Music enthusiast Billy Philhower and his wife, Elizabeth, plan to open a small vinyl shop in East Kensington this fall.
Philhower’s passion for the industry dates back nearly two decades.
“I spent a lot of time in Philadelphia when I was in high school. I drove over from New Jersey and I would go to shows all the time. I think a lot of my creative pursuits through music started because of that period in my life,” Philhower told Whatnow Philadelphia.
After graduating from high school, he attended Boston College, where he launched his own record label, Too Far Gone Records, from his dorm room. The label produced more than 65 releases.
Now back in Philadelphia, he is launching High Leverage, a tribute to his younger self.
“That was a formational part of my life. I really want the space to be something that can pay it forward to the person who’s in that spot in their life right now and is looking for a space to engage with music and art, or just a space that can expand or challenge their music taste,” he said.
The name adds another personal touch.
“Two things I’m very passionate about are records and then baseball. In baseball, a high-leverage moment is when anything could happen, a really important moment in the game. It’s a nod to that, but also a lot of the music and records we’re trying to stock are on the louder side—punk, hardcore. It’s a play on the intensity of those sounds,” Philhower said.
High Leverage will share space with Fireball Printing at 2644-48 Coral St.
The interior will feature records Philhower has acquired over the past year, alongside selections from his personal collection and releases by local artists. The shop will stock genres including indie rock, punk, emo and hardcore, spanning the 1980s to the present day.
“We’ll probably have eight to 10 bins of records. I’m really trying to prioritize quality over quantity and have a more curated list that gets people excited, but I’m not going to be too precious with the titles,” he said.
The space also will feature a listening station where customers can play and test records before purchasing them, along with a turntable spinning music as they browse and a bookshelf stocked with used books and magazines.
Philhower looks forward to sharing his passion with the East Kensington community.
“I’ve been collecting records for more than half my life. It’s something that I think is a really important part of who I am and something that has enabled me to meet and build a community around the world. I wanted to formalize that and bring it to this location,” he said.
High Leverage plans to debut Labor Day weekend. Once open, Philhower hopes to bring in local bands for performances a few times each year.
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