The Philadelphia Record Exchange celebrates 30 years with outdoor party

How do you keep an independent record store open for 30 years?

"It helps if you don't want too much for yourself," Philadelphia Record Exchange owner Jacy Webster answers drily, and then laughs. "It's not a real profitable business."

Webster cofounded the Record Exchange in 1985 with Greg Harris, who is now CEO of the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame in Cleveland. It hasn't made him rich, but the store managed the rare feat of surviving as a bricks-and-mortar gathering place that sells honest to goodness physical product.

And that calls for a celebration: The Record Exchange, which spent 27 years in its original location at Fifth and South before moving to its current Fishtown storefront, is throwing an all day soiree for itself Saturday.

Starting with teenage rock band Wasted America at 1 p.m., its 30th Anniversary Block Party will take place on a shut down stretch of Frankford Avenue. (at Marlborough Street) in front of the store. Eleven bands will play the free show, culminating with the Strapping Fieldhands, the Bob Malloy fronted psych-rock band that features Webster on guitar.

Among the other bands is South Jersey-bred, California-based witty retro-rocker Ben Vaughn. Purling Hiss, the Michael Polizze led heavy rock band most recently heard from with their 2013 album Water On Mars, will play, as will Dixy Blood, the revamped version of venerated 1980s Philly garage band Sic Kidz, and Aye-Aye, who include members of Birds of Maya and Bardo Pond.

Webster and Harris got the idea for the Record Exchange when they were selling vinyl at the Book Trader, the longtime Philly used bookstore then located at Fourth and South. They put their own collections of rock, jazz, and blues on sale to stock their new store. "We built bins out of plywood. You needed to sell your own records so you could buy more stuff," Harris recalls, talking from the Hall of Fame office before heading home - the Temple grad grew up in Bucks County - for the block party blowout.

Harris left in 1987 to travel the U.S. as Vaughn's road manager. By then, the store was up and running, with regular customers like a teenage drummer Ahmir Thompson - not yet Questlove - whose band, the Square Roots, would play on the street outside the store.

The Record Exchange has principally been a vinyl shop. Webster carries about 15,000 LPs in the store, along with CDs, cassettes, and, yes, 78s.

The Rock Hall poobah is the driving force behind the Saturday shindig. He says, "I want Jacy, my original partner, to be celebrated. It's hard enough to keep any kind of business open for 30 years, let alone an independent record store."

While there are other indie stores around town, times continue to be hard for retailers. The going was particularly rough around the turn of the millennium for the Record Exchange, but Webster, who is the Exchange's sole owner, says he noticed an uptick at the end of the aughts. "Fifteen- and 16-year-olds started coming in. They'd buy Black Sabbath records and tell their girlfriends, 'This is the real [stuff].' And now those kids are in their mid-20s, and they're the backbone of the business."

The Record Exchange's migration to Fishtown was precipitated by a rise in rent. It turned into a smart business move. "A lot better records come in, because a lot of musicians live up here. It's thick with bands, and musical knowledge."

Business is on the upswing. But although the return of vinyl - sales were up nationally last year by 52 percent - has been a help, it's hardly a boom industry. "You're always on the brink," Webster says. "We were there too, but we didn't give up. If my store closed I'd have nothing, so I can't let it close."