Nicholas Dewey is a born and bred South Florida boy with a knack for everything vintage; including a vinyl habit that dates back to before records were cool (again). Dewey, along with his wife and co-founder Kristen Lindholm and their two little girls, run The Modern Historic, a vintage furniture, home goods, and clothing store specializing in 1940s-1970s era goodies.
Keeping their mid-century modern theme in mind, the shop recently changed locations to a larger, warehouse style store front, a perfect in -person carnation of their booming online store that has shipped goods as far as Australia and France. But Dewey is a local guy at heart, “We love local people buying this stuff,” he said. Dewey has a passion for specializing in the best vintage that Palm Beach has to offer, exactly what you would expect from someone whose alter-ego is DJ James Brown Sweat.
A vinyl junkie since high school, Dewey originally picked up the habit because records were simply cheaper than CDs. “I used to collect records because I liked the actual record more than a CD,” he said. “I got into it more and more in high school and as I got older, I collected records only.” His favorites include Supercharger’s ‘Self Titled’, The Sonics’ ‘Here Are The Sonics’ and Grandaddy’s ‘Sumday’.
To do the world a favor and expose young ears to old music, Dewey spins shows around Ft. Lauderdale. The emphasis is on 1950s and 1960s R&B with a little punk thrown in for good measure.
More than just an advocate for the new revival of records, Dewey also lends his talents to the local art scene. In the early 2000s, he was over the basic show flyers with a band photo and decided to start designing flyers for local shows under the guise of “The Masked Flyer.” Getting to see his artwork up in his favorite record stores was a big plus. Among the flyers he remembers most fondly are The Intoxicators’ Hukilau Show, Fishermans’ Hukilau Show, and a Zombie show that featured a 6 foot die cut standee.
Flash forward to 2013 and while Dewey dreams about one day designing a Rezillos poster, he is pumped to have created an exclusive Record Store Day poster for PureHoney.
Let’s be honest, it doesn’t get more local arts and culture than Dewey and his family running a vintage store and spinning vinyl on the side. We salute you!
The Modern Historic 5011 Georgia Ave, West Palm Beach, FL.
(561) 706-4655 | www.themodernhistoric.com
~ Dana Krangel
