UPsideDown Culture Records

UPsideDown Culture Records is a record shop inside Jim’s Music in Marquette, Michigan, with a curated mix shaped by the Upper Peninsula scene. In this interview, the owner talks about finding collections, DJing in the community, and the records arriving from a major recent buy.

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Interview with UPsideDown Culture Records

UPsideDown Culture — there's an "UP" in there for the Upper Peninsula. Where did the name and the shop come from?

In the early oughts I was involved in an art and activism collective in Detroit named UpsidedownCulture and I inherited the name. Why exactly that name is something I have written about on the website, but it speaks to how we use creative expression to shake things up and/or turn them on their head to gain new perspectives. It has many meanings, really. I kept organizing events on my own, engaging in writing and interview projects and tabling books while the other members of the group moved on.

When I moved to the “U.P.” from Detroit I sometimes started capitalizing the “up” to be playful with the name. Whether I am spinning records in the shop or out and about, or for writing projects I want to inject a bit of whimsy here and there; it’s crazy brutal out there and we need to be able to keep it light while advocating for the change we want.

Marquette's pretty isolated up on Lake Superior, with NMU right there. What role does the shop play in the UP scene, and who's coming through?

It is, but there are tourists, and TBH, after a little over 3 years—and not being from here—I am still trying to get a foothold in the scene. Certainly, the college kids do come through. My buddy who is born and raised here and has another shop up the street is well established so I have to be creative and find ways to get the word out there that there is even a record shop inside of Jim’s Music (instrument and teaching center) and have a well-curated, if surprising, collection to go through.

If I look into my crystal ball I believe it will be the fact that I DJ my records in the community often from crates I am selling in places like Superior Culture that will offer something to the scene even more than all the great titles I have in store.

What are you deepest into — the genres and formats people come to you for?

Hmmm… my CDs are kinda amazing at the moment and I think folks are going to lose it at all the John Coltrane and Miles records I am starting to bring in, so many.

I am in a transitional phase at the shop RN because of an excellent massive collection I got at the end of the summer (2026) and have started to get the word out that Eddie’s collection is starting to land and the shelves are looking quite full lately. It is really something—full of mid-2000s indie (on the psych side) from Portishead to Animal Collective as well as 60’s/70’s psych, just a lot of adventurous everything.

I guess also, Geoff and John up the street at the Emporium send people down to me for punk and 45’s. The punk can sometimes go quick. My soul 45 collection is tight, but folks haven’t really dived in yet.

When someone brings a collection in to sell, what's the first thing that tells you it's worth a close look?

The person themself. If they are realistic and trust me to make them a fair offer, I’m usually down. I love to have cool records that are hit and see how they sound on the decks and then put them out for $5 or even $1. If it truly is a diverse collection of different genres, I get excited to dig through the BTO and Supremes at the Copa to then find some old Steve Miller Band, GNR or Howlin’ Wolf, there’s usually something extra in there that makes it well worth it. I love what I do so much but don’t make much $ cause I am always buying!

Going to check out a possible buy is a fun adventure for me. You wouldn’t believe the distance I travel up here but then I am like “wow, that’s like all the Talking Heads records and so much Fahey and I really wonder what this and that is…and how the F do you have this collection way out here?” There’s always a story attached which I find so fascinating. Sometimes I pay a bit too much because it’s an all-or-nothing buy, but you know it’s hard to pass up a really great bluegrass collection even if it tends to sit.

What's the record that's far more common than people believe?

Maybe a Johnny Cash record… Magical Mystery Tour? Queen The Game?

What's the unglamorous record that always finds a buyer?

I’m not sure if Rumours is glamorous or not, but that always goes in a few days. Also, chill stuff like Cat Stevens, especially if they’re $5.

Does store credit keep people coming back through the long winter more than cash would?

People don’t tend to ask for credit or trade. And yes, thus far, winter slows down, so I am trying to figure out how to help us get through the long winter with some hot wax. This winter, I will still be consistently getting all that new big buy out onto the shelf and it’s golden, so people will be able to always look forward to coming down and see what’s new and if I am in the shop, we can give something a listen together. I encourage people to either put something on themselves or ask me to so we can groove together… If I had a magic wand I would wave it around like a madman and people would become more curious about everything, especially music (and one another) and we would realize this is “how we connect”. Maybe it’s just my opinion, but I think there are so many amazing records on my shelves people are passing over and I’m not saying you necessarily should buy it but be curious and let’s throw it on!

UP winters are long and brutal. What does that cold do to records stored in a garage or a camp, and what would you tell a seller?

I certainly wouldn’t recommend storing them in the extreme cold as it will cause them to be more brittle and crack or chip easier if bumped, but, if I’m careful and they are probably not valuable in terms of coin, I personally will store records in the garage if I run out of space. Then bring them in to warm up before handling them.

What's a record that turned up here that you never expected to see?

Oh, that’s a good one. Never expected? Not sure, I’m too early in this circle game to have a holy grail “never going to find”. I mean, an early buy up here was a large collection of UK Beatles pressings and I was like “hold on, what is going on here, and why?”

Right now, someone says they have a butcher cover I am going to look at next week, that will be surprising if true, especially since they seem so casual about it.

I only allow myself to keep so many for myself, but there are ones on my list that come to me even from up here and that’s fun. A beautiful OG pressing of Endtroducuing….. and Songs About Fucking came through recently and I had to pick between the two, so I put the latter on the shelf as a strong VG for $40. That is such a classic Albini record and not a hit, so someone is going to walk in soon and scoop that up and enter into the land of heavy shit with a big smile. That makes me happy.

What's something you're excited about for the shop in the coming year?

This collection I bought in WI as a result of a tragic overdose from a young man named Eddie, whose parents needed to let it go, is just so siq! I am excited to get his collection back out into the wild, tell his story, keep his spirit alive and play out more with them. Some of them are weird remix boots and rare shit, so literally you can’t stream them. I mean I could do a four-hour blues set that even the kids would be like “damn!” with his records.

I am excited in general for this year, it feels like I am turning a corner for the shop in Marquette, especially. We’ll see about the little one in Iron Mountain. It’s a challenge to build that one to where it’s actually a destination and part of the local culture. They haven’t had a record store in a while, I guess and the location is set back a bit off the highway, but I also am someone who is down for a challenge.

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Last updated: 2026-10-10

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