% in 2021, surpassing both digital and CD album sales. LPs also accounted for 38% of album sales in the country as 41.7 million LPs were sold, up more than 45-fold compared to 2006 when the vinyl comeback began.
But B-Side, which opened in 1983, isn’t the only record shop undergoing change in Madison.
Over on the East Side, Sugar Shack Records, 2301 Atwood Ave., had its last day of brick-and-mortar sales last weekend.
Sugar Shack Records had been in leased space at 2301 Atwood Ave. since 2003. The building is about to be sold and will later this year become home to Table Wine, which will move from its current location a few blocks away.
Gary John Feest, who has owned the used record store for 41 years, will continue internet sales of albums but what he didn’t claim from his inventory for his online business have been moved to a warehouse. The estimated 15,000 titles, which includes 45s, 78s, VHS tapes, compact discs and even cassette tapes, ultimately will end up in a basement space at 2565 East Johnson St. where former employee Maggie Denman plans to open Boneset Records.
Feest, 69, said didn’t have the energy to move his shop to a seventh location and gifted to Denman his remaining inventory, shelving and record bins in exchange for her cleaning out the Atwood Avenue store. However, Feest has kept his collection of beer memorabilia that includes vintage signs, cans and a shelf full of glass mugs.
Gary John Feest, owner of Sugar Shack Records, sorts through bins of records on Monday just a few days after closing his brick and mortar business on Atwood Avenue. Feest, who has been in the record store business since 1981, will continue to sell online.
“I don’t need any records for my own collection. I gave that up years ago,” Feest said as he worked his way Monday through the “S” bin in the rock section of the store. “I’m ready to give it up but people are going crazy for vinyl. I think Maggie will do fine.”
Denman declined to be interviewed for this story but according to her Instagram account describes her future business as “a small independent music shop that will open sometime this summer,” according to an April 19 post. Denman told Andy Moore in a recently published piece in the online music and entertainment publication ToneMadison that she considers her East Johnson Street space to be a temporary home as she seeks a more suitable location.
The vast inventory at Sugar Shack Records included bins of 45 rpm records along with posters, like this picture of the late John Belushi when he starred in the movie “Animal House.”
“I think it’s a lot of people’s dream to own a record store and I’m one of those people,” said Denman, whose stints have included playing bass in the band Proud Parents and booking bands for Frank Productions. “Record stores are my happy place and I want to share that with my family, friends and community.”
Feest’s last day of business at his brick-and-mortar location was on Record Store Day on April 23 and resulted in the most sales in the history of the store.
Beer signs, posters and platinum and gold records crowded the walls of Sugar Shack Records for years.
The historic building where Sugar Shack spent its final 19 years is about to be sold and dates to at least 1900 when it was home to E.J. Erbe’s Grocery. Its next tenant will be a local business, too. The owners of Table Wine, who in late 2015 opened a 1,700-square-foot wine shop at 2040 Atwood Ave., plan to occupy the space, which will likely take months to remodel and not include posters of the Clash, Beatles, Grateful Dead, Patti Smith and the Billboard Hot 100 from the week of Feb. 2, 1991.
Gary John Feest has moved his Sugar Shack Records six times since 1981 but has called it quits. He will continue to sell music online that he has stored in a warehouse.
Feest grew up in Milwaukee and in 1975 came to Madison where he lived above Portabella restaurant and shopped at Wazoo Records and Rave Up, both Downtown used record stores long since closed. The shops inspired him to open Sugar Shack on Monroe Street in 1981 before spending eight years at West Gorham Street and University Avenue and then two years at 125 West Mifflin Street. The store spent nearly 12 years on State Street in two locations before closing for a few months and reopening on Atwood Avenue in October 2003.
“It’s definitely weird and it’s exhausting and that’s why I’m looking forward to May when I can relax a little bit,” Feest said when asked about his retirement. “It’s been a little hectic these last few weeks.”
Sugar Shack Records has closed after 41 years of business. The music shop had been at 2301 Atwood Ave. since 2003.
Many stores now closed
Madison has been a city that over the years has been dotted with music shops like Record Town, Discount Records, Paradise Records, Slatewood, Penny Lane, Galaxy of Sound and Ear Wax. There have been national chains like Sam Goody and Musicland while Oshkosh-based The Exclusive Company once had stores in Madison. Its State Street shop closed in 2012 and its store on Mineral Point Road shuttered in 2009.
On April 7, the Exclusive Company, once a powerhouse with record stores around the state, announced it would close its remaining stores in Green Bay, Appleton, Oshkosh, Milwaukee and Greenfield. The announcement came after the chain’s founder, James “Mr. G” Giombetti, who opened his first store in 1956, died unexpectedly in November.
“With the passing of Mr. G, we have lost not only the ‘voice’ of The Exclusive Company but its very soul,” the company posted on it website. “Mr. G was The Exclusive Company and The Exclusive Company was Mr. G. Sadly and simply, The Exclusive Company cannot, and should not, go on one without the other.”
Resale Records, 2401 Commercial Ave., and seen here in 2017, had been housed in a Trachte building since 1978. Eric Teisberg’s father purchased the building in 1977 for an appliance repair business but six months later died, which allowed his son, Eric Teisberg, to open a record shop. Teisberg died unexpectedly in 2017. He was 61.
Other changes on the Madison music shop scene include the abrupt closing in 2017 of Resale Records after owner Eric Teisberg, who ran the shop for nearly 40 years out of a dilapidated building with dirt floors at 2401 Commercial Avenue, died unexpectedly after collapsing while leaving the nearby Tip-Top Tavern. Earlier that year, Dave Zero, who has owned MadCity Music Exchange since 2007, moved the business to 2023 Atwood Ave. after years at 600 Williamson St.
In March, Strictly Discs, 1900 Monroe St., celebrated 33 years in business while JiggyJamz, which caters to more of the hip-hop and electronic music crowd, anchors a suite at 1734 Fordem Ave.
After a horrific bike crash in 2016, Steve Manley, owner of B-Side Records on State Street, now rides a recumbent trike to work.
Back at B-Side Records on State Street, Manley has recovered recovered form a horrific bike crash in 2016 and now rides a blue recumbent trike to work from his home on Madison’s East Side. A crowdfunding campaign, launched without his knowledge, raised $25,000 and was used to pay for staffing while Manley, the main employee of the shop, recovered from his injuries.
In the mid-2000s, Manley nearly closed his shop due to a lack of business as more people gravitated toward digital options. Only now, thanks to the resurgence of vinyl and his love of music, he’s eager for the move and looking forward to the next five years.
“It seemed to be doomed,” Manley said. “It went from really bad to really good. I can even pay my rent.”
Photos: One last look inside Sugar Shack Records in Madison
Sugar Shack Records
The vast inventory at Sugar Shack Records included bins of 45 rpm records along with posters, like this picture of the late John Belushi when he starred in the movie “Animal House.”
Sugar Shack Records
Sugar Shack Records had been in leased space at 2301 Atwood Ave. since 2003. The building is about to be sold and will later this year become home to Table Wine, which will move from its current location a few blocks away.
Sugar Shack Records
Sugar Shack Records has closed after 41 years of business. The music shop had been at 2301 Atwood Ave. since 2003.
Sugar Shack Records
Sugar Shack Records has closed after 41 years of business. The music shop had been at 2301 Atwood Ave. since 2003.
Sugar Shack Records
Beer signs, posters and platinum and gold records crowded the walls of Sugar Shack Records for years.
Sugar Shack Records
Sugar Shack Records has closed after 41 years of business. The music shop had been at 2301 Atwood Ave. since 2003.
Sugar Shack Records
Sugar Shack Records has closed after 41 years of business. The music shop had been at 2301 Atwood Ave. since 2003.
Sugar Shack Records
Gary John Feest has moved his Sugar Shack Records six times since 1981 but has called it quits. He will continue to sell music online that he has stored in a warehouse.
Sugar Shack Records
Sugar Shack Records has closed after 41 years of business. The music shop had been at 2301 Atwood Ave. since 2003.
Sugar Shack Records
Sugar Shack Records has closed after 41 years of business. The music shop had been at 2301 Atwood Ave. since 2003.
Sugar Shack Records
Sugar Shack Records has closed after 41 years of business. The music shop had been at 2301 Atwood Ave. since 2003.
Sugar Shack Records
Sugar Shack Records has closed after 41 years of business. The music shop had been at 2301 Atwood Ave. since 2003.
Sugar Shack Records
Sugar Shack Records has closed after 41 years of business. The music shop had been at 2301 Atwood Ave. since 2003.
Sugar Shack Records
Sugar Shack Records has closed after 41 years of business. The music shop had been at 2301 Atwood Ave. since 2003.
Sugar Shack Records
Gary John Feest, owner of Sugar Shack Records, sorts through bins of records on Monday just a few days after closing his brick and mortar business on Atwood Avenue. Feest, who has been in the record store business since 1981, will continue to sell online.
