Split off from Rantology preorder thread
Online is great but my usual shops are:
Armageddon Shop in Providence RI
RRRecords in Lowell, MA
Newbury Comics around New England (mostly staffed by scenester scum)
Jelly’s Used CDs in Worcester, MA
a couple places I’ve been in Boston and Cambridge I can’t remember, one had a lot of TG shit.
Amoeba Music - AMAZING record store in east Hollywood. Two stories of every genre you can think of. Hundreds of thousands of New & used CDs, rare box sets, shirts, memorabilia…the only store I know of currently stocking Bryan Ferry posters (that’s right, I said Bryan Ferry).
Stinkweeds - AZ’s best indie/import record store. I probably completed my Nitzer Ebb CD single collection in that store alone. The owner is a hottie who got me into Kitchens Of Distinction back in '91.
ZIA Records - local record chain in Phoenix, AZ that has seen better days. They’ve become more corporate and less inexpensive in recent years, but back in ‘the day’ (late 80s-early 90s), they were the best. I bought anything/everything that was Wax Trax/Nettwerk/PIAS in that place. I remember a time when seeing a row of Testure CD3 long boxes and every Legendary Pink Dots CD ever made was no big deal.
1002
lakeshore record exchange - rochester NY - the only place around that carried any imports or industrial/punk cds and shirts. reminded me of generation records in NYC. it was heaven for me in high school (early 90s) but it turned to shit in recent years.
encore records - ann arbor - used store only, but they have a ton of boxsets, vinyl. dvds and so on. takes forever to go through their unorganized collection but you’ll always find something to buy. best part is since it is used only no cd is really over $7 and they always have a bunch of promos before the official release dates.
other music - NYC (don’t know if it is still there or still good).
Newbury Comics around New England (mostly staffed by scenester scum)
Everything is scenester/hipster scum but I was impressed by Newbury Comics in Boston. Great stuff and the staff knew a LOT about music. It seemed they were born to work in those stores. One of the best CD stores I went to in North America.
The best record store I have ever seen is “Mister Records”. 10 pounds for any new CD (cheap). They didn’t have shelves to store CDs. Everything was stacked from the floor to the ceiling. There was hardly room to move but you could find anything you ever wanted in there from the underground. If anything was available at the HMV nearby, they would stop stocking it. I think NME also commended their selection. I don’t remember too much but they had a sign on the door that said “If you pull out a charge card, we’ll kick your fuckin ass out the door”. They were very odd.
Tower Records in London too - they had their own big Industrial selection. Toronto started an industrial section but it was like 50 CDs and they were Metropolis Record releases.
Ha sweet I love ZIA Records in Arizona. Yeah they have become a bit ‘higher-class’ and stuff but they still have cool shit. I found numerous Wax Trax shit, rare singles, numerous cool posters/patches and even the Dessau self-titled cd. Good shite.
Ive heard of Amoeba too, my friend, she lives in Hollywood and says that plays fucking rocks as well, huge.
In Pasadena, California, theres this cool place called Penny Lane, theres like 3 of them around that area I think, theyre pretty awesome. They have a lot of odd imported stuff from bands like a lot of official 2 albums onto one cd type thing. I got the Beatles’ Revolver and Magical Mystery Tour on one cd and Depeche Modes’ Construction Time Again and Speak & Spell on one cd. Lots of limited edition versions of albums too likes Deftones’ black and red version of White Pony and Slayers God hates us all with extra tracks and stuff.
Anyone know of any cool music shops in Anaheim besides stupid Virgin and kinda lame Tower? I live right next to Chain Reaction (cool club/bar/ live music stuff place) to give you kind of a clue where Im at. I just moved here and desperately need my fix on anything Wax Trax, industrial, metal, or… cool used stuff.[sly][shocked]
Amoeba is indeed awesome, though I haven’t been to the Hollywood one, just the ones in Berkeley and S.F. I found so many good things there.
>sigh< I miss living in California.
Minneapolis has a few good stores. Couple chain like, but small local chains.
Down In The Valley - They have a lot of member sales and membership. Which can be good. They’ll order most anything in.
Cheapo - Carries a fairly good stock of new material, but also buys used. Can find some good things in there if you look.
Let It Be Records - Downtown Minneapolis. Great shop. I don’t get here often enough, but usually has everything. Things I don’t see anywhere else, I’ll find there.
Electric Fetus is supposed to be good too. Never been there though.
lakeshore record exchange - rochester NY - the only place around that carried any imports or industrial/punk cds and shirts. reminded me of generation records in NYC. it was heaven for me in high school (early 90s) but it turned to shit in recent years.
I used to go to Lakeshore all the time in college. One of the few good things about Rochester.
Jump on me all you want.
Overstock.com is easy to deal with, ships quickly, and processes your order without any unnecessary B.S.
All you rich, trendy, cool people can go make your sociological statements shopping in botique stores, showing off, looking oh-so-cool.
I don’t care.
Minneapolis has a few good stores. Couple chain like, but small local chains.
Down In The Valley - They have a lot of member sales and membership. Which can be good. They’ll order most anything in.
Cheapo - Carries a fairly good stock of new material, but also buys used. Can find some good things in there if you look.
Let It Be Records - Downtown Minneapolis. Great shop. I don’t get here often enough, but usually has everything. Things I don’t see anywhere else, I’ll find there.
Electric Fetus is supposed to be good too. Never been there though.
When I used to live in Minneapolis, some of those stores sold drug paraphernalia. (Long time ago–i can’t remember their names.)