Sweat Records – 5505 NE 2nd Ave., Little Haiti, Miami, FL 33137 – Open
For almost 20 years (another way of saying they opened in 2005) Sweat Records has been selling vinyl in the Little Haiti neighborhood of Miami Florida. They’ve been at their present location for nearly that long, opening its doors in 2007. Long recognized as one of the best indie record stores in Miami, Sweat Records offers mainly new releases and reissues in a wide array of genres. Well curated, their offerings include Global, punk, metal, rock, alternative, hip hop, rap, dub, soul and rnb. Used records are on the left as you walk in.
Sweat is also an event space, regularly hosting shows from local bands and others. It operates a record label, and has even sponsored numerous Sweatstocks, an outdoor festival at which many bands – often punk and hard core – have taken the stage.
Damn, but its very clean though.
Wanna go? You can find Sweat Records on our Record Stores Map.
What The Press Is Saying
The Miami New Times named Sweat Records one of the 8 Best Record Stores in Miami in an April 17, 2024 article, while Uproxx named Sweat one of the cities’ top 5 in its May 2, 2019 article Hunting For Miami’s Coolest Vinyl, From Wynwood To North Beach. Its received similar accolades from numerous other publications, including Conde Nast Traveler, Secret Miami and Ocean Drive Magazine.
Published in the Creative Exchange, this July 22, 2014 article, titled Gonna Make You Sweat: Sweat Records promotes Miami’s independent, local music scene describes Sweat Records formative years.
Store owner Lolo Reskin was interviewed about the store in this August 2020 video from Behind the Counter.
And here’s another interview of Lolo, this time in Woman in Vinyl.
Cool Vinyl I’ve Found
This is why we go to record stores. The sole lp from James Knight and the Butlers, Black Knight is absolute killer psychedelic soul and funk. From 1971, James Knight, real name Billy James Lewis, was part of the Miami (soul) Sound. Originally issued on the CAT label, this is a 2022 Netherlands reissue. Per Discogs, the original will cost you a pretty penny, and has sold on their marketplace for between $250 and $1200.
Save Me, a cover of the Aretha Franklin tune from her landmark If I Ever Loved A Man LP, improves on the original, if, with due respect to Ms. Franklin, such a thing is possible. While Aretha’s version sounds like a soul song on top of a Them/Gloria guitar riff, with simple horn accompanyment, James Knight takes the song to a whole ‘nother place. The guitar is tremelo, and the horn chart superb. They take the song in all different directions with a killer groove. Reportedly a minor regional hit, its hardly the only worthy cut on this highly recommended album. The rest of the songs are originals, chock full of that great horn section and terrific arrangements.
James Knight was the lead singer, chief song writer and guitar player. Others in his band included Ernest “Snuff” Stewart on keyboards, Napoleon “Cool” Williams on bass, Roscoe Rice on drums, Foster Newberry on trumpet, Robert “Flea” Johnson on trombone, and Dwight “Hound” Jones on saxophone. And a hat tip to store owner Lola Reskin for pointing me to it, and playing a few cuts before I took it home.
And speaking of hats, when I was young I had a top hat like James Knight’s. It folded up and everything – you tapped it against your leg and it opened up full. I loved that hat. But alas, so did someone else, as he stole it out of my car one day. Still miss that hat.
Here’s James Knight and the Butlers performing Save Me. This is the album version, longer and funkier than the single, with the horn section allowed to roam. If you like this cut, try I Love You and Funky Cat next.
I didn’t need any introduction for this one. Tim Maia was a Brazilian soul singer whose career spanned nearly 40 years, from the late ’50s until his untimely passing in 1998. Credited with introducing soul and rnb to the Brazilian music scene, this compilation gathers cuts from a number of his ’70s releases. I missed it when it originally came out, and was not about to pass it up when I happily ran into it again.
To say Mr. Maia had a colorful life would be an understatement. Born in Brazil, he lived in the US from 1957 to 1964, where he fell in love with soul music and rnb. Arrested for marijuna use in a stolen car, he was deported back to Brazil, where he took soul and later, funk, and mixed them with elements of Brazilian music. He lived the life of a rock star, with the drug excesses and multiple wives that that life often comes with. He was poor and he was rich. And poor and rich.
For two plus years he was a member of a religious cult, the cult of Rational Culture. The sect was based on the belief that we are perfect beings from a distant planet, exiled on Earth to suffer but able to purify through the reading of a single book – Universe in Disenchantment – and to finally be rescued by flying saucers from our original home. No I didn’t make that up.
And it is reported that he went to his then record label’s offices – Philips – and distributed LSD to employees, with advice of all the good it would do them if they took it. Or this oft repeated line – he was 5’7″ – 6′ with his afro.
There are many worthy cuts to feature on this album, but since we’ve just done some funk with James Knight, lets go with one of the funkier songs – Que Beleza. Originally released in 1975 on his record Tim Maia – Racional Vol. 2 its a great funk song replete with another killer horn section and some tasty guitar. It’s in Portugese. If you like this one, you can try his 1970 album Tim Maia, his first, which is a stone classic. But make sure you get the right one – as it is reported that he issued 11 albums each titled Tim Maia.
And for fun, here’s a live version which starts after Tim introduces the band.
In Stores
Funcrusher did an in-store on Feb. 17, 2012, where they performed I’ve Been Better. A nice indie song, it later appeared on the Funcrusher EP, released in 2022.
And a Record Label
Sweat Records Records is another venture, pressing vinyl offerings for local bands. One of their records is by Las Nubes – SMVT released in 2019.
Here is Las Nubes doing Deposit Slip from SMVT. Very early Pixies like, if you ask me (and that’s a good thing).
Who’s Who
Who’s on the Sweat Record mural? From left Daft Punk, Prince, Daft Punk (they are a duo), Iggy Pop, Grace Jones, MF Doom, Bjork, Serge Gainsbourg, Noodle of Gorillaz, David Bowie, Billy Holiday, Celia Cruz, Biggy Smalls, Aphex Twin and Dolly Parton. It was painted by artists CPWon and Bkfoxx.
