Hipclubgroove held a soft opening last Saturday, about a month before the owner of downtown Preston's new vinyl, music and collectibles store thinks he should have opened his doors to the public.
But more important than having everything in place and on display the way the audiophile ultimately envisions it should be was the timing.
Record Store Day was April 22 and a new record store simply can't miss the occasion, says Christopher Caskenette.
The native of Palmerston who spent most of his life in Cambridge, including 10 years in a managerial role at the Preston Giant Tiger, returned home last year after spending the last few years travelling Europe.
He says his role at Giant Tiger was everything he wanted a job to be, challenging, rewarding, but the couldn't resist his wanderlust, and when the opportunity presented itself to head to Europe, that's exactly what he did.
He hopped on a plane, leaving everything behind for an adventure that took him to every country in the union before he ended up in France where he "met a girl and fell in love."
It was there, during the height of COVID, that Caskenette was forced to hunker down with his Turkish girlfriend and weather the storm. He picked up a contract teaching English to extend his stay in France.
Lockdowns here were nothing compared to France, he says, where, for months, he couldn't travel more than a few kilometres from his apartment and only for necessities.
As COVID restrictions lifted in July of 2020, he made it home for six weeks, then returned to France where he continued his European adventure. He picked up another teaching contract, ended up parting ways with his girlfriend and finally returned to Canada on July 1, 2022.
In the time between now and then, Caskenette says he reconnected with family and friends, including the owners of Cards and Chords, Jeffrey and Nancy Butler. He'd been friends since childhood with Nancy's late brother, Neil Austin, so news of his death while in France was a shock.
Although Caskenette wasn't in Canada to express his condolences personally when Austin died in October 2021, when he returned last year, he presented the Butlers with a 7-inch recording of Nancy's parents' band Keg Lane. Pressed back in the '80s, he says for some reason he kept it among his vast record collection; a collection he never thought he'd part with.
But conversations about music and records and business followed and eventually Caskenette decided he had "nothing to lose" and should open a record store.
Months later, Hipclubgroove was in the works, eventually ending up in the same shop once occupied by Cards and Chords which had been vacant for months.
Now that Cards and Chords, now known as C&C gamebridge, is located across the street, comic store The Hero's Tale is a few doors down, and Forbes Hobbies is beside it, downtown Preston has become a hub of sorts for the demographic that enjoys comics, collectibles, board games, and music.
Although few will likely get the name of his store is an homage to the '90s hip hop band from Truro, Nova Scotia, Caskenette thinks there are enough like-minded audiophiles in town to want to come check out his collection.
It includes some hard to find box sets from the likes of Death Cab For Cutie, Bright Eyes and Great Lake Swimmers to give readers some sense of the owner's taste in music.
Saying it's an eclectic collection is an understatement.
"I love vinyl," he says. "I've been digging vinyl crates my entire life."
That hobby is about to take up more of his time now that he has a place to put all of his carefully curated collectibles to sell to anyone who shares his passion for music.
The business may be in its infancy and not ready for prime time, but Caskenette says it won't take long to get things in order. He views Hipclubgroove as a business that will evolve over time and will include everything from vintage vinyl, cassettes and cds, to t-shirts, posters, turntables and repurposed iPods.
He's in the midst of refurbishing his parents' old Thorens turntable, digging out the dust bunnies and hooking it up for a spin.
"It might just look like a dusty old turntable but it's a Porsche," he says.
The other hard-to-miss feature in the shop is the Super Mario Bros. collection on chaotic display throughout the store. Caskenette says he's simply a fan of the Nintendo characters and couldn't pass up the opportunity to share his interest with customers.
"Everything is a total work in progress," he says, adding the last few days since he's been open, meeting customers and fellow enthusiasts have been some of the most fun and enlightening he's had.
