Record shops

[rousseau]

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).


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.


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.

[SpongeG]

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.



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

[niwell]

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/

[rousseau]

Originally Posted by niwell

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

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.

[rousseau]

Originally Posted by niwell

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.

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

[niwell]

Originally Posted by rousseau

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.

[rousseau]

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.

[niwell]

Originally Posted by rousseau

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"

[SignalHillHiker]

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



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.


Katie and Ilia 1 by Zach Bonnell, on Flickr - REPARTEE at Fred's Records ... ; (c)rebfoto by rebfoto, on Flickr

Matthew 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/

[LeftCoaster]

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

Originally Posted by LeftCoaster

[rousseau]

Originally Posted by LeftCoaster

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

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

[WhipperSnapper]

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.

[Architype]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

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

...

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.

[DrNest]

Originally Posted by Architype

I guess nobody cares that HMV is closing, but it's a sad event.

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.

[SpongeG]

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

[Razor]

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.

[Drybrain]

Originally Posted by Razor

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?"

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.

[rousseau]

Originally Posted by Drybrain

Eventually I just cobbled together a decent home system with a mid-level receiver and a decent turntable.

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:



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?

[vid]

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

Originally Posted by rousseau

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.

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

Originally Posted by rousseau

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?

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.

Originally Posted by rousseau

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

No.

[Razor]

Originally Posted by vid

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

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.