I love going to the record shop. The real brick and mortar places. I know it might paint a picture of someone who snobbishly puts their nose up at others, yearning for the opportunity to tell them about how this band that nobody has ever really heard of changed music forever. But I promise, I am not that person. I just really love shopping for records.
I purposefully scour through the aisles looking for things that I haven't heard before. I look for stuff that is cheap and that seems just a little bit weird too. I try to find the covers where there is someone who is probably just a bit too cool for their own good (I'm looking at you Lou Reed!). I also love finding artists whose albums I haven't heard.
Even if I get it home and hate it, I love the adventure of looking. I find it so much more satisfying (sorry, this is going to start sounding a bit pretentious) to actually go and look at records, and to be surprised by their contents rather than just "getting music" from spotify or google play. I just don't get the same satisfaction through online services.
My record store finds that inspired this post: A Chris Rock promotional record from 1991 with one side bleeped for profanity A Clash bootleg, Live in Paris 1977 which my wife bought me as a late birthday present.
So tell me hubski what some of your favorite record store finds have been.
Hmm. I'm fond of the Miles Davis Live at the Blackhawk record I have. Another great find was when I found an original pressing of the Star Wars soundtrack for a dollar from a thrift store. Oh crap, or when I bought an original pressing of Dark Side of the Moon with all the original promo packaging (stickers and posters). Record stores are among my favorite places.
I have a sort of "Best of" Miles Davis album, which I appreciate, but don't actually like as much as I expected. That Dark Side of the Moon find sounds amazing! Did it come in one of those boxes for multi-albums? I really like finding those. Is there anything on it not released on other versions?
Nope, it was just sitting in a slip case among a whole bunch of other records in a super messy store. The music's the same, but finding it with the additional stuff at a store is hard. Only cost $20 at this one.
Found old releases from Tresor at this one shop. Also, not a record store, but a partner scored some real nice 90s nyc tribal house and tech house test pressings from this DJ. He didnt want them, but i love them.
My brother and I thrift together, and thrifting together means scouring Goodwills, Salvation Armies, and whatever other similar places, mostly for records, sometimes for really cool clothes. We did this for about a year and a half solid sometimes dragging along our little sister. There was one momentous day where we went on a thrift store tour across Pennsylvania, starting in Northern Delaware and eventually moving through Amish Country, Booth's Corner, Exton (nicest thrift store I've ever been in - did you know at the right Goodwill you can buy furs???), West Chester, and ending up in York, PA (where my brother was living at the time). That day, we found a score of Beatles albums at a Salvation Army. That was a great day. (We split the Beatles albums.) On another occasion we were blessed enough to find TWO copies of Quadrophenia. For $.50 each. - That is why we do this, because when you find good stuff you get it for cheap. I wrote a poem called "B-Sides and Rarities" about going through a records shop. It was published in a very small lit mag in 2011. A very local sort of thing .Although I have a physical copy the page has been written all over and I can't simply upload a pic, but i was thinking it might be something the record enthusiasts of Hubski enjoyed. The last time I read it out loud was the day my brother was booked at the local police station. He had to leave the poetry reading because the cops called him. (He is not in jail or anything. It was a long time ago.) #stories
Yeah, I love thrift stores but they're not what they used to be. We have a bunch of new "vintage" shops down town that sell shirts for 40$. Where do they get them? They go to goodwill and buy all the cool stuff early in the morning. You still find cool stuff but not as much. Garage sales are also pretty cool. My parents are addicted to buying antique junk at garage sales.
Yes, sadly people who get paid to buy thrift store stuff can afford to get their early and take all the good stuff. Then mark it up way too high. We have those "Vintage" shops too, and I'll admit some of them really do try to find retro clothing specifically. But some just really are shops with price guns set to stun.
Wow those Beatles albums are great! The Magical Mystery Tour is something my mom would play for us when she was forced to drive us to school. It was just that same tape over and over again. I have very fond memories of it. At Found Sound here in Michigan, there are a bunch of records of Beatles bands who were obviously trying to cash in on the Beatles name. I should buy one just to give it a listen.
First of all, a shout-out to CD Alley in Chapel Hill for putting up a Hubski sticker for us: I can't point to a single best "find." But a record that I really love and have referenced often on Hubski is "Jim O'Rourke's" Eureka. I found it at Underground Sounds in Ann Arbor. Good stuff. My dads best friend was a huge music fan and used to be a roadie for british punk bands in the 70s. He had a great collection of vinyl. He unfortunately died a few years back and I bought his collection from his estate. He had a great Beatles and T-Rex collection. That was a really nice addition to my collection though I'd have liked to have gotten it in a different way. bgood79 -I'd be curious to hear your answer.
Reading about your daughter crawling for the first time to that music really made me tear up. I am so happy you get to have memories like that. I also was an Underground Sounds customer a few years ago, they introduced me to my first Jimmy Cliff record along with a couple others. I distinctly remember a long time where there was this record with a hybrid man/cat with the title of "El Gato" I want to find that record just to see it again.
