Rockin’ Records For 33 Years
By Dennie Chong Co-owner of Hungry Ear Records
After many years of service with Hungry Ear Records – Hawaii’s oldest record store at 33 years – I can honestly say I’m proud every day to serve customers new and old, along with friends and the many visitors to our store. As the first employee of the store and a Kailua native, I’ve been lucky to be a part of such a rich tradition.
My business partner Ward Yamashita and I jumped at the chance in 2008 to return and continue the Hungry Ear Records legacy, first instilled in us by our former boss and late owner Luke Yamashiro. It was a chance for us to take a bigger role and build new relationships in our home community, while also offering music lovers a classic record store experience.
We find that people still want and need a place where they can dig through bins and bins of records and CDs. We want our store to be that place – where music fans can enjoy digging through albums old and new, a place they can talk and hear good music.
The music industry, including Hungry Ear Records, is seeing a resurgence in vinyl record sales. Enthusiasts of all ages are still drawn to the sound and graphics that only come from a record.
Hungry Ear Records boasts the largest selection of new vinyl, along with thousands of used LPs and CDs – often from the many collections we buy – including a huge selection of Hawaiian music. We also stock a variety of record players and record accessories.
Every summer, Hungry Ear also organizes and hosts the Hawaii Record Fair, the state’s largest show aimed at the music enthusiast.
But throughout it all, Ward and I always are reminded of why we are in this business: for the love of the music and community.
