BY JOE WESSELS
Loveland Local News
LOVELAND, Ohio — Valentine’s Day was sweeter this year for a Loveland business who landed their part in the newly-released and very popular Sonic the Hedgehog movie.
Adding to the love, Loveland-based Plaid Room Records, and their associated business, Colemine Records, a full-fledged record label with approximately 45 acts signed, celebrated their fifth year open here.
The movie opened on February 14, stars Jim Carrey and had a $58 million opening weekend – finishing atop the weekend box office.
With this movie release and other happenings, it’s safe to say Plaid Room Records co-owners Terry Cole and his brother, Bob Cole, would like to curl up into a ball and run at supersonic speeds, just like the iconic hedgehog from popular Sega videogames and depicted in the movie – just to keep up.
“It’s a big deal. It’s cool,” Terry said. “This is our first major motion picture.”
The song, “Catch Me I’m Falling,” is by San Francisco-based singer Kelly Finnigan who Terry has known for more than 10 years.
“It’s great for Kelly. It puts money in his pocket for the fee, but it also puts his music in front of probably millions of people,” he said. “We really love Kelly and we really believe in him. I’ve known him for a long time and I know how talented he is.”
Selling rights to songs on their label is a big part of their business, Terry said. Until now that was limited to Netflix and Hulu productions, along with some commercials.
Having a song in a big movie also helps him explain a little better to his friends what exactly a guy in Cincinnati is doing owning a record label.
“It’s a good feeling,” he said. “I can say that’s my song. They can see the end results of a lot of work.”
Terry and Bob, who grew up in Middletown, Ohio, opened Plaid Room in Loveland five years ago on Valentine’s Day as a vinyl-only record shop – no CDs or cassettes.
Opening a physical shop was designed to allow Terry – a Middletown High School biology and zoology teacher – to move to full-time music work. He left that job in 2015, but not because he did not like it.
“I love teaching and I was good at it. It was super fun,” Terry said. “But running a record label is more fun.”
Musicians on Colemine Records – which was founded in 2007 in Terry’s basement – are primarily funk and soul with a thread into the rhythm and blues. Terry said the label has gained a reputation for recordings “that sound old,” but that isn’t how it was necessarily intended.
“We record everything to tape and most everything is live and with real instruments,” he said. “It gives everything a particular sound.”
Five years into having a dedicated location, Terry said he and his brother are very happy.
“I expected us to be still around,” he said. “I certainly didn’t expect the growth rate.”
Plaid Room moved from a smaller, rented location next to Montgomery Cyclery to buying a building next to Loveland City Hall a few years ago.
“We purchased an 8,000-square-foot building and built a second studio, released 11 LPs,” he said. “Everything is just very…we’re growing at a rapid rate.”
And it’s not just big records, or LPs, they sell. The singles or “45s,” are still a thing and one of their biggest sellers. In fact, they released two new ones on Friday.
“We are the label that moves an obnoxious amount of 45s,” Terry said. That translates to about 100,000 45s sold in an era of digital music downloads and streaming services (which also feature their artists).
Opening a more central location in, say, downtown Cincinnati was not really an option. Terry said he did not want to be “every day, fighting traffic” and then directly competing with established record shops in the city like Everybody’s Records in Pleasant Ridge and Shake-It Records in Northside. He looked around and noticed there was not a record store on the east or northeastern sides of Greater Cincinnati.
“Loveland was on the rise, for sure,” he said, so their shop ended up here.
Here a sample of the song in the movie…
Plaid Room Records is at 122 W. Loveland Avenue in downtown Loveland. They’re open 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday; 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday; and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday. (513) 583-1843. Visit www.plaidroomrecords.com or www.coleminerecords.com for more information.
Last Updated on May 20, 2020 by Joe Wessels
