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Albany NY vinyl shops? Watertown NY also!

stupidhead

stupidhead

aka Ratdogheads
Subscriber
This weekend we are road tripping to upstate NY and are going to spend Thursday and Friday antiquing in the Albany area. We have found some nice treasures in the general area (particularly Nassau) and wonder if there are any good used record shops in the general area. Lunch/dinner suggestions are welcome as well (we have a hotel on Wolf Rd.) and we are looking forward to Andy and Sons Importers for a nice sandwich.
Our final destination is Adams NY and may have some time on Saturday for vinyl shopping too, anybody know of any shops there? :D
 
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If you're taking the Thruway to 81N to get to Adams. HiOnFi in Syracuse has a good selection of records although their focus is on vintage gear. They're about 15 minutes from exit 34A on the Thruway.

http://www.hionfi.com/
 
Last Vestige - 173 Quail St, Albany, NY 12203
River St Beat Shop - 197 River St, Troy, NY 12180 (better of the 2 imo, nicer area, and other shops, 3rd st has some mid century stores)

If you have a sweet tooth, try Bela Napoli 721 River St Troy, NY
If you like Lebanese food, try the Beirut restaurant right near the Beat shop, their garlic paste is fantastic!
 
if you like mexican food ....

you may want to try El Loco on Madison and Lark - I went to undergrad in Albany ... too many years ago ... but it was amazing back then ... and apparently still going strong - the line will be out the door at dinner time so you may want to try it early!
 
Ted's Fish Fry is a must . There's one on Wolf road but I worked in the North Troy store as a teen in the 80s.
 
thanx for all the leads folks. I will check this thread from the road if anyone else chimes in with more ideas. I believe there is some garlic paste in our future.
 
stupidhead, we get a lot of travelers at our store and have an inventory of 5000 plus records. Stop in if you have the time.
 
truck99 said:
Last Vestige - 173 Quail St, Albany, NY 12203
River St Beat Shop - 197 River St, Troy, NY 12180 (better of the 2 imo, nicer area, and other shops, 3rd st has some mid century stores)

If you have a sweet tooth, try Bela Napoli 721 River St Troy, NY
If you like Lebanese food, try the Beirut restaurant right near the Beat shop, their garlic paste is fantastic!
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Not a fan of Last Vestige on Quail. The location in Saratoga is much better IMO (if it's still open). Albany used to have quite a few shops including the famous Worlds Records which sadly is closed. I think one of the dudes that owns Last Vestige used to work at World's back in the 80s. There used to be a place on Jay St just a few doors down from the head shop that used to be great but I believe that is also gone
 
I used to drive to Worlds Records from Troy, and before I was old enough to drive I'd take the bus to Music Shack on River Street in downtown Troy.
 
Seems like Last Vestige's business is mostly mail order. The stuff on the floor is common, over graded, and bit expensive. Last time there I walked away without buying. The store in Saratoga has seen tough times, moved to a little shop, not really worth the time unless there for another reason.
 
thanx again to all who had suggestions. We did not find a whole lot in Nassau, and we were into Albany/Troy mid afternoon. Went over to one more shop in Troy and then off to dinner. Went to The Beirut and they were "closed" that day. Then across the street to the Beat Shop, but they were about to close as well. Found some bbq place instead and had a decent meal. Probably should have just gone to Ted's Fish Fry, but really wanted to try the garlic paste! Maybe next time.
The following day we tripped over to Syracuse and did get to hionfi and very much enjoyed that store. Alot of great gear and vinyl, down to earth guys and generally good vibe all around.
 
stupidhead said:
thanx again to all who had suggestions. We did not find a whole lot in Nassau, and we were into Albany/Troy mid afternoon. Went over to one more shop in Troy and then off to dinner. Went to The Beirut and they were "closed" that day. Then across the street to the Beat Shop, but they were about to close as well. Found some bbq place instead and had a decent meal. Probably should have just gone to Ted's Fish Fry, but really wanted to try the garlic paste! Maybe next time.
The following day we tripped over to Syracuse and did get to hionfi and very much enjoyed that store. Alot of great gear and vinyl, down to earth guys and generally good vibe all around.
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So, wadja buy!??!
 
couple things

Hey Bob...right. We found a couple of records for the collection, the five on the left were from Hionfi. The Clapton CD boxset I found in some random "antique" shop in the Catskills on Sunday for $16. Also the ZZtop for $1.

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and when we were at Hionfi I had expressed an interest in this on the wall

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so Rod promptly took it down and gave it to me! We will be going back to visit these guys. A worthy destination for sure. See Rod or Bill!
 

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The best record stores are all the salvation armys :)

Albany used to have an awesome dance music record shop back around the turn of the millenium called sounds underground.

It was run by a bunch of DJs and was my heaven.

I would walk in there, grab a bunch of records that looked good, sit in the window with their headphones and a SL-1200 and pick me picks.

They had a big ole club speaker system set up that they were constantly listening to the new records coming in and you could hear them say things like "OH MAN I AM PLAYIN THIS ONE TONIGHT!" referring to the small event they would be djing at.

It was great, but then I think it burned down and honestly, didnt make enough money to survive.

He once showed me their sheet, it cost them like $7 to buy a record and they sold them for 10.
 
hionfi said:
Stupidhead,
Thanks for the plug, we're glad you had fun.
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No problem Rod/Bill. I only wish we had more time to spend there. I do know some folks in your area and have advised them of you as well!

Geoff (and Diane)

p.s. tried sending a private message, but system said you have no space. please clean out some old messages so I can send!
 
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