The record store that first got you hooked....
JectWon
(@_@) 1,654 Posts
Just watched "I Need That Record!" and enjoyed the hell out of it. I assume there has to be many SS connections from that film so, to anyone involved thanks for making/being a part of it.
Throughout the whole film, I kept thinking about my first record spot "Joe's Record Paradise" out in Silver Spring, MD. I went there as a punk ass middle school/high school kid looking for all things old Blue Note. Once, I overheard Joe having a serious conversation with a regular about a blues artist that he swore was alive and the reg swore was dead. They bet bbq it. Skipping school and making the multiple bus transfer 2 hour pilgrimage to that place was hell and going back with an armful of bounty was absolute heaven. The whole ride back I'd read the linear notes and make shot in the dark guesses about which record would be my favorite. So many purchases were based on hunches; some better reasoned than others. Around the time my drum teacher got me onto Steve Gadd, I took a shot on a Bob James because I overheard a customer saying "Gadd kills it on this" or some shit like that. I remember going home and racing to my bedroom to put that LP on...and during the last cut on side B I thought "what the fuck....this is 'daytona 500!'"...such a new jack, I was...it was a real full circle type feeling. I don't get back to MD much but whenever I do I make a point to go to Joe's Record Paradise.
It really feels like shit to be so strapped for cash now; while Record stores are getting kicked in the nuts left and right. I know my habit couldn't sustain the wax community but it sure would feel nice to be part of the "going out swinging" crew.
Anyways, I'd love to hear about ya'lls "first spots".
Throughout the whole film, I kept thinking about my first record spot "Joe's Record Paradise" out in Silver Spring, MD. I went there as a punk ass middle school/high school kid looking for all things old Blue Note. Once, I overheard Joe having a serious conversation with a regular about a blues artist that he swore was alive and the reg swore was dead. They bet bbq it. Skipping school and making the multiple bus transfer 2 hour pilgrimage to that place was hell and going back with an armful of bounty was absolute heaven. The whole ride back I'd read the linear notes and make shot in the dark guesses about which record would be my favorite. So many purchases were based on hunches; some better reasoned than others. Around the time my drum teacher got me onto Steve Gadd, I took a shot on a Bob James because I overheard a customer saying "Gadd kills it on this" or some shit like that. I remember going home and racing to my bedroom to put that LP on...and during the last cut on side B I thought "what the fuck....this is 'daytona 500!'"...such a new jack, I was...it was a real full circle type feeling. I don't get back to MD much but whenever I do I make a point to go to Joe's Record Paradise.
It really feels like shit to be so strapped for cash now; while Record stores are getting kicked in the nuts left and right. I know my habit couldn't sustain the wax community but it sure would feel nice to be part of the "going out swinging" crew.
Anyways, I'd love to hear about ya'lls "first spots".
Comments
Anyway, the guy was super friendly and never swore, in true JW style. It was a few years after I started going there that another regular told me the full story. Turns out that Bill used to be a stand-over guy for some serious Sydney gangsters. Used to be a bouncer at a club in the city and was into some heavy shit, and then got 'saved' as they say. The regular told me that Bill had told him that once he had almost killed a guy out the back of some notorious Kings Cross spot one time, and that that moment was what started him on the journey to find God. Towards the end of the life of his store, he got into a weird situation with some co-proprietors who allegedly stole some of his stock, and apparently he was seriously considering reverting back to "more familiar ways" of dealing with the situation, according to another regular.
On the record tip, I pulled so much heat from this spot, and through my excavation of underneath the shelves and free pass to the back room, I found so much more. Hoctor collections, kiddie breaks, multiple copies of some private press Aussie jazz, Latin and Euro funk, the rare Renee Geyer and Marcia Hines 45s, even rare US funk 45s. For the last two years I had the place on lock, with anything even vaugely funky looking being saved for me in the first instance. And when anything rare did come in, the price was always set with the following question: how much do you want to pay? I can't ever remember the number I came up with being rejected.
RIP Lazy Days.
Bill moved out west and apparently still has a shitload of records in a shed out that way.
x2 . sadly that shop is a skeleton of its former self.
Joe's record paradise was really hard to get to when it was in rockville. I thought they moved to silver spring last year?
Oh I guess I'm thinking about the OG location in Rockville. It's been so long that I don't even remember the areas. I remember the one I went to was in the middle of nowhere, required like 3 or 4 bus transfers, was right next to some BBQ joint or something. Was that Rockville? Jesus that place felt like it was in the middle of nowhere.
3rd Street Jazz, 9th Street Records & PRX.
Philly folks know what I'm taking about.
Missing Link, OG Location (RIP)
Funhouse (RIP)
Honestly, what really got me into digging was antique/thrift stores. I was a PEZ collector as a young person, so the transition was fairly easy. HIP HOP made me do it.
Seriously. I'm from a small town in northern Michigan, there used to be one spot called New Moon Records which sold mostly used CDs, but there was an area in the back with a thousand or so records, 95% of which were rock and classical. I started going there looking for breaks/samples when I was about 14. I remember having big aspirations of finding THE breaks, Synthetic, The Champ, et cetera haha. Of course they didn't turn up, but as my dad was a drummer in a local-ish rock band I was naturally into a lot of 60s 70s The Bear 97.9 type rock tunes, which were there in droves. I loved that kind of stuff and still do, as it's what I grew up with, but one thing that really facilitated me getting into all kinds of music was realizing that my favorite hip hoppers not only sampled the super rare funk 45 stuff, but also obscure output from my father and my favorite rockers. If they were all over the place, why shouldn't I be all over the place? It really opened me up from being a hip hop and hip hop-related 14 year old to loving all good music that I could find. I owe a lot to that place. I'm not much into records in and of themselves as something to hoard, I just dig finding music I've never heard no matter the format, which is due in part to New Moon Records. The building is now a video game lounge. RIP.
Can't remember the spot's actual name, but the first time I went to a mom and pop record shop on the West Bank of New Orleans, I was just as amazed by all of the feathered roach clips and such as I was by the records. I bought a Cheap Trick t-shirt.
First time I went to a collector's record shop, Goldmine out in Westwego, I was actually there to buy baseball cards. There were tons of 45's in that shop, can't even imagine going through them today, ~30 years later.
But really the first shop I started going back to repeatedly, actually there were 3...I'd go to Infinite Records on Westheimer in Houston like it was some sort of ritual. And then down the street from there was what we always called Record Exchange...although it came to be known as Sound Exchange. And around the corner from there on Shepherd was Record Rack.
And then I also have to mention Sound Exchange up in Austin, which was a short walk down from my dorm room my freshman year.
Of all of these one-off shops I've mentioned, only Sound Exchange in Houston is still open today.
in Valley Stream?
Jerry's Records in Pittsburgh
Cheapo in Cambridge, MA
Some others that Don't exist any more:
Arboria - State College, PA
City Lights - State College, PA
Bart's CD Cellar - Boulder, CO
In my teen years me and a buddy would frequent a Head Shop/Record Store in Levittown called "Superstuff". Every Friday we'd head out there and the stoner dude that was in charge of the records got to know us and our tastes.....every week he'd have a few new, and usually obscure LP's that he would turn us on to....at 17 I had a pretty decent collection of 3-400 LP's from that shop.
On the weekends we would head to the Flea Market at the 110 Drive-In in Farmingdale.....bootleg 8-Track dealers were set up in almost every row and we would buy 10-20 at a time for listening to in the car.
When I started college in Manhattan I became hip to "cut-outs" and would hit a variety of stores in Mid-Town and one inside Penn Station that always had a great selection of recent cut-outs....started to hang out in the Village and discovered Bleeker Bob's and was quickly convinced that the owner was the biggest asshole on the planet and I started to spend my money on smoke and booze instead of vinyl.
From the age of 20 - 22 I don't think I bought any records....just went to live shows and partied.
Moved to Texas......discovered a store called Metamorphisis that sold bootlegs and imports and my interest was rekindled. Bought a box of crusty Beatles stuff at a Flea Market for $10.00......went to my first Record Show....sold the crust for what I learned later was way too cheap.....and walked out with $800.00.
Realized I could hear new music, buy records cheap....AND put cash in my pocket to help facilitate my nightly buzz.....I was hooked for good.
It's still there and still a major hassle to get to. They opened a 2nd store about 10 mins from my house about 8 yrs ago but it closed in like 2007.
The spot that really got me hooked on diggin was Music Liberated when it was in Mondawmin Mall. This was like '86-'87. Also, DJ's Outlet played a huge part in my early days as well. It was there that I first got involved with Shawn Caesar & Scottie B. This was about 4 yrs before Unruly came together.
what was in them cutout bins?!
i used to go to shops in philly, 3rd street jazz, green onions,prx,sound of market...but i cant say i was hooked on shit till i was in college. i mucked around in the basement of Record City in Poughkeepsie and rhino records nearby...but i really got cracked out when i worked for 6 months in portland oregon. i went through the phonebook and went to every record store and thrift store in town. there were soooo many records and i know for a fact i flipped past lots of heat i should have copped
i had already formed my addiction, but the stores that got me hooked were Crossroads for sheer infinite volume and Laserwolf's jumpjump cause of the presentation and dan's understanding of a young hiphop heads interest in music. the first time i went, by bus, dan loaned me a bike to go to a supermarket ATM and he made me wear a bike helmet that looked like a giant styrofoam box (if memory serves). i ended up going to jumpjump frequently, to shop but also to check in and say hi to dan and learn. i really appreciated the calmness/coolness of the shops vibe.
i got my favorites in philly, but i never got stuck on one spot. my first rare groove records were bought on the sidewalk (cymande) and in 3rd street jazz dollar bin (westwing) shortly before it closed for good
Levittown, N.Y. not Levittown Pa.......although my grandparents lived in Levittown, Pa. and I would spend summers there.....still have my pin for eating the "Pig's Dinner" at Greenwood Dairy.
I usually bought major label obscurities out of the cut-out bins.....Wiggy Bits, Banshee, Artful Dodger, Barnaby Bye.
also, Records and Tapes on La Cienega and Pico. That place usually blew, but he had AMAZING posters (many which were for sale) and would every now and again get in some rad stuff. That's where I got my mint Liberated Brother (eat shit K*n). Remember he had a collection behind the desk with him. I asked to peruse, he obliged. That was one of the first things in there. Unpriced. Said to him, how much for this? He looks it over, throws on a price tag and writes "-12" which, mind you, was steep for him. Ah. Thems were the days.
Once my buddies got driver's licenses, all bets were off and I had them cart me all around central Ohio looking for records.
I also blame hip-hop for sowing this continuing addiction.
when you were were 13 though that may have preceded the funk thing a little bit tho
For me, it'd have to be Leopolds in Berkeley. It was a ritual to go there and pick up new rap records, the selection was fantastic. I wasn't even really "digging" at that point, if anything I might pick up some $1 records down the street at Rasputins if I was looking for samples. Which I really wasn't, I didn't really understand it yet at that time.
When I started getting into old records it was probably a few places around my way in SF, none of them any great shakes. I had no idea about Groove Merchant or the shops on Haight, I rarely even went over to that part of town. In my immediate area there was a shop on 16th, maybe around Albion? I bought a lot of intro-level Blue Note records like Bobbi Humphrey "Satin Doll" or John Coltrane "Blue Trane" there. Also there was a thrift on 18th and Guerrero and it didn't have a lot of records but nonetheless yielded several "aha" moments, finding samples or breaks that I recognized.
Groove Yard in Oakland, at its old location, was probably the real catalyst because Rick had like another level of records in his shop than you would find in most places. Even just the average stuff was more interesting that what I was seeing elsewhere. The vibe of the building was cool, perched on the corner like that, boxes and boxes inside, not much room to move around, not like the bigger shops with new releases and CDs and lots of browser space. There weren't browsers, actually... just open boxes with dividers if I'm remembering right. I still didn't know shit about shit and wish I could go back to those days armed with the knowledge I have now.
Word up, back when it was all on one level and there was a Drive-In theater instead of a multiplex.
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. They always had great imports and bootlegs back in the early/mid 80's, they would even locate boots for you if you really knew what you were talking about and what you were looking for. I got a bunch of Specials and Clash vinyl boots that way.
I wouldn't say they got me started, but Second Coming got me buying in earnest.
In the late 80's - early 90's I lived right nearby and would check their New Arrivals several times a day and it would often have entirely different records each time, with virtually nothing over $8.
I remember buying several OG sealed Maggot Brains for $20 there when they got a box of them.
And on another note, I once sold them some records including one that I had stashed $300 in by mistake. When I went back an hour later and told them they gave me the money back.
Wow-Records & Tapes on La Cienega & Pico-I was always trying to remember the name of that store. Lucas & Matt/Marvin Fowler took me there back in the day!
yes. and Rue's. And Plastic Fantastic for sure. my brother and i would go there every saturday once i had my drivers license. it was a paradise.
and john the crackhead at germantown and chelten, later on at 40th and walnut, but in his germantown days he had everything lined up by the park wall and haggling with him was legendary fun.
also "dark-skinned tony" as people called him, had a small shop above the lucien crump art gallery in germantown too. he had great stuff all the time. i wonder where he is now. and then of course 9th street books and records, love ya, bob. philly was so amazing then.