To celebrate its sixth year anniversary, Graveface Records and Curiosities will be hosting their annual block party today beginning at 5 p.m. There will be vendors as well as a lineup of local groups, ending with Graveface’s own band, Dreamend.
“It should be nicely chaotic,” Owner Ryan Gravefave said. “Just gonna be a ton of people hanging out and a BBQ restaurant set up. There are going to be some vendors selling their wares. The general way it works is the stage is there, then it’s vendor tables all the way to 40th street.”
This event started roughly a year after the store’s opening with the Graveface Fest. It slowly became the block party that it is now.
“So this would technically be the third Block Party in a row and then the fifth, ‘whatever-you-call-it-music-thing’ that I’ve done,” Graveface said.
Graveface Records and Curiosities opened in 2011.
“The whole reason why I have a record shop is because I was buying and hoarding and buying and hoarding,” Graveface said. “So it was just a nice way to get rid of some stuff.”
This weekend’s event will also mark a soft opening of the Annex, a novelty store filled with taxidermy, human skulls and serial killer paraphernalia and a VHS rental store in the back.
“I’ve always wanted to have a rental shop,” Graveface said. “The initial idea was that next door just be a VHS rental store. Then it dawned on me that there’s only a small percentage of people who have VCR’s. So that would be ridiculous to try to only have a rental store over there. That’s why I added all the other fun stuff that I had already owned anyway.”
As for the bands playing in the show, Graveface said that most of them are not affiliated with their label with the exception of Dreamend, the final band, which is one of Graveface’s own projects.
“The rest are customers, friends or just people that I’ve just been doing business with in some capacity for eight years,” Graveface said. “They’re all tied to the store, more so than the label. The only label band is Dreamend.”
Outside of the opening of the Annex, Graveface will host a movie marathon on Oct. 28 called the “Graveface Fright Fest.” The Block Party will be this Saturday from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Written by Patrick Guilford.
Currently pursuing a B.F.A. in Writing as well as a minor in Music Production.
