Vinyl Conflict has seen its share of pivotal moments. Another is right around the corner.
The Richmond record store and pillar of the local punk and hardcore communities will mark 15 years stocking, supporting and selling with an anniversary concert at the Broadberry on Saturday, Sept. 16. That night, Vinyl Conflict owner Bobby Egger will break new ground when it comes to the scale of the shows he’s staged.
“This is the biggest show I’ve ever booked,” Egger says. “While I’m nervous, I’m also excited, and I feel confident in it.”
Hank Wood and the Hammerheads, Home Front, Chain Cult and other groups will perform as part of a bill that typifies Egger’s longstanding support for sub-genre and complementary appreciation for genre variety. “I wanted to make sure that we were touching on hardcore — which is a really big scene for Richmond — metal, punk and even the dark-wave synth-punk as well,” he says. “It’s a true mixed bill.”
“I think a lot of people are going to come for one band and see five others that they’re going to be really excited about,” he adds.
Making space for bands and fans to intersect has always been at the core of Vinyl Conflict’s mission, even before Bobby Egger assumed ownership in 2012. He took over from Brandon and Lauren Ferrell, who opened the store in the 400-square-foot first floor of a house in Oregon Hill. When they did, Plan 9 was the one-stop shop for vinyl in Richmond, and the Ferrells looked to go their own way by getting specific — serving a slice of the marketplace that had been primed by a golden age of noisy and influential locally based bands. “They were a very specialized shop,” Egger confirms. “It was pretty much just punk and hardcore.”
Despite that narrow focal point, Vinyl Conflict offered just about everything a devoted fan could want, from CDs and vinyl to T-shirts, patches and pins. And the Ferrells didn’t just move product; they were steeped in the regional punk and metal scenes as a result of Brandon’s experiences playing in bands like Government Warning, Direct Control and Wasted Time, and from the label they ran, No Way Records. “I try to keep that spirit alive with all the things going on [and by] helping the local artists,” Egger says.
A history of helping artists
Egger has been doing the latter since his time as a high schooler in Northern Virginia. In 2005 he founded a DIY label called Head Count Records with one of his best friends and began booking shows around the region for the label’s roster — “as well as our friends’ bands,” Egger says, “which were all the same.” By that point his wax slinging was already beyond his years. “I was trading records with people all over the world,” he recalls. “I started doing a distribution along with my label, so in high school I was trading records and selling them at shows. Any gig I was going to I was bringing a backpack with records.”
Egger moved to Richmond in 2010. One of his first jobs in town was as security at Strange Matter, and he eventually lent the beloved but now-shuttered venue his booking expertise as well. This was also around the time he worked his first shifts at Vinyl Conflict — first as a helper, then a Sunday employee, and then a two-to-three-shifts-a-week regular. When the Ferrells decided to move and Egger bought the store, he could scarcely grasp the way his life was about to change. He kept his day job at the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority in disbelief. “We shook on it, we had our deal, I was the owner of Vinyl Conflict, and I was still training to be the manager at the ABC store,” Egger recalls. His training team noticed his attention was divided, and he was written up for taking too many phone calls.
“You’re training for this position,” he remembers them saying. “And I’m like, ‘Yeah, but I just bought this record store and my employees are calling me.’ And they’re like, ‘Well why would you be training for this position?’ I was like, ‘You’re right.’”
He faced another fork in the road when Vinyl Conflict’s success outgrew its original location. The store even stayed busy during the pandemic; private browsing appointments were consistently booked solid, curbside pickup and mail orders were humming as well. It flew under the radar for many that at the end of the store’s run in Oregon Hill, offsite storage was needed, as the buying side had surpassed the original footprint in more ways than one.
“The hip-hop section was awesome,” Egger says, “but it was a row or two, and we were physically rotating it regularly… We had our overstock in a secondary location. We were doing our mail order at a secondary location, just trying to make it work. At some point I realized that we’re gonna grow.”
The scope of the Vinyl Conflict label — now almost three dozen releases in — had been growing in its own way. The 7-inch EP, VC-001, by hardcore band Barge, came out in 2013, as Egger shifted focus from his Head Count imprint to the one named after the store he’d taken over. Vinyl Conflict then dove headfirst into making LPs in 2017 with a pair of full-length albums — one from hardcore punk group Asylum and the other from metal outfit Left Cross. Another pivotal drop landed a year later, when Richmond-based rapper Nickelus F. shared “Stuck,” a high point in the city’s recent hip-hop recording history. Egger calls it a “shining moment” for his label. “I love a lot of different styles of music,” Egger says, “but Nickelus F as an entertainer is one of the most energetic, ambitious, talented — I can’t say enough good stuff about him. And it was really, really cool that he was willing to work with us on that album.”
New downtown digs
Visit 300 E. Grace St. and you might find a now-collectible copy of “Stuck” displayed against the bright green walls of Vinyl Conflict’s generously sized new storefront, which has been home since June, 2022. “It’s a lot bigger,” Egger says of the 1,800 square foot space, meaning there’s plenty of room for bluegrass and jazz to sit beside with the punk and metal titles that have long been the store’s bread and butter — not to mention the tees, patches and pins that regulars expect.
“This has been the fastest year of my life,” Egger confesses. “We’re trying to cater to a larger market, and making sure that we’re keeping everything in stock, which is impossible.” A more expansive inventory approach has led to tough decisions on which new releases to prioritize. “When I do a large punk order, maybe we’re not getting a reggae restock,” Egger notes, but it also has its adventurous moments.
“I’ve gotten to meet a broader group of people,” he says, “which has opened us up to really cool collections that we wouldn’t have found in the past, or collections that we wouldn’t have been able to do anything with because we didn’t have the space to work on it.”
There’s also space to host events. In the last few months alone, the back room has hosted a punk rock photography retrospective and First Friday get-togethers centered on handmade zines and art depicting Pharrell Williams’ famed Virginia Beach production group, the Neptunes. Egger relishes the opportunity to act as a nexus where art, artists and appreciators meet.
“Vinyl Conflict is not just a shop where you come and buy things,” Egger says. “I want to make sure that Vinyl Conflict is bringing culture to Richmond.”
As for the upcoming anniversary show, which will also feature performances from End It, The Mall and Loud Night, Egger forecasts a celebratory and inclusive atmosphere.
“This lineup was crafted for everybody,” he says. “If you like what we’re doing in general, this show is going to be for you.”
Vinyl Conflict’s 15th anniversary show will take place at the Broadberry on Saturday, Sept. 16. Hank Wood and the Hammerheads, Home Front, Chain Cult, End It, The Mall and Loud Night will perform, among other bands. Doors open at 6 p.m. Tickets are $30 and can be purchased at thebroadberry.com.
