Up on the Sun Records, the newest record shop in Yucca Valley, is a vinyl-lovers dream!
There are thousands of titles, deep shelves for every music genre you can think of, plenty of original presses—and a solid selection of local music. You can also add to your cassette collection, browse posters and VHS tapes, and even test-drive records at the shop’s listening station.
The shop has quickly become a home for listening parties and in-store performances from both local and touring artists. At 7 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 17, you can catch MSHR and The Tenses perform.
Owner Jay Martin opened the doors of Up on the Sun several months ago, but he’s been in love with the desert for a decade.
“I was living in Portland, Ore., and something popped up on social media about a concert at Pappy and Harriet’s that just sounded so amazing that I wanted to be there,” Martin said during a recent phone interview. “I told my girlfriend that I was going to go ahead and book it, and hope that she wouldn’t be pissed, and thankfully, she was stoked. We ended up booking flights, Airbnbs, cars and show tickets, and came down here—and that show was the High Desert Overdose show that was on New Year’s Eve in 2016. It was Melvins, OFF! and Redd Kross, and we came down here for 10 days.”
While the world-famous Pappy and Harriet’s and punk legends lured Martin and his girlfriend to the Mojave, the sights and sounds of the desert turned the pair into residents.
“The first night, we stayed in Joshua Tree, and the rest of the time, we stayed here in Yucca Valley,” Martin said. “In that 10-day time, we put over 1,000 miles on our rental car, and really just kind of fell in love with the whole area, both the high desert and the low desert. We spent time in Palm Springs, Niland, Salvation Mountain, the Salton Sea, etc.”
Martin was drawn to the record business, in part, to shrink his gigantic collection.
“I’ve been collecting records for about 40 years, since I was 17, and I have a total love for music, both recorded and live,” he said. “I spent a little bit of time in college, and then I spent some time screen printing, and then I spent a bunch of time in the corporate world revolving around screen printing and whatnot. From 1988 until 2023, I was collecting and in the corporate world, and I was wanting to get out of the rat race. I decided, ‘Why don’t I go ahead and just open a store and start selling off my collection?’ And that’s what I did about three months ago.”
“When the opportunity arose at the end of last year to open a store, I felt pretty good about it, especially knowing that I had 40 years’ worth of records that I could draw from, plus a pretty extensive knowledge of new releases and distributors.”
Owner Jay Martin
Martin learned a lot about the local music scene, and the desert’s tastes, in the years before he opened Up on the Sun.
“I had spent some time in the record business since moving here, selling at record fairs and working at various places, so I got to know the community, and I got to know people’s buying habits—what they liked, and what they didn’t like, from both a local and a tourist standpoint,” he said. “When the opportunity arose at the end of last year to open a store, I felt pretty good about it, especially knowing that I had 40 years’ worth of records that I could draw from, plus a pretty extensive knowledge of new releases and distributors where I could augment my personal collection with more contemporary stuff.”
In just a few short months, Up on the Sun has become a go-to spot for the music community.
“The community support has been incredible,” Martin said. “Local bands are wanting to do in-stores here, whether they’re listening parties or playing, and customers who live within a mile radius of the shop can walk down here and do some grocery shopping, come in and get some records, and then go home and enjoy those. I have also had really great responses from tourists from Los Angeles, from around the country, and from around the world.”
One of the notable parts of the record store is the record-listening station, which allows customers to listen to records before purchasing them.
“There’s nothing worse than going into a record store and seeing a record and potentially not being able to hear it,” Martin said. “Nowadays, people can pull up songs on their phone through Spotify or Bandcamp or anything, but there’s nothing like actually picking that record up, sitting down at the turntable, dropping the needle, putting the headphones on, and checking out the actual record that you hope to buy. I am, to my knowledge, the only one in the high desert that has a listening station. I’d be willing to bet that there aren’t too terribly many of them in the low desert as well. It’s something I grew up with, as far as going to record stores myself in the ’80s and ’90s, and I just wanted to bring back that vibe.”
Martin’s goals for Up on the Sun, beyond being a successful record store, involve being “very community minded, and a proponent for musicians who are here in our valley.”
“I want to be able to offer the opportunity for bands that do have records out to have a listening party here, or to perform live here, or both,” he said. “A couple weeks ago, Ryan Güt came in, and we listened to the record, and then he set up his guitar and played some songs and talked to people about his recording process and whatnot. I want to be able to do that for anyone and everyone who comes through the door and expresses an interest in it. I really want to be here for the community, and I try to do that with the hours that I keep: eight hours a day, six days a week, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. The only day off is Tuesday, and even then, my phone number is on the business-hours sign, so if you came down here, and I was closed, and you called me, and I was close by, I’d come down and meet you, or we could just set up an appointment.”
Whether you’re in search of some specific wax, or you’re a local wanting to simply peruse shelves, you’re welcome at Up on the Sun.
“If there’s ever something you’re looking for that I don’t have, obviously I’ll look to special order it one way or another, and if you’re a band, bring your record in, and I’d love to carry it and support it, and highlight it to people, especially tourists who come in who are looking for local music,” he said.
For more information, visit www.instagram.com/up_on_the_sun_records.
