Record shops
 

Since getting back into vinyl after a long hiatus I've fallen in love with independent record shops. Along with used book shops, they're among the most soulful places a city can have, in my opinion (see this thread here: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ight=book+shop).

What shops do you go to for the selection, the vibe, or just because walking around stacks of records makes you feel good? Yeah, I read High Fidelity and watched the movie too. Loved both.

Stratford's got two places that are well worth a look if you're into vinyl.

Diamond Dogs: Obviously a Bowie aficionado. Fairly sizable used selection with obscure gems to be found if you have the time to hunt. Some nice new stuff at the standard nice new prices (i.e. $35 or more--yikes).

http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j2...k.jpg~original
https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.36917...7i13312!8i6656

Sound Fixation: Small but with a startlingly eclectic selection. Stooges, Can, Pixies, Coltrane, you name it.

http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j2...k.jpg~original
https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.37073...7i13312!8i6656

Pro tip: Baby boomer high school music teachers have been and are continuing to retire in droves, and they're liquidating their record collections. If you're into classical music (or just getting into it, like I am) you can find all kinds of amazing used stuff for $5 or less.

i'm not into vinyl but the one place that comes to mind for Vancouver is Zulu records on west 4th. It has recently shrunk in size, used to be twice as big.

http://recordstoresworldwide.com/wp-...r-1024x682.jpg

London drugs is a bc based chain, it has a pretty big vinyl records collection

http://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townn...size=300%2C200

Love record stores! Worked in an independent music store during undergrad and it was only slightly like High Fidelity though... "this won't be like High Fidelity" was actually one of the lines from the interview.

Still like to buy vinyl even though I am currently lacking a pre-amp for my turntable. Luckily most new records come with download codes. As one can imagine there are plenty of options in Toronto depending on what you are looking for.

My all around favourite is Sonic Boom: http://sonicboommusic.com/ Probably the best overall selection with decent prices.

The best "hipster record store" is Rotate This: http://www.rotate.com/ Pretty much what you'd expect - a fair amount of harder to find stuff but it also isn't cheap. Have a reputation for staff having attitude but I've never experienced it. Also the go-to for buying concert tickets.


This list is also pretty good though a little dated. I really like June on there as well. http://www.blogto.com/toronto/the_be...es_in_toronto/

I picked up a used copy of XTC's Black Sea there, and when I pulled out the sleeve to check the record I discovered a 45 rpm single inside the jacket as well!

Someone at Sonic Boom must have slipped that in as a secret bonus. On the sly, without telling the manager.

Sonic Boom has my undying love.

So, do tell. What's it like working in a record shop?

A lot like working in any retail job most of the time really. You have to look busy and do a lot of boring work that nobody really likes to do (cleaning floors etc.). BUT - you get to deal with amazing product. Also are generally expected to know about obscure music that you have probably never actually listened to, which is always interesting. It certainly expanded my appreciation of music genres beyond indie rock at the time!

One highlight is the bizarre gamut of regular customers you get. In that respect it IS very much like High Fidelity. You have the ones who want to talk to you about obscure stuff only they know about for hours on end; the slightly creepy dude who calls every day to get you to see if certain things that will never be in stock are in stock; the jazz guy who only wants Japanese imports regardless of what they cost... And so on. Everyone I've met who has worked in a music store has shared similar experiences.

Fred's on Duckworth Street is the main one in St. John's. Happened to take a snap of it driving by this morning...

http://i.imgur.com/czRNKL0.jpg?1

It has beloved staff and serves as a sort of community centre like The Ship (music) or LSPU Hall (performing arts). It has lots of album launches, live performances, other events, etc.

They will get you absolutely any album in any format that can possibly be obtained. It might cost a fortune and take weeks, but you can get it.

Personally, it's my go-to for their Newfoundland music section. It's inexhaustible - so complete you could almost use it for genealogical research. It gets enough tourists, Newfoundland music fans, and actual musicians that it doesn't feel full hipster, though it can certainly come dangerously close on a dead Tuesday morning.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8652/1...b99d6e64e1.jpg https://c1.staticflickr.com/8/7669/2...8db227af54.jpg
Katie and Ilia 1 by Zach Bonnell, on Flickr - REPARTEE at Fred's Records ... ; (c)rebfoto by rebfoto, on Flickr

https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8106/8...3e4f36fc_o.jpgMatthew Hornell at Fred's Records 2 by Zach Bonnell, on Flickr

The website is pretty good for finding stuff as well. The staff put up their latest favourites all the time, and after a while you get used to which ones share the same taste in music (Matt and Tasha for me, for example). Two of the guys have been there since the 1970s:

http://www.fredsrecords.com/site/staff/

Seems like in retail stores in general you often get confronted by a lot of unpleasantness, because people are often shits, but I always thought that record stores would be better than that.

Or at least more interesting. As per your recollection about your experience.

Then again, obsessive collectors can probably be disturbing at times no matter what they're collecting, I imagine.

It could be frustrating but all and all I'd say it was one of my favourite jobs. Everyone who worked there was great too and still keep in touch with a few people via facebook.

I'm fortunate in never having to really work a corporate chain retail job so haven't seen the worst of the worst. People could certainly be annoying but it was at least interesting.

One interaction I remember with a slightly annoying regular who was very specific about his jazz music:
"What's that awful music playing right now?"
"Oh, that's the remaster of the Sonic Youth album Daydream Nation"
*Audible groan and look of disgust* "Well that sounds like something that someone who dropped out of highschool would listen to!"
"Huh... I actually just graduated from engineering the other week actually"

Which is spectacularly out to lunch, because Sonic Youth is precisely the kind of band that is lionized by the university crowd. But it was probably all noise to him.

That's actually really funny, because Sonic Youth would be just about the best answer to the question: name the least likely favourite band of anyone who dropped out of high school between the 1980s and now!

One that's near me that I've been meaning to go to is Apollo Music. When CBC Radio Vancouver decided to get rid of their vinyl in 2012, Apollo Music bought them all.

I'm sure this will be unpopular, but I'm going to go ahead and quote myself here:

Not into vinyl, but did get my mother a record player for Christmas this year and went record shopping with her in Grande Prairie afterwards. There's a spectacular store called The Rabbit Hole, right on the main drag downtown, that's part bookstore, part record store. Their collection was pretty big and rivals a lot of the full-on record stores I've seen here. Mostly seemed to be secondhand junk donations or something, but pretty much any country or classic rock/pop albums, especially obscure Canadian stuff from the 70s/80s could be found there. I had fun browsing.

I find it hard to believe that anyone would have a name like "Hipster nonsense," much less one so eccentrically capitalized.

I do love exploring the neighbourhood hardware store which are always crammed full to the rafters. I go to the butcher if I want to socialize.

Fred's has been there since the early 70s, I shopped there as a teenager. It may be one of the longest surviving in Canada.

I guess nobody cares that HMV is closing, but it's a sad event. In Vancouver I think there are no record stores left in the better parts of the downtown core. The ones I'm familiar with are not downtown; Zulu in Kits, and a concentration of a few others around Main and Commercial, including Red Cat and Neptoon.

urban outfitters downtown sells records. I look at it as more of a novelty these days than anything else.

I grew up around records for a good period of time, and I find that there's a certain inauthenticity to "how it was" when I happen into a record store nowadays.

What I mean is that it we all went down to Records on Wheels or Sam The Record Man on pay days from our part time or summer jobs and bought 45 singles or the latest album from Foreigner, Def Leppard, "the Rezillos" or whatever at the time, got home, admired the inner sleeve workings and played the shit out of them..If you had a few brothers and sisters with friends coming over all the time like our household, then your turntable became a de facto juke box with everyone's singles or albums stacked up jockeying for position. Carefully preserving them like we are seeing collector's doing nowadays wasn't a thing.

Sure we all had our milk crates of neatly stacked albums or 45's stacked on those holders, but in reality records became scratched and warped really easily, especially amongst us careless youths. Sure, there was always that one anal audiophile kid on the block, or rather that older anal brother of that kid who always had that diamond record needle, cleaning cloth, and bottle of record cleaner, but he was never any fun no matter how great of a sound he was milking out of his Sansui's turntable system. The enterprising ones became the resident DJ at the youth dances.

Try as we may, albums and singles were rarely kept in pristine condition.They were played and enjoyed and were eventually either thrown out after they got too scratched or stored away in boxes after people got tired of listening to them.

Now when I trip past one of these record stores and see these cork sniffing collectors gingerly thumbing through all these same albums that we misused I can't help but think to myself. "Were there really that many browsing meticulous music aficionados then, or did I just miss them because I was just an inattentive kid?"

Obviously, there's a romantic novelty market for old albums otherwise you wouldn't see these stores still in business. I'm not knocking them , but I just don't get it. Different strokes I suppose. Instantaneous digital through my studio monitors works fine for me. I can appreciate people wanting that vinyl sound though. It's just that records were originally mishandled and ultimately thrown away from most people, and the care you see towards handling them from collectors nowadays certainly wasn't in keeping with the original reckless norm. It goes with the collecting territory I suppose. Stamp collectors are the same.

When in Calgary check out "Recordland" in Inglewood. I spent many enjoyable hours there in my youth hunting for items to cross off my want list and was often rewarded with unexpected treasures.

As a side note, my 15 year old daughter asked for and received a "record player" this Christmas. This thing looks like it's straight out of the 1950's. Anyway, she warmed my heart the other day when she asked if I would take her and some friends to "Recordland".

I never got the whole "vibe" or "atmosphere" requirements for record stores. I'm not old enough to remember the days that record stores sold quantities of new releases on vinyl, just cassettes and cds. When I lived in Edmonton, my parents came to stay at my place, and all the records I owned were hiphop so after work I popped by blackbyrd on whyte en route from my office to look for some albums my parents liked. I think I ended up finding Harry Chapin's Greatest Stories Live (love that album) for like... $5, Graceland, and maybe a Jim Croce album?

Nonetheless, when I went to purchase them the hipster chick with some skrillex looking haircut just kinda scoffed at me for merely being there. When she asked if I wanted a bag, I said no (because my car was parked right down the street). She says "oh, so everyone can see what records you bought?" I'm like "No, because I care about the fucking environment?". I dunno why some innocuous encounter at a music store rubbed me the wrong way, but I never went back there. I may have purchased like 3-4 records since then, and they were all new released hip hop albums straight from the musicians website. Honestly, unless you're buying physical copies of new releases to support the musicians you're better off just downloading it anyway.

I would feel blessed if that had happened to me, because I would treasure it as an anecdote to dine out on for the rest of my days. The scorn I've been confronted with in record shops has always been withering but silent. I can't recall any juicy bon mots or sarcastic bromides at all. I genuinely feel deprived.

I like the non-confrontational Canadian personality as much as the next guy, but sometimes I worry that we're missing out on the frisson that gives life some spice.

I've never been too big in buying cds and have only played with three records in my lifetime (Don Williams [i]Butterfingers[i], Muppets Show Album No. 2 and a third record I can't remember.) My parents never maintained any sizable record collection. What they did have was a lot of sheet music. My parents loved to buy that stuff. Hymnals, classical collections, some pop songbooks. I have spent more on songbooks than on recorded music in my life although for a while I did buy like 20 cds a decade ago (almost two now, yikes!)

Ahhh. Self-awareness. So rare yet so endearing.

I use to get all my vinyl and 12" remixes from sound connection back when I was working the clubs. This place was on 107 ave and 101st Edmonton. Unfortunately long gone.

They would let you pretty much take what ever album and open it and play it on their tech 1200s. Pretty cool place.

My collection has not seen any love for a long time. :(

Maybe time to change this.

I'm gutted that HMV is closing. I collect CDs and used to buy a lot from there.
Sadly HMV lost direction when instead of focusing on being a music store they tried to branch out into selling t-shirts and other collectables, but not at a competitive price.

Had the concentrated on stocking vinyl and CDs with a decent selection of back-catalogue material at reasonable prices instead of the latest pop fad's greatest hits, they would have lasted. Unfortunately they lost identity and priced out many customers.

In Oshawa there's a great store called Deja Vu Discs that has thousands of used CDs they play like new. I love to go there and hunt for some obscure album I've never heard of. That to me is the joy of browsing record stores. It's so much more pleasant than trawling online through Amazon or the like.

70 HMV locations to be filled with Sunrise Records

http://globalnews.ca/news/3274299/hm.../?sf58831898=1

The market has changed, is all. What was once a ubiquitous consumer product has become much rarer, especially old 45s or less-popular LPs that may never be pressed again.

I like record stores, as a place for meeting other fans and discovering new music. Halifax is blessed to have a few good-to-great stores, notably Taz Records, Obsolete Records, Black Buffalo (great for used stuff), and a new shop that Joel Plaskett opened up (combined with a hipster barbership and cafe) called New Scotland Yard.

When I moved from Toronto to Halifax, I left behind my crappy record player and stereo with the intent to start fresh with a better system here. A few house repairs delayed the purchase of a new system, during which time I mainly listened to digital downloads on headphones or computer speakers.

Eventually I just cobbled together a decent home system with a mid-level receiver and a decent turntable. I don't go in for fussy audiophile stuff, mainly because I can't afford it, but even with mid-level equipment, when I finally put a record on after seven or eight months away from the format, it was like, "Oh shit, right. Music sounds like this." A record in reasonable condition, played on decent equipment, really does sound great.

You have a receiver for listening to the radio on your stereo system? Whoa, cool. How about a cassette deck? Or even better: a dual cassette deck? Eh?

I'm not any kind of knowledgeable connoisseur or vintage retro guy, but I'm old enough to remember the 1970s when people had those multiple-decked stereo systems in shiny silver with the turntable on top. All those complicated buttons and switches, the backlighting, the gauges and indicators...it was magical, visual poetry, and it still tugs on my heartstrings like few other designs do.

I mean, look at this thing:

http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j2...w.jpg~original

What does "Quartz Locked" even mean? Who cares! Such a casually authoritative descriptor was inscrutably arcane-sounding enough to be awe-inspiring to a twelve-year-old wistfully wondering why his own parents' stereo system was so lame by comparison.

Do you think twenty years from now there will be thirty-year-olds feeling the same way about MacBooks? Or first generation iPods?

Great news! I hope Sunrise can make it work

My arch-nemesis, Stanzmastertron3000, worked in a record shop iirc.

Spend a day in my shoes selling bottled water to upper-middle class people and you won't. :frog:

The system my parents rigged up when I was a kid, had a turntable, dual cassette deck, 5-disk CD player, radio tuner, and two different equalizers. Audio was provided by at least five speakers of various sizes and types throughout the room.

Today my mom listens to the same music through tinny laptop speakers. :shrug:

No.

Having mentioned that, speaker technology came such a lonq way eh?

My Bluetooth speaker has like a 5" woofer and the bass sounds fairly big for such a small speaker. Even the built in speakers on our t.v is good enough for us for movies.I wouldn't of said that a few years ago..The sound fills the room..Ditto for my Bluetooth portable speaker..

I get people pining for vinyl and appreciating that warm analogue sound you get from records, but gawd, I hope people don't miss those battery gobbling ghetto blasters, enormous speakers or back breaking console units from yesteryear. Those complicated looking receivers with those gadgety tone shaping buttons, which were basically subtle e.q switches marketed as sonic enhancers.."Loudness" was just a bass boost for example..The manufacturers really targeted that "tweaker" in the consumer.

Seems like a huge risk for such a niche business...

Oh, man, that's clearly all just a bunch of junk.

But even on a mediocre system, vinyl manages (IMO) to produce a sound that crates the most distinction between frequencies. Basically, I can easily hear more of what's going on, and easily separate out different instruments and tones. The music just sounds fuller and bigger.

I know exactly how you feel!

My dad feels the same way about cars from the 50s and 60s.

*delete*

No doubt.There's something to be said about that vinyl sound.

My point in an earlier post, was that nowadays listeners treat records with the care that they require. Vinyl isn't party or teenager friendly..Maybe that's why cassette's took over..Most of us didn't have great systems nor appreciated the care required to preserve them..We were careless with them. What I miss though, is the artwork in the interior of an album..Also, that whole trip down to Sam's or Records on Wheels to purchase an anticipated new release..Record stores nowadays are attracting more connoisseurs and not the masses like they used to.Before, the general population and the Audophiles shopped at the same stores, whereas now the masses just download from I-Tunes or whatever and play their music on computer speakers.

I love collecting music! My preferred format is CDs and I have a sizable collection that I've been building up since I was about 9 years old. Unfortunately, I began my collection just as CDs began their nosedive around the mid-2000s (the closure of Music World really seemed to symbolize this for me), so I've always had to deal with the doom and gloom that surrounds physical format media.

The closure of HMV in Canada does upset me. While they never (at least in my experience) had the greatest selection, they were a constant presence in malls, and therefore were the place your typical suburban kid, like myself, would encounter physical form music. They also had good deals, especially on the most popular releases and greatest hits compilations, which are great entry points into bands. I remember quite clearly buying the greatest hits of the Smiths on somewhat of a whim at my local HMV as a 15 year old kid. Today the Smiths are my favourite band, and I still get a sense of wistful nostalgia when I walk through that mall now, and see the spot where the HMV used to be (it left the mall a few years back already, leaving London with only one location).

I recently gave in to the vinyl trend as well, and purchased a cheap, $80 portable turntable. So far my collection stands at about 20, most of which I have purchased second hand, because new pressings are, in my opinion, way over-priced. I've yet to become much of an audiophile, so what attracts me to the format is the artwork (like CDs), the unique finds (e.g. obscure compilations), looking through musty stacks of records, and the listening "process" (sitting down and having to listen to the WHOLE album).

As for my favourite record stores I would have to echo the previous praise for Sonic Boom in Toronto. Definitely the best record store I've ever been to, with good selection and prices on BOTH CDs and vinyl. Plus the location is great, and it has just the right amount of hipsterness in my opinion! Almost always stop by when I'm in Toronto.

In London and Kitchener I mostly go to The Beat Goes On, which is a fantastic chain of used CD/DVD stores (and some new vinyl) in southern Ontario. Excellent selection, always very cheap (usually $4-8 for most CDs), and never had any problems with the discs.

While I'm glad to hear that Sunrise is taking over some HMV locations I've never been a huge fan. I find their selection to be poor, and prices to be fairly high. Like HMV prior to its demise they also seem to pander to pop culture trends, instead of focusing on the music. Nevertheless I wish them luck. As I said before, I think that it's important to have stores like that in suburban malls.

^ Sonic Boom is rad. Only record store I've been to that's better is Amoeba in Los Angeles.

Why not? I'm no Apple fanboy, but their products are quite iconic and have the ability to inspire and attract people towards computers and other technology in a way not many companies can today.

cassettes are making a comeback apparently...

Inflagranti are releasing their new album on cassette - from their facebook page

https://scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.net...e3&oe=59372263

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Elton John was spotted at Beat Street Records on Hastings today!
(photo credit Beat Street Records)

10 best record stores in Vancouver

http://dailyhive.com/vancouver/best-...s-in-vancouver

I never got into cassettes. I did get into DAT (look it up). That ended in tears..

Cassettes were big with noise rock bands about 7-10 years ago as well - they usually had them at shows. It was intentionally lo-fi to go with the sound. Even then they included a digital download link. I have a few somewhere in my place as they were usually cheap, $10 or less.

DAT was great in the studio. (I was involved in recording a number of albums in the 90's utilising DAT as the primary recording material) But other than superior audio over a traditional cassette, it had no justification for the extra cost compared to a CD.

As for mini-disc, now there's a short-lived market. I bought a copy of Pearl Jam's "Ten" on mini-disc with the full intention of buying a mini-disc player add-on to my Kenwood stack-system. I never got round to that purchase, and so never played the one mini-disc I've ever owned. Regrettably I gave it away with a pile of stuff to a charity shop.

Visage is releasing a best off with some limited edition cassettes

https://scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.net...bc&oe=5964B0F3

Ah yes, MD's! I had a Sony component MD for a couple of years. Never bought an actual release but I made about 10 mixed MDs. Never got around to buying a portable as CD burning and the iPod put an end to MD. I gave the lot to a musician friend, the only other person I knew who had embraced the technology.

Uh oh. I hope this doesn't destroy the local ones we have.

http://i.imgur.com/7FvdhIb.jpg?1

Hopefully, as a larger chain the selection won't be a draw away from Fred's - either cliche, or not enough local artists, or what have you.

We're getting another little one; should be good.

http://i67.tinypic.com/2l9pik4.png

http://www.thetelegram.com/business/...-johns-159003/

I've been collecting on & off for almost 20 years now... current collection sits at around 2500 albums

There are some decent record stores in Edmonton, the best one IMO in Record Collector's paradise on the west end. A bit of a hole in the wall but owned by a true enthusiast, plus they sell vintage audio gear as well.

I run an Akai AM-2600 amplifier from 1978, pushing through a set of vintage Cerwin Vega D-9 speakers on the front and DX-1's on the back. Turntable is a mid 80's top end Technics. This system is one of the many reasons I can't live in a condo

London has a number of great places to acquire vinyl.
Number one is probably Grooves, right downtown. Their new pressings collection has been expanding greatly. https://groovesrecordstore.com/
https://groovesrecordstore.com/image...torefront.jpeg

Second would probably be The Village Idiot, in Wortley Village. Huge collection, mostly used. https://www.facebook.com/TheVillageIdiotWortley/
http://static.panoramio.com/photos/large/18204030.jpg

There is a huge antique store a short walk from my house, which has many rooms of items sold on consignment. I pick up 3-4 albums per month. Often for a steal (they have everything, including wax cylinders, shellac 78 RPMs, giant amount of big band/jazz, and seventies cheeze.)
http://storage.lfpress.com/v1/dynami...=1352951917706
LFP