Urban Jacksonville

Inertia Books and Records in 5-Points is the third retail stop of our Urban Jacksonville shopping series. Check out our interviews with Tiara and Anomaly. Previously I would ask the stores the same set of questions. For this interview I wrote the questions specifically for Josh because I thought he would have a unique insight on the demise of Moon Colony Razorblade and the relocation of Vinyl Frontier. I’m really excited about this interview, I hope you like it.

1. First introduce yourself. Who are you and what do you do?

I’m Josh (Jubinsky). I work at the Main Library Downtown in the Children’s Department. I also co-own Inertia Records and Books (I do the ‘records’ part). I’m in a few bands that tour a decent amount. I’ve run Dead Tank Records, a small label, for 6 years - with it’s online/show distribution catalog being what turned into the store.

2. In the past few months Jacksonville has seen two independent music stores close. Moon Colony Razorblade Downtown and Vinyl Frontier in San Marco. What is your reaction to this?

Well, actually Vinyl Frontier hasn’t closed - they just moved. Somewhere closer to Beach Blvd - But, I haven’t been to the new location. Steve is rad though. (They have relocated to 2116 Atlantic Blvd … when you see the Follow Me - God mini billboard you are there)

I was hoping the best for Moon Colony from the start, but was certainly skeptical of how long they would be open. I kept in touch with Max and Cash throughout, trying to maintain a relationship where we, at the least, wouldn’t be stepping on each other toes - which I feel was accomplished. It sucks that they closed, but I totally understand why.

My reaction is to try and make sure I stay open. Jacksonville needs a music store that carries new and classic independent releases.

3. How have you managed to stay afloat? Do you feel like Inertia offers something the other two shops did not offer?

I have way cheaper rent. That’s a large part of it. I share a space and the rent bill with Heartworks and Joe, who does the books for Inertia. At times it can be a bit stressful with so many business aspects in one space, but the savings in rent easily makes up for occasional stress. The variety of people that come in for whatever reason helps as well. People waiting on food sometimes look through records and books, and people record shopping sometimes grab a bite to eat.

Last weekend at Daytona’s This is For You Fest - I talked with Bob Suren, owner of Sound Idea (a similar store in Brandon FL) and Felix Havoc, owner of Extreme Noise (a record store in Minneapolis). The general idea I got from both of them is - rent is going up, and sales are going down. Felix, who has been there for years, mentioned possibly moving into a space with a bookstore. Talking to a distributor last week, they mentioned how brick and mortar stores are closing up across the country. The economy in general is bad, yet alone for a such a peripheral and extraneous market such as music.

Also, I think being connected to something bigger than just being a record store in Jacksonville is helpful. I was doing Dead Tank Distribution for 5 years - working with and establishing relationships with various independent distributors, labels, and customers worldwide. Getting out my releases by trading and consignment and doing the same for other small labels. Just because the store is new, doesn’t mean I’m new to this.

I deal with over 10 separate independent distributors and directly with various labels. And it certainly effects business, since we aren’t going through a “one-stop” who has (arguably) everything you’d want for a store, but of course marks things up - most stores deal with that because of the convenience. James and Kyle, who work at the shop, sometimes help me with ordering, and laugh because I’m comparing prices between distributors to save 30 cents on the wholesale price of a release. That’s always followed by “that’s why you own a store and we don’t.”

4. You are located in 5-Points. A high foot-traffic area. Do you feel like the lack of foot traffic in Downtown and San Marco contributed to the demise of the two afore mentioned shops. Or is there more to retail than foot traffic?

Well I’ve only had a store at this location, so I don’t know what no foot traffic is like. We certainly don’t get the regular 5 points traffic - we’re off the main strip. I still think that (mostly) unless people already know about us they aren’t going to come in. Sometimes though we get questions like “What’s a zine?”, “Do you sell cigarettes?” ,or “These are records? People have record players?” - and that’s when it’s probably not someone making a special trip to the store.

We do get a lot of people making a special trip - bands on tour who have heard about a vegan place to eat that also sells records - people from Jax Beach, St. Augustine, Savannah, Gainesville, Daytona Beach etc. A fair amount of that is from connections I’ve made through Dead Tank, but every time someone I don’t know calls the shop asking if we have the new Asshole Parade LP I get so stoked. A guy called from Tokyo once asking about a Sunn0))) record he saw we had via our website. I told him he had to come pick it up (not really, it was out of stock and out of print by the time he called).

There is more to retail than foot traffic. I don’t think anyone could successfully operate a record store with over $800 a month rent in Jacksonville. I don’t live off the store by any means. Nearly everything I make goes back into stocking the store, the rest goes to rent and the people who watch the store.

5. What makes Inertia different than the other record stores in town?
What other record stores are there? If I am leaving the 4 mile radius around my house it’s because I am driving out of Jacksonville.

We have records. Buzz words to describe what we primarily carry are hardcore, punk, indie rock, folk punk, crust, thrash, sludge, and metal. We have some hip hop, mostly Anticon label stuff - I don’t know much about hip hop, but most of what I do know I like. Second in line of what I don’t know about is indie rock. I didn’t live here during the Einstein’s years and certainly feel like I missed out on something. Our selection of indie rock certainly isn’t as in depth as our hardcore punk. Sometimes I feel as if I’m not doing that community justice (as perhaps Mooncolony was?), but then I think how many Jacksonville ‘punk’ kids are into Asschapel or Gauze?

And of course we have books. Mostly of the radical leftist variety. Think Microcosm Publishing or AK Press. And that shit is awesome.

6. What is your most popular seller right now? 1 music item and 1 book.

HAHA. Well the book items are that new Banksy Collection book that AK did and the Slingshot Organizer, since it’s a calendar organizer and we’ve entered a new year.

Music is way tougher. We do have a pretty large selection despite my last response making it maybe seem limited (?). The music community here is growing in size, and it’s very diverse. We’re not selling 20 copies of a new release, but instead 5 copies of 8 new totally different releases to totally different people. The new Fucked Up 2xLP, the new Evens LP, the new Boris / Sunn0))) Collab CD. These Psychedelic Comp LPs that we can never get in fast enough. Defiance Ohio and This Bike is a Pipe Bomb in general. The new OM record, Songs Ohia, The Holy Mountain… Seriously, it’s so diverse and awesome. Every time I see what has sold any given day, I’m blown away at how different it all is. It makes me really happy and hopeful about the Jacksonville music community.

If you enjoyed this interview as much as I did, you can keep up with Inertia Records and Books on their website / blog. They post information on new arrivals at the store, upcoming shows, reviews and general information about music and art going on in the city.

Inertia Records and Books
820 Lomax St (Map)
Jacksonville, FL 32204

tags: jacksonville, books, records, riverside, 5 points, inertia

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 7th, 2007 at 9:03 pm and is filed under Interview, Retail, Riverside. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.