Dumb Records Downtown 2019

It's the beginning of 2019 and there are a lot of exciting things on the horizon for music in Springfield. At the end of 2018 Dumb Records and Black Sheep have closed our doors and hosted final shows at former locations and home of 13+ years in the Southtown neighborhood to embark on an ambitious goal of starting up a new all ages show space and record store downtown.


We will be opening up an operation just under the name “Dumb Records” to function as a record store and show space at 416 and 418 E Monroe Street, and work has already begun at those locations. We were able to raise a fair amount of money at the final Black Sheep shows throughout the month of December to go towards the new spaces and we express great gratitude to all of you who came out to those shows. With those funds we have been able to:

• Put down our initial deposits and first months rents on the new locations.
• Secure tools for projects we need and an amount of wood to begin working on new shelving.
• Have registered our new business as a member of Downtown Springfield, Inc.
• Purchase paint and materials to begin renovating our new record store.
• Startup inventory for the new store, new shirts.
Purchased a massive collection of sealed CDs (ten thousand) to go towards the new store.
• Startup trash pickup, getting electric and gas bills setup in the new space.

We have received a tremendous amount of support with our move already, and want to thank everyone who showed up to help us move out of our old locations, and everyone who has showed up for work days in the new space so far in this new year.


Right now we are currently still in the middle of our renovations with the new space and could still use some extra help! We still are facing a list of expenses required for us to transform the space into what we envision as a perfect new home for us downtown. Some of these expenses still include:

• New sound equipment (speakers, microphones, monitor system).
• New storefront signage.
• Wood and building material to construct shelving for stores and seating for venue portion.
• Fees to cover an architect’s plan to clear us with the city zoning and fire department.
• Costs to cover bills during renovations.
• New venue lighting.
• Metal shelving for inventory storage.
• Metal mobile record carts.
• General tools.
• New record store inventory.
• More paint and supplies.
• New furniture.
• Speakers and sound system for the record store portion.
• New insurance plan.
• A disco ball.
• Cleaning supplies.

We appreciate all of your continued support!

A lot of you have been asking when the new space will be ready. We are very happy with the pace that we have currently been moving forward with the space - every day there have been updates and work has been put in on renovations. We still have to get completely cleared by the city zoning and fire department before we can host shows of any kind, and we are set on not putting anything on the calendar or announcing any type of first show until that happens. For the record store portion, we might be launching a “soft opening” at some point very soon so that some of you can shop for records, buy new shirts, or catch a glimpse of the new space! Stay tuned for updates on that!