One of Eau Claire’s premier music vendors, Revival Records, is celebrating its 15th anniversary this month. 

Opened in 2009, the downtown record store is home to a wide selection of physical media, including new and vintage vinyl, CDs, DVDs, cassettes and VHS tapes. 

Stepping through the doors at Revival, patrons are greeted with a scene straight out of movies like “High Fidelity” or “Empire Records.” The store is a kaleidoscope of funky, retro decor amidst an ornately curated selection of music.

In celebration of the shop’s anniversary, Revival Records will be running several deals throughout the month of October. Customers can buy one, get one free on all used CDs, cassettes and VHS tapes as well as buy three, get one free on used LPs. Additionally, all $1 records are now free.

Revival Records is owned and operated by Billy Siegal. Manager Frank Rineck said Siegal opened the store at a different location in 2009. Currently located on S Barstow st., the shop has seen several other locations since.

“This is the third location that we’ve had. We were on Clairmont Avenue for about a year, then we moved to the other end of Barstow kind of across the street from Acoustic Cafe for about five years,” Rineck said. “We’ve been here for about nine years.”

Rineck said at the beginning, Siegal’s inventory consisted mostly of items from his personal collection.

“I think when Billy started, a lot of the initial stuff he had in the store was his own. Then, he just sort of built it from the ground up,” Rineck said.

Rineck has worked at the store for four years and took on a full-time position just one year ago. 

Currently, there are six people working at the shop. Rineck said that’s the largest number of employees the store has ever had.

“Billy’s always kept a close-knit crew. For a while, it was just me and Billy, then it built up from there,” Rineck said.

Third-year journalism major Hunter Ribeiro has worked at the shop for about six months. He said he was a consistent customer at the store prior to being hired.

“I love it here,” Ribeiro said. “I’m a huge music fanatic, and I started working here so I could incorporate myself into something music-related.”

Ribeiro said for the most part, interactions with the customers have been positive. 

“There can certainly be a bit of a generational gap, where people might undermine your knowledge of music a bit,” Ribeiro said. “But overall, it’s been really good. I’ve made friends working here.”

Eau Claire native Cat Anderson has worked at the shop for roughly nine months.

“I’ve been coming down here since I was, like, 10,” Anderson said. “It’s been great here. The time I spend ‘working’ doesn’t really feel like work. Everybody’s generally super nice and loves to talk about music.” 

Anderson said she likes to classify her music taste as “‘70s weird rock,” but that she’s also been listening to blues a lot lately. She said that it is easy to interact with the customers who come in.

“Since we started advertising VHS tapes upstairs, we’ve had a lot of people come in just for that, which is cool,” Rineck said. 

Rineck said in terms of sales, the split between vintage and new vinyl is about 50-50.

“Some people go right to the new stuff and that’s where they stay, which is cool,” Rineck said. “Then sometimes, we’ll have people come here and spend an hour or two going through each aisle and look at everything. 

Rineck said interaction with the customers is his favorite part of the job. 

“My favorite thing is when someone comes in and is like, ‘Hey, I like these three bands. What’s something else that I’ll like?’ I kind of play detective a little bit trying to find something that suits them,” Rineck said. “I always tell people that the weirder the combination — how different everything is — I always say that’s someone who really loves music.”

Rineck said he enjoys meeting new music enthusiasts at the start of each school year and semester.

“Every year, at the end of summer and beginning of fall, we get incoming freshmen at the university who come in and want to buy a system and stuff,” Rineck said. “It’s always fun to see those new faces come in every year.”

Rineck said that on top of the newcomers, the store has a consistently loyal customer base.

“We have a lot of recurring, regular customers who are here every week, if not more, and it’s cool to build relationships with that,” Rineck said. “We really get to know people by starting with what music they like and kind of learning more about them as a person. I’ve made some good friendships from doing this.”

Rineck added that he’s friends with the owner of another record store, Abraxas Wax, which is also located downtown. He said customer dedication has been crucial for keeping Revival Records and other small businesses going.

“More than everything else, we’re thankful for the support during the pandemic and everything,” Rineck said. “A lot of other small businesses had to close during that time, and we were really thankful to make it through that. We saw the support that was already there stick around through and after.”

Rineck said working at the shop, he makes an effort to expand his musical repertoire over time.

“I try to practice what I preach and listen to a little bit of everything. I learn at least one new artist a week,” he said.

Rineck said his “big three” favorite bands are Electric Light Orchestra, The Who and The Beach Boys. He added that his son, Holland, is named after a Beach Boys album.

“It’s kind of surreal to say that it’s already been a decade and a half,” Rineck said. “There’s not really any signs of stopping or slowing down, which is really cool.”

Wojahn can be reached at [email protected].