About the shop

Mars Records is a vintage vinyl record shop offering quality/curated music to the Piedmont neighborhood and its visitors. All styles of music represented, including a robust “local music” section. Buying and trading welcome!

In addition to vinyl records, Mars also offers a smattering of other media types (cassettes, vhs, cds, dvds), as well as media storage options, cleaning supplies and other assorted music-related items (books, mugs, etc). Mars also hosts art by local artists, rotating every few months.

About the owner

Steve Adams has been an Oakland-based career musician/bass player for over 15 years, making records and touring globally with solo artists and bands.

He has also part-timed at record shops (Tempo Records, Tower Records, Downhome Music and Open Mind Music) and sold at Bay Area record swaps. With live music on a temporary hold in 2020, Steve decided to lean into his love of vinyl and begin the journey of Mars Record Shop.

About the art/artist

From current artist-in-residence Eva Edgren:

This body of work uses hand-lettering to capture and reimagine nostalgic and meaningful pieces of signage and statements. Letters drawn by hand are powerful, human articles that we’re on the verge of running out of. In the face of spreading artificial intelligence and smooth vector shapes this is an ode to imperfect, pencil drawn letters and pictures.

Every poster begins with a pencil sketch (often a small, rough thumbnail), to understand where the bulk of the words, letters and shapes will live. These sketches are then brought onto the ipad, which offers a supremely streamlined and flexible drawing experience with easy editing, layering and experimentation, with the ability to maintain the look of the original pencil sketch.

I have always been drawn to signage and posters. On one hand, their ubiquity often makes them invisible to us, but a book cover or concert poster or a painted phrase on the side of a restaurant is something that can sit with us forever, beloved. There are certain phrases I’ve always wanted to see on a poster, like “God Save the Kinks”. Or “Soul, Jazz, Oysters”— a three-word advertisement printed on a matchbook from 169 Bar in New York, felt like they needed to be oversized vintage looking block letters because they’re three of the greatest words we have. Combining my background in fine art, design and lettering, with a love of modern type designers and letter-drawers like the folks at House Industries or our esteemed local Jessica Hische, I’ve brought some favorite words and phrases to life just for Mars Records.

Past artists-in-residence include: Danny Luehring, Michael Wertz, Peter Foucault, Yoko Okay, Brad Bolton, Jeff Boozer, David B. Hoppe, Fernanda Martínez, I Love You Tattoo.