Jimmi Carr rocks a Foggy Record Store Day

Article by Corin Shearston

After two relocations and a wide range of in-store performances, The Velvet Fog in Katoomba recently celebrated its fifth Record Store Day event on April 20, 2024. Since first being conceptualised at the turn of the 21st century in 1999, then opened one year later in 2000, the moderately-small record store has been opening its doors to an Aladdin’s cave of vinyl, CDs, tapes, books, DVDs, t-shirts, magazines, badges, posters, prints and hi-fi equipment for 25 years, while persevering through fires, floods, tough economic times and the peak COVID-19 pandemic years of 2020-2022.

For longtime owner Paul Tatz, Record Store Day is about “saying thank you to the customers”. For customers who can’t make it to the shop’s Katoomba location on Bathurst Rd, opposite the Station Bar near the top of Katoomba St, Paul’s compadre Peter Wright continues to sell stock from The Mobile Fog, a traveling record store that appears at local record fairs and markets. Despite being a fairly modern concept in the contemporary music industry, Record Store Day is celebrated and recognised across the world, from major labels like Universal and SONY to cottage industries. “Record Store Day is to get people to come in and support their local independent record store”, Tatz stated, “regardless of whether or not they’ve got special items in for the day…that’s up to the labels”.

A special part of The Velvet Fog’s own Record Store Day celebrations are the inclusion of a live band or performer. Regular in-store gigs are also commonplace, with local acts Paint Job, Q&TB and andie all performing in the shop last year, among others, along with other Aussie musos, such as The Living End’s double-bassist Scott Owen (in folk duo Gimme The Fringe), while Peter Black (Hard-Ons, Nunchukka Superfly) performed in The Velvet Fog in 2019. Last Record Store Day, The Velvet Fog featured local rock trio earprojector and Sydney rock ‘n’ rollers Sick Fizz. This year, they decided to invite roots-funk-and-rock-based solo performer Dr. Jimmi Carr (Jimmi Carr Band, ex-Innamech) to offer two sets of songs from his back catalogue, his most recent, 7th album Flight Cycle, a previously-unheard new song and a surprising cover of Frank Zappa’s ‘Camarillo Brillo’.

Dr. Jimmi Carr (Jimmi Carr Band, ex-Innamech) talks with BML Journalist Corin Shearston to help celebrate Record Store Day.

This year, they decided to invite roots-funk-and-rock-based solo performer Dr. Jimmi Carr (Jimmi Carr Band, ex-Innamech) to offer two sets of songs from his back catalogue, his most recent, 7th album Flight Cycle, a previously-unheard new song and a surprising cover of Frank Zappa’s ‘Camarillo Brillo’.

Velvet Fog owner Paul Tatz.

As opposed to the musical approach he took when he first started out in the late 90s, after growing up as a lover of funk-rock and metal, Carr tells Blue Mountains Live that he’s “loosened up” as a musician. “I’ve started singing like myself, cutting loose a bit, [and] my voice has changed…it’s a bit huskier than it used to be”, Carr explained. “My next album will be different [to Flight Cycle]…what I’m writing at the moment is a bit more acoustic-oriented, chilled, straightforward, that’s just what’s been coming”. Speaking on his current stylistic shift away from the doctoral piece that Flight Cycle, Carr states, “Flight Cycle was a big album, so I feel like it’s OK to go with what I’ve learned to be good at…a middle-ground style for what I like and what’s easy for people to grasp”. While performing both sets on his semi-electric Telecaster guitar from Fender, a lightweight ‘Acoustasonic’, Carr was relaxed and jovial as he adapted a recent setlist of his from The Joan’s Live & Local series in Penrith to the crowd in The Fog.

Although the weather outside was suitably foggy, wet and drizzly, the room was warm and the rock posters gleamed alongside the occasional beaming smile from finger-flicking patrons at the record racks. “Paul’s been servicing the local community with awesome vinyl for years”, said Carr, to Blue Mountains Live. The next musician to perform at The Velvet Fog will be CJ Stranger on May 4. Potential upcoming acts who may be performing in the shop soon include The Neptune Power Federation, Scattered Order, Peter Black, Sick Fizz, The On and Ons, The Howling Rats, and Gavin Bowles. As stated on their Facebook page, The Velvet Fog would like to thank the locals and out-of-towners who continue to support small record stores.