What is/was your favourite PHYSICAL music shop or store?
 

Of course I don't go to those anymore (quiet, young 'uns! The adults are reminiscing!) but what is or was your favourite? For me it was The Sound Cellar in Dublin's Nassau Street. A veritable shrine to hard rock and heavy metal, which you reached from a small doorway, down a narrow staircase past a wall plastered with concert tickets and posters, getting darker and more smokier as you went, till you ended up in a basement that was badly lit and from which the thump of drums and the pulse of bass issued, along with the wailing of guitar solos and the growl of vocals with the odd keyboard solo thrown in.
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A wonderland of metal, and you could browse through the albums, talk to the owner, listen to the latest releases or just chill with your mates. The owner, a guy called Tommy, was totally into the scene and would make regular weekly trips across the water to England to pick up all the latest imports, so if you wanted something you could ask him and he would get it for you. Unlike most record stores then or now, you could if you want ask him to put on an album --- new or old --- and he'd play it. You weren't expected to buy it (though he'd be happier if you did and would always try to convince you to buy something) but if you did the prices were always reasonable. He was (probably still is) always up for a discussion about music.

Hours would go by there, and I learned a lot just hanging around. It's still there --- probably only selling CDs now --- but I just don't buy albums in a shop any more. I hope he's still doing well though. Hope he's still alive: he was about ten years older than me I think, so he probably is.
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The other one was Freebird, where you could pick up second-hand albums and often rare ones too cheap, and where when you bought the album they would let you examine it for scratches and marks. See any record shop still in existence doing this now?

I miss those places. Anyone else any stories about their favourite hangout?

Don't be so sure. CD's aren't really selling all that well anymore, but vinyl's making a comeback (relatively speaking of course). There's a hole-in-the-wall metal shop where I live that's selling less and less CD's and becoming more of a vinyl shop. If your shop's going through similar woes they may be going that way too.


Oh yeah, and my hole-in-the-wall place is Skinnie's Records in Norfolk, VA. The dude who runs it, Skinnie I assume, has been there for god knows how long and probably looks exactly like he did in 1986: long hair, grungy band shirt with sleeves cut off, and a general air of beerness.

I've been to Amoeba Records and their selection was pretty damn sexy. Apart from that there's this record store in Carlsbad I used to frequent called Spin Records that had a really good selection, especially given that it was a smaller shop. Cool employees too, hipster guys that were always like "whoah someone bought THIS album" and **** like that.

Long gone but not forgotten, Free Being Records 129 2nd Ave. NYC. Use to go there weekly back in the early 70s. Located just two blocks from the Fillmore East. They specialized in used albums costing either $1 or $2. A significant portion of my collection came from this wonderful store.

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Freebird still exists, down a corridor off Wicklow St. Plenty of vinyl and second-hand CDs to be found there. I've never actually set foot in The Sound Cellar, I've always imagined it to be full of elitist metalheads.

My favourite would be Tower Records in Dublin. It has the right balance between being a large high street store and being a proper record store run by people who know their music and are very helpful. It has a huge selection of CDs and vinyl that caters for everyone's tastes, a nice selection of books, posters, DVDs, headphones, gifts and you can even get some tea or coffee.

I've been in Tower (the one inside Easons right?) a few times and would agree, the staff there seem like the type you could actually chat to rather than the likes of HMV or Virgin (when they were here), although having said that I must credit a guy in HMV for sorting out my search which led to my discovering the music of Josh Groban. Fair play to him.

Sound Cellar was just pretty relaxed and Tommy was always a decent guy. I wouldn't fear going in there. Mind you, I haven't been there for a long long long time. Do you remember when Freebird was upstairs in Grafton Street, and you'd be accosted on the way up by mildly annoying skinheads who would ask for change, and if you said no they'd shrug and just leave you alone? Ah, good times...

There isn't as many left standing around here as there used to be but we still have a few. My favourite is Beatdown Records. It's in a much smaller unit than now it used to be. It used to be in a unit over the other side of the city, with a CD room downstairs and a huge vinyl floor upstairs. They also had a lot more sales and clearances then, when I could go in with my £10 or whatever it was and leave with as much as I could carry from all the overstock.

It's still a great little shop. Very simple looking, very easy to miss or walk past, you walk down a few steps and they have CDs infront of you (more than you can see in the photos below, to be fair) and then out the back they have a very nice vinyl room.

What I like most about it is the staff. I can open the door there and hear some Electric Wizard blasting, have a Wizard chat with the guy there and then go out the back and rake through some vinyl with the guy in there, where he'll tell me what they just got in and play some of it for me, or I can talk about the gig I saw him at over the weekend. It has a really good vibe.

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Disclaimer: I'm not that old but I still want to participate! I miss music shops, but sadly, even if they were still around I'm not sure I'd have the time to go hang out and visit them anyway! In between work and life and family and ****, it's much more convenient to buy all of my music and media digitally :(

When I was a teenager I worked at Missing Link Records in the heart of Melbourne city (I have a feeling it is still around and kicking but not 100%).

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I have the best memories there! I started off doing "work experience" there where I was paid $5 a day and then later ended up getting a casual job there. All the people that worked there were these seemingly intimidating, heavily tattooed and pierced dudes but they were so nice, even if they did give me all the ****ty jobs like sitting out the back peeling price stickers off. Music shops do indeed have such good vibes about them.

Wow, you were lucky Astronomer. I would have paid to have worked in a record shop --- "High Fidelity" anyone? Talk about loving your job! I'd have been first in the door and last out every day.

Mojo, they had people busking in that shop? That is ultra cool and laidback!

It was very cool! Didn't last long though, once they had to start paying me more than $5 day when my work experience ended I didn't get many shifts and unfortunately I got shafted, just not enough work!

here in Houston there are like 5 or 7 main shops


Cactus Records ...Being the biggest

then u got Vinyl Records on 20th


Heights Vinyl

Sigs lagoon

and black dogs

and sound revolution


those are pretty much the main ones there is like 2 latin shops Mundos #2 I like that store a lot gots a lot of latin stuff

Houston's Top 10 Record Stores

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The Soundgarden, I'm going to be dropping by next week for record store day later on after work. I love that place, they have everything from Autechre to Sir Richard Bishop. It was voted second best record store in the US, second to the almighty Amoeba records!

Still in business 30+ years later. I started coming here for vinyl in the late 70's, when they were located in Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA. Now located in Gloucester, MA and still going strong after all these years. I usually buy most of my vinyl at record shows or online these days, but I still enjoy coming to this shop a couple of times a year and spending a few hours digging through the record bins.

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Mystery Train Records | WE BUY RECORDS & CDs

Hours? You could spend DAYS in there! You could DIE rooting through those bins! :eek:

Psy-Fi, now that is a record store.

Psy-Fi, your local record shop is the shop from High Fidelity?

I refuse to watch Hi-Fidelity, I absolutely refuse. I feel like I get enough **** for spending all of my money on records, the last thing I need is to tell people I saw that movie, it would solidify my status as a POS hipster.

The front of the shop looks a bit similar from the inside, but I'm pretty sure High Fidelity was filmed in Chicago.

I know. It just reminds me of it. :)

And your loss Seq. It's a great film.

Landlocked Music is the best record shop locally and probably in southern Indiana. Unfortunately Ear X-tacy in Louisville is no more as it was well worth the trip from here to there in its heydey.

Landlocked Music - Bloomington, IN

My go to is Doctor Strange Records.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...64542518,d.b2I

I often frequent Amoeba, Vinyl Solution, Pepperland and Radiation Records

That photo makes my soul bleed. Looks like a snug little shop.

Anyway the best record shop I ever went to was in Monterey, CA. I don't remember what it was called now, but I could have lived in there. It was a tiny shop with a cool dude who burned incense and played his favorite records all day. He had posters and photos completely covering the walls. It was one of the only places in the world that made me feel the closest to my natural habitat. Found many groovy gems in the 89 cent bin there.

I love a nice record store (especially the ones that make you feel like you're just right, right in the decade you wanna be, for as long as you're inside). Swoon.

Rough Trade NYC easiest question ever!

when i went to to Pomana to see the Gorilla Biscuits reunion my friend Edgar took me here....i was on a hunt for anything and everything by a band called Fuckemos....struck out at dr Strange but did walk out with a great bootleg dvd of live GISM shows....which included the infamous flame thrower attack :).....and the kid working there pointed me to a great vegan restaurant

Fred....the show was at The Glass House and right around the corner there was this little record store....right when i walked in there i knew i was home....a huge Man's Ruin poster and a huge AmRep poster....walked out with four Fuckemos albums and a sign copy of Sexy Pee Story by Cows :)

by chance do you remember this store?....it would have been around 2004 or maybe 2005

My guess:

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j...64764171,d.aWw

There is also Rhino records right up the street.

There's a lot of really great record stores in Toronto, of course there is a huge music culture here. I used to love a store called Hits & Misses - it was only open for a few years before it closed because of a lease disagreement with the building owner. Argh.

Other stores I like though are Grasshopper Records, Vortex Records, Sonic Boom, and Pandemonium, which is also a bookstore so it's automatically awesome. Out in Hamilton, there is a store called Dr. Disc, and they have pretty much everything at great prices. They're way out of my way though, so I only go there if I have something else to do in Hamilton.

Pic of my favorite,2nd Avenue Records in Portland

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Personally I can't help but feel contempt for any record store that has enough space between racks that two people can actually pass each other. Bonus points if the band names on the dividers are not only handwritten but made to look like the bands' actual logos.

Amoeba Records, definitely. Cake Shop in NYC and Newbury Comics rank up there too.

There are two in my town, but neither one is amazing..Rock and Roll Heaven in Orlando has a decent selection but they're overpriced and the employees aren't too pleasant. Park Ave CD s has great employees and I can always find something I have to buy, but they've allowed books and kitschy items to take up too much space.

EASILY Tower Records! During my college years I'd go in every Tuesday between classes to check out the latest releases or just go to their magazine section and read. Unquestionably the majority of my music library was purchased at Tower! Furthermore, they were open 9:00a to midnight 365 days a year, something virtually unheard of in music retail at the time. Since 12-25-82 until it officially closed in Dec. 2006 ( in my hometown) it was an annual holiday ritual to go to Tower and redeem my gift certificates without fail. Good times! :tramp:

Tom at The Bop Shop in Rochester, NY was my initiation into exquisite vinyl. Bop Arts has been responsible for every jazz act that came to the city for the last 35 years, and they're still going strong.

The staff are genuine article music gurus and provide a wealth of information for those looking to build their libraries of 20th century music. The day Tom learned I hadn't heard Stockhausen he pulled a five-alarm fire and sent a dude running to the DG section for an original press of Kontakte / Gesang der Jünglinge.

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My greatest score ever from the Shop - my legendary Tom Waits haul of nearly every Waits record in NM condition, all original pressings.

I wouldn't have the musical chops I have today without The Bop Shop.

I'll also throw in a good word for Bruised Apple Books & Music in stupidly-expensive Peekskill, NY. Two gents run a cozy little bookstore with a killer used vinyl section with titles like Captain Beefheart's Grow Fins rarities 3-volume set and the self-titled monumental record by The Last Poets. That shop was my lifeline for my time in Peekskill.

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https://www.facebook.com/weirdsvillerecords?ref=br_tf

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Melod...s/259961186281


Weirdsville has a vibe I really dig, they sell a lot of horror collectibles, books and whatnot and really keep up on my preferred subgenres. But a good deal of their **** is new, they're kind of a modern 'hip' record store. Still a sweet place.

Melodies and Memories is a legit store from floor to ceiling in records, stacked up in some corners because they run out of room. Can hardly walk in the place. Also have a much larger used selection.

Easy Street Records' Queen Anne location in Seattle. Massive vinyl and CD selection (mostly used) and several listening stations for both formats. I would spend hours in there on a weekly basis listening to random albums and poring over the clearance racks. After making a stack of 6-10 cheap albums I'd move to the more expensive stuff, but even vinyl editions of LCD Soundsystem's Sound of Silver or Sufjan Stevens' Illinois were like $13.

Coming off their most profitable year in over a decade, the landlord refused to let them renew their lease and booted them in favor of a mother****ing Chase bank. Luckily, they went out in style. During the final night of their massive closing sale, Yo La Tengo played for free in-store, and after the show employees were passing out free beers to people still browsing. I spent about $60 on this haul:

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Silversun Pickups - Pikul EP (12")
Radical Face - Ghost (Clear LP)
Stagnant Pools - Temporary Room (LP)
The Beatles - Revolver (LP)
Yo La Tengo - Fade (CD)
Doves - The Last Broadcast (CD)
The 88 - S/T (CD)
Bis - Intendo (CD)
The Weakerthans - Left & Leaving (CD)
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis - The Heist (CD)
Everything Is Nice: The Matador Records 10th Anniversary Anthology (3CD)
DFA Compilation #2 (3CD)
Erin McKeown - We Will Become Like Birds (CD)
Yo La Tengo Poster
Easy Street Records T-Shirt

And I swiped that "ELECTRONIC" sign from the racks that they were breaking down and tossing in the dumpsters.

It was a beautiful place and I'm still bitter that it's gone. Still haven't found a replacement for it.

I've been in Sound Cellar a couple of times since and I must say I quite liked it. I was even talking to the owner the last time I was in there and he was super friendly and well up for a chat. My only gripe was all the CDs being in glass cabinets, could be more browser friendly.

Tower Records on the south side of Dublin have moved to a newer and more impressive store within the past year and they've also expanded their vinyl selection considerably.

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Freebird (part of the Secret Book and Record Store) is another favourite of mine and is a great place to browse for vinyl and second-hand CDs.

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Blink and you'll miss it.

Vintage Vinyl in St Louis!!!

I really miss that location, it was my favorite record store in Seattle and an anchor for that neighborhood. Nothing draws me there anymore. Even Silver Platters moved. The West Seattle Easy Street is alright but it's just more crammed. Definitely more convenient to my current residence though.