Jack’s Record Stache opens in Downtown Flint with over 150,000 records
Co-owners Jerry Crago and Brandon Trammell left their careers to pursue their dreams of owning a record shop as Jack’s Record Stache opened its doors in late 2019. The shop is located next to the all-ages rock club, Flint Local 432 and despite what they have displayed on the shelves, their collection contains a whopping 150,000 records.
“The shop is named after Jack Cusenza. He was my friend Josh’s father who passed away. We’re coming up on the 2 year anniversary of that now and when he passed he left over 150,000 records,” says Jerry Crago. “It was just a giant collection that Josh didn’t know what to do with. We’ve been friends since we were kids, he called me and said, ‘Hey, can you come over and take a look?’ Me and some of my friends, initially Randy Thompson and Travis Bravender, went over and helped him sort through this stuff.”
Crago and friends spent a day sorting through thousands of old albums in piles, boxes and literally all over the late Jack Cusenza’s house. Then in a pile of dollar records, he pulled out an original The 13th Floor Elevators’ self-titled record: the be-all-end-all of psychedelic rock.
“I asked Josh, ‘Do you know what this is?’ He said no. Then I said, ‘Okay. We’ve got a lot of work to do now because you’re probably sitting on a gold mine.’ And he absolutely was,” says Crago. “That was the first night.”
Around the same time, Brandon Trammell was easing out of his career with the hopes of opening a record store. His wife, Alison, began working for the same company and eventually took all of his accounts to make things work.
“Jerry and I were both separately looking to open a record store and it made sense to join forces and work together,” says Trammell. “Before we opened the shop we were both independently selling records on Discogs, which is like eBay for records. Also we were doing record shows which is usually in a rental hall of some sort that someone organizes, they charge for table space and then vendors come in and it’s a big meet. Kind of like a gun show, but with records. It made the transition into this fairly seamless. Without that experience I don’t think we could’ve done it.”
As Crago’s contracted job was coming to its conclusion, his wife, Brittney, suggested he pursue his dream of opening a record store. It was nothing more than a pipedream and a permission he wouldn’t have given himself after years of helping his friends put out records as a mere hobby.
“Growing up I was going to 2–3 shows a week that turned into a lot of my friends being involved in the local music scene. A lot of times, you know, when you’re a local musician you’re just asking your friends to come to your shows,” says Crago. “I put out a few records for friends — they never make money, just as a heads up to anyone who’s interested in doing that. It’s pretty much a guarantee you’re going to lose a little bit of money at least. It was called Sent To Destroy Records that I started with my friend Jay Dowd.”
Unlike Crago’s involvement in putting out records for his friends leading him down this path, Trammell was the one playing in bands like Flint music scene staples Spit, and later, Kid Brother Collective.
“I’d been playing for a few years with high school friends and we put out demo tapes, which were fun,” says Trammell. “We always made those ourselves in our drummer’s garage. Then a friend of ours offered to put out a record for us. It was ’94 because I was still in high school. He had a jazz record label in Flint and he had only put out CDs, but he offered to put out a 7” single for us. That was the first time we had ever got one. And we were snot-nosed, stupid kids and got our first fifty for free then someone in the band got mad at him because he was charging us for more after that, so we never got them. They eventually burned up in a house fire so there’s only those fifty in existence.”
When asked about Downtown Flint, the duo began to glow as they rapid-fire spouted out their rolodex of Vehicle City favorites.
“Unfortunately it’s mostly restaurants,” says Crago as he laughs. “We’re both big fans of Foster Coffee Co. When I get finished here I’m heading there to get a coffee. We both eat at Hoffman’s Deli probably at least once a week. We’re big fans of Blackstone’s since it changed owners. We get food there once a week and it’s super good.”
After chiming in that Blackstone’s pizza is also unbelievably good, Trammell had some non-restaurants to shout out.
“Obviously our nextdoor neighbor the Flint Local 432 because we can book shows there which is a huge bonus,” says Trammell. “And just like everyone else that we know, we both get our haircuts from Zac Minock at Consolidated Barbershop.”
Crago promised a joint venture in the future with the guys from Consolidated Tattoo as well, then continued his praise of the community that’s blossoming on a street that used to be mostly abandoned.
“I love that we’re seeing a variety of businesses downtown. It’s incredible that there’s an actual manufacturer of clothes around the corner at GoodBoy. I do my personal banking with ELGA and I’m stoked they opened that branch by us because it’s so convenient. I’m stoked that we have the dollar store (Healthy Dollar) next door because I sliced my finger and needed a Band-Aid so not only did Kathy sell me a bandage, but she cleaned my cut up with alcohol that she put on herself. Any sort of advancement like that? We all do better when we all do better. That’s the principle of what’s going on downtown now.”
Jack’s Record Stache is located at 124 W. 1st St. next to the Flint Local 432 and is open Monday-Saturday, 11am-7pm.
