What's your fave rekkid store?

http://www.somanystyles.com/images/amoebalogo.jpeg
In Amoeba We Trust.

I heard that he was selling up or something - say it ain't so!

You do have to feel dirty in fopp though, as it really is just a modern day booksave, with different media.

rotterdam, demonfuzz records
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amsterdam, distortion records
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1/ Rasputin (San Jose, CA)
2/ Ameoba (Berkeley, CA)
3/ Encore (Ann Arbor, MI)

But I tend to shop in Fopp, One Up and The Cavern (all Aberdeen)

Also, the mail order service from Pure Groove is outstanding. I've ordered things at 4.30pm and had them reach me - 600 miles away - in the next morning's post.

No Sasha, my friend, Mark aint selling the store. He was going to, but wasn't happy with a deal or something and things fell through. Currently hes still working there, 11-6 weekdays and working his record label, which i may add, just recently made their 12th release to date since December's inception, Robin Fox's synaesthetic Backscatter DVD for prepared oscilliscope.

For those Melbournites interested, head down to Bennet's Lane (melbourne's shitty jazz club, unfortunately) this Sunday for the launch night of Ataxia (SYN009), the collaborative album of Pateras/Baxter/Brown

Unless you rate record stores by their selection of unfinished wood CD/DVD racks. Then Rasputin kills.

Treehouse (indie, punk, good vintage vinyl - the standard for Mpls record stores)

Let It Be (house techno selection on vinyl is great, good coverage of indie and great 60s-70s rock, r&b everything vinyl - Ad Rock from the Beasties once dropped thousands here in an afternoon)

Roadrunner (covers most indie, but specializes in wierd kraut, forgotten prog, etc...good old country usually too)

Electric Fetus (really good hip hop, covers the basics of all genres well)

Cheapo - larger warehouse, but great for picking up new stuff used (lots of djs + journos sells shit here it seems), vinyl section is HUGE and a big crapshoot, but you sometimes pick up some real gems for cheap --- New CD prices are a bit high though)

http://www.toronto.com/profile/125181

Best store(s) I've been to? Aquarius, Other Music, Mondo Kim's

I've strangely never gotten around to either, so...

Bent Crayon/Cleveland, OH [www.bentcrayon.com]

They have a lot of great, obscure music most other stores don't carry and usually in large quantities. Their mail order is usually quick. Their used bins are filled with tons of amazing shit dumped there by all the clueless/desperately poor critics living in NYC.

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http://www.nycgoth.com/shops/rebel_rebel/rebel_rebel_ext.jpg

i

I did, however, meet the guy from the band Funboy Five there.

And I totally don't remember but somebody just told me about the band that the guy who runs Rebel Rebel used to be in. Know what I'm talking about?

I'm not a big fan of the store either way.

I'd also like to pubically call bullshit on a store I've supported for a long time called Rocket Scientist. I never minded the owners attitude, I thought it was charming and often well founded. I've gone there periodically for a long time, I've bought expensive 7"s from boxes not on display, I'd asked for his advice and even purched a $100 dollar Syd Barrett bootleg CD set. Recently I went to the new St. Marks location, looked around, and asked him if he ever got the Slapp Happy/Henry Cow CD. His response "that's more of a Kims sort of thing."

How is the more of a Kims sort of thing? First of all, the way he said it implies that I hadn' even thought of looking elsewhere, and as if I was asking for MC freaking Hammer. Now, to anyone who knows their stock, how exactly is a Slapp Happy/Henry Cow CD NOT a Rocket Scientist type of CD? A store that has multiple Soft Machine bootlegs? Anyway, I found this frustrating enough to recall my support.

He also told me nobody would buy a Metal Urbain CD, that nobody would care about the Homosexuals, and so on...

Lauren Podis and I went there once and he read us excerpts from his novel.

That Don guy always seemed SO annoyed whenever I would go in there. I bought a little Danelectro mini-amp from him and felt like the guy was working really hard to be unfriendly. I always thought he and the See Hear guy should team up and open the ultimate retail clerk aloofness emporium.

Oh, I think I mentioned this story on another thread, but I was once going through CDs at that 24 hour fire-trap record store on Ave A and 6th street (can't summon the name right now) and I found an enormous, dangerous looking, live spider crawling around in there. I screamed like a schoolgirl, and the punky chick running the place put it in her hand and ran out of the store to free the spider in the park across the way.

Finally, I once found two $20 bills at the Sam Goody in Montgomery Mall in Bethesda, MD.

Rocket Scientist is now on the north side of St. Marks btw 2nd and 3rd, after many years on Carmine. For the record, the owner was once one of the main guys at Venus records during it's 8th street hey-day.

I can see how Don could go either way, maybe since I befriended him, but he's always been super nice to me.

Accidental Records, I think is the store on A.

For the record, I haven't been to too many record stores worldwide, but the big Reckless in Chicago when I was there summer of 96 was the best shopping I ever did. And Princeton around 95 when they still had tons(or maybe just got some) of cheap Rough Trade 7"s.

dan, how are your negotiation skills?

Don's sounds like Atomic Records in Glendale, CA (suburban LA).

the SF store is 3 times bigger with better selection and deeper catalog titles. but when Amoeba was just Berkeley I would hit it sometimes 2x in one weekend visit.

and i still, despite myself, sort of think of all these places as necessary evils.

rocket scientist is weird. is it still open?

Heheh. And with them you'd be able to just afford two incredibly overpriced pieces of mass-produced pop shit on cd at the same store, no?

Xpost bill heheheh

- Route 66
- Venus (when it was on 8th Street)
- 99 records
- It's Only Rock'n'Roll (also on 8th)
- Smash CD's
- Lunch for Your Ears
- the former NYCD locale

what is that one, not on st. mark's, but around the corner, that has tons of cut-outs and compilations and such? they used to have good prices, but when i've been in there over the past three years the prices are pretty outrageous.

j&r music world is surprisingly good, actually. and they have nice sales sometimes.

Free Being

i miss new york.

chicago has such lame record stores. i don't venture out very often these days, but i used to discover another new and totally lame store every year or so, like rolling stones on west (waaaaaaaaaaaaay west) irving park (or is lawrence?) and that one on lincoln across from the 2nd hand stores.... one of the lamer stores (though not as lame as many) closed while i was in paris: record exchange on belmont. reckless and evil clown (which has some good used buys, but the new stuff is overpriced) are the only decent stores left in that neighborhood. unless you count gramaphone, which is south a ways.

Wowsville is absurdly overpriced on much of the used vinyl.

it's gotta be finyl vinyl

Nobody's mentioned Adult Crash yet, which was wonderful, far as I can remember. Like a slightly more personal Other Music, in the days prior to Other Music.

finyl vinyl was pricey as sin when I went there.

these days my shopping usually means looking for dance records at Academy and A1.

Oh wait, and Dusty Groove, which is actually a really, really kick-ass specialty store (complete with drive-thru service, if what was true in '02 is still true today)

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John at Rockit Scientist isn't so bad. He has his schtick and it is what it is...I find it kind of charming at this point. Funny that he said that Slapp Happy was a Kim's thing, since his was the only store I could find Ca Va at when it first came out, and he used to carry a Slapp Happy bootleg CDR. I think that coming from him, "x is more of a y kind of thing" means "I forgot to order x."

One of a number of reasons why I like him: long time ago I had mentioned that I wanted to hear White Light/White Heat in mono. Months go by. I walk into his store and he hands me a CDR of mono White Light/White Heat that he'd made for me. I'm far from a big customer there...used to stop by once a month or so and by 1 or 2 things, therefore that's going far beyond the call of duty.

As for Don he seems like a really nice guy. I've never known him to lower a price, but that's his choice. He's been talking about moving to LA forever: "Gonna get a nice crib in LA" so I'm not sure what to make of the news of his leaving.

In the end, I miss Holy Cow the most.

I know Don's been talking about it, but a friend of mine was just there and said it was definate, like he's really moving. They talked about the price of the rent on the place as well.

My favorite Holy Cow story...I used to go there a lot because I lived in south slope in 97/98 and would stop by all the time, Steve was definately one of the nicest record store owners around, the prices were a bit erratic, but that meant some good deals, he had a decent turnover and good used CDs. One day I think after moving and after DJing a lot I came back and went to the back of the shop to all the unpriced dance 12"s under the counter and came back with about 30 records, I think 2 bucks each or whatever. He looked at me and said "I really don't know what I've got with this stuff, do I?" and I shrugged my shoulders. I came back a few months later and did it again and he asked further, about not really knowing what's worth checking out in piles of no-name dance 12"s from the early/mid 80s. I just told him I usually start by looking at the producers credits for italian names.

Anyway, yeah, good store, walked by it's old location yesterday on my way to Smiling Pizza.

There's another interesting spot in the hood, on 5th avenue just north of 9th street, I think the sign just says "stereos and records" or something. An older guy with TONS and TONS of records, mostly a bit too pricey, lots of dance records you want for 2 bucks priced at 6 bucks, but the occasional odd find, like the Durutti Column's Circuses and Bread for 2 bucks.

CDs - Buch Spieler - Montpelier, VT & Pure Pop in Burlington. Hell, I'm a hippie. Nuff said.

Gramophone is of course classic

Reckless is annoying, but sometimes you can find a good deal on used shit (I got Akufen's album for 5.99 there today).

Hard Boiled and Evil Clown and Dusty Groove are all really good.

I've even found some hot shit at the coconuts on diversey.

i just find the managers at dr. wax so annoying (this goes back at least a decade) and the stores so thoughtlessly arranged and depressing, whatever the selection (which i don't find so good even for r&b). the classical sections don't have any organization at all.

Yeah, the guy from Rockit Scientist is awful. I find him amusing a lot of the time and kind of like talking to him, but just as often I get sort of sick when I go in there. I think of Rockit Scientist as like the record store version of Chris Stigliano/Black To Comm, in that I both go to the store and read the magazine, but oftentimes when I'm doing so I just wonder why I bother.
Me and my friend once heard him having a particularly laughable conversation with some other guy, and then two months later we went back and attempted to repeat the conversation verbatim between each other to make fun of him. I don't think he heard us though.

Plus you think Dr. Wax is thoughtlessly arranged!? it took me 30 minutes to find the Akufen album that the guy TOLD me was there! You have to thumb through stacks of album covers in plastic sleeves that are in no order other than the "A to F" section of "Techno/Electro" which is somehow different from "Dance" which is somehow different from "IDM" and then there's also a "House" section. Plus all the CDs are already opened when you buy them (including new ones). And again - the staff.

I've found Dr. Wax on Berwyn to have an amazing soul selection...I've never really looked for classical there though.

As for Dr. Wax in Evanston, the guy with the ponytail is a jerk, but the black guy who used to have dreads is incredibly nice, knowledgeable, and nerdy (in a good way).

i went to high school with him, but haven't seen him in eight-nine years

I only got to visit 99 Records twice, just before they closed. I bought my copy of Beat Rhythm News there. Pier Platters is the defunct NYC shop I really miss. Tunes can't begin to make up for its loss.

The best record shopping I ever did: Avalanche Records in Edinburgg, fall of 1996.

Wax 'n Facts! They had an amazing used section the couple of times I visited.

He said that to me once about the Sun City Girls.

HB had used CDs when I lived in Chicago. He also got great used LPs in, and priced them pretty decently.

New York -

Eat Records, Greenpoint (great, cheap vinyl)
Academy Records, Manhattan (great vinyl, not always cheap - haven't been to Brooklyn one yet)
Earwax Records, Williamsburg (got a friend or two working there = discounts!)
Other Music, Manhattan (can yak for an hour with an ex-member of Rodan about record biz stuff, otherwise sorta meh)
Mondo Kim's, Manhattan (good prices, but sorta feel creepy for supporting an indentured servitude-driver)
still have never been to Don's (should hurry). Miss Holy Cow.

Chicago -
Dusty Groove (great selection, okay prices, much better since moving)
Hardboiled (good selection, great at special orders, nice guy)
Reckless (okay, good discounting policy)
Deadwax (when first opened had decent rare stuff for good prices)

San Francisco/Berkeley -
Aquarius (great selection, O'Rourke baiting)
Amoeba (good selection, sorta too hectic at times tho)

Louisville -
ear X-tacy (not the only game in town, and problematic but still the old standby)
Better Days (great for dance records)
Highland Records (okay used stuff but sorta pricey)

Princeton -
Princeton Record Exchange (fucking awesome plus they employ Don Rettman)

Philly -
Philadelphia Record Exchange (not bad but the dude shoulda gave me a better discount for returning that rare Beatles rec he accidently put in my bag

Boston/Cambridge/Somerville -
Twisted Village (#1 in tha hood, g)
In Your Ear (not bad, seen better days - got great crap here 7 years ago tho)

New Paltz, NY -
Rhino (not up to former glory, but still not bad)

my fave store is amoeba in sf.

WP Reckless got better after moving to Milwaukee Ave.

Speaking of which, Milwaukee the city has amazing record stores. Notably Farwell, that toy shop, and a few others.

SF:
Amoeba -- perhaps the finest rekkid store that ever lived

Berlin:
Dense -- all minimal techno + noise/experimental of all shapes and colours, I swear I want to marry this store and have babies with it.

wow, i completely disagree...

Also, I think that there's the difference of whether the store is a great "new" store, a great "used" store, or both.

For me, substance wins over style here.

Not really a funny story. Manny was evicted (as was the store) as I believe he developed a financially depleting drug habit. The end result was that boxes and boxes of the store's stock was taken out of the shop and simply left on the sidewalk (eventually all snapped up by scavengers). Very sad, really.

But my best record shopping was done in this small shop in Amsterdam, where I picked up loads of great Tomita and early Vangelis vinyl, plus a killer Live in '78 Ryuichi Sakamoto album, in excellent shape for super cheap.

"in your ear" in boston/cambridge has a lot of cool shit tucked away, but the people who work there are like the antisocial record clerks of popular imagination x10. i lived a few blocks away in alton and went there a number of times over the course of a year, and found a lot of stuff, but i often had to pester the staff to let me go behind the counter where they have oodles of stuff just piled high, which you can't possibly hope to see from anywhere else.

newbury comics: i found all those walker bros cd reissues for $7 each.

Midnight Records on W. 23rd was occasionally good for a hidden gem. Too bad the staff acted like they were doing you a favor by selling you recors. I lived two blocks away from Midnight for years, yet avoided the place like the plague.

I'd wish them ill, but they already live in Ohio.

jesus christ shut up dan!

and their owner was a dick to their employees, a few of whom got in trouble when the feds shut it down because of bootlegs. Fuck that guy.

heh! the store has been declining for the past few years, but i can't dispute the rettman part.

Aquarius Records, SF - nobody else comes close

Worst Record Store Staffers:

Bleeker Bob's, NYC - Big Fucking Assholes

Vinyl Fetish, LA - also BFA, but soon to be OOB

Aron's, LA - don't know ANYTHING (had actual release-date-question experience there where three employees were telling me that there was no new Nick Cave record coming out while giant "New Nick Cave Album" poster hung on the wall behind them).

this must be a recent phenomenon because 3/4's of KXLU worked at Aron's 94-95.

If there were any KXLU people there, they were working the buying counter (which is possible- those folks were much better than the floor and counter staff).

last time I was there, last fall, I found it well-stocked and dropped about $120 or so.

And the Rettman connection does rule, yeah.

Amoeba in L.A. has nice people working the checkout counter. The info desk and hip hop/soul/techno is populated by arseholes though.

Anyone remember the episode of Felicity where they plan to go record shopping at Bleeker Bob's? I was hoping there'd actually be a scene filmed in the store, but no such luck.

I second the hip hop/soul/techno desk at Amoeba sucking. A couple of them are cool, but most of them really suck it big time.

I'm partial to Laurie's Planet of Sound, north of the Clark-Belmont sinkhole. These guys get no love in Chi.

Midnight Records....meh. Good if you're a major league Fuzztones fan, but good for precious little else.

the one at Amoeba?

yeah, I do

poor girl, though - I just saw her get harassed the other day by a customer who looked like (and acted like) that corporate guy in Mike Leigh's "Naked"

Is A-1 records still around? Did anyone mention Gimme Gimme? Jammyland? The basement of Disco-Rama on W. 4th?

I used to go to Second Coming when I was 11 but it's been a while.

They get no love because it's a horrible store.

So, because of this thread, I went and checked out Future Legend on 9th Avenue today (and bought Gene Simmons' new album for a paltry $5.99). Nice place. Sorta reminds me of a less indie Sound + Vision (on Orchard Street).

adult crash aesthetic sort of continued with shrine, minus any retail of course. i can't believe no one has mentioned shrine. frankly it makes me wonder about you guys a little bit.

-- hstencil (hstenc!...) (webmail), July 22nd, 2004 1:23 PM. (hstencil) (later) (link)

i don't know about horrible, but not terribly inspiring, yes. they kept moving for a while, too; i would show up at their old address, to find an empty storefront, then wander along lincoln avenue until i found the new location. i guess this can be explained by all the changes the neighborhood is undergoing?

chicago is a terrible record-store town, all told.

Ummmm...it's a Mexican take-out place now.

there's been quite a lot of that going on here though, that's why i mentioned it

I don't know about Chicago in comparison with L.A. though as I've never shopped anywhere there.

A lot of those old stores had AMAZING selections of late 70s early 80s 7"s that languished there for years. While most of you were looking at records on the wall of Other Music and Kims and Shrine, I was buying hyped2death style singles from the boxes of Subterranean and Bleeker Bobs. Mostly all gone now though, and they certainly didn't replenish, this was like, OLD stock. Subterranean had like 30 copies of the Sniffin Glue Alternative TV flexi for some reason.

Shrine was OK, a lot of those singles were overpriced, making it not a "fun" shopping trip, but the dollar bin was good.

Haven't been to Gimme Gimme in ages, but I usually buy some stuff from him at the record fair. 35 bucks for the impLOG 12".

I'm sure Princeton comes and goes depending on the whim of who's selling what, but the last time I went it was depressingly understocked, and the few times before that it was definately not as great as it was when I was first going around 93/94.

Last night I made a 200 dollar mail order from Other Music so I wouldn't have to come in and talk to you guys.

Just kidding. I just don't have the time.

Midnight Records sucked.

But of course the best record store in NYC is Rock-n-Soul Electronics.

you might know of some places i've managed to overlook in 25 years, so spill it.

jazz record mart used to be the place to get obscure blues stuff, but now i can find such things on the internet for much cheaper. they still advertise that they sell 78s, but what they have left are broken and/or horribly gashed big-band 78s. oh, but they do have cassette cut-outs! and how!

Also, all you CHicagoans should head west a piece and go to Record Surplus in Niles, which I mentioned above.

Record Surplus in Niles wasn't all that, if it's the place I'm thinking of. I think I did manage to convince a then-girlfriend to buy a Tower Recordings LP they had there.

Crazy Man? I always avoided that place.

Ummmm...it's a Mexican take-out place now.

-- Alex in NYC (vassife...), July 22nd, 2004.

Yikes. I was thinking of the place on 8th Street, 2nd Floor near Psychedelic Solution. What's that one called again?

Boy, this thread is fun.

Vintage Vinyl is still there, and still sucks.

No, none.

What about Vinyl Mania, is that place still around? Dan, nice call with Rock and Soul. I just hope you weren't kidding.

I have to give a shout out to Sandbox Automatic while we're at it. Even though it's not a bricks/mortar place, it's one of the best record shops in NYC. I used to work there so maybe I am biased.

other music - there used selection is usually really good and a great staff (talked about crispin glovers solo record for 20 mins with one of staff)

for a good record store outside of new york
Last Vestige in albany, ny has an amazing selection of good quality used vinyl for reasonable to cheap prices. Pluss you can sit down while you preview the records

Well, it was big stuff for me at the time. What can i say?

Anyone remember a hole-in-the-wall record store on 2nd Avenue in the high 80's back in the summer of `86? Those guys later founded Smash and NYCD, i believe.

it's the only store i know (only *record* store [for a likeminded video store see facets]) that prices new import CDs *above list*, i.e. those sanctuary 2-cd things will be priced at like $30. good riddance.

hell yeah, 50 year anniversary! with the same crazy libertarian guy running the place.

And it took me forever to find them after they moved, but for certain things Downtown Music Gallery is totally essential. Nice guys too in my experience. I like that they have one single polaroid of the only shoplifter they ever caught...I wonder if people call her.

I liked it better when it was next to The Scratcher.

Love for Generation here, I've found, at times, some decent new wave and classic rock vinyl downstairs, not to expensive and not much competition?

Why oh why do I keep ordering stuff from Other Music that they don't have in stock!?!!? Kim's has that Greaves/Cunningham CD, so there.

I just spent an hour on the phone with Bruno from the Homosexuals. Wow.

Downtown Music Gallery...I dunno. Bruce has a habit of being a bit condescending I suppose. Had a bad experience once there where he was really unfriendly untill I told him Elliot Sharp suggested his store, then he got really nice. Ask him about Robert Wyatt to make him friendly.

it's like record store clerks are puzzles in a video game, you have to say the secret word to get acceptance.

At Other Music it's "Animal Collective", I think.

there's also the Fulton Mall stops, Beat Street and the underrated/unknown Music Factory which carries tons of the classic beats and breaks and boots, including one odd house white label featuring the first Black Dog track Virtual. Yes, I bought Black Dog Productions on vinyl at a Fulton Mall store best known for it's collection of Big Ass videos.

It's such a great shop, and the staff are so friendly and enthusiastic. I'm gutted that it's closing - it'll actually change how I feel about Bristol because a Saturday afternoon visit to Imperial is such an integral part of my life.

I believe the main reason for the closure is a massive rent rise by the landlord, but I can't help feeling the baleful influence of Fopp just over the road hasn't helped.

a bit disingenuous of you dan and you know perfectly well why. and i mean if you said MF DOOM you'd have most everyone too. not to mention yr beloved arthur russell. lotsa stuff, and we're mostly all ready to go on and on about anything and you know this too.

Go to Kims and say you're looking for a Sightings record, and you're in...

Go to Rock-n-Soul and ask about The Rapture, or Ted Leo, or Black Dice...

i know mark ronson loves DFA/the rapture. and stretch armstrong. it's not out of the question at least in that case.
i just don't think it's that simple and BTW i once even asked for mr. fingers at beat street and they had no idea...

Go to Rock-n-Soul and ask for house music. Beat Street, though it carries some, is hip-hop-centric.

Seriously there's 2 guys I recognize there, one who orders Ballroom type stuff, another who's like a library of KTU classics or whatever, but I can't imagine them knowing the DFA, the only new stuff they stock is very classic NY Masters at Work type house stuff.

One of the guys at vinylmania, I wouldn't put it past him however.

but I really don't think they cater to a DFA crowd. Most of their employees are hip-hop and reggae based, and of the 3 or 4 guys who seem to take care of the house/disco side of things, I just don't see them being up on DFA. They have 1 12" with a bootleg of a Daft Punk song...I thought that was a stretch for them.(btw, I bought it for the flipside, Pepe Braddock's Burning)

from their website an amusing (and appropriate?) typo:

"Since 1975, world famous Rock And Soul has been serving the disc jokey and music industry in New York City."

And Hstencil, I can't believe you didn't mention gramophone! Best store for DJs I've ever been to, some of the most nice and helpful staff....

Ohio
-Used Kids, Columbus. Never found alot there except for some nice cheapo country albums and the occasional oddball thing or two but incredibly nice folks in my experience.

-Bent Crayon, Cleveland. I went there a few months after they opened and didn't really care for it. the guy who ran the store was nice enough but didn't seem to know assholes from apricots (as we like to say in virginia)visited again a couple years later and they seemed to have shifted from a whatever-is-in-the wire magazine-this month selection to mostly dance stuff which suited me just fine.

a bunch of other great shops in Cleveland i can't recall the names of. A great place i think somewhere in Lakeside I found a copy of NWW's Soliloquy of Lilith box for $20 around 94 and some other similar stuff on the cheap. There was another place that was sort of an industrial/anything by wax trax sort of place run by an older guy with multiple piercings with a huge german shepard who could've been mistaken for Al Jourgenson on a good day where I found a copy of This Heat's Health and Effieciency for $5. Another was a mostly punk store that was fairly good sized that had boxes of 45's strewn around the place with an amazing selection of oddball proto-punk and d.i.y. stuff amongst the generic punk and hardcore has-beens. I remember picking up a bunch of Rough Trade stuff like Dr.Mix,Liliput,Kleenex and two Red Crayola singles for about $3 each.

Papa Jazz, or something like that in South Carolina. Bought an armful of FMP/Incus/El Saturn stuff for a fraction of what it'd cost today around 89,90 maybe.

When I lived in north Louisiana there were a handful of used record stores whose stock had been sitting for years and the owners were only interesting in mono-pressings of Cream or Prog or whatever, where i bought 80% of the krautrock I own for dollars a piece. Amon Duul? that'll be a dollar kid but that Zappa record will set you back $35.
New Orleans had some great stores the best of which were in the worst of neighborhoods. Went to a rundown old store that stocked only old jazz albums and discovered their backroom doubling as a weekend flea market space with more Impulse titles than I've ever laid eyes on for dollars a piece. I still dream of that place and lament how broke I was that day.

Reckless in Minneapolis was fantastic. as already mentioned san francisco was and is a treasure trove but especially in the late eighties and early nineties. L.A. was a wasteland except for finding a bunch of artifacts label releases and two homosexuals 45's at a store where the dipshit owner made bleecker bob seem as personable as fred rogers. Pier Platters in Hoboken nearly made me wet myself the first and only time I visited there. Vinyl Ink in maryland i used to make regular treks to. They were overpriced on some stuff (any record that hung on the wall) and ridiculously underpriced on nearly all the rest of their used vinyl. I'll neglect to go into detail about what a first-class prick the owner George could be since he's passed on. Could also ocassionally find some great deals at Yesterday and Today records, in Rockville i think.

countless more i'm forgetting but I'm afraid digging out my little black book of record stores i used to keep will give me a nostalgia attack.

sadly i know live on a mountain and the nearest city with an even passable at best record store is an hour and a half away so mail order is all the shopping i have to look forward to and that's only when the UPS driver feels like braving the one-lane gravel road up the mountain.

incidentally does your email address refer to that situationist detournement of a kung-fu film?

not to mention yr beloved arthur russell.

yesterday at Other Music I heard an employee talk about how the vinyl was out of stock, sporto.

There's this place called Shooting Stars out in Dundee, not far from Spring Hill Mall. This fella who looks like Trey Anastasio runs it. Tons, tons of old used vinyl for very reasonable prices, and a pretty fair amount of the new stuff as well.

Full Cyrkle Records in Crystal Lake, which has a really good vinyl selection, mostly old stuff and audiophile, and an enormous selection of 7" records. Huge.

Record Breakers out in Hoffman Estates, which is overpriced but they have a shitload of stuff and a much-improved vinyl selection last time I was there.

Also a nostalgic shout out to a tiny record shop that I frequented several times a week in Irvine in Scotland, called Orion records. Derek the owner was a lovely chap, realy sociable and patient with endless hangers-on (like myself).
I got to know that store's stock on a macro level, so any new interesting thing that came in was a revelation. I wonder if it still exists? Anyone from Irvine on ILM?

One of these might be Chris' Warped Records on Detroit in Lakewood. Probably the latter. There's also Platter Puss on the other end of Lakewood, which always got a lot of import-only stuff, and the owner (whose name escapes me) is super congenial and gives you a discount if you pay cash. Record Revolution in Coventry has a huge collection of jazz on vinyl in the basement, and local music on the main floor.

Just a thought... Happy hunting, you wacky consumers!

As for you, Duke, your comment is not exactly accurate. A properly encoded digital file sounds virtually identical to its analogue (or digital) source. What, you've got an oscilliscope hooked up to your stereo? Wow, I need to look into that! No offense, but I'm almost positive you'd flat out fail any audiophile listening test. As would all of us.

but you're missing the joy that is to be had from holding the old artifacts, from being the first person in yr circle to have a certain album, etc. collecting is fun, and it's our goddamned money to do with as we choose. okay, so maybe i am living with my mom... at least i have a killer record collection! ha!!

I have a better idea. Why not license the music for re-release, thus promoting the music and getting the artist paid?

And not to speak for everyone, but I'd imagine most of us aren't living hand-to-mouth on our ex-girlfriend's sofas. I have just enough disposable income that I like to send a few hundred dollars to Other Music every now and again to purchase music I want to hear.

I tend to shop at record stores that are owned and operated by people I consider friends. And by supporting them, I'm also supporting an infrastructure that allows artists I like to have an outlet for their material to be sold, gives artists/labels an idea of a city they can play on tour because they know their albums will reach people, etc.

So I see a few posts up there about Vintage Vinyl in Evanston. Had to drop off a package at the post office just down the block, so I thought I'd pop in to see what damage the economy has done to this horrible, horrible shop. The verdict? Nothing. Absolutely nothing has changed. Everything is still ridiculously overpriced, I don't think I saw a single piece of vinyl priced under $30. What kills me is the way the owners justify it, a fairly weathered copy of Neil Young's After the Goldrush was priced at $35. Why? Because, "ORIGINAL 1970 PRESSING!!!!". Which would be one thing, if it was just all crazy overpriced thrift store fodder, but the store actually carries an impressive selection of kraut and psych stuff. Just about every Can album and related side-project, Kraftwerk's first two albums, but not a single one of those priced under $50. Just insanity. I'm shocked that this place is still going in 2009. Oh yeah, saw a sizable section of Steely Dan CDs, every single one of them were $40 burnt copies of bootlegs with shoddy artwork. Stunning really that this place is still going.

ha, jon go to this thread: the pathos of unsold stock , we were just talking about this kind of thing

jon - last time I was in there I looked around and silently cursed the high prices. Lurch was eyeballing me the whole time and seemed to be mad about something - I added insult to injury by buying a single 45 rekkid adapter and left immediately!

Haha, yeah he was eyeballing me too! You could tell he had this look on his face like "this guy isn't going to buy a damn thing, is he?". Of course not!

Here in Chicago I like Laurie's, too, and this place around the corner from me called Deadwax. The latter's prices are always good - $4 to $6 for used vinyl in really good shape. My kind of shop.

Reckless is cool but the other day I saw a used copy of The Wall with some writing on the front for $15. I can't abide that. It sold like 10 million copies on LP, come on. Most vinyl at Reckless is about $3 more than I want to pay.

lol the only fun thing abt vintage vinyl is that one time i ran into billy corgan there

lmao @ my hating on reckless records upthread ... im friends w/ one of the employees now too \oO/

lauries is cool & has saved me from bouncing checks at my bank (by letting me quickly sell CDs) but man id like to see a more non-rock friendly selection sometimes

is deadwax the place on lincoln just east of damen? that place is great, got a bunch of 70s santana in there for under 15 bucks

reckless is great for used / 1.99 vinyl finds. my friend found a dollar bin joint there the other day that sells for like $80 on ebay. they go through so much more stock than anyone else its easy for good stuff to slip by them

i mean, it helps if u like 80s R&B and other not-yet-trendy-enough stuff. basically luther vandross' entire catalog is dollar bin material atm