The first joint where I myself copped from was Deep Sound on 161st, here in my hood. It was primarily a reggae spot but had some Hip Hop and R&B. I copped my B-Boys - Blue Vinyl Girls 12" from them.
My first real trek for music was the Rhythm Den way Uptown in the BX. We walked up Webster Ave. on a summer day to cause we heard that was the place to get live Cold Crush tapes. It was a hole in the wall, but dude had a gang of 10th generation Jam cassettes. To this day I want CC4 Boat Ride where they rock "The Funk Is On".
Rock-N-Soul was the first place where I felt part of the "game", back when they hatted Hip Hoppers.
It's always the best ones that go out of business!!! Why is that? Those awesome spots that were just one dude sitting behind the counter listening to records, always happy to talk shop and let you know what's good.
My favorite spot like that was Buffalo Records in Santa Barbara. I didn't grow up there, but always made trips just to hit up Buffalo. It still exists- it's in Ventura now...but ever since new owners bought it out, shit really ain't the same!
Growing up in the San Fernando Valley, Moby Disc was the spot!! So many good finds!! I'd easily take a trip back to 93/94 if someone would just lend me their time machine! Moby Disc's current SFV incarnation is Freakbeat and that's also my new favorite spot, so if you ever find yourself in Sherman Oaks, be sure to give those dudes some love!!!!
The first record store where I got hooked was Som Records in DC. I first went there one summer while my sister was doing her hair in the building upstairs. I ended up staying there longer than I expected because of the vibe I felt from there. The owner was just simply a cool and calm fellow and I always found a surprise in the different sections. But what REALLY got me hooked was the dollar bin section. I always seem to find some gems in the dollar bin. I pulled out a Voices Four album, but didn't know who they were or what they sounded like. Put the record on and it was the perfect jazz-folk sound that I wanted to hear. LOVE SOM RECORDS!
My first real record store, I came here almost all saturdays of this year scouring the dollar bins.
Found a lot of library LP's on this place, and easily amassed a solid crate of them in a short span of time.
More of my favorite record stores would be any of the black-owned shops in the hood that smelled like incense and would always have the newest Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam album up front, but would always have unbought, untouched soul records left over from the sixties and seventies lying in the back.
This kind of store gradually dropped off the map as the nineties went on. By 2000, the only ones that were left either (a) knew what they had and jacked up the prices accordingly, or (b) went all-CD.
Oh hell yeah....I remember that trek well...id take the 62 bus to shady grove mtro stop and take the redline down to union station get on (can't remember the other line) and hop off at dupont.
That spot was the shit...I was such a new jack id buy doubles of lp's for routines not realizing juggle routines on low quality doubles of a wu affiliated lp with no insturmentals was kinda tuff...ithat was also the first spot id ever seen an and1 vhs tape...they were giving out free tapes of the vol1 with skip to my lou on that shit which was such a facemelter for me...it was a tape made literally out of styrofoam and plastic....I wore that mug out.
The start for me was Licorice Pizza on Wilshire blvd. in L.A. right around the corner from Uni High.
Late 80's to 92 my two regular spots were the original Rhino location on Westwood blvd. and Record Surplus on Pico.
It was possible to find present day grails at both these spots for under 10. I remember walking out of Record Surplus with a mint Ray & his Court on Sound Triangle for a whopping $3.70. Rhino was the shit as well, but had a way more clued in staff. I learned so much at both those spots.
Big_Stacks"I don't worry about hittin' power, cause I don't give 'em nuttin' to hit." 4,670 Posts
Hey,
I'd have to say the spot that good me hooked was The Muzik Hut in the Flea Market Mall in Fayetteville, NC. Bob Smytek was the owner and dude had heat for crazy low prices. Often, I was the only cat in the store, besides an old hippie or two, and I was picking up heatrocks left and right (e.g., Rotary Connection S/T, Funkadelic joints on Westbound, Smith, "Construction #1"-Ten Wheel Drive, etc.). I had carte blanche in that spot and enjoyed the coveted "backroom status" to pick through the heat he set aside in the back of the store. Other spots I hit back then were Readers Corner and Nice Price Books in Raleigh, that brotha that sold records at Dorton Arena (can anyone say "S/T"-S.O.B. or "Investigation #1"-Carl "Sherlock" Holmes, for example), and The Record Hole in Chapel Hill. Man, those were the days, hitting up the stores weekly and bringing home sweet piles of auditory joy!
sound exchange in austin tx was my spot that got me hooked.
there were a couple joints in oklahoma i went to during my highschool years, but Sound Exchange is the spot that really got me open. Right next to UT, so popping in between classes or on my way home was a must. Much more of a punk vibe then anywhere else but they always had some good finds for hiphop/soul/jazz too. Never forget the back room dollar bin section where that homie Chris bought the Fat Pat 'tops drop' for like .50 still mad he got that over me.
i strongly desired music and vinyl from an early age, much later gained the "digger" mindset and habits (like so many on these boards).
earliest record shop was friggin Cavages, a mall chain store. to its credit back in them early 80s days, it was all vinyl and cassettes. nothing used though. and i was too young and dumb to understand that the cut out bins were where it was at. i DID get "NWA And The Posse" there somehow, in '86 or '87 - probably my last time ever going there - i remember the cashier was like "what... what is this? you found this in my store?"
by the time i was around 14 i discovered used records at Home Of the Hits (FKA Record Runner) and Apollo (both Buffalo NY) Both RIP. Also great punk/nu-wave stock at a great comic book/LP shop called Fantasy World (also RIP). [An aside - Apollo was run by a guy named Gary Sparza(?) who somehow had a connection to Amoeba Records much later. Word i hear is his California Adventure subsequently ended, he returned to NY, and his ridiculous 20,000+ LP collection is now either in storage and/or was slowly pieced out to his bros in Amoeba by the u-haul box for good $ over the years (remember them great wall items and new arrivals bins back when the LA location first opened...?). (Buffalo connection #2 for Amoeba, its owned by the son of a local news anchor [Irv Wienstien, who long ago also fled to the Golden State])].
anyway, went to college in b'more (sup Breez!), and once i had a roomate with a car we'd hit up Vinyl Discoveries (i forget what the neighborhood was called - sorta North Central-ish); and we'd make a weekly trek out to the excellent (and UK staffed/owned) Music Machine - this was extreme NW - is that timonium??? it was all about the 7"s and punk and indie stuff. so much recently imported UK vinyl, they had a guy who made a weekly or monthly trip back to to England to re-stock. great bootlegs too, like the bad brains pay to cum 7" and many repro misfits 7"s that were otherwise unaffordable. Near our apt (616 N. Eutaw) was 12" dance records, where i picked up a ton of new hip-hop 12"s and LPs. thats where i picked up the Pauls Boutique 4-way gatefold the week it came out. they were pricey compared to other places but they had stuff you just didnt see otherwise. i wasnt into the dance/disco stuff they catered to but it was a fun store to browse. i remember they had mix tape cassettes under the glass int he counter, i never bought one because i didn't know shit about what dj was who. or really what a mixtape really even was. I do remember that when "It takes two" hit big there, it was the ONLY song i heard blasting out of cars for like 9 months.
Breez said:
Bon Vivant said:
12" Dance in Dupont.
I used to hit 12" Dance when they were in B-More. They pulled out like '90, '91.
Matter of fact the 2nd fire that happened the other day, here in B-more, was the building that 12" Dance was in back then. Now it's Donna's Cafe.
Breez, maybe we were in that store at the same time? haha
I also recall hitting a shop up in maybe Towson, lotsa used vinyl there and cds etc, but i cant recall the name. sort of in a huge strip mall type suburban area.
So we traveled all over the area when we could, skateboarding every ramp and spot we could find from VA to lansdowne to the HUGE creepy old abandoned concrete skatepark in Essex (lose your board = murky water bowl fishing), up to NJ and of course NYC (Brooklyn Banks!) And we'd hit every record shop we could find along the way too.
onetet said:
but VINYL INK in Silver Spring was even bigger for me. At the same time as interests in soul and psych were budding, I was really into punk, indie, noise, etc. Vinyl Ink's 7" selection was the shit, so many imports from Europe and Japan and other releases unique to the vinyl format that got me hooked on *records* after years of just being a music junkie with no format preference.
i was trying to remember that store's name for years, thanks. that was a cool shop! we went there when we were going to DC. picked up a lot of Beefeater, GIs, Fugazi, Misfits, etc there....
Princeton Record Exchange was a trip. Haha i can remember debating whether to get the brand new "Amerikkka's most wanted" on LP or CD there. Stupidly chose CD!
asstro said:
The first "collector" type spots I ever went to were Bleeker Bob's and Second Coming Records in the Village. As has been said already, Bob's was almost enough to put you off of collecting, but I LOVED Second Coming.
Yes! Second Coming was a total highlight of any NYC trip then. I remember a hilarious conversation there, between 2 hardcore Bruce Springsteen fans pawing thru the bins... "that one is so rare they dont even price it as high as they should, so no one knows how rare it is" (wha???). I liked LOOKING at Bleeker Bobs, but not BUYING anything there. I also remember Venus Records over on St. Marks, picking up little personal punk "grails" i'd never seen in person, for what seemed like an expensive $15 at the time. mint "used" rap LPs were $4 there.
My next move was to LA, which in '91 to me was about Aron's on Highland big time (ignoring the evil "Music Collector" who back then was right next door), and penny lane in Westwood, who actually stocked decent used vinyl then. Also some cool shop on Venice Blvd with great old LPs, i forget the name (RIP), and another joint down in Venice beach, also forget the name. And of course we went to Tower to see what was new, but by then the LP selection was already dwindling real fast. Tower was more for just seeing what was new, and picking up a few CDs if you didnt "need" it on LP.
The Warehouse, when it existed as a chain; Atomic Records; Music Man Murray in L.A. and the Pasadena Swap Meet, if that counts. I was just a floater in Pop's when they were around, but I'm sure Liquorice Pizza stocked some good stuff.
Oh hell yeah....I remember that trek well...id take the 62 bus to shady grove mtro stop and take the redline down to union station get on (can't remember the other line) and hop off at dupont.
That spot was the shit...I was such a new jack id buy doubles of lp's for routines not realizing juggle routines on low quality doubles of a wu affiliated lp with no insturmentals was kinda tuff...ithat was also the first spot id ever seen an and1 vhs tape...they were giving out free tapes of the vol1 with skip to my lou on that shit which was such a facemelter for me...it was a tape made literally out of styrofoam and plastic....I wore that mug out.
Isn't that place called record hut now?
It was DJ Hut for a few years. The owners were (still are) great guys. They had some bad luck and had two fires. It was above some pizza joint, and lightning struck in the same place twice. I think they may do online sales, though.
Oh hell yeah....I remember that trek well...id take the 62 bus to shady grove mtro stop and take the redline down to union station get on (can't remember the other line) and hop off at dupont.
That spot was the shit...I was such a new jack id buy doubles of lp's for routines not realizing juggle routines on low quality doubles of a wu affiliated lp with no insturmentals was kinda tuff...ithat was also the first spot id ever seen an and1 vhs tape...they were giving out free tapes of the vol1 with skip to my lou on that shit which was such a facemelter for me...it was a tape made literally out of styrofoam and plastic....I wore that mug out.
Isn't that place called record hut now?
It was DJ Hut for a few years. The owners were (still are) great guys. They had some bad luck and had two fires. It was above some pizza joint, and lightning struck in the same place twice. I think they may do online sales, though.
Kermits "Dolls Rapid Creation" East Cleveland, Ohio (rip)
Record Rendezvous Cleveland, Ohio (rip)
Record Den Cleveland Hts, Ohio (rip)
Filmore East Cleveland, Ohio (rip)
Bibbs Records and Tapes East Cleveland, Ohio (rip)
Record Revolution Cleveland Hts, Ohio (on it's last leg)
The Roach Clip Cleveland, Ohio (rip)
I almost forgot Downtown Records, Cleveland, Ohio (still open)
summer of 78 we (the Ballou boys & myself) were hitting up
the pre-Papa Jazz spot in Columbia SC,
tons of vinyl in a building between campus & where the Hunter Gatherer now stands
(there is a smoothie place between 2 coffee places in the building now)
tons of jazz & euro imports
also the Peaches over by 5 points
in Hagerstown MD there was an old crusty hippie store & a head shop
with vinyl downtown & not much else
moving to St Louis fall of 78 =
first the crates at the old U City flea
a year or so later,
brick & mortar next to the Tivoli
by 1980 they were stocking over a dozen Fela imports,
dozens of Sun Ra titles
and if Chin Randy's got a new release in a weeks time VV would have a copy or three
and always Ramones for $2
plus young Tom Ray was something to behold,
dissing your musical taste while taking your $20
As a kid in the suburbs of Ottawa, Ontario, it wasn't like the records were growing on trees. I started heading to downtown record shops like Record Runner to buy import metal (the first music I seriously got into) and then as I got deeper into music and started buying used vinyl, I used to dig through a place called Mad Platters on Rideau Street, across the street from Record Runner. They had a lot of crap and a lot of good stuff too, and aside from the bootlegs, everything was cheap. Got a lot of cool 70s Euro imports for $5-10 there.
What REALLY got me hooked was a guy who would post ads in the paper that he was selling records priced 3 for $1. My girlfriend at the time had just gotten her license and we would drive down together and buy heaps of records from this guy. He was a country & western collector who would buy people's collections, then sell the rest out of his garage for pennies just to blow it out. IIRC, he was in a wheelchair or had serious mobility issues, so he'd just let us dig in his garage all day (floor to ceiling shelving full of records) and we'd leave there with a trunk full of LPs every time...
Was Lee still running it when you were going there, or had Sean taken over managing the place? I worked there for a year 2002/03. One of the best jobs I've ever had.
The first shop that I bought a record from, and got me into vinyl, was Massive Records* when it was just around the corner from here on Friar's Entry. It was basically just like the shop in this vid, but more ganja smoke, and as a deliquent teenager, seemed like the coolest place evaaaaah.
* due to it's name, google searches are impossible
I had already decided I didn't like any new underground dance music by the time they opened so as I didn't want to hear it turned up to eleventy, I stayed away generally.
Duderonomy said:
Friar's Entry.
Fnar fnar.
Dunno who was working at Avid, this was round about 96/97 when I used to spend my dole money on trying to complete my Eric B & Rakim discography at 2 pound a pop. Then would meet a mate on his lunchbreak from an overpriced baguette cafe and go smoke on the canal or somewhere. Then go home and collect roaches, repeat.
I have to put this spot first because it is the first one I started buying lps in. The owner John is the coolest and alot of times his prices are beyond reasonable. I've picked up some major heat there over the past 11 years.
I don't have a proper photo of the Arkansas Record And CD Exchange , but I hold it in the same regard as Been Around. If you're ever in the Little Rock area I suggest you check them out. The Record Exchange is better organized, but if you are not the speed digging type you can find some gems at Been Around. I would post some names of my favorite flea market spots and thrifts but sadly they are no longer open.
same for me (although it was the original location, not the current one pictured). still go there on the weekly!! not only my favorite record store, but my favorite store of any kind on the planet!
these pics are tough to look at. on some straight fanboy shit, feeling of seeing a crusty spot that you've never been to that says "records" all old on the sign or glass never ever gets old. always feels like you're going to come up. even if you don't - it's always worth the trip.
unless it's Vintage Vinyl in New Jersey. That place just sucks.
Not really about getting me "hooked" for the fact back in the 70s the only way to get music was through 8-track and vinyl. That said, Tower had the 45's on the wall and albums on the shelves and all the new/current vinyl were on the ground stacked up with the mailers underneath. Classic times. Shit, I remember physically seeing the transition from vinyl to cds in those stores.
[edit]- Records on K Street (Sacramento) actually got me hooked, then traveling outside of Sacramento it was VVV
What really got me hooked: 1) Leopold's and 2) Amoeba Berkeley starting in the early 90s.
Not really about getting me "hooked" for the fact back in the 70s the only way to get music was through 8-track and vinyl. That said, Tower had the 45's on the wall and albums on the shelves and all the new/current vinyl were on the ground stacked up with the mailers underneath. Classic times. Shit, I remember physically seeing the transition from vinyl to cds in those stores.
[edit]- Records on K Street (Sacramento) actually got me hooked, then traveling outside of Sacramento it was VVV
What really got me hooked: 1) Leopold's and 2) Amoeba Berkeley starting in the early 90s.
Taking it to another level: Groove Merchant
I went in that Tower records not long before it shut down.
Had multiple copies of all the Roxanne 12"s on Pop Art just about everywhere.
A few NYC spots that got me really hooked on vinyl was... Vintage Vinyl (where I pulled too many LP's to list) , Golden Oldies 45's in the Village (they sold $20 Lou Courtney "Hey Joyce", Skull Snaps "Its a New Day", Dennis Coffey "Black Belt Jones" and Pazant Bros "Chick A Boom" 45's), 122 or 112 Record Shop...didn't even have a name just a building number on Fulton Street in Brooklyn (Pulled multiple $5 Lee Moses 45's on Musicor and crates and crates of rare LP's), J&R Music Budget Annex by City Hall (Pulled sealed copies old Strata East stock).
Comments
Actually, I absolutely will show love to Riddim's. The stuff I got out of there rivaled the best scores from ANYWHERE.
$50 Sons and Daughters of Light, batches.
The first joint where I myself copped from was Deep Sound on 161st, here in my hood. It was primarily a reggae spot but had some Hip Hop and R&B. I copped my B-Boys - Blue Vinyl Girls 12" from them.
My first real trek for music was the Rhythm Den way Uptown in the BX. We walked up Webster Ave. on a summer day to cause we heard that was the place to get live Cold Crush tapes. It was a hole in the wall, but dude had a gang of 10th generation Jam cassettes. To this day I want CC4 Boat Ride where they rock "The Funk Is On".
Rock-N-Soul was the first place where I felt part of the "game", back when they hatted Hip Hoppers.
Same here. I just gave a representative sample of mine.
My favorite spot like that was Buffalo Records in Santa Barbara. I didn't grow up there, but always made trips just to hit up Buffalo. It still exists- it's in Ventura now...but ever since new owners bought it out, shit really ain't the same!
Growing up in the San Fernando Valley, Moby Disc was the spot!! So many good finds!! I'd easily take a trip back to 93/94 if someone would just lend me their time machine! Moby Disc's current SFV incarnation is Freakbeat and that's also my new favorite spot, so if you ever find yourself in Sherman Oaks, be sure to give those dudes some love!!!!
Redpoint Record Shop, Singapore
My first real record store, I came here almost all saturdays of this year scouring the dollar bins.
Found a lot of library LP's on this place, and easily amassed a solid crate of them in a short span of time.
This kind of store gradually dropped off the map as the nineties went on. By 2000, the only ones that were left either (a) knew what they had and jacked up the prices accordingly, or (b) went all-CD.
http://www.allenforrest.com/stuff-that-interests-al90/2009/12/mike-the-winger-by-robert-polito.html
Oh hell yeah....I remember that trek well...id take the 62 bus to shady grove mtro stop and take the redline down to union station get on (can't remember the other line) and hop off at dupont.
That spot was the shit...I was such a new jack id buy doubles of lp's for routines not realizing juggle routines on low quality doubles of a wu affiliated lp with no insturmentals was kinda tuff...ithat was also the first spot id ever seen an and1 vhs tape...they were giving out free tapes of the vol1 with skip to my lou on that shit which was such a facemelter for me...it was a tape made literally out of styrofoam and plastic....I wore that mug out.
Isn't that place called record hut now?
Late 80's to 92 my two regular spots were the original Rhino location on Westwood blvd. and Record Surplus on Pico.
It was possible to find present day grails at both these spots for under 10. I remember walking out of Record Surplus with a mint Ray & his Court on Sound Triangle for a whopping $3.70. Rhino was the shit as well, but had a way more clued in staff. I learned so much at both those spots.
I'd have to say the spot that good me hooked was The Muzik Hut in the Flea Market Mall in Fayetteville, NC. Bob Smytek was the owner and dude had heat for crazy low prices. Often, I was the only cat in the store, besides an old hippie or two, and I was picking up heatrocks left and right (e.g., Rotary Connection S/T, Funkadelic joints on Westbound, Smith, "Construction #1"-Ten Wheel Drive, etc.). I had carte blanche in that spot and enjoyed the coveted "backroom status" to pick through the heat he set aside in the back of the store. Other spots I hit back then were Readers Corner and Nice Price Books in Raleigh, that brotha that sold records at Dorton Arena (can anyone say "S/T"-S.O.B. or "Investigation #1"-Carl "Sherlock" Holmes, for example), and The Record Hole in Chapel Hill. Man, those were the days, hitting up the stores weekly and bringing home sweet piles of auditory joy!
Peace,
Big Stacks from Kakalak
there were a couple joints in oklahoma i went to during my highschool years, but Sound Exchange is the spot that really got me open. Right next to UT, so popping in between classes or on my way home was a must. Much more of a punk vibe then anywhere else but they always had some good finds for hiphop/soul/jazz too. Never forget the back room dollar bin section where that homie Chris bought the Fat Pat 'tops drop' for like .50 still mad he got that over me.
earliest record shop was friggin Cavages, a mall chain store. to its credit back in them early 80s days, it was all vinyl and cassettes. nothing used though. and i was too young and dumb to understand that the cut out bins were where it was at. i DID get "NWA And The Posse" there somehow, in '86 or '87 - probably my last time ever going there - i remember the cashier was like "what... what is this? you found this in my store?"
by the time i was around 14 i discovered used records at Home Of the Hits (FKA Record Runner) and Apollo (both Buffalo NY) Both RIP. Also great punk/nu-wave stock at a great comic book/LP shop called Fantasy World (also RIP). [An aside - Apollo was run by a guy named Gary Sparza(?) who somehow had a connection to Amoeba Records much later. Word i hear is his California Adventure subsequently ended, he returned to NY, and his ridiculous 20,000+ LP collection is now either in storage and/or was slowly pieced out to his bros in Amoeba by the u-haul box for good $ over the years (remember them great wall items and new arrivals bins back when the LA location first opened...?). (Buffalo connection #2 for Amoeba, its owned by the son of a local news anchor [Irv Wienstien, who long ago also fled to the Golden State])].
anyway, went to college in b'more (sup Breez!), and once i had a roomate with a car we'd hit up Vinyl Discoveries (i forget what the neighborhood was called - sorta North Central-ish); and we'd make a weekly trek out to the excellent (and UK staffed/owned) Music Machine - this was extreme NW - is that timonium??? it was all about the 7"s and punk and indie stuff. so much recently imported UK vinyl, they had a guy who made a weekly or monthly trip back to to England to re-stock. great bootlegs too, like the bad brains pay to cum 7" and many repro misfits 7"s that were otherwise unaffordable. Near our apt (616 N. Eutaw) was 12" dance records, where i picked up a ton of new hip-hop 12"s and LPs. thats where i picked up the Pauls Boutique 4-way gatefold the week it came out. they were pricey compared to other places but they had stuff you just didnt see otherwise. i wasnt into the dance/disco stuff they catered to but it was a fun store to browse. i remember they had mix tape cassettes under the glass int he counter, i never bought one because i didn't know shit about what dj was who. or really what a mixtape really even was. I do remember that when "It takes two" hit big there, it was the ONLY song i heard blasting out of cars for like 9 months.
Breez, maybe we were in that store at the same time? haha
I also recall hitting a shop up in maybe Towson, lotsa used vinyl there and cds etc, but i cant recall the name. sort of in a huge strip mall type suburban area.
So we traveled all over the area when we could, skateboarding every ramp and spot we could find from VA to lansdowne to the HUGE creepy old abandoned concrete skatepark in Essex (lose your board = murky water bowl fishing), up to NJ and of course NYC (Brooklyn Banks!) And we'd hit every record shop we could find along the way too.
i was trying to remember that store's name for years, thanks. that was a cool shop! we went there when we were going to DC. picked up a lot of Beefeater, GIs, Fugazi, Misfits, etc there....
Princeton Record Exchange was a trip. Haha i can remember debating whether to get the brand new "Amerikkka's most wanted" on LP or CD there. Stupidly chose CD!
Yes! Second Coming was a total highlight of any NYC trip then. I remember a hilarious conversation there, between 2 hardcore Bruce Springsteen fans pawing thru the bins... "that one is so rare they dont even price it as high as they should, so no one knows how rare it is" (wha???). I liked LOOKING at Bleeker Bobs, but not BUYING anything there. I also remember Venus Records over on St. Marks, picking up little personal punk "grails" i'd never seen in person, for what seemed like an expensive $15 at the time. mint "used" rap LPs were $4 there.
My next move was to LA, which in '91 to me was about Aron's on Highland big time (ignoring the evil "Music Collector" who back then was right next door), and penny lane in Westwood, who actually stocked decent used vinyl then. Also some cool shop on Venice Blvd with great old LPs, i forget the name (RIP), and another joint down in Venice beach, also forget the name. And of course we went to Tower to see what was new, but by then the LP selection was already dwindling real fast. Tower was more for just seeing what was new, and picking up a few CDs if you didnt "need" it on LP.
i guess thats it.
It was DJ Hut for a few years. The owners were (still are) great guys. They had some bad luck and had two fires. It was above some pizza joint, and lightning struck in the same place twice. I think they may do online sales, though.
12" had a lot of history.
It was DJ Hut for a few years. The owners were (still are) great guys. They had some bad luck and had two fires. It was above some pizza joint, and lightning struck in the same place twice. I think they may do online sales, though.
12" had a lot of history.
I almost forgot Downtown Records, Cleveland, Ohio (still open)
the pre-Papa Jazz spot in Columbia SC,
tons of vinyl in a building between campus & where the Hunter Gatherer now stands
(there is a smoothie place between 2 coffee places in the building now)
tons of jazz & euro imports
also the Peaches over by 5 points
in Hagerstown MD there was an old crusty hippie store & a head shop
with vinyl downtown & not much else
moving to St Louis fall of 78 =
first the crates at the old U City flea
a year or so later,
brick & mortar next to the Tivoli
by 1980 they were stocking over a dozen Fela imports,
dozens of Sun Ra titles
and if Chin Randy's got a new release in a weeks time VV would have a copy or three
and always Ramones for $2
plus young Tom Ray was something to behold,
dissing your musical taste while taking your $20
What REALLY got me hooked was a guy who would post ads in the paper that he was selling records priced 3 for $1. My girlfriend at the time had just gotten her license and we would drive down together and buy heaps of records from this guy. He was a country & western collector who would buy people's collections, then sell the rest out of his garage for pennies just to blow it out. IIRC, he was in a wheelchair or had serious mobility issues, so he'd just let us dig in his garage all day (floor to ceiling shelving full of records) and we'd leave there with a trunk full of LPs every time...
Wow - when did that happen? Did they take over Skippy White's old space? That's what it looks like.
Is Mars Records still up the street just outside of Central Sq?
Digging-wise, big
Was Lee still running it when you were going there, or had Sean taken over managing the place? I worked there for a year 2002/03. One of the best jobs I've ever had.
The first shop that I bought a record from, and got me into vinyl, was Massive Records* when it was just around the corner from here on Friar's Entry. It was basically just like the shop in this vid, but more ganja smoke, and as a deliquent teenager, seemed like the coolest place evaaaaah.
* due to it's name, google searches are impossible
Fnar fnar.
Dunno who was working at Avid, this was round about 96/97 when I used to spend my dole money on trying to complete my Eric B & Rakim discography at 2 pound a pop. Then would meet a mate on his lunchbreak from an overpriced baguette cafe and go smoke on the canal or somewhere. Then go home and collect roaches, repeat.
I don't have a proper photo of the Arkansas Record And CD Exchange , but I hold it in the same regard as Been Around. If you're ever in the Little Rock area I suggest you check them out. The Record Exchange is better organized, but if you are not the speed digging type you can find some gems at Been Around. I would post some names of my favorite flea market spots and thrifts but sadly they are no longer open.
same for me (although it was the original location, not the current one pictured). still go there on the weekly!! not only my favorite record store, but my favorite store of any kind on the planet!
unless it's Vintage Vinyl in New Jersey. That place just sucks.
Tower Records- various Sacramento locations
Not really about getting me "hooked" for the fact back in the 70s the only way to get music was through 8-track and vinyl. That said, Tower had the 45's on the wall and albums on the shelves and all the new/current vinyl were on the ground stacked up with the mailers underneath. Classic times. Shit, I remember physically seeing the transition from vinyl to cds in those stores.
[edit]- Records on K Street (Sacramento) actually got me hooked, then traveling outside of Sacramento it was VVV
What really got me hooked: 1) Leopold's and 2) Amoeba Berkeley starting in the early 90s.
Taking it to another level: Groove Merchant
I went in that Tower records not long before it shut down.
Had multiple copies of all the Roxanne 12"s on Pop Art just about everywhere.
260 Atlantic Avenue
Long Beach, CA 90802-3213
(562) 432-7534
peace, stein. .