Digging trip suggestions needed
Anto99
244 Posts
Hey everyone. Just a quick question. I'm looking to take a two or three day trip to the states to look for records. I know there likely won't be any crazy finds - grails I mean ??? but whatever. The hunt is the fun part right? So I've been to NY, know those spots. Any other cities I might consider? Chicago? Boston? Any tips would be great. Also thought NY would be good if I went back but concentrated on the boroughs instead. Not sure.
Comments
Seattle is less than 3 hours away, Vancouver BC is about the same distance north of Seattle.
Of course lots of small towns and minor cities to dig in in between.
Or south to San Francisco.
Those trips have lots to offer other than records.
If you want to spend more time digging and less time driving Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana.
Chicago is (or was) a great town for records.
The kind of records you are looking for could help you decide where to go.
a couple tips:
1 - consider what you want to do apart from digging. what kind of food do you like? do you (even) party? desire to see natural wonders, historical places, etc?
2 - narrow down what *kind* of records you're looking for, even within those four genres. you will turn up different stuff in NYC than down south, than you will find in Detroit, than you will find in CA, etc
3 - consider how deep of a mission you want. lots of places that are good to dig in are not chock full of "traditional" record stores, and you will have to do more legwork, potentially for greater reward.
Some places I'd visit if I were you:
Philly/Baltimore/DC/Richmond
Down South - Memphis, New Orleans, Nashville, etc
Detroit, Ann Arbor, Chicago, Ohio?
Portland/Seattle/Vancouver, as Dan recommended... or go south to SF and even LA.
very different areas with good things to recommend them all, depending on what you're into.
I would do any of these in a heartbeat if I had some free time and no particular objective in mind
With the exception of NYC I wouldn't trip anywhere in this country without access to a car. There's just too much you'll miss out on.
Gotta call ahead, follow up on leads, and ask for a description of the items.
Vegas is a fun place to visit and do some browsing.
I'm gonna do texas & Nebraska in the fall. Looking 4ward to it
Are you looking for records that you have never heard?
Even if the was all jibberish from outer space?
Train to Vancouver, Seattle, Portland.
Are all digable with out a car.
I recommend packing some mailers and mailing records home.
So much easier than carrying them.
Seattle Center Show is October 14th, Portland's Night Owl Record Show is October 20th.
http://austinrecords.com/
within the genres that you want, are you looking for
nice but not grail records (kool and the gang, soft machine, sylvers),
different records (regional records, private press joints, oddball, foreign stuff)
grails (the kinds you could find on ebay if you relaly wanted them)???
are you limited by time or money?
is the experience and adventure more important than the actual records you may find?
easy solution is hit SF, NYC, or CHI...go to a handful of specialty shops (good records for example). you will find grails. not cheap, but you will save LOTS of time. much more time to actually be outdoors among people in a new location.
more time intensive solution: go anywhere in the states, coinciding with record shows. rent a car or find a buddy to drive you and hit up a lot of thrift stores, antique malls, stores, dealers, flea markets, etc. You will undoubtedly find records and maybe/probably find a few grails. if you consider that your time is worth at the very least $10 an hour, the several heavy pieces you find for a dollar may end up having a lot of indirect costs. obviously, you will have more "Record related life experience" to tell grandchildren about, photograph, and post on facebook
what ive fallen back on in recent years is visit new places cause i want to visit those places. on a side note, i'll do some homework and may spend an afternoon (or two) looking for records. i usually come away with some interesting pieces while still being able to experience many different aspects of the area. good luck!
best of all, the food in that town is off the fucking chain.
i think there is a chicagoland record show every couple of months so if you go plan to be there for one of those.
have fun!
http://beatswapmeet.com/
you will NOT be sorry.
Flea markets in NY were cool but a lot of them were just pop-ups in basketball courts in the East Village. The rest of my time was spent in the usual spots. Wondering if Queens, Brooklyn, Harlem etc might be good to hit up?
Not on a mission here. Just looking to hit up a new place and check out some records. Not unknowns necessarily either. Just good shit.
From a Toronto perspective, Chicago was killer. Lots of stuff you would never find here of real quality for very decent prices.
re your last question, i've heard fleas in queens turn up good (probably no grails, though) stuff constantly. as it has been said previously, you can get good deals if you stay out of good records and academy. but you can find good, clean, desirable records without much trouble in good records or academy.
also, i would also consider detroit. well, i'd just say fuck it and go to detroit, really.