What's the best record store in town???

http://www.efetus.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv

http://www.armageddonshop.com/

So good!

Morristown and Summit, New Jersey

Anyone know any awesome ones? I'm probably going to be in the city tonight, looking for a good buy.

depends on the genre,

personally I like the vibe and selection of Car City Records

and Windy and Carl's Stormy Records (its nice and close)

for CDs, its a whole 'nuther story (probably Wazoo in Ann Arbor)

I just moved out of Bmore.. you should check out Joe's Record Paradise, the selection is good, but the prices are wonderful. And I agree, DC is horrible for records/CDs...

Detroit area - I say Stormy (Dearborn), for effort and energy, and decent-to-great in-store shows. CarCity back in the day, but they're just going through the motions, and have been for the last several years (or since they got rid of the room nextdoor). In AnnArbor, #1 is easily Encore, where I ALWAYS find rare and hard to get things used, and for the mounds of new stock that's sitting on the counter, waiting to go out.

damn how could i have forgotten about Encore.. sigh.

A more comprehensive list (not sure if any have since closed)

Melodies and Memories
23013 Gratiot Ave, Eastpointe, 810-774-8480

Buy Rite Music
?? 7324 W. Seven Mile Road, 313-864-0219

Car City Records
21918 Harper, (between 8 and 9 mile) St. Clair Shores 810-775-4770 (between
8 and 9 mile)

Peoples Records and Collectibles
615 W. Forest (on the corner of Second Avenue in Detroit). 313-831-0864

Idle Kids
3535 Cass Ave. Detroit, MI —313.832.7730 — info@idlekids.com

Young Soul Records
4152 Woodward Ave (above CPOP Gallery) 313 832 2001

Mays Used Records
126 W. Eight Mile Road, Hazel Park, 248-547-7470

Record Time
Roseville: 27360 Gratiot Ave, Roseville, Phone: (586)775-1550
Ferndale: 262 W. Nine Mile Ferndale, Phone:(248)336-TIME

Dearborn Music
22000 Michigan Ave Dearborn (313) 561-1000

Stormy Records
13939 Michigan Avenue, Dearborn, 313-581-9322

Record Graveyard
11303 Joseph Campau, 313-365-8095

Detroit Threads
10022 Joseph Campau, 313-872-1777

Wendell’s
511 S. Washington, Royal Oak, 248-336-9246

Neptune Records
503 S. Main, Royal Oak, 248-586-0519

Encore Records
417 E. Liberty, 734-662-6776

Wazoo
526 1/2 S. State, 734-761-8686

Schoolkids in Exile
332 S. State St., 734-663-7248

Almost no indie bullshit, but lots of old soul/R&B, a great jazz section, and lots of metal. I went to high school with the owner (he's a couple of years younger than me).

Chicago - Are the stores in the Clark/Wrightwood area still decent? An occasional goldmine, and an occasional bust....

Yeah, Andy was a real prize about that. I ran into him in London a year or two back -- he seems a little worse for wear (nervous breakdown?) I do miss that store, though (which briefly employed Daniel from Interpol behind the register).

westfield's a cool little town.

"Crazyman Records" around the corner can be great too for unexpected vinyl gems.

yes! i was in columbus recently and trying to remember what that store was called.

princeton, nj: princeton record exchange - http://www.prex.com/

Chicago: Dave's and Hi-Fi on Clark are great for when you've gotta have it on vinyl. Mostly rock, but Hi Fi has a decent little collection of reggae, too. ('m curious about Deadwax on Ashland. Anybody been there?
Madison, WI: B-Side rules for cds, but Mad City has the vinyl and a really cool all 60's psych/garage section. Back in the day, Plush on State St. was also a decent place to blow your plasma check.

For LPs, the Academy Annex in Williamsburg and Eat Records in Greepoint are great. In Manhattan, Academy 10th Street and Gimme Gimme are good.

For CDs, either Other Music or Kim's. Decent selection at both. I prefer Kim's--it's larger and I think the selection is a bit better, in terms of vinyl especially.

I feel like we have a thread about this every week.

los angeles, CA = sea level records (echo park)

Morristown and Summit, New Jersey

God I hate Scotti's. It's overpriced and the selection is terrible. I just get frustrated in there. However, it is the best record store in my town and I go once a week. What can I say.

I can't believe this store got a mention though anyway!

When in Wethersfield, CT go to Integrity 'n Music. If it still exists. It's been a while.

In my beloved hometown of Newcastle on Tyne (England, yo), there are a couple of awesome ones... The obvious answer is probably Steel Wheels, which makes rockists everywhere come in their pants with a staggeringly complete selection of Marillion records in between old vinyl galore. RPM Records, though, is my favourite both for the selection of funk, hip-hop and assorted hipster shit as well as because it completely owns Steel Wheels' ass in terms of supporting the local scene (Steel Wheels, in an example of missing the boat spectacularly, didn't stock the first couple of Maximo Park singles and I've never seen any Futureheads release of any kind in there).

I currently live in Nottingham, where there's only really one answer... Selectadisc. ..was is good for grabbing promos of semi-obscure 'should've been huge' indie (theaudience) and pop (Mania), but Selectadisc has just about everything else under the sun.

-- VegemiteGrrl (sharonjo...), June 17th, 2005.

You know Au Go Go has closed down? And apparently Gaslight might be selling up. Raoul Recods in St. Kilda as well...

Missing Link is still doing well though! And you can find some amazing obscure vinyl at Liquorice Pie in Parahan, Northside, and Funk's record bar in Collingwood.

[visibly deflated]. I am old, Father William...

I don't go back home that often, but Syracuse used to have a few good-to-fantastic record stores - Oliver's, Record Theatre, and the immortal Knuckleheads - all of which closed in the past five or six years. Right now there's only Sound Garden, as far as I know.

Best shop in the Detroit area by far.

Seattle: Easy Street and Wall of Sound.

err, yeah, but for hard-to-get/indie stuff it is absolutely slayed by the much smaller Tonevendor a couple blocks away. Much better chance of finding something interesting used at Tonevendor too.

So if anyone is looking to open a store, the Cleveland market is WIIIIIIDE open.

actually the list for new zealand would go something like this:
penny lane - christchurch
galaxy records - christchurch
real groovy - auckland
real groovy - christchurch
radiant records - timaru
real groovy - wellington
slow boat - wellington
real groovy - dunedin
wonderland - upper hutt

You live in Lakewood? Me too (well, for 21 years until last year...).

I bought Pere Ubu's The Modern Dance at My Mind's Eye, I asked Charles if the guys in the band still lived around Cleveland...he ran down the list of members, calling everyone "Mr. Thomas," "Mr. Herman," etc. Cool guy; super nice.

But Cleveland is surely a black hole when it comes to record stores. My Generation was great, but now that's gone; Platter Puss was okay, but that's history. And don't get me started on Bent Crayon....cd cases not stocked spine-up in the display cases, very high priced, no cheap or used bins, very niche, and the sap behind the counter has to be the least friendly neighborhood store owner I've ever come across.

Was it ever better than what it is today in Cleve?

yeah, this is a bad time to open a record store ANYWHERE.

Lived there from 1994-2002. That was quite enough.

When I first moved to the area, a store called Wax Stax was quality and a great musician/human being named Scott Pickering worked there and knew about tons of good music.

John at Bent Crayon gave me loads of great suggestions about records every week for 7 years. But first you have to earn his respect. Which admittedly is not the best way to run a business, but, hey, it's his steez, for better or worse. His demeanor has cost him lots of business, from what I've gathered.

Wait, when was Joe's raided??? I never heard about that!

Also worth mentioning is Normal's Books and Records in Waverly and there's CDepot in Towson that has a bunch of DJ Screw I've been eyeing

I haven't found a BRILLIANT record store in Sydney, but I always go to Egg Records and Lawson's on Pitt Street, they have a dece range and the prices are never crazy.

Anyone know any awesome ones? I'm probably going to be in the city tonight, looking for a good buy.

There's a good store (I'm forgetting the name) on Oxford Street, near Ariel Books--which is amazing. I was also dissapointed by Sydney record stores, great bookstores, though.

Not that anybody who reads ILM will actually be in Charlotte, NC...

Socially-inept unfriendly record store owners -- gotta love 'em. They've carved out quite a nice niche for themselves. No wonder they keep going under.

Both are pretty decent, though, despite making you pay a quarter or fifty cents more for CDs if you use a credit card and filing stuff that's on independent labels separately from majors which makes it hard to find things sometimes.

PB, your experience was first-hand, so vote counted. But I think 'socially inept' is a bit harsh. And re: 'going under', he's completely outgrown his existing floor space.

Segal OTM re: Wax Stacks -- great store, still sorely missed.

I will be!... (but, well just at the airport for a layover a couple of times in early August on my way to Chapel Hill and back.)

i wasn't impressed by any charlotte stores but i can't remember the names of the ones i went to.

Yeah, maybe a little harsh. But considering the amount of money I poured into that store the summers I was home from college...it just irked me that all attempts at conversation led nowhere and it took months before I heard anything other than the amount I owed him. Not that I have some need to strike up deep friendships with record store clerks, but you know what I mean.

Re: the success of the store, I didn't know it was doing so well, but I'm glad to hear at least one business in Cleveland is going belly up. Hopefully he'll be able to expand both the store space and selection.

wtf.

i said something like "that's good, because i don't want to buy it," and left with my planned purchase of the dirtbombs' horndog fest. the entire drive home i was imagining that dipshit's face on a dartboard.

But now that I hear stories like Lauren's, I'm thinking Amoeba is a good thing, as it pretty much has scared most independent west coast record store staff into being very polite and affable.