Renowned reissue specialists Light in the Attic Records announced that it will open a retail shop in KEXP's Gathering Space November 25, which is also Black Friday Record Store Day. The label signed a four-month lease to inhabit the radio station's new home at 472 1st Avenue N. at Seattle Center through March 2017. Store hours will be 11 am-7 pm Tuesday through Sunday. On Black Friday, LITA's hours extend from 9 am-8 pm, with dozens of RSD titles available and regular label releases will be discounted 10 percent. In addition, LITA will include free records with every purchase.

"We love KEXP and their new Gathering Space, but considering this is the first time a record store has been in the new space, both KEXP and Light in the Attic wanted to see how the community responds to a record shop in the area," LITA co-owner Josh Wright said in an e-mail interview. "So far the response from [yesterday's] announcement has been through the roof, so we're incredibly optimistic and excited for the launch on November 25."

Matt Sullivan and Josh Wright founded LITA in 2001, and the company now holds offices in Seattle and Los Angeles. Besides reissuing important lost classics by Rodriguez, Betty Davis, Last Poets, Digable Planets, D'Angelo, This Heat, Sly Stone, Seefeel (in conjunction with Medical), and Lee Hazlewood (among many others), the label has curated revelatory compilations such as the vintage Seattle funk/soul treasure trove Wheedle's Groove, the New Age boxed set I Am the Center, and the European cosmic music compendium (Microcosm). LITA also has become a major distributor for over 50 international labels, the wares of which it will sell at its retail store. LITA's stock will be bolstered by used records hand-picked by KEXP's roster of DJs.

More info on the opening party here.

I wish LITA much health and efficiency in this endeavor.