Depending on what day you drop by, Outer Richmond record store Noise (3427 Balboa St.) may appear as a boutique vinyl and art shop, a bustling live music venue, or simply a gathering place for longtime residents to sit and exchange stories.
The cozy establishment, located on a quietly evolving stretch of Balboa Street, is marked by a colorful exterior and a friendly chalkboard sign that beckons visitors inside.
While Noise itself is relatively new to the Outer Richmond, the family behind the business has lived in the neighborhood for 28 years. Musician and record collector Daniel Brown grew up just down the street, and after years of buying and selling records online, turned his lifelong passion into a neighborhood business.
Today, Noise is run by Dan and his mother Sara Johnson. (Dan's sister, also named Sara, helps staff the shop as well.) All are San Francisco natives, and for customers, it’s not uncommon to thumb through record bins while listening to the family’s memories of growing up in the city.
Amidst planning for both Record Store Day and the first annual Playland on Balboa neighborhood festival (both held this past weekend), Dan sat down to tell us a little more about the family-owned shop.
How long has Noise been in the neighborhood?
We’ve been here for six months, since October. Before, that I was selling records two doors up the street at the Mysterious Rack, which was kind of a thrift store with knick-knacks and other stuff.
How did you get started in the record business?
I’ve collected records since I was about five, or since I could reach over the bottom bin to see the records [laughs]. I started online, and then was at the Mysterious Rack for about two years.
So I’ve been dealing and trading records for a while now, in different incarnations.
Any particular reason for setting up shop in the Richmond?
It’s close to home, and also there weren’t too many spots in this area with records or live music.
When you go online, the closest record store on the map is on Haight Street. Although Green Apple is great for records, too. And now there’s a new place [in the Sunset], Western Relics.
Since Noise is located a little off the beaten path, does that mean most of your visitors are locals, or do you get tourists too?
It’s a good mix of both. There are plenty of local folks who live in the neighborhood, and a lot of people trying to escape the Haight or the Mission. And then we get lots of tourists too; there are plenty of folks coming in from out of state and out of the country.
Does Noise specialize in any genres? Anything in particular that people come in looking for?
People come in looking for all kinds of music: classical, gamelan, stuff like that. One time someone came in looking for '60s Cambodian surf rock! I’m influenced by all kinds of music, so I like to have a little bit of everything. The rock and jazz sections are pretty healthy; we have a decent amount of house music, soul music ... a pretty good mix of everything, really.
There’s a stage here for live music, and I hear you host jazz sessions every Sunday. How did that come about?
We had live music when I was at the Mysterious Rack: I play sax, and one of my partners there was a musician so we’d play around town together. Then at Noise, we started doing informal jam sessions in December, every Sunday. Most of the musicians are people I know who play around here. We like to keep it pretty low-key, with the amount of space we have.
Another unique aspect of Noise is that you sell original art, too.
Yeah, all of the art is by local artists. [For example,] Vladimir Vitkovsky has a studio across the street, and also has a gallery down at the wharf. I have a lot of friends around town who are artists and have told me they’d love to have a show here. We’ve had the same art on the walls since we opened six months ago, but we’re probably going to rotate it pretty soon.
What do you suggest for record collectors looking to sell or donate? Can they do that here?
We gladly accept donations. We buy collections pretty often; we do trade and consignment too if that’s what people prefer.
Even if the condition of the records isn’t great, that’s cool, because it means we’ll have some cheaper stuff to sell too. Sometimes you go to a record store to see what’s new, but other times you just want to spend five bucks [laughs].
Noise presents live jazz every Sunday from 26pm, and recently hosted an afternoon of live music at the Playland on Balboa Festival. Will the store be participating again in next year’s festival? The answer is yes, with Dan asserting, “We’ll probably start planning for that next month!”
