Chicago heads (Out of the Past-R)

DustedDon

So im going to Chicago in two weeks. I plan to hit "Out of the Past" and spend a good 4 hours of solid digging.

Do I go straight to the basement? Is there still treasures to behold?

I have a respirator and gloves.

Please to school me on this store. I've never been there and could use some advice.

james

I'll let more-informed folks speak on its viability, but I'm under the impression that place gets hit long, deep, wide, and consecutive, and subsequently stays pretty tapped out. As long as you're not from Chicago, I'd guess there's still exciting shit there, though.

I have elsewhere told the story of proprietress Ms. Marie getting a little moony over the Will King record I'd pulled, but better/worse is when she was for reasons that remain unclear going over with a fine-tooth comb the potential purchases of soulstrut dot com's own Rob Zilla, in the course of which she nonchalantly opened the shrink on a sealed but apocalyptically water-damaged Free Your Mind And Your Ass Will Follow with her teeth, inadvertently biting off a small corner of the black-moldy cover. In the eternal-seeming second that she spent absentmidedly gumming the half-mouthful of sodden cardboard before casually spitting it out into her palm, all we could do was look on in wide-eyed disbelief.

I've never been the same, really.

z_illa

james said:

never been the same

Pretty sure I haven't been there since.

z_illa

z_illa said:

james said:

never been the same

Pretty sure I haven't been there since.

Oh God, I had forgotten SHE BIT IT!!!!!! I just remembered the nasty fingernail trying to break it open.

Color me Halloweened.

motown67

I was there when that happened. That was a long time ago and dCastillo was with us as well.

Anyway, the basement has been cleaned out because several years ago there was a major flood from heavy rain.

I would say that you would have a much better time going to other spots.

DustedDon

"Anyway, the basement has been cleaned out"

dang thats really dissapointing....

meatyogre

They've been holding on through tough times, I try and encourage out of towners to go spend their money there, since they're good people.... but its a sad(der) state of affairs there. The basement is now off limits due to health code issues.... the dude who organizes and handles their vinyl is still down there salvaging stuff out of there though, and bringing it up. Really though, its suprising the city didnt shut them down years ago due to health violations. If it were east of Western, they would not be in business. Feral cats pissing on records, black mold abound, water leaking everywhere, dark, cold, gully. Chop it up with Ethan who works there, and he'll show you the goods.

pickwick33

Last time I was there was two years ago. Bought a lot of 45s, but it's safe to say that 50% of it was gospel, so if you're not down with that... Not that I wasn't on the lookout for soul/funk/blues or any other genre that day, but as far as obscurities that I hadn't seen before, the gospel outweighed everything else. The soul/etc. had clearly been picked over. Unless you were into Jody Watley and Klymaxx singles from the 80s with picture sleeves.

The basement was still open, but the mold and the mildew were definitely setting in and you could tell the Health Dept. would be paying a visit soon.

E.Powers

meatyogre said:

They've been holding on through tough times, I try and encourage out of towners to go spend their money there, since they're good people.... but its a sad(der) state of affairs there. The basement is now off limits due to health code issues.... the dude who organizes and handles their vinyl is still down there salvaging stuff out of there though, and bringing it up. Really though, its suprising the city didnt shut them down years ago due to health violations. If it were east of Western, they would not be in business. Feral cats pissing on records, black mold abound, water leaking everywhere, dark, cold, gully. Chop it up with Ethan who works there, and he'll show you the goods.

Yo what up Meaty!

Quick introduction for those who haven???t met me (Ethan), I???m the one who handles the vinyl for Marie at Out of the Past, also long time lurker on the Strut ;) Currently I???m out of state for minute so the store at the moment is in general disarray, which to be honest is probably in the benefit of the diggers, so going there right now is most likely a good thing for the recent arrivals.

The Basement: It is widely known that it was seriously flooded in the late 90???s which it never really recovered from. Then it was seriously flooded yet again when the city closed the water valves during a massive storm a year ago in turn flooding the whole west side, classic Chicago politics of sticking it to the west side without a second thought (countless families and businesses lost unbelievable amounts of goods and possessions due to that fricking decision). Around that time we had some issues with the city so we have had to stop letting diggers into the basement. We have had some diggers come from out of state purposely to dig the basement and have had to deny them, which has pissed off some. We???re not trying to be asses about this, but we simply have to get up to compliance first, simple as that. If, for whatever reason, you do get to spend time down there, safety gear is beyond highly recommended.

The store in general: Yes it???s true that there is a myriad of issues with the building that will bewilder many who have never been there before. If you can look past them it truly is one of the best/true digging experiences in the city. Do not expect a surgically clean experience like that of Dusty???s.

The goods: Even next level diggers will find cuts; all depends on what you???re looking for of course. Beyond having tons of Soul/Jazz/Blues staples, specialties of the store would be: 45???s, Gospel and 12???s.

Biased as I am, I strongly recommend stopping by if you can make it out west. It???s always fun to find a spot with as many records that we have to dig through. Talk to Marie, who is literally like a second mother to me, she???s one the best people you???ll ever meet and has some of the best stories of the city to tell, including years of crazy record stories that could fill a dozen threads.

As usual we always support the other record stores as well, no hatt here. If you make it to Out of the Past I would say also go down to Old School records in Forest Park. Of course go to Dusty???s, also Reckless Wicker Park edition is nearby. Check in with my man Kevin over at KStarke???s. Stop by the dudes at Mr. Peabody???s. The list of stores to hit goes on and on, Chi is a great place to dig in!