Happy Wednesday, vinyl lovers! I hope you’re all having a good week.
Today I’d like to hear about your favourite record store of all time.
Old or new, big or small, currently trading or not, local to you or discovered whilst travelling: one record store that has marked you, or that you consider worth mentioning.
There have been a few over the years... I've been fortunate to live very close to a number of really great shops in their heyday.
1986-88 - 'In Your Ear' on Commonwealth Ave in Boston/Allston.
1990s - Amoeba in Berkeley - the start of the institution, later opening up at the old bowling alley in SF.
Recent years - Music Millennium in Portland continues to roll with the times, nowadays carrying extensive vinyl new and used, along with CDs, live shows, K-Pop, and more.
I have to name two. 1. Because of my Prince obsession, I've gotta go with Electric Fetus in Minneapolis. It's basically a shrine to the Purple One. 2. Amoeba Records in LA is like the Disneyland of record stores. It's massive with a lot of rare vinyl and the in-store performances are free. I randomly saw Sia perform there and it was incredible.
I was hoping someone would mention the Fetus. I’ve bought so many records there over the years, as well as some cool clothes and jewelry.
Also, it figured in one of my favorite-ever dreams: In their novelty/gift section, I bought a piece of chewing gum in the shape of an album. When you chewed it, it played a song, but it only ever played the song once.
I was at that Sia show, but not randomly! That was in 2002 the year Zero 7 was first at Coachella, so I first saw her live with them, then again for her solo show at 🦠
She did an autograph sesh after her set and I got a pic with her, she was a sweetheart!
That's it! How awesome that you were there too. What a treat to see someone so talented in such an intimate space, and for free! Amoeba had so many amazing artists come through there in the early 2000's.
My all-time favorite is/was 2nd Avenue records in Portland. As a teenager, I'd take the bus across town and spend hours there going through the stacks. There was also a very short-lived shop close by that catered to DJs looking for records to sample.
Today, it's Strictly Discs here in Madison. New records are on the street level, but I don't spend much time there- the good stuff is in the basement. I could spend all day down there if they'd let me!
I wonder if Turntable Marys was the one I was thinking of? My "big day out" would be riding the 20 to downtown. Making my way to Dudley's, then Powells, then down to 2nd Avenue, before heading back home.
The guys at the Django were awesome, always willing to play an album and let me listen to stuff before I bought it, and always were getting me advance notice as to shows coming to the starry night. What's at? Punk was not real popular in Portland, and Django had a great punk section.
I had a great experience earlier this summer at Earth River Records in Asheville, North Carolina, USA while we were on vacation in the area. Super nice owner, whose father opened the first Earth River in 1970 in California. Records were all in great shape, had a nice lounge area with comfortable seating, and a Galaga arcade machine set for free play!
I'll drop in a couple with these divisions 1. As customer 2. As employee! As customer, I always enjoyed the L.A.-area stores (I lived there from my Houston, TX home, '80-'93), like the famous Tower Records on Sunset Blvd. It was huge, and they even had their classical section in a separate building across the street!
Moby Disc was a fine L.A.-area small chain, and I used to visit their Orange County location, and I think they had one in The Valley, on Ventura Blvd. I'd also be remiss if I didn't mention the necessary Bomp! Records store up Laurel Canyon Blvd from Sunset.
Bomp! was run by Greg and Suzy Shaw....Greg (he's gone now) was a well-respected power pop proponent, and had his own Bomp! Records label, fanzine, and eventually, magazine (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BOMP!_Records).
As employee, while I worked at the Glendale and Pasadena (L.A. area) Music Plus locations (early '80s), my favorite store was Houston's Cactus Records (Post Oak, then Shepherd locations) for 3 years in the late '70s. We were huge, had a large import (looking at you, UK!!!) section, and were serviced, quite well, by local record company reps, particularly CBS....with lots of flats, posters, standees, t-shirts, woo-hoo!
We also played a wide variety of albums over our loudspeaker, as well as set up a TV on the floor to play new, ground-breaking music videos, pre-MTV, like Bowie's "Boys Keep Swinging" and "D.J.," both in '79!
Every time I write a book on your site, Andy, I have to say........."well, you asked!!!"😉👍💖
Keep ‘em coming! I love this amount of detail, so thanks a billion for this. I would love to go back to those times when record stores were what they were. I experienced a little bit of it in the nineties but I was way too young. But still -- I hold on to those memories like a boy with his favourite toy!
The Record Connection in Ephrata, PA. It has been around forever, has an incredible selection, and in particular has the best psych and prog collection I have ever seen.
It’s in the middle of nowhere, about 1.5 hours northwest of Philadelphia. Part of the “charm,” as it is, is that it is so isolated, in a tiny strip surrounded by farmland. It looks like nothing from the outside but when you step inside it’s so much bigger than it looks, almost like an optical illusion.
Gotta put in a word for my local, Blue Arrow Records in Cleveland, OH. I can rummage through their dump bins for hours if I want; and when I wanted a copy of Blue Oyster Cult's "Tyranny And Mutation" (one of my band boss's favorite BOC records); I had 4 or 5 to choose from at a pretty low price. I'm not a "new vinyl guy"; I just like having a place where I can scoop up a random impulse record that looks good or fills a knowledge gap I have about a band. Blue Arrow is awesome for that.
I miss buying 45s and cassette tapes at, like, Kmart or Woolworth’s. For real. Nothing beat taking your allowance or babysitting money down to the store and getting whatever you wanted.
I’ll take Brad’s lead and break it down into shopped at/worked at, as I was an employee at 3 different record stores. The very first was when i was 17. Wherehouse Records. Sure it was a chain, but the branch I worked at featured a lot of punk and new wave (it was 1985 when I worked there). I remember when we reconfigured the store to accommodate this new “CD” technology. It was very controversial.
The 2nd time was a small used record shop in Santa Cruz, California called Discount Records. I was a college student at the local university and after a few months was trusted to buy used records from the public. At least 200 of the albums in my collection was from that store. Sadly, the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989 (centered not far from Santa Cruz) led to the building being deemed unrepairable and the shop never reopened.
The 3rd shop was Hear Music. This also was a chain, was CD only, but was famous for having listening stations set up all around the store for people to check out music on headphones. There were also stations near the front counter where patrons could bring a CD to the sales clerk and they would set them up to play anything they wanted. I was I think 27 for that job. I learned a lot about Jazz and World Music at that gig.
In terms of purchasing, Amoeba has been a major player ever since I moved to Oakland, California in 1991. The Berkeley store was my mecca. In my pre-employee days, I used to shop at Moby Disc in the San Fernando Valley (southern california, Brad had mentioned this, but didn’t mention the shop I frequented on Topanga Canyon). This was during my heavy metal years and I recall purchasing the first ever album by Motley Crue on Leathur Records. It’s worth a lot nowadays, and I likely will sell it in the next year or so.
Thanks a lot, Steve, for your detailed comment! Crazy that you had to deal with the arrival of CD technology. That bit of history fascinates me. I love finding out about how, where and with what people listened to music in the 60s/70s/80s/early 90s.
Discount Records sounds like a lovely place... sad it could never reopen.
I remember CD listening stations like the one you mention. They were also popular in Argentina in the mid/late nineties. I was a kid but would spend hours!
Amoeba is an institution of course and it’s so lucky you live nearby!
And nice story with the Motley Crue record -- vinyl reselling, like revenge, is a dish best served cold. Good luck with that! 😉
I should write about that year when CDs first appeared and how it was to add them to a record store. If you recall (even if not alive yet), CDs were housed in giant cumbersome plastic cases that I think were created not for theft (though that surely was part of it -- cassettes never were sold with such overpackaging), but to fit inside the bins that used to house LPs. You could store three rows of CDs for every bin of albums. I miss the listening station record stores. One of my favorite films is “Before Sunrise” and the scene when Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy listen to an album by Kath Bloom on dual headphones in a Vienna record shop is sublime.
Just to add on here; when I was working at Camelot, we made the switch from the long boxes/taller plastic cases to the cages that were roughly the same size as the jewel box. It took, like, 3 full days to do, including a couple of overnights.
Wow, sounds like a tedious procedure! But at the same time, what a way to witness a unique moment in history (for those like us who care about these things).
Ugh - I remember that. That must have been tedious. Thankfully that happened after I left the first record store. And by the time I was at the 2nd, it was LP only! Ha - it probably was the only LP-centric record store in Santa Cruz.
Utopia Records in Sydney - it really does live up to the name. They've moved around a bit, but I've been buying stuff from them for about 15 years. They're heavy metal specialists, but they've got a varied collection and are the coolest guys around.
Thanks, William! I like that you mentioned the staff as well. They’re the engine that keeps things moving. Very nice to hear they’re cool on top of that!
There are five vinyl shops and a monthly record swap meet here in Pasadena. Then there's another great half dozen shops in adjacent Highland Park, Atwater Village, Echo Park.
I work close to Amoeba Hollywood, close enough to make that a long lunch break. But the original Amoeba in Berkeley, CA was my favorite. I haven't been since the pandemic, so I'm overdue for a road trip, and on the way I can stop at Boo Boo Records in San Luis Obispo - lovely little town and great shop.
The original Tower Sunset in Hollywood and Tower North Beach San Francisco used to have adjacent classical music annex buildings - man, do I miss those days.
When I first moved to So Cal as a teenager in the late 70s, there was a killer shop in a strip mall in Downey called Middle Earth Records. In addition to being Tolkein-compliant, this place was the best for hunting down non-album import b-sides by XTC and the Police, and other rare Brit imports from the Canterbury prog bands like Caravan and Gilgamesh. Middle Earth is long gone now, but I ended up marrying a Downey native many years later, and one of the first things she and I bonded over was memories of trips to Middle Earth.
very late to this article, but i feel like it fluctuates every time. Currently, my two favorites in Los Angeles are Sonido del Valle in Boyle Heights, which has the best dollar selection out there. So much Latin and Spanish music here as well as hidden gems, and a great exotica section. For the more rare and worldly, i got to Estuario in Highland Park.
Scorpion Records in Ridgewood, Queens! Only open whenever it wants to be 😂 and has the most eclectic bunch of records and rare items. Once I found the double gatefold for Beastie Boys' Paul's Boutique without the vinyl... Owner still let me buy it for $10.
Mill City Sound in Hopkins MN along with the Electric Fetus are my go to stores in my town. Way back in the 80’s The Lake Street Wax Museum was the best store in town - with Oarfolkjokeopus a close second. For a while in the 90’s Northern Lights was awesome - but then they hired a manager who took everything good that came in used at cost - and surprisingly people moved on...a frequent issue with record stores. In Portland Maine I appreciate Moody Lords and still lament Amadeus Music’s passing more than 30 years ago.
Took my son to Electric Fetus on our way back to Madison earlier this year, and we had a blast. it was one of the first times he wasn't just tagging along with me, but was actually looking for his own stuff.
Thanks, Russ, for your detailed comment. Yep, unfortunately that’s a trend that happens more often than we would like. Still great that you’ve got your current go-to store, and fingers crossed! Thanks again!
There have been a few over the years... I've been fortunate to live very close to a number of really great shops in their heyday.
1986-88 - 'In Your Ear' on Commonwealth Ave in Boston/Allston.
1990s - Amoeba in Berkeley - the start of the institution, later opening up at the old bowling alley in SF.
Recent years - Music Millennium in Portland continues to roll with the times, nowadays carrying extensive vinyl new and used, along with CDs, live shows, K-Pop, and more.
Wait, Music Millenium's still open?
Indeed - the original store on east Burnside still going. (NW Portland store closed down 10+ years ago)
Good to hear!
Thanks, Perival! You’ve been (are) a very lucky guy indeed!
I have to name two. 1. Because of my Prince obsession, I've gotta go with Electric Fetus in Minneapolis. It's basically a shrine to the Purple One. 2. Amoeba Records in LA is like the Disneyland of record stores. It's massive with a lot of rare vinyl and the in-store performances are free. I randomly saw Sia perform there and it was incredible.
I was hoping someone would mention the Fetus. I’ve bought so many records there over the years, as well as some cool clothes and jewelry.
Also, it figured in one of my favorite-ever dreams: In their novelty/gift section, I bought a piece of chewing gum in the shape of an album. When you chewed it, it played a song, but it only ever played the song once.
I would buy stock in that gum!
I was at that Sia show, but not randomly! That was in 2002 the year Zero 7 was first at Coachella, so I first saw her live with them, then again for her solo show at 🦠
She did an autograph sesh after her set and I got a pic with her, she was a sweetheart!
That's it! How awesome that you were there too. What a treat to see someone so talented in such an intimate space, and for free! Amoeba had so many amazing artists come through there in the early 2000's.
My all-time favorite is/was 2nd Avenue records in Portland. As a teenager, I'd take the bus across town and spend hours there going through the stacks. There was also a very short-lived shop close by that catered to DJs looking for records to sample.
Today, it's Strictly Discs here in Madison. New records are on the street level, but I don't spend much time there- the good stuff is in the basement. I could spend all day down there if they'd let me!
Thanks, Kevin! I love that you mentioned both past and present. The basement of Strictly Discs sounds sooo inviting!!
It really is!
Right around the corner from 2nd Ave records was Turntable Marys. Great place to get 12" singles and extended remix.
I wonder if Turntable Marys was the one I was thinking of? My "big day out" would be riding the 20 to downtown. Making my way to Dudley's, then Powells, then down to 2nd Avenue, before heading back home.
Before Turntable Marys opened up, I used to go to the Django records up off of Burnside.
I spent way too much time at that record store.
I loved Turntable Marys because I was DJing at a couple clubs in Portland at that time and they had some really hard to find vinyl.
Thinking about it now, I don’t think I ever went to Django’s? I can see it in my mind, and know where it is, but…
The guys at the Django were awesome, always willing to play an album and let me listen to stuff before I bought it, and always were getting me advance notice as to shows coming to the starry night. What's at? Punk was not real popular in Portland, and Django had a great punk section.
Thanks, Bob!
I had a great experience earlier this summer at Earth River Records in Asheville, North Carolina, USA while we were on vacation in the area. Super nice owner, whose father opened the first Earth River in 1970 in California. Records were all in great shape, had a nice lounge area with comfortable seating, and a Galaga arcade machine set for free play!
Thanks, Matt! Wow, sounds like a dream!!
thanks for heads up on this, will be in Asheville soon!
Fantastic - have fun!
I'll drop in a couple with these divisions 1. As customer 2. As employee! As customer, I always enjoyed the L.A.-area stores (I lived there from my Houston, TX home, '80-'93), like the famous Tower Records on Sunset Blvd. It was huge, and they even had their classical section in a separate building across the street!
Moby Disc was a fine L.A.-area small chain, and I used to visit their Orange County location, and I think they had one in The Valley, on Ventura Blvd. I'd also be remiss if I didn't mention the necessary Bomp! Records store up Laurel Canyon Blvd from Sunset.
Bomp! was run by Greg and Suzy Shaw....Greg (he's gone now) was a well-respected power pop proponent, and had his own Bomp! Records label, fanzine, and eventually, magazine (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BOMP!_Records).
As employee, while I worked at the Glendale and Pasadena (L.A. area) Music Plus locations (early '80s), my favorite store was Houston's Cactus Records (Post Oak, then Shepherd locations) for 3 years in the late '70s. We were huge, had a large import (looking at you, UK!!!) section, and were serviced, quite well, by local record company reps, particularly CBS....with lots of flats, posters, standees, t-shirts, woo-hoo!
We also played a wide variety of albums over our loudspeaker, as well as set up a TV on the floor to play new, ground-breaking music videos, pre-MTV, like Bowie's "Boys Keep Swinging" and "D.J.," both in '79!
Every time I write a book on your site, Andy, I have to say........."well, you asked!!!"😉👍💖
Keep ‘em coming! I love this amount of detail, so thanks a billion for this. I would love to go back to those times when record stores were what they were. I experienced a little bit of it in the nineties but I was way too young. But still -- I hold on to those memories like a boy with his favourite toy!
The Record Connection in Ephrata, PA. It has been around forever, has an incredible selection, and in particular has the best psych and prog collection I have ever seen.
Thanks, Jan! Sounds awesome. Will have to check it out if I’m ever around there!
It’s in the middle of nowhere, about 1.5 hours northwest of Philadelphia. Part of the “charm,” as it is, is that it is so isolated, in a tiny strip surrounded by farmland. It looks like nothing from the outside but when you step inside it’s so much bigger than it looks, almost like an optical illusion.
Wow. That makes it even more special!
Gotta put in a word for my local, Blue Arrow Records in Cleveland, OH. I can rummage through their dump bins for hours if I want; and when I wanted a copy of Blue Oyster Cult's "Tyranny And Mutation" (one of my band boss's favorite BOC records); I had 4 or 5 to choose from at a pretty low price. I'm not a "new vinyl guy"; I just like having a place where I can scoop up a random impulse record that looks good or fills a knowledge gap I have about a band. Blue Arrow is awesome for that.
That’s awesome. That’s exactly how you want your local store to be. Thanks for this!
I miss buying 45s and cassette tapes at, like, Kmart or Woolworth’s. For real. Nothing beat taking your allowance or babysitting money down to the store and getting whatever you wanted.
Thanks, Xtal! Absolutely. You rewarded yourself with music, and paid more attention because you had to go back home to play it. Glory days!
Mississippi Records in Portland OR - a store + they have a fantastic label and Eric is one of the nicest people you will ever meet.
Thanks, Michael! Sounds aweaome. I’ll definitely pay a visit if I’m in the area someday!
I’ll take Brad’s lead and break it down into shopped at/worked at, as I was an employee at 3 different record stores. The very first was when i was 17. Wherehouse Records. Sure it was a chain, but the branch I worked at featured a lot of punk and new wave (it was 1985 when I worked there). I remember when we reconfigured the store to accommodate this new “CD” technology. It was very controversial.
The 2nd time was a small used record shop in Santa Cruz, California called Discount Records. I was a college student at the local university and after a few months was trusted to buy used records from the public. At least 200 of the albums in my collection was from that store. Sadly, the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989 (centered not far from Santa Cruz) led to the building being deemed unrepairable and the shop never reopened.
The 3rd shop was Hear Music. This also was a chain, was CD only, but was famous for having listening stations set up all around the store for people to check out music on headphones. There were also stations near the front counter where patrons could bring a CD to the sales clerk and they would set them up to play anything they wanted. I was I think 27 for that job. I learned a lot about Jazz and World Music at that gig.
In terms of purchasing, Amoeba has been a major player ever since I moved to Oakland, California in 1991. The Berkeley store was my mecca. In my pre-employee days, I used to shop at Moby Disc in the San Fernando Valley (southern california, Brad had mentioned this, but didn’t mention the shop I frequented on Topanga Canyon). This was during my heavy metal years and I recall purchasing the first ever album by Motley Crue on Leathur Records. It’s worth a lot nowadays, and I likely will sell it in the next year or so.
Thanks a lot, Steve, for your detailed comment! Crazy that you had to deal with the arrival of CD technology. That bit of history fascinates me. I love finding out about how, where and with what people listened to music in the 60s/70s/80s/early 90s.
Discount Records sounds like a lovely place... sad it could never reopen.
I remember CD listening stations like the one you mention. They were also popular in Argentina in the mid/late nineties. I was a kid but would spend hours!
Amoeba is an institution of course and it’s so lucky you live nearby!
And nice story with the Motley Crue record -- vinyl reselling, like revenge, is a dish best served cold. Good luck with that! 😉
I should write about that year when CDs first appeared and how it was to add them to a record store. If you recall (even if not alive yet), CDs were housed in giant cumbersome plastic cases that I think were created not for theft (though that surely was part of it -- cassettes never were sold with such overpackaging), but to fit inside the bins that used to house LPs. You could store three rows of CDs for every bin of albums. I miss the listening station record stores. One of my favorite films is “Before Sunrise” and the scene when Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy listen to an album by Kath Bloom on dual headphones in a Vienna record shop is sublime.
Just to add on here; when I was working at Camelot, we made the switch from the long boxes/taller plastic cases to the cages that were roughly the same size as the jewel box. It took, like, 3 full days to do, including a couple of overnights.
Wow, sounds like a tedious procedure! But at the same time, what a way to witness a unique moment in history (for those like us who care about these things).
Ugh - I remember that. That must have been tedious. Thankfully that happened after I left the first record store. And by the time I was at the 2nd, it was LP only! Ha - it probably was the only LP-centric record store in Santa Cruz.
Yes you should! If you feel like it, I would certainly enjoy reading that.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen the cases you mention; the ones I remember were for individual CDs (slightly larger than the CD case itself).
I love that film, and that scene is everything!!
Thanks again
Utopia Records in Sydney - it really does live up to the name. They've moved around a bit, but I've been buying stuff from them for about 15 years. They're heavy metal specialists, but they've got a varied collection and are the coolest guys around.
Thanks, William! I like that you mentioned the staff as well. They’re the engine that keeps things moving. Very nice to hear they’re cool on top of that!
4000 Holes (hopefully everyone gets the reference!) in Spokane, Washington - iconic local record store - been around forever
Love the name. That’s brilliant!
There are five vinyl shops and a monthly record swap meet here in Pasadena. Then there's another great half dozen shops in adjacent Highland Park, Atwater Village, Echo Park.
I work close to Amoeba Hollywood, close enough to make that a long lunch break. But the original Amoeba in Berkeley, CA was my favorite. I haven't been since the pandemic, so I'm overdue for a road trip, and on the way I can stop at Boo Boo Records in San Luis Obispo - lovely little town and great shop.
The original Tower Sunset in Hollywood and Tower North Beach San Francisco used to have adjacent classical music annex buildings - man, do I miss those days.
When I first moved to So Cal as a teenager in the late 70s, there was a killer shop in a strip mall in Downey called Middle Earth Records. In addition to being Tolkein-compliant, this place was the best for hunting down non-album import b-sides by XTC and the Police, and other rare Brit imports from the Canterbury prog bands like Caravan and Gilgamesh. Middle Earth is long gone now, but I ended up marrying a Downey native many years later, and one of the first things she and I bonded over was memories of trips to Middle Earth.
This is so cool, Ken. Makes me miss that corner of the world. I only visited California twice, and would love to go back.
Beautiful that you and your wife bonded over your love of Middle Earth. That's such a powerful way to bond with somebody!
very late to this article, but i feel like it fluctuates every time. Currently, my two favorites in Los Angeles are Sonido del Valle in Boyle Heights, which has the best dollar selection out there. So much Latin and Spanish music here as well as hidden gems, and a great exotica section. For the more rare and worldly, i got to Estuario in Highland Park.
Thank you, Kadrian! Never too late :) I'll definitely need to check them out next time I'm in LA!
Scorpion Records in Ridgewood, Queens! Only open whenever it wants to be 😂 and has the most eclectic bunch of records and rare items. Once I found the double gatefold for Beastie Boys' Paul's Boutique without the vinyl... Owner still let me buy it for $10.
Thanks a lot, Rachel! Sounds like the coolest store ever. Lovely to see you here, by the way. I love your Substack! Thanks again
Mill City Sound in Hopkins MN along with the Electric Fetus are my go to stores in my town. Way back in the 80’s The Lake Street Wax Museum was the best store in town - with Oarfolkjokeopus a close second. For a while in the 90’s Northern Lights was awesome - but then they hired a manager who took everything good that came in used at cost - and surprisingly people moved on...a frequent issue with record stores. In Portland Maine I appreciate Moody Lords and still lament Amadeus Music’s passing more than 30 years ago.
Took my son to Electric Fetus on our way back to Madison earlier this year, and we had a blast. it was one of the first times he wasn't just tagging along with me, but was actually looking for his own stuff.
That must be such an amazingly incomparable feeling! Thanks a lot for sharing!
The whole trip was a blast. His last soccer tournament, first “real” record shopping, and great convos in the car both ways.
Treasure these moments forever. He’ll be creating playlists for his friends and recommending artists in no time (if he isn’t already) 😅
Thanks, Russ, for your detailed comment. Yep, unfortunately that’s a trend that happens more often than we would like. Still great that you’ve got your current go-to store, and fingers crossed! Thanks again!
Now we’re talking! Absolutely. So many memories 😊