The next time you’re skimming the racks at Aunt Olive’s, perhaps you should take your search to a more subterranean level and discover Ottawa’s newest indie record store, The Record Shaap.
Opened Aug. 13 at 209 Gilmour St., the Record Shaap carries a variety of different bands and artists, along with offering every format from CD to vinyl.
But don’t let the double “a” confuse you — the name is not meant to be said with a Boston accent.
“It bummed me out that a bunch of people said it like that,” owner Matty McGovern laughed.
“I’m a big Yankees fan, so they’ll say ‘Like Boston, eh?’ and I’m like ‘No! Never like Boston!’”
“Shaap” is not simply a clever spelling trick to catch a customer’s eye, but actually has a backstory of its own.
“When I thought about opening the store initially, I wanted to use ‘curse’ in some way,” McGovern explained. “So I started Googling and stumbled upon that ‘shaap’ is the Hindi word for ‘curse,’ which was just too perfect.”
The “curse” is actually an inside joke between McGovern and his friends that concerns his not-so-great experience of working at other record stores over the years.
“I’ve worked at four different independent record stores . . . and they’ve all closed. It’s become a running gag that if you want your business to fail, you should hire Matty McGovern,” he joked.
The Record Shaap is located in the basement of Aunt Olive’s, a vintage clothing store and cafe. It seems like a perfect pairing, buying music in the same place where your love of it probably began: a basement.
And make no mistake, McGovern shares his customers’ love of music. He’s been working record store gigs since he was 15, and so a well-developed musical palate and appreciation has come with the job.
“Most people grow up being a hockey kid having hockey parents. I had music parents,” McGovern said.
Touching briefly on nostalgia, he went on to explain a game he and his Dad would play that built up his music knowledge over the years.
“We would drive around in the car on a Saturday . . . and he would have the radio on and he’d be flipping through it and go ‘Okay, what’s this song? What album is it off of? What year?’”
It’s a story that hails from a time before iTunes and MySpace. But McGovern said he doesn’t think the record store will become extinct in our point and click world.
“There’s always going to be record stores, there’s always going to be people that want to have a physical, actual copy of what they’re listening too. I mean, we’re still materialistic,” McGovern said.
It seems as if Ottawa’s music lovers have gone in the exact opposite of downloading, in fact, and have migrated to collecting vinyl records instead.
McGovern said despite vinyl’s age and other obstacles, he sells a lot of it. “I’ve been shocked. I think I’ve sold more vinyl than CDs so far.”
To promote the store, local photojournalist and artist Bryan McNally produced a low-budget commercial featuring McGovern playing what he described as an awkward version of himself. To date it has gotten over 2,000 views.
“I was being stopped by people I didn’t know going ‘Oh my god, your commercial’s so funny’ ” he said. “It was a little weird for me to have that happen.”
Fans of the video will be happy to hear McGovern is already planning to make another ad featuring the same character.
McGovern said he isn’t interested in taking over the competition — or even having competition to begin with.
“I have no real desire to dominate. I just want to be in good company,” he said, adding that the Record Shaap will soon stock more local bands to contribute to Ottawa’s music scene “I’m here to support. The more local I have here the better.”