Bob Koch
The view from the back of B-Side Records' new home.
Longtime customers helped owner Steve Manley move the contents of B-Side Records to its new home at 514 State St.
The footprint of B-Side Records’ original storefront is not large, but Steve Manley made the absolute most of it. “There is stuff in every square inch of space,” says Manley, eyeing the contents during the store’s last full week at 436 State St., where it’s been a downtown institution since 1982.
Manley has been associated with B-Side almost from the beginning. He started as a part-time worker, then managed the store for many years. In 2007 he became owner. After learning of plans to redevelop 436 State St. and the surrounding addresses, Manley settled on a new spot about a block closer to campus at 514 State. Customers and friends offered to help out with the move, and on Sept. 20 Manley emailed that the time had come to pitch in.
It’s not as surprising as it may seem that anyone would volunteer for what is rarely a fun task. But record stores have a way of developing a community that feels like a second family, especially those stores with as long a history as B-Side. The store’s customers have stepped up to help in the past, including when Manley was injured in a bike accident in late 2016.
When I arrive on Sept. 21 the deconstruction process is already underway; B-Side employee Alivia Kleinfeldt is outside in front of the store with a piece of its crazy quilt of CD shelving, which grew over the years to make more display room above the floor display racks. Inside, a friend of the store is packing cardboard boxes with compact discs in their long plastic display cases, designed to be the right height to fit in racks designed to hold LPs, and taking care to keep them in alphabetical order to ease the restocking process at the store’s new location.
While taking some boxes of CDs over to the new store, Manley mentions that he already has some history with B-Side’s new address: He worked there in college when it was home to Suburpia, a sub shop chain in Madison and Milwaukee. It’s where he met his wife, Anita Sattel, who is waiting at 514 State to open the door when anyone makes a trip with another load of CDs. After an hour or so, the first few of the smaller emptied-out floor racks and a few other larger items make their way down the street on a handcart.
When I return on Sunday, the old shop looks somewhat like a bomb went off. Most of the floor and wall racks are removed, as are most of the artist-signed albums and CDs, countless posters, and other ephemera that plastered every square inch of space not filled with items for sale. Amazingly, almost all the records and CDs are out as well.
At the new location, the rock and pop LP bins are already in place in the same right-hand-side spot as before. It seems somewhat miraculous; Sattel says a steady stream of volunteers over the last few days have kept the project moving at a rapid pace. Another key has been handyman John Elliott, who engineered the deconstruction and repair of the wooden racks and their reconstruction in the new space. A long floor rack is the next to make the trip on Sunday; the top is removed, and the rack flipped over to temporarily install casters on the legs to roll it down the street.
During the next few hours the last few boxes of LPs are moved to the new store, and, even more importantly, the turntable, CD player, amplifier and speakers are unhooked, dusted off and brought over as well.
Manley says B-Side’s four-decade history on State Street, and the corridor’s good foot traffic in the summer and weekends year-round, made it important to stay downtown. “I had considered moving to a cheaper area of town but in the end it just seemed like the best plan to stay down here. And now that I’ve found a better building and a bigger space, it feels right.”
B-Side’s 40th anniversary on State Street is Oct. 9, and Manley says the shop plans to celebrate the milestone with a grand re-opening weekend Oct. 7-9; details will be announced at facebook.com/bsidemadison.
By the numbers
Approximate number of CDs and records moved: 5,000
Number of volunteers: 13
Number of current employees: 4
Recordings found lost behind the racks: Irresistible Forces by Jack DeJohnette’s Special Edition (1987 LP); the Deluxe Edition of Odelay by Beck (2008 CD)
