things i didn't say at the record store

no, INXS records are not the hardest records to find. How often do you look for them? Just buy them online. stop coming in here once every six months and asking me if i have any. you can buy their entire catalog on CD online for about 10 dollars + shipping and handling. you could even get their first 6 albums on vinyl and pay around....i dunno, a hundred and something. and you probably only want the swing, listen like thieves, and kick anyway. so, 60 bucks + shipping for nice copies? but it's fun to find them "in the wild". right? but...i mean...don't you ever want to listen to them? just buy them already and then i won't ever need to see you because apparently they are the only band you are interested in. because you never ever buy anything else in my well-stocked record store.

I get people like this at my table at every show I do

although usually it is more "specific genre x" than one band

actually the part about buying them online i did say and i also said that they could have them on their doorstep TOMORROW. it still didn't work. because they want to find them for 50 cents or some shit like that? idiots...

"do you have an african psych section?" that one always cracks me up. what am i Other Music? and if i was Other Music i would still not have one because i would be out of business.

i love when people say "i don't want to buy it online i'd rather give you the money" because it is always said by someone who has never ever given me money.

this thread can be for customers too! say what you wanted to say to that no-good scrubby beardo behind the counter.

I'm giving this store the worst possible rating: Very Good

"Jesus, get that fucking kid out of here!"

dropping shit on the floor...

*ring ring ring*

"record store!"
"ya'll buy records?"
"where are you?"
"Dresden"
"Germany?"
"Tennessee"
"Oh. You should call some of the big Knoxville stores. They have all the money. Good luck!"

i said all that so i don't know why i'm posting it here...

Best thread ever.

I get people like this at my table at every show I do

― out-of-print LaserDisc edition (sleeve), Wednesday

never understood the people that do this, just march up to the table, dont even glance at the boxes, and go "DO YOU HAVE ANY ALICE COOPER??" Like, you came all the way out, you've got the records right in front of you at your fingertips - flip through for a minute, enjoy yourself!

there was a picture disc guy who used to do this at the local shows. GOT ANY PICTURE DISCS??? go to next table. GOT ANY PICTURE DISCS. repeat. all day.

wow you are really inspecting those ONE DOLLAR records very very carefully. can never be too careful. and when i see you agonizing over a ONE DOLLAR purchase i start to think: maybe i should just get rid of all the dollar records. you know what, i think that's what i'll do. not that i have anything against people who want dollar records. i love dollar records! and unlike some places, my dollar records are clean. which you know because you have been here a million times. and not because i want to be snooty and price people out who are on a budget. no, i'm going to get rid of them because i literally can't watch you hold a dollar record up to the light one more time in my life. it pains me.

oh god yes

again I bet every store/seller has one of these types

he found a friend! they are both on the ground and i can hear them but i can't see them. i did hear one of them say: "I mean for a dollar i'll take a chance..."

sometimes you have to be bold and take chances in life!

“Can you shut up and die already, you Gordon Ramsey looking motherfucker, I’m trying to browse and I really don’t want to hear you loudly brag about all the cool records you found last week or in 1991 or whatever”

as a customer, these days the only time i'm tempted to grumble a snarky comment is when i'm in the biggest vinyl shop in my city, where aside from the owner the staff is all hip kids in their 20s. and literally every time i'm in there, i can see that they're listening to Spotify over the store PA, not records. i'm not a fascist about formats but i always want to say "seriously? you cant find a few records you might want to play in this big ol store?"

wow I was under the impression that rule #1 of a store was "never play anything that's not there for sale"

"FREE YOURSELF! You don't actually have to stand next to him while he shops for records. There is a park down the street. A lovely boutique next door. And around the corner is the saturday farmer's market! Lots of things to see. He can call you when he's done. Just please promise that you won't let him hand you records to hold for him while he shops. Because I might have to actually pop the next guy who does that in the snoot. He doesn't hold your stuff for you at your favorite...uh...lady store, does he? I should say not. We have books here. Look at some books! Here is one about relationships in the 21st century. Kidding. On second thought, just RUN!"

Why do you have so few used records and so many reissues of widely available records?

I took my mom to Amoeba once. As I was paying she asked the clerk if I had good taste. What's he gonna say? "Nah this stuff sucks"

lol

DId she ask your friends about you when you were growing up?

my window is all books now. just felt like it. it's summer! that's how you know a record store is cool. when their window is full of books.

https://scontent-lga3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/358559602_10161322340302137_7299805846433994304_n.jpg?_nc_cat=103&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=9LHna5i9KfAAX_HtzHc&_nc_ht=scontent-lga3-1.xx&oh=00_AfD8qyX9TvKHPm-k1qPatcToRiiBMFL3kKsyBlT9R0fdiQ&oe=64AF58FB

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https://scontent-lga3-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/358529043_10161322340742137_1378366645273324171_n.jpg?_nc_cat=101&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=kMC9ECCkIdAAX8tv1-I&_nc_ht=scontent-lga3-2.xx&oh=00_AfBv2TUhVMQ6GZ1pqjNSbMynv969B2SOG-TY1MtrHarf0Q&oe=64AE59CB

"you should put that record down and look at the records in the racks with two hands. its way easier that way. one-handed with a full row of records is kind of a dumb way to see things. in my opinion."

there. needed to get that off my chest.

my partner INSISTS on holding my records for me when we’re record shopping and I feel like such a poop

Why do you have so few used records and so many reissues of widely available records?

― il lavoro mi rovina la giornata (PBKR)

because used records (especially desirable ones) are increasingly hard to find, afaict

this is something i'm not supposed to say to people. here goes. i LOVE being in my store when nobody is here. hahaha! i am worst capitalist!

https://scontent-lga3-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/358683431_10161322472032137_8743356136386483654_n.jpg?_nc_cat=111&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=idzdyQsIMksAX_GJ6Ti&_nc_ht=scontent-lga3-2.xx&oh=00_AfDOOeTwExVDgIxyBqZSKz_FrQoSuMMnDx_Ye9olkQoeEw&oe=64AE3F4A

i bet so many dudes have farted in that little place

cute girl bought a youth of today record today. #connecticutstraightedgehardcorewillneverdie

wow I was under the impression that rule #1 of a store was "never play anything that's not there for sale"

― out-of-print LaserDisc edition (sleeve), Friday, 7 July 2023 20:36 bookmarkflaglink

hate this! I was in a record shop last year and they were playing a Yummy Fur LP. I was like oh how much is this I want this record and they were like oh this our copy sorry. don't play it in the shop then you bastards lol

“I will now sell five copies of The Three EPs by the Beta Band.”

i still listen to beta band but i take it off in the store if someone comes in. i used to get self-conscious if someone came in and i was playing cliche record store stuff. velvet underground. beach boys. or the two most revered rock bands in the world according to the lame-ass people who come into my store: zed lep and fink ployd.

sometimes i will get caught playing something that is actually mine and very rarely someone will ask me if its for sale and i just make up a really high price. sold a few good records that way! they called my bluff!

hi scott please don't stop posting, I very much enjoy this thread and your revived presence on the board, don't let one person's misplaced anger put you off

I learned about I Was the President's Mistress!! from this fantastic thread

xpost - agreed!

yes

guy comes in and stands in front of me and says: "Jazz".

and i say: "uhhhhhhhh, okay. you want some?"

"Jazz".

"Dude, what the..."

"Bill Evans. Steve Allen. Got any? Chet Baker. I have lots of records. I'll probably just give them to you. I'm getting old. I don't listen to jazz anymore. Got any Steve Allen?"

"Wait, you have records with you?"

"No, I live in New York State..."

"Our jazz is by the window there."

He looks for one minute then turns and says really loudly: "WELP, NOTHIN'!" And then he shrugs his shoulders in a really exaggerated and broad way like he's in a silent movie.

He leaves without another word and then I say: "What the fuck?" "Fuck you, you fucking weirdo."

Then I go about my business.

ShopGPT

I feel I need to make a pilgrimage to this store and ask you where the 90's IDM section is and watch you twitch

some of these stories remind me of Daffer, this beloved Minneapolis record store dude. Daffer was, you know, a little different and also suffered from severe narcolepsy.

he was forever going through the bargain records (which were in bins on the floor underneath the main racks) and delivering his signature catch phrase "Why so expensive?", then his narcolepsy would kick in and he would take a snooze on the floor of the store. Everyone know the deal so you'd just gingerly step around him and let him take a little nap. then, he'd wake up like nothing happened and keep browsing.

(this was at Treehouse Records mostly, which was the newer name of the legendary Replacement/Husker daze institution Oar Folkjokeapus)

i think you both made a little jazz there

You know how they say music is largely the notes you don't play?

Maybe the moral of the story is that a record store is largely the records you don't have

Lol

i have a guy now who has just been reeling off names of things i don't have for the last hour and a half. "You know what I don't see? Parliament. Parliament/Funkadelic? Huh. Is it somewhere that I'm not seeing?"

Yes, some other store!

does anyone do this in any other kind of store?

i have about 4 to 5 thousand records in the store at any given time. there will be a few missing...

(also when anyone tells me about terrible experiences they had with a multitude of record stores and dealers over decades of time i say to myself: "uh oh i'm probably next. what terrible new story will i give this guy to tell to other record store people in the future?")

damn, sounds like someone from michelin was at your store

I worked in a record store in Boulder, Colorado in the 80s. We had an endless parade of insufferable dudes like this.

Scott, you’d probably have some Parliament-Funkadelic if you priced them NOT to sell! You ever consider that? How are you gonna have any good records in your store if you keep selling them?

lol

Running the record store might be described as “an endless parade of insufferable dudes”

its actually not that bad! my corner of the world is sleepy. at least they only come in one at a time. i like to complain but i can't complain. it used to bug me when people would say "It must be nice to sit and listen to records all day" because i know how hard i hustle to keep a full store of decent stuff all the time - let alone for 14 years - but now i'm like: uh, you know what, it IS nice to listen to records all day.

meanwhile , i just bought 30,000 records so i'll see you in...january.

<3

new name. new bags. only took 14 years. i always raise an eyebrow when people start selling shirts for their record store before they actually open. i wanted to make sure i was ready.

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nice merch! really dig the logo

"are the prices hard?"

"uhhhhh, huh? the prices are the prices..."

"what's with all these different prices...5...10...15...??"

"uhhhhh, yeah, things have different prices...?? Do you wish they were the same...? i don't understand.."

do you know what store is...

sometimes i don't get it. i guess they wondered how i came up with prices? they also mentioned that there was no condition on the record...

like i'm gonna put the condition on every record?

people baffle me.

then some guy said "i don't see any bargain cd area..."

and i said "like dollar CDs? no, there is a salvation army around the corner though. i think those are $1.99 plus tax..."

then my pal willie lane came in and everything was alright again. willie is an excellent musician who puts out his own records in small batches and then he never reissues them. though feeding tube did actually reissue an old one recently. he doesn't reissue them himself though.

i'm in the back working and maria is up front listening to sadness and responding in kind: "oh wow yeah your family loves the beatles..."

last parting quote from sadness: "i don't have any money..."

thanks for stopping by.

Willie Lane is great! tell him good job

i will!

tooooooooooooooooo many copies around here of:

david bromberg (jesus, so many. holy shit. you couldn't pay me to listen to one. same with leo kottke and leo sayer.)

joan armatrading (love you joan but you rival national geographics in sheer land mass in the great commonwealth of massachusetts)

the roches (weeeeee are maggie, terre, and we are friggin' everywhere...)

mccggarrigglle sisters (you wish roches our records actually mate and give birth to more of our records forever......)

sweet honey in the...(okay you get the picture.)

i refuse all records by: tom rush, fogeldork, kenny dorkins, dorkins & logorrhea, wet willie, les dudek, chi-raqo, muddy blahs...so many more.

really no Moody Blues? I would think those would sell?

with u on the rest tho

ehhh every blue moon i sell one. but the problem is when someone has one moody blues record they have 20 moody blues records all in the same dusty VG shape. tooooo many of them. even for a dollar they sit.

no offense to the MBs. they are fine by me.

I treasure my original Willie Lane Known Quantity LP

i want scratch ticket to play at my store. willie and sunburned rob and sunburned john. best local power trio! but i don't think they have played a show since before covid.

Hey Scott, would you be interested in having Glenn Jones play at your store too? Serious inquiry...

Glenn plays at my friend Josh's store, Mystery Train, pretty regularly. They are friends. right around the corner.

That's great! A few months ago he was itching to play more gigs but said he didn't have too many lined up - I told him I'd ask around.

I've been digging into the early Leo Kottke records recently, and they're really lovely! Rich cascades of acoustic guitar flowing out of clean black vinyl - nobody told me. I would believe that the market has little need for any more beat-up, sawdust-filled copies though.

my brother-in-law turned me on to that Circle 'Round The Sun record by Leo years ago and I will always be fond of it. listening to it super stoned on top of a mountain outside Woodstock. Pat Metheny at the bottom of the hill! that's the first time I ever heard Red Hash by Gary Higgins and I had a similar lovely experience with that.

The key isn’t how good something is; it’s how many people want it. Leo is great. I’ve all but given up trying to sell the wonderful Martha & the Muffins and Doug & the Slugs records. You can’t give away Kristofferson. Etc etc

LOL this all reminds me of the time years ago when I walked into Au Go-Go records in the 90s waving Scritti Polittis first 2 7" and asking what they were worth, and the guy just gave me this dead in the eyes look and said "nothing, nobody even likes Scritti Politti anymore".

Never ever tried that again lol.

does the seller ever try to min/max on the customer's "i have $40. here are the records i saw, what can i get from this?" and be generous to the customer? my favorite spot did that years and years ago.

(also when anyone tells me about terrible experiences they had with a multitude of record stores and dealers over decades of time i say to myself: "uh oh i'm probably next. what terrible new story will i give this guy to tell to other record store people in the future?")

― scott seward

also good advice if you're dating someone and they tell you about how all their exes are terrible fwiw

re: early kottke - i got in the mood to listen, hadn't heard in a while, and found a video of kottke playing vaseline machine gun on... cnn?!?!? cnn isn't really a channel i associate with great live music.

sold a near mint u.s copy of Keep On Movin' today. i put it out yesterday. i was really tempted to keep it. so pretty. like new! even though i have the CD. hard to find such a nice vinyl copy. maybe not in the U.K. but here it is. or for me it is. i always see beat to hell Soul II Soul singles and that's about it.
i don't like when things stick around to tempt me so its good when they go fast. priced to move!
finally sold that copy of Edgar Froese's Stuntman too. one of those records i look at in the stacks and think of rescuing like a stray cat. but now its gone!
sold some george duke. some albert king. sold a lot of stuff.
i sold the second One Way album to my friend Ryan. love that group.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcpkN66sKdw

there needs to be a term for when you look up the price of a dollar chad everett album because you are afraid that large professor looped a beat from it for a big pun remix or something and made it a $50 record. you never know! i'm not a rap encyclopedia or something. i did listen to all 4 Eric B. and Rakim albums today while working though. Let The Rhythm Hit 'Em holds up like crazy. god i love that record. my top latter-day sleeper tracks are "In The Ghetto", "Mahogany", "Relax With Pep", and "Know The Ledge". though "Know The Ledge" is kinda well-known. "Teach The Children" is so prescient. But I wouldn't expect anything less from a prophet like Rakim.

https://i.discogs.com/Ei68GESbMBLH0MVcAaHMICEUgwcb83c7HWMMAfiGTaw/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:512/w:512/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTMyNDg1/NzEtMTM0MjQ2Nzc2/NS04MTM2LmpwZWc.jpeg

what i didn't say today: fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck you.

guys brings in a big box of CDs. says: "do you sell CDs...???" he's standing in front of huge shelves filled with CDs but never mind that. then he says: "i don't want much for them...just a little something. i really just want to get rid of them."

i quickly look at the horrible trash he has thrown on my counter - beat up crust-covered michael bolton CDs... - and say that i don't need them. so then he says: "can i just give them to you? i have more in the car..."

i think: eh, i always need cases. i'll cannibalize them for plastic. so i say "sure, yeah, i can take them." i have a dumpster out back.

he brings in two more hideous boxes and then says: "you should do good with those. THEY SHOULD HELP YOU STAY IN BUSINESS. i hate to see so many business go under..."

and i say: "uh, we've been here for 14 years..."

anyway, I'M GLAD HE SAVED MY BUSINESS.

i don't know how me taking out his garbage turned him into bill gates spreading the wealth but what are you gonna do?

and i said thank you. instead of: "fuuuuuuck you get out of here with your trash i was having a good day you ain't saving shit fuckface!"

don't know if i already ranted about this but the thing people do when they come in and ask for something very specific and when i tell them i don't have it and tell them they can easily buy it online and they say "well i know but i just really want to help local businesses when i can." then they leave. and i want to yell "then buy something else, fuckface!"

guy who sells records online and who came in today and who has told my wife twice now when i wasn't there that i ALWAYS give him a 20% discount? he will get an earful the next time i see him.

i'm sure these people are wonderful people. really. but people don't think sometimes. it's out of my system! see, the power of venting on a computer. it gets a lot of negative press but venting can be a healing force. #oneworld #onevibe #blessed

One thing I will say about the specific thing shoppers - I can easily understand the thought process: want thing, check local shop first, resort to non-local means if unsuccessful. I don’t think it’s an empty gesture of local business support... they’re taking your advice about getting the thing online but choosing to take the time to make sure they can’t just get it from you first, where they’d also get to see what they’re buying in person.

Sorry for being the fuckface that responds to your venting but was having a hard time not seeing the logic of the fuckface with that one.

oh no need to be sorry for anything.

i think its just that sometimes people kinda go out of there way to tell me that they wanted to shop local so then it just feels like kind of a bummer that i didn't have that one specific thing that they wanted. you know? amazon would have had it. mom & pop struck out! haha! we have fun.

really no Moody Blues? I would think those would sell?

― out-of-print LaserDisc edition (sleeve), Thursday, August 10, 2023 12:19 PM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

god no there are so many copies of all the good Moodys albums in every shop i go to

i know i paint a bleak picture sometimes. its really not like that. i just don't write at length about all the smiling faces and tears of joy at the store. where's the fun in that?

i do legit feel blessed! i work a ton but i don't care because you never live a day if you love your mom. your job. live your job. that's it.

maria had 4 bands play on sunday. right on the sidewalk out front.

we had a nice chat in a u-haul truck this morning. maria says i should get over any stupid thing a stranger says in 15 minutes. then she totally got mad at me for something that happened months ago at the store.

i do try. that's the big reason why i asked maria to take the front of house position and let me work in back. i just couldn't take people anymore. i just want to work. years and years of being up front in corner stores in philadelphia and in my own store in philly way back when...and 14 years here. my customer service was really going off the rails even before the pandemic. AFTER the pandemic...shit, i'm still trying to figure out how to interact with the cashier at walgreens let alone some rando peppering me with questions about my store and my livelihood (this happens all the time now...)

it hasn't been long since we started the new arrangement but its been good. she is very nice to everyone. i get a ton of stuff listed online and keep the store full. we sell a lot. and, in general, when she hasn't been here, it has been easier for me with people because i don't do it everyday now. its a novelty. i'm happy to see the people i'm happy to see. the bugs don't tend to bug me.

the last five years have been very hard for me for a lot of reasons. and i finally feel like i'm in a good place. and i promise i'll be nice even if you are dumb in my store.

just got the last of the big haul. took a while due to schedules. oof. that was a lot of boxes. added up to be about 350 u-haul boxes.

gonna go play some.

come on by! you get an ilx friend and family discount. just tell me who you are.

Would love to visit! Totally get how you can get worn down by The Tropes Of The Rando

How many records are 350 boxes?

prob 35K or so

that's not a collection that's the Library of Congress (unless you are Joe Bussard)

We constantly get people coming in trying to get us to transfer records to CDs, cassettes, whatever. I can't understand this. It would be like asking a guy at a grocery store if they would come over and till my soil.

"it's Hiatt, you dipshit. and what makes you think I work here?"

at a 65-ish-year old guy who walked up to me while I was browsing the CD stacks at Newbury Comics and asked if I had a copy of such-and-such CD by John Hate (spelled "H-A-I-T-T") because he didn't see it in the pop/rock section and it's probably out-of-print and he doesn't buy vinyl anymore, just CDs

except I was nice and polite and said something like "I actually don't work here, but if you go the counter you might be able to get it as a special order"

for my entire adult life I've been dealing with middle-aged/older men approaching me at record stores and asking "do you work here?" or launching into descriptions of what they're looking for. I guess they assume that a blandly dressed, nerdy young man like me couldn't possibly be shopping for music and thus I must be there only to serve them? or maybe they don't care if I work there and they just want to evangelize about Don Henley and Phil Collins? I'm still trying to figure that out

Big dumbass opinion alert: some folks who don’t really shop for records tend to see record stores as these quaint charming little museums, so when they see someone engrossed in browsing they look at them like the dude emptying the garbage at McDonald’s

hmm, I'm sure people like that exist, but these particular goateed boomer men seem extremely excited about picking up the latest Paul Simon CD and letting every clerk and customer in the building know that they're picking up the latest Paul Simon CD. I don't get the sense that they aren't earnest (if annoyingly conspicuous) shoppers or that they view record buying as some weird novelty interest

just a week or two ago i had an older guy drag another older guy into the store JUST to tell me that the one guy he was dragging into the store was into The Clash before anyone else was. then they left.

funny to have heard the sound of silence Hi9story of Rock finally. & hear that the first line of the song had become an in joke at teh time taht Simon was trying to create himself into a folkie.
So he'd been seen to be a pseud before he became famous but is somehow seen to be authentic by some now.

hi skot i love you.

i'll work in your record store if you want.

love you too. you'll have to wait until maria retires. and you would have to know how to deal with this guy and his handy system of remembering what records he's interested in.

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that picture might disappear. my pictures from facebook seem to disappear.

Someone at my local shop turns all the 7"s sideways I guess to keep track of what they're already looked at as they move through the section? It's so annoying.

“Do you carry any vaporwave?”

receives blank stare

xp to Evan - sideways how?

yes but it all disintegrated

Like they just pull out handfuls at a time then put them back in the section turned 90 degrees. The reasoning was just my guess.

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i went to my friend wes's record store last night in north adams. Belltower Records. its really nice. great stuff. great prices. open and airy. its in one of those converted warehouse/industrial buildings near Massmoca. i got good stuff and we saw three cool bands who were playing outside last night. this Australian band Lippers who have a record out on Goner were very cool. duo with a drum machine doing olde-tyme indie pop. or maybe its never olde tyme in australia. they never stopped making music like that down there.
my friends mike and eric from albany - who record under lots of names but who also are members of psych juggernaut Burnt Hills - have a band with the writer Karen Schoemer and they are awesome. she does that stream of words/poetry thing and she's very good at it. almost a lifter puller vibe sometimes!
Wes and my friend Patrick have a great three guitar band and they sounded amazing. the mix and the tone were perfect. i told them that i wished they could have heard themselves from where we were. they give me that beechwood sparks vibe occasionally. i don't listen to a ton of new indie rock but i would listen to them. patrick used to be in a great band here with mikey turner called Huevos II. they were likewise right on in the guitar department. mikey moved to england though. he used to be in a band called Warmer Milks.

that doesn't have anything to do with something i didn't say in a record store. it was cold last night. i was pretty stoned.

I got a few good things, at reasonable prices, at Belltower on a road trip last year! Nice vibe, manageable scale. (Had wanted to make it over to your spot, Scott, but the closest we got was Shelburne Falls.)

actually, woah --- i am right now listening the copy of Exile On Main St. i got there!

its a nice spot that they have made for themselves there.

i felt so blessed and lucky to have a spot during the plague. i got to leave my house and go somewhere else! that was huge. if felt luxurious.

maria sold records to Of Montreal yesterday. they bought some solo pablo casals and other stuff. they were playing at the place on the corner last night. huge tour bus. i might go see Pharcyde there. they are coming soon.

this is what modern english buys in my store. damn boomers. i wish i'd thought to have my 7-inch of "drowning man" handy. he coulda signed it.

https://scontent-bos5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/379983173_10161337645880908_2848704052332469288_n.jpg?_nc_cat=110&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=49d041&_nc_ohc=t-dKU3tFyDIAX8nJyKi&_nc_ht=scontent-bos5-1.xx&oh=00_AfAW-BujToqbu0zOFIFK-G8BIvRVxUFxXydq4AIY0Qx5qg&oe=650A9004

Of Montreal are our free advertising models for the store.

https://scontent-bos5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/378227026_10161334843610908_8893353495009870131_n.jpg?_nc_cat=100&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=49d041&_nc_ohc=vGlG3cqYuSUAX-ybXSf&_nc_ht=scontent-bos5-1.xx&oh=00_AfCTumn4LmU1OqhYsY7UAlc00mMrNURtUw24tTNQNaD7Qw&oe=650B2B1E

good times

that pressing of pet sounds (w/ the carl & the passions record) is supposed to sound really good? i don't care for that record much personally but that's what i heard!

it does sound really good.

a lot of people think its the best mono version of the album.

have you heard the Duophonic version recently? or ever? Strange listen. It was the LP of pet sounds I just happened to have. The first one I came across at a thrift store or whatever.

Was wondering how Duophonic Records came to put out a version of Pet Sounds, but I guess that's not what this is.

a classic exchange from 2021. work is fun.

Person: I'm lucky to be from the Midwest, there are records everywhere. I know its getting harder and harder to find records.
Me: No, it isn't. Look, there are thousands of them right in front of you.
Person: Well, not for the prices i want...
Me: There are tons of $1 and $2 records here as well. See, you don't need to be in the Midwest to be lucky! Where do you live in the Midwest?
Person: I live in Florida. Oh, look at that, you do have $1 records, well, i'll come back sometime, i've got a grinder down the street...
Me: have a great day and come back anytime.

kinda sums up the Trump era pretty good too.

What kind of grinder do you think he meant?

You know like Hoagie? The hook up app

grinderrrrrrrr looking for meeeat

Scott, do you have an automatic response for people — ok, let’s be real, guys — who want to bang on about shitty music, or their record collection, or general random shit, and you don’t want to engage/encourage them but you don’t wanna come off like a dick either? This is the best thing (and the worst thing) about my situation, where I don’t actually staff my own store, so I don’t have to deal with the bores that seem to surround this hobby like flies on shit (but tbf I don’t get to have good conversations with interesting buyers either ,& potentially learn from them). I get this a few times a year at the record shows, and it’s what makes me think I don’t actually want to do this as a retirement gig: the energy I have to put into manufacturing responses for the eye-bleedingly dull stories of how someone has been looking for a record forever, or found one recently, or has 12 pristine copies, or do I know this song by Night Ranger, and I should listen to it because it’s great, but not as great as this other Night Ranger song, and I just want to, you know, DIE

“It’s really sad that your goth/industrial CD section is relegated to a single drawer UNDERNEATH one of the metal CD drawers. You have a fair amount of goth/industrial/circus music CDs languishing in the various Rock misc A-Z sections.”

brim, in that situation I would likely be like, “oh, man, if you could help me out by picking out all the goth/industrial that are incorrectly filed, I’d really appreciate it.”

the really true realness is this: people won't bug you or tell you long boring stories if your store is busy and people are buying things. because then they will realize that they are in a store. its when nobody else is in there that you have a problem. because then they forget that they're in a store. and that's when you need to think about drugs.

i'd kinda had it with people after the pandemic but maria pulled me off the ledge. she does the bulk of it now. i just want to work. that's really where most of my frustration came from. it was just me. and it made it hard to do as much online work as i wanted to do. i used to bring my work home with me and i was pricing CDs at homw last week but i have a LOT of television to watch and i am olderish. i could get drunk and clean 45s and watch netflix late into the night in the olden days. but that was then. i'm happier now! sorta. or my version of "happy" anyway. filled with dread and confusion.

It's weird. I've had my share of being trapped into convos but shoppers of a certain age will, say, Shazam the overhead music rather than ask an employee. I've had a couple people come up and be like, what is this? it's not coming up on Shazam. Like buddy go ahead and ask us in the first place! We are definitely down to gab about our stereo picks lol.

It's also a real thing now that many, many people genuinely don't understand why they shouldn't / aren't allowed to BLAST their phone speaker playing music or facetime or a phone call in a shop.

spooky clowns and scientologists. boo!

https://scontent-lga3-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/395203360_10161529570687137_4290189502426148778_n.jpg?_nc_cat=100&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=5f2048&_nc_ohc=D-hf42qGOe0AX9FyUbW&_nc_ht=scontent-lga3-2.xx&oh=00_AfDS425UoBgrx7JJaUVWNzXHxn40Nyy50ysBe3est-1rlw&oe=653AF6DF

heard today for the 447348373th time:

"I could spend hours in here. I might be tempted to buy something." *leaves store*

stop selling records. start charging admission.

Apparently a bookstore in Porto, Portugal that was swamped by Harry Potter fans 'cause JK based something on it, started doing exactly that (charging admission).

Halloween has to be the most grating holiday

Apparently a bookstore in Porto, Portugal that was swamped by Harry Potter fans 'cause JK based something on it, started doing exactly that (charging admission).

― deep wubs and tribral rhythms (Boring, Maryland), Monday, October 23, 2023 12:10 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Well yeah also it's an incredible space. I don't think they'd get away with it if it looked more ordinary

But yeah it's weird that people keep announcing their desire to spend time there and dangle the hypothetical of even purchasing something, my guess is that they find the idea of a record store magical but don't have the means to play records, kind of like how people might enter a gallery or a highly curated vintage (furniture or collectibles etc.) store / showroom to gawk but would never actually pull the trigger, no that would be reckless, but maybe... just maybe if they were feeling nuts you know just totally spontaneous or inspired after finding that perfect souvenir... something truly special...

Anyway I think that might be the mindset, and just like how some those other aforementioned businesses are more common to have people coming in to glance or go full tire-kicker only to leave with a "thanks for coming in!" regardless, they expect the record store is also the same kind of niche place for that song and dance.

Then there are musical instrument stores where people want to try multiple $4,000 guitars and leave with maybe some strings or picks or, more likely, nothing.

Sell download cards?

i sell a lot of CDs.

a lot of people still have CD players in their car. or they buy an old car that has one. so they come in looking. that works out well.

i just think the *threatening to buy* thing is funny because i can't imagine people doing that at other stores. you know? "wow, you guys sure do have a lot of great vitamins. i could spend hours in here." *leaves walgreens*

Well yeah but again they put record stores in the same category as other hobby stores or showrooms where they get to be a tourist

Sorry I've got major jet lag I've got to stop posting

I went to a place today and saw a tears for fears tape “hurting” for $3.75. I went to buy it and the clerk said “$10.80.” There was another sticker on the back.

you should have thrown it at them and screamed "you don't give me love!".

"Well yeah but again they put record stores in the same category as other hobby stores or showrooms where they get to be a tourist"

i wrote that in the paper i read at ucla. that sometimes i felt like the shabbiest tour guide in the shabbiest museum in massachusetts.

you can hear my dulcet tones right here. and greil introducing me.

https://archive.org/details/podcast_2011-emp-pop-conference-at-ucl_ebay-light-of-my-life-fire-o_1000093737988

re:"i could spend hours in here", ime when people say stuff like that its to tell themselves a story more than anything else. lots of people like to imagine themselves as the kind of person who frequents record shops, independent bookstores, arthouse theaters, etc, but don’t ever actually do those things. But hearing themselves say things like “I could spend hours in this record store” or “my idea of heaven is a good bookstore” reassures them that they are the kind of quirky interesting person who they imagine says things like that

completely and totally and utterly OTM.

Charge $10 to come browse ($40 if there's conversation expected), deduct from purchase on exit.

i'm not even gonna go into the guy who came in today and talked maria's ear off about possibly helping him sell the record he had made and wondering if we could be a sort of "fulfillment center" for it amd distribute it to all the local stores for him. because he has issues. i finally had to come out and say "oh maria are you going to have time to finish that tax thing..." and he finally left.

"I could spend hours in here. I might be tempted to buy something."

I can't think of any response other than "what am I, your fucking hostage?"

i actually yelled as he was going out the door: "Oh, no, we wouldn't want that to happen!" right after he said that about being tempted.

I went to a place today and saw a tears for fears tape “hurting” for $3.75. I went to buy it and the clerk said “$10.80.

I can't stand this indecision

I was leaving the weed dispensary which is next to a winery (omg Scott imagine if you had to deal with wine people) and some old rich dude just wandered in and bumped into me all “oh hello what’s this place” and the security guard was like “it’s a cannibus dispensary, I need to see your I’d” and he was like “oh good to know” like the doors of the world are just made for entitled rich white dudes to go around opening and walking through to see what the deal is, we’re all just here for their entertainment.

i DO know how good i have it overall. every time i go to a restaurant i think: oh thank god i don't have to work in a restaurant i would be killing people left and right. sometimes i think the whole thing is so archaic. "so, what do you recommend?" "i recommend you order something fast because we are fucking slammed and you will never get any food unless you hurry the fuck up."

Apparently a bookstore in Porto, Portugal that was swamped by Harry Potter fans 'cause JK based something on it, started doing exactly that (charging admission).

― deep wubs and tribral rhythms (Boring, Maryland), Monday, October 23, 2023 12:10 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Well yeah also it's an incredible space. I don't think they'd get away with it if it looked more ordinary

tbc this place was always a tourist trap, I went in a couple of times in the 00's and they had, like, computer manuals from the 90's lol. when I tried to order a book they didn't have they were borderline hostile.

I just meant the building is definitely pretty

Oh yeah agreed, charging admission was always the logical endpoint because it works as a cool spot to look at but is useless as a bookshop.

In 2002 I went to the Chateau Frontenac hotel in Quebec City and I vaguely recall being charged some kind of admission just to look around. Maybe I am misremembering.

There is a tour that (understandably) costs money, and of course they wouldn't charge actual guests an admission fee. But I think that at the time, they were trying to discourage tourists from just going there to look around and hang out.

This is of course irrelevant to the record store discussion, but fancy hotels exist in a liminal zone in between public space and a private business.

I will confess that I have used some of the world's nicest hotel lobbies as, essentially, an extension of my living room, either with or without being a paying guest.

See also: "My Darling Nikki."

sometimes i really wish i had a cell phone jammer. do you really have to look up EVERY record? definitely a time when i miss the olden days. whatever happened to chance? people will youtube or spotify 400 12-inch singles. babies.
have i made mistakes by buying blind my whole life? hell yeah. and i LEARN from my mistakes.

people here might do it too. i get it. i don't have to like it though!

i don't let people use their shittyass portables either. fuck off dj shadow.

and i haven't had a listening station since...i dunno...2010? too many broken needles made me say naaaah. i can't even imagine what it would be like now. ten times worse.

fwiw usually if I do this it's because I can't remember if I've already got it, or if that's the specific record I'm looking for by that band. this is what happens when you already have too many records and have listened to too much music

that totally makes sense though. these are people who literally look up EvERY record that they look at in the store. it takes them forever.

this is why i'm so glad i'm not out front much anymore. the agony of watching people be laboriously slow. i had a japanese dealer look at every record in my store in 20 minutes once.

Age 13 I bought a used copy of Quadrophenia from Stereo Jack’s in Cambridge MA for $5 based exclusively on the fact that it looked great, came with that beguiling pull-out photo booklet, and was a double record which made it seem even more of a deal. I had never heard a note of The Who in my life. The punchline should be that I hated it but reader I fell in love with it, taped it, and listened to it on my Walkman all the time, even when my family hiked up Mt Washington.

xp tbh I usually feel bad about looking things up because I assume the shop staff will assume I'm just looking it up on Discogs to see if I can flip it, but that isn't what I'm doing!

I will look things up if it is something that looks intriguing, but I'm not familiar with it. When I got back into listening to vinyl a few years ago, I was taking risks on stacks and stacks of stuff. I got spatially overwhelmed by all the music that I didn't want to listen to. At that point, I realized that it was not my duty or obligation to be the Disco 12" Guardian of My Small Town or whatever. It's pretty rare for me now to haul records back to Goodwill or try to sell them to a local record store. When I bring a record back to the house, I'd prefer that it's for keeps.

I have a bunch of stuff floating around in my mental wantlist where it’s like “is this the album by wire train heard that I liked?” so I need to look up on internet to confirm #oldstonerlife

I definitely walk away to a corner while I do it, though, if I can’t get out of peoples way I don’t do it.

people I didn’t punch at the record store

I've definitely started looking up more and more things to see whether I like them or not. Have put in my years of taking a chance on things, I've literally got about 1200 unwanted records to start putting up on discogs and a large amount of those were bought because they looked interesting and turned out to be not my thing, and a good few of the others are duplicates that I accidently bought. Don't really care how the shop owner feels about it tbh, I always buy something in every place I go unless it really sucks, and if they've priced their records properly then they don't need to worry that I'm trying to make a buck out of them (i do buy to flip though sometimes, some people put the daftest things in the bargain bins just cos they've dismissed whole genres as being not worthy of their time - those are some of my favourite shops tbh)

someone years ago came in and asked me which albums would be best to buy...to sell. i wasn't that helpful.

haha! I pulled out a copy of this from a box on the floor the other day. old mono classical record? straight in the quid bin mate...

https://www.discogs.com/release/4143663-Brahms-Johanna-Martzy-And-The-Philharmonia-Orchestra-Conducted-By-Paul-Kletzki-Brahms-Violin-Concert

xp the ones in your store, because you bought them to sell

Yeah if you’re going to look up every record, why even go into a store??

( M just told me that someone commented on a paid FB ad of ours and asked about stereo gear. they weren't looking to buy. they just wanted information. another local store commented and told them to come to their store because they have lots of gear. M hid the other store's comment. the old me would have been pissed. just seems like poor etiquette to tell someone to come to your store on an advertisement for someone else's store! but i'm in the back room listening to deep tech from argentina. live and let live! for the record: we don't sell stereo stuff. but i don't think that matters here. this other store is new and i don't know the owners well. just met them in passing. i went in and bought stuff when they opened and made a mention of them on our FB page to be neighborly.)

(but what say you, peanut gallery. poor form or what?)

I love going into a record store with no agenda or hope of getting any particular record. That said, if I’m looking up/price checking an album it’s because 1) don’t want to be scammed 2) genuinely surprised if the record in question is actually selling for $X used these days.

Yeah if you’re going to look up every record, why even go into a store??

For me, I mostly like buying records I've never even heard of before, things I'd never otherwise encounter. Some of them are in genres where there's a hell of a lot of mediocre records, if not outright garbage. Looking stuff up does help navigate things, especially if you can listen to them, otherwise I'd be going home with 20 fresh slices of total poop that would go straight in my ever-growing pile of shite I don't want.

Being able to look up things is a luxury! Prices can be all over the place depending on the shop, but the more I trust the place the more likely it is that I'm looking up things just to get a better handle on what something intriguing or vaguely familiar actually is.

i knew you guys were going to end up defending yourselves. but you guys don't count! if an ilxor-type came into my store i would be so happy. but this is mostly dudly dudes. they look up every record and stand in one spot for two hours and then spend five bucks and they are boring as hell.

also i am mean and cranky.

seriously though when smart city people come in they are a joy to talk to and open and curious about stuff and a pleasure to be around. and they love my store and say nice things about it. unfortunately i don't live near a city so they don't come in that much.

when i see people looking up a dire straits record though...come on now.

or "supposed DJs" who ransack my 12-inches and buy nothing...blah. but that's commerce for you.

"but this is mostly dudly dudes. they look up every record and stand in one spot for two hours and then spend five bucks and they are boring as hell."

Guys do this in the store where I work with dollar records and $0.50 singles! Looking up and play testing for an hour. You can't take a flyer on those, man? It's not my store so I have no say in us having a listening station but sometimes I want to hide the headphones behind the counter when I'm working and tell these guys they broke.

you need a switch behind the counter that enables and disables the listening station based on the dudliness of the dude

or ask the owner to make a time limit. put up a sign.

record stores should offer overnight lock-ins with a turntable, a comfy chair and a couple of bottles of wine. charge a fee, set a minimum spend amount. would totally get stuck into those crates of 45s that no-one ever has the time to go through

no play testing vinyl records period

my brother used to lock an NYC DJ into his store overnight. they have the best all night digging drugs.

ahhh the dream

i feel bad when i have a record and i don't want to put it in the store because its too nice! so sometimes i don't. i do put the bulk of my discogs stock in the store but not the $$$ stuff where i really have to make sure that the condition stays exactly the same. people manhandle records. and people LOVE to manhandle the most expensive records with no thought of buying them.

i have been known to clasp trees albums to my heaving bosom its true

(especially older stuff that is more delicate. people just aren't as careful as they should be. when i was younger i used to hate it when a store just had covers out and you had to ask to see the record for more expensive stuff but i get it now.)

I bought some records off discogs last week, the seller messaged me that they were about a mile away from me so I could just come and get them and save on postage, so I did, and the guy there said they'd got a big collection in with a load of rare flexis that they decided not to put in the shop because of people fucking them up browsing through them.

It was a good plan to get me to pick up the records because I ended up spending another £50 in the shop.

I stopped going to record stores when I started listening to vaporwave -- there's just no demand or supply

Not much of a market for vapor, I reckon.

people LOVE to manhandle the most expensive records with no thought of buying them.

#truthbombs

they look up every record and stand in one spot for two hours and then spend five bucks

gearing up for selling at a show on the 12th, if anyone tries this at my table they are banned immediately. go bother someone else, digging space is at a premium

good luck at the show.

i opened up and put on a live Pretenders boot from 1980 and the first person through the door had to tell me that he never listened to the Pretenders until he heard "Brass In Pokcet" and got physically aroused. he kinda liked them after that. i will have to live with that little tidbit until the day i die.

You know, we are all Pretenders to some degree in this crazy world, in life, until the day we die

What I mean by that is that from now on I'm going to have to pretend you didn't share that story with us.

haha, sorry! i needed to share my pain.

new band name:

"Brass In Pokcet"

is that Brass In Pocket, or are you just happy to... hear the Pretenders?

I inherited a signed copy of The Pretenders' first LP from my grandpa. it's otherwise a £1 record, do people want signed Pretenders records? just wondering

someone might!

i am a record dealer who has zero interest in autographs. i do have a copy of black sabbath s/t signed by all four demons but even that i don't get that excited by. i have two early westbound funkadelic records and they came from different places and on both george clinton uses the word "bitch" and "dog" in his inscription. those are kinda cool.

i feel like they weirdly complicate my life. sometimes i just pretend they aren't there. does a signed maria muldaur record raise the price? by how much? who cares!!??

I don't care about autographs either. I have CDs signed by Paul Collins and the guitarist from D.R.I. but I didn't ask them to sign them they just did (bought them at gigs)

i go on discogs right now and this is the first thing i see on my store page:

"mickey hart" AUTOGRAPH on front. looks legit and matches online examples of his signature but not authenticated in any way.

its just so boring.

I've got a few signed records, but I treat it as a neat bonus and not something I'm seeking out or paying extra to get.

the only way an autograph would mean anything to me is if I was the one who procured it from the artist

generally would favor a previous owner's name in sharpie over signatures. especially if I buy a few from the same collection.

I am dispersing my dead friend's record collection back into the universe, he had a signed Sparks 12"! that was pretty cool. we gave it to his brother.

generally would favor a previous owner's name in sharpie over signatures. especially if I buy a few from the same collection.

i've got a few lps where the previous owner was a local musician and/or critic. who would have thought michael morley was once a fan of the international submarine band?

I bought a shoegaze-era Boo Radleys 12" at the weekend, on the inner sleeve is written "happy 18th Flamp Damp from Afterbirth + Aunty Jags xxx". Flamp Damp must be pushing 50 now.

Almost every time I’m at the store, someone asks me “Are these all your records?”

Meaning, I suppose, “is this your personal collection that you’re now selling?”

Which is a weird thing to ask someone at their store.

Runner up: “Have you listened to all of these?”

I’m gonna go into a clothing boutique and be like “Are all these your clothes? Have you worn them all?”

“Are these all your gyros ?”

I guess “are these all your records?” depends on inflection and I definitely could see people credulously asking that

I could also see the emphasis differently, asking if you have any more records that aren’t on the store display floor?

Yeah, they’re definitely not looking for more records when they ask.

Another thing people — including other small-time dealers — often ask is, “where do you get your records?” Like, motherfucker, that’s a trade secret. I’m not gonna invite you to come dip your bucket in my well.

Ha, "are these all your records" is definitely one of the top questions asked by "dads walking around the store like its a museum" types.

Twice in the last few weeks young-ish (like late teens, early 20s) customers have asked me where they can get a "record player with one of those big horn things on top" to play their records on. I had to explain an antique gramophone is probably not the best option. But then I googled and saw amazon sells some shitty new version of them so I'll probably just walk into the ocean later.

“I played my new T Swift album on my gramophone and it sounds all scratchy and hyperpop. How can I stop this from happening.”

it's the next vaporwave

record stores should offer overnight lock-ins with a turntable, a comfy chair and a couple of bottles of wine. charge a fee, set a minimum spend amount. would totally get stuck into those crates of 45s that no-one ever has the time to go through

― blazin' squab (NickB), Monday, October 30, 2023 10:22 PM (four weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

I saw a news story about a record store that does exactly this! Crazy days...

indeed! was a bit of chat about that on this thread...

Shady scams and other silly business ideas to take advantage of earnest new vinyl collectors

i had a nice chat with mark from the old record peddler shop in manchester uk. he came in with some friends. and yes i did grill him pretty good for Factory artist stories. i always want more vini reilly tidbits. it must have been so cool to get FAC releases hot off the press for your shop in the 80s!

https://www.mdmarchive.co.uk/gfx/7061/400-1.jpg

penn jillette came in the other day. he's really nice. he was bugging out over the weird stuff i have. and he was very complimentary. said really nice stuff about the store. he bought a huge box of comedy records from us 10 years ago or so and we shipped them to him in las vegas and he said he was still getting through them all. but he's a busy guy. no time to listen to records! he's from Greenfield. i forgot to give him a t-shirt. he's so damn tall. i also forgot to ask him if he had checked out the new Cheech & Chong pot dispensary down the street a block. speaking of comedy.

You ever listen to this? I was always curious myself...

https://i.discogs.com/fNMqpkbYh3oC7hBqZS5wOVIozKbPK9lDxrveVknFhXA/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:597/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTE5MDI5/OTUtMTI1MTMwNDg0/NC5qcGVn.jpeg

way too obvious things you find in records...

https://scontent-lga3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/411637381_10161633782097137_7926552940571295852_n.jpg?_nc_cat=103&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=3635dc&_nc_ohc=RtiLLQr6tvUAX9BETb3&_nc_ht=scontent-lga3-1.xx&oh=00_AfBVqOYKn1Y0G_Ecu3uHGGTw_jWkvS4gZnyxx_bgfCRAyA&oe=65896FF0

That’s oregano brah

Scott to clarify I was legitimately asking if you knew about that "Captain Howdy" project, cause that's really Penn

oh yeah sure i remember the captain howdy but i don't recall offhand what it sounds like. i know i heard it in my days of listening to shimmy disc stuff. i almost brought it up to him at the store!

I've always hoped to find a pot leaf or a 10-strip of acid or something, but the only drugs I've found in a record was a single stem in a copy of Goody Goody.

https://i.discogs.com/goKcSTC5bF9q_gRaITx9lGkoQnaDtCWXGUu4ezmdsc8/rs:fit/g:sm/q:40/h:300/w:300/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTI1Mzgy/MjAwLTE2NzAzMDYw/MjQtNzcwNy5wbmc.jpeg

If this is a dumb question I know Scott will say so (and possibly save me some embarrassment), so here it goes: I’ve thankfully made it to the stage of my life where I can afford the records I love but buying from Discogs has been a nightmare (e.g., the two common issues are unreported hairline scratches and sending me the wrong pressing). Is there a service (or maybe record shops do this) where I give someone a list of the several hundred records I want and they track them down and ship them to me? Maybe they’d get 10% of the cost or something?

you could post a list link here, ILX might not have all but I bet we have some. see also:

selling my fucking records

https://medium.com/@scottseward68/open-for-business-confessions-of-a-used-record-dealer-in-new-england-42985dbca372

Feeling this. The folks who come in and tell you about the records they own, wanting you to be impressed. No details, just … that they have a record collection. Ooooooh! No fucking shit? You have over a hundred records? Please tell me about it.

Or that they USED to have one, and sold it or dumped it like everyone else did. So do you wanna buy them all back, then? No? You don’t have a record player anymore? What the fuck are you doing in my store preventing me from doing something useful like helping the other customers or picking my hangnails?

Thanks for this piece, Scott. It’s therapeutic.

haha, no problem!

Is there a service (or maybe record shops do this) where I give someone a list of the several hundred records I want and they track them down and ship them to me? Maybe they’d get 10% of the cost or something?

Basically no. That's a tremendous amount of work you're asking already-busy shop owners/employees to do for like $3 per record. Especially for a picky buyer ("unreported hairline scratches").

I’ve all but given up trying to sell the wonderful Martha & the Muffins and Doug & the Slugs records.

fwiw I would buy all your Martha & The Muffins records (except This Is The Ice Age because I've already got that one) but I suspect you are too far away for that to be worthwhile

Postage is pretty cheap!

I think at this point I’ve given up on even trying to flog M&M so I dunno if I even have good copies anymore but I can put ‘em aside for you when they come in & bundle them off for practically nothing.

Pretty cheap when sending multiple records, that is.

is it any better now? the UK<->US rates have sucked for a while

I can usually send stuff to Europe for $30 or so, up to a certain point where it all of a sudden turns into $100

it's ok, it's not worth paying $20-30 postage when I can buy those records here. thanks anyway. found a VG+ copy of Trance & Dance for £4.50. Metro Music goes for a bit more

I am driving out to Greenfield tomorrow. 😎

Scott I saw your note on what to say/not to say to non-record ppl and, considering I ambushed you with a surprise visit to the shop and multiple ppl in tow, you were great! Not that I'm a non-record person just saying. I don't think you need the note! ❤️ Allen - stop by! SS is greay. Oh, I miss MA. sigh.

We miss you too. :(

Snagged some KLF singles!

How tight is too tight for a record store to pack their bins? This one local store that I go to, there are so many records in each bin that you often have to wiggle them out to see what they are. For example, say I'm looking for Wayne Shorter's Schizophrenia. I see the Wayne Shorter divider, have to wiggle out a record to check it. Nope - it's Speak No Evil. Slip that album back in and wiggle up another one. Nope - it's Night Dreamer. Etc. Instead of just flipping through a more loosely packed bin and seeing in a matter of seconds whether the album I am looking for is there.

From my point of view, this process is fucking obnoxious, but maybe it's good in some way I don't understand? I've thought about mentioning it to the owner, because it's one of the main reasons I don't go there as often as I could, but it also feels like I don't have any business asking people to change their shit up.

it's very bad form, yes

I always just pull out 15/20 records and put them to one side to browse in that situation.

Ooh, bold move. I like it.

Yeah that's exactly what i used to do when browsing records back in the day.

cosign

I always just pull out 15/20 records and drop them all on the floor

things i didn't say to my landlord today: "fuck you you fucking asshole you suck!"

i would move but there is nowhere to move to. my spot is good he just drives me crazy. the only way into the basement of his huge building is through my back door which leads directly from an alley filled with a dumpster and junkies to my office. now when we moved in he said he might need to access this door and get to the basement that way. which is fine. but he never tells me when he's going to do it! i came in this morning and people were already in the basement and, thus, had been in my store and in back without me knowing about it. i have no idea who is going to be in there. granted, they are people fixing horrible basement problems - nice backed up pipes today so that my store smelled like a sewage treatment plant - and i don't think they are going to steal stuff but still! e-mail? text? phone call? he never does. which fills me with rage when i'm working in back and he just pops in the back door unannounced. i can't even look at him anymore. he basically has no respect for me or my store. people move out all the time up top - there are 5 floors to the building - so he doesn't really care who you are. even though we have been there five years and the space was empty forever before we moved in. dickhead.

second installment. these have improved my mood a great deal. well, these and the new medicine.

https://medium.com/p/9706ea4f45eb

How do you tell if someone’s a “record person”

ilu skot

And you probably only want The Swing, Listen Like Thieves, and Kick anyway.

I need a copy of that pink post-it note (the one on the right) to carry with me everywhere

Yeah I’m thinking back to every service interaction I’ve had and it checks all the boxes as far as best practices

Spielberg was on Desert Island Disks today

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0jwcv3f

(tracklist TBD i guess, but the bit i heard was very vanilla. always disappointing when people you like have uninteresting musical taste)

Guessing CCR?

only one i can remember was the West Side Story soundtrack, specifically Somewhere. and something by Buzzy Lee (his daughter)

and Grapes Of Wrath as the book.

zzz

Different generation

it was interesting enough, he sounded quite frail and contemplative

that list in full...

DISC ONE: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance by Gene Pitney
DISC TWO: Fugue in G minor, BMW 578 – “The Little” arranged by Leopold Stokowski, composed by J.S Bach, performed by Philadelphia Orchestra and conducted by Yannick Nezet-Seguin
DISC THREE: Michelle by The Beatles
DISC FOUR: What the World Needs Now Is Love by Jackie DeShannon
DISC FIVE: Come Fly with Me by Frank Sinatra
DISC SIX: The Ghost of Tom Joad by Bruce Springsteen
DISC SEVEN: Somewhere, composed by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim, performed by Reri Grist
DISC EIGHT: Coolhand by Buzzy Lee

BOOK CHOICE: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
LUXURY ITEM: H-8 Bolex camera
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Coolhand by Buzzy Lee

i've been very nice to people all day!. i'm here by myself. i'm not usually out front anymore except on Monday and Monday is usually dead. sold a bunch of gift certificates. some kid came in and used his gift certificate to get a sweet copy of Bitches Brew. that warmed my heart.

https://scontent-lga3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/471193647_10162719692962137_4312721238641259273_n.jpg?_nc_cat=102&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=127cfc&_nc_ohc=KifbTU_Flm0Q7kNvgG-qPNP&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent-lga3-1.xx&_nc_gid=APM_zW5TXxtJhpnPsQhdX3E&oh=00_AYCt35LjkKanQbwsgMW5RrBVgJOjHbON6Wrt-sU9Cb1HLA&oe=676F76EC

some money guy came in and pointed to a nonexistent mark on an unplayed record and said "hey guy you think you could do twenty for this record it looks like there is a mark that might...blah blah." i said nah i'm good with the price. and he said "oh that's okay i can just get it on...amazon.." and i said yeah cool there you go. free shipping too, right? and he said "yeah, go bezos!" as he walked out. dipshit.

the irony is that i haven't put it online - hank mobley blue note reissue - but when i do it will be $29.95 and not the store price of $24.95.

it's like he was trying to get into my record store memoirs on purpose!

Douche

May his vinyl get rashy and his needle get bent.

I give you... THE DISEASE

re hazing- also sometimes happens with those thicker, soft-touch plastic inner sleeves - ie the less crinkly ones - I see a lot of 70s ECM records that were perfectly looked after (or not played lol) but sadly have a ton of hazing due to the paper inners being lined with that type of plastic

I think it is more prone to happen when records are stored in heat / humidity? So it might be more prevalent in Australia? But one of the LPs i was grumbling about was a US album shipped from the UK so I dunno

― Cognosc in Tyrol (emsworth), Monday, December 16, 2024 12:07 PM (two weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

I knew about inner sleeves causing that but not outers, brb fixing my Stereolab reissues

― sleeve, Monday, December 16, 2024 12:07 PM (two weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

Ugh, that reminds me of when I sold a sizeable collection of pristine looking 1970s ECM LPs that were worth decent money, almost all of which had surface noise.

― mike t-diva, Tuesday, December 17, 2024 2:26 PM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

was talking to an old school record shop guy about this the other day and he referred to it as 'bag rash'

― Bernard Quidbins (NickB), Tuesday, December 17, 2024 2:34 PM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

I think those really thin inner sleeves that are only plastic that crinkle up and get irritating will also do it.

― Cow_Art, Tuesday, December 17, 2024 3:08 PM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

"bag rash" is amazing

― budo jeru, Tuesday, December 17, 2024 4:36 PM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

in my case the old school record shop guy always called it "the disease"

― encino morricone (majorairbro), Wednesday, December 18, 2024 3:09 AM

https://scontent-lga3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/472322998_10162764822562137_6842598834306870976_n.jpg?_nc_cat=108&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=127cfc&_nc_ohc=HDJTBoxJJikQ7kNvgE0GVFg&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent-lga3-1.xx&_nc_gid=AhiPIqy5f6NlVu81eaNi0JB&oh=00_AYDZdry-cVRhL9ntHB-vfxJvJpwg-g0oHYLtzn8QeAP81g&oe=677DF385

are those all your records behind you?

those are his records in front of him too

that's storage behind me in that picture. over by the fairgrounds.

I was at the r store today and they have the recs packed too tight so you can only see the top half inch of the cover

The lost art of removing a handful before browsing each bin

Yeah will do, good idea

tbh I just started hunting

Is there a lost art to reading the spines at shops where they pack the records in sideways?

Spines not readily available at my local ymmv

Is there a lost art to reading the spines at shops where they pack the records in sideways?

*shakes fist at cloud*

yeah that seems a little harsh, not all stores have room to put everything in flip bins (thinking of my fave local place)

nonetheless, overstuffing flip bins is unforgivable

I don’t want to browse by spine

Nobody gonna slow me down! Oh no!

Scott do you have the kajagoogoo 45

how come nobody ever started a band called Kajagahgah?

meanwhile, HAWT PINK! we ordered these at the beginning of november to have them by christmas. we got them yesterday. thanks, trump!

https://scontent-bos5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t51.75761-15/476315632_18296350351213666_6186332476593223553_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpegr_tt6&_nc_cat=100&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=127cfc&_nc_ohc=0_6YOJDdvGMQ7kNvgFpB72T&_nc_oc=AdiR3G0hWLD1llhShHBisaQFQZwd2KTGBx1A_vecPYuyatEO6mP349YBef_LTXDgVEw5MefGhf5IBbfPNdw_qycM&_nc_zt=23&se=-1&_nc_ht=scontent-bos5-1.xx&_nc_gid=AdFQkxgxWfefSUQVkJuyQrL&oh=00_AYDX5mmkMGvOrDw_7uFl4zjhzwL9ckoBuChMMbDko7ntwQ&oe=67AB080C

need! want!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0-ixBvspeo

Scott if you get the kajagoojoo too shy 45 lmk

I HAVE BEEN BLESSED BY THE SCOTT SEWARD FAIRY

I opened up my mailbox today and there was a bubble-wrapped CD. Thanks for Bach's Bottom, Scott!