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Have you ever planned a vacation around record stores?

winters860

winters860

AK Subscriber
Subscriber
I love record stores. I've been fortunate enough to work at a couple and I delight in finding new ones and seeing what they're all about.

A day of record shopping for me usually ends when I've spent roughly 150% of the money I'd allotted to spend on on CDs and LPs, rather than when I've seen everything there is to see at a given store or specific part of town.

But I'm thinking that if I ever have the disposable income, I'd like to plan a day trip to Bloomington, IN because I've heard they're particularly blessed. Do record stores shape travel destinations for any of you? Do you have any particularly good stories or regional advice?
 
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Never actually planned a vacation around them but a couple of weeks ago we (the family) took a vacation to NYC and while touring Manhatten on one of those open air tour buses we were going through places like Greenwich Village, East Village, SOHO and I saw at least a dozen small little funky record stores.

I think I was probably the only one that noticed and it took all I had not to want to jump off the bus and check them out! (Ohhh, I could only imagine what was inside.)

Somehow I think the whole fam damnily wouldn't have understood.
 
Jozmo,

Indeedy some good shops in that area. I worked in Manhattan for a bit.

Sad thing- did you notice how many of the record shops have closed in Boston the last few years? This year has been especially brutal.

Mars records is gone. Smash City is gone. Mystery Train is gone. The big BU area In Your Ear is gone. Other Music is gone. Record Hog is gone. Disc Diggers is gone. The Allston Mall is gone. Diskovery is gone now too, I think.

I was mapping out an AK get-together when I started noticing 'em droping like flies.

I still may try to put a fall Boston record haunt together, but the pickin's are indeed getting slim...
 
No, but I've certainly mapped out the locations of record stores in & around many of the cities, etc., that I have visited. NYC was always an adventure, used to be more expensive, ebay has sort of corrected that situation. Still, my best "vacation record shopping" experiences have occurred in Chicago and in San Francisco/Oakland. Record shopping in LA at record stores has been lousy. Yes, lousy.
 
winters860 said:
But I'm thinking that if I ever have the disposable income, I'd like to plan a day trip to Bloomington, IN because I've heard they're particularly blessed.
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Lookup a place called Dharma Emporium if you get into B-town. I hope he is still there, its been about three years since I was there. A real throwback to the sixties and one place that is a must for LP hunters. Another good one just down from Dharma Emporium and is called Tracks. IIRC the street they are located on is Kirkwood Avenue. And there plenty of others in town also, as you probably know.
 
in LA

there is a tredasure trove of stores that will yield great buys. ferinstance last evenining:

on concord:

monty alexander/ray brown/herb ellis-triple treat-4.99

L.A.4-watch what happens-3.99

on pablo:

basie jam at montreaux live

zoot sims/harry sweets edison-just friends-1.99

ray pizzi conception-1.99

oscar peterson-history of the artist-2LP set-oscar/ r brown/b.kessell/h ellis/sam jones etc-4.99

on verve:

oscar/ray/ed thigpen-the sound of the trio-live-5.99

walter wanderly trio-cheganca-1.99

on fantasy:

kenny burrell-up the street, round the corner, down the block-4.99

on ecm/warner:

keith jarrett-clestial hawk-1.99

all in all, not bad, eh?

and there are quite a few other stores besides CD Trader, where i did my raid last eve.
 
Vacation, no. Day trip, or when I was in the neighborhood visiting another store first, oh, yes. :yes:
 
thedelihaus said:
Jozmo,

Indeedy some good shops in that area. I worked in Manhattan for a bit.

Sad thing- did you notice how many of the record shops have closed in Boston the last few years? This year has been especially brutal.

Mars records is gone. Smash City is gone. Mystery Train is gone. The big BU area In Your Ear is gone. Other Music is gone. Record Hog is gone. Disc Diggers is gone. The Allston Mall is gone. Diskovery is gone now too, I think.

I was mapping out an AK get-together when I started noticing 'em droping like flies.

I still may try to put a fall Boston record haunt together, but the pickin's are indeed getting slim...
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Paul,
I was just at IYE on Comm. Ave. a month ago. Is it gone now?
Well, there is still Stereo Jack's (I think?)
 
Mystic said:
No, but I've certainly mapped out the locations of record stores in & around many of the cities, etc., that I have visited.
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Like mystic, I tend to "reverse engineer" the vacation - wherever we go, I grab the yellow pages and search thrift stores and record shops. :D
 
I always look for vinyl on my business trips. I was in the Music City (Nashville) last week and hit a few stores with no real luck. Not much besides dingy 60s country LPs. Think George Jones back when he had his brush cut and all the LPs have ring wear and numerous scratches.

I did not make it to Ernest Tubb's Record Shop where rare country rules, though, so I'm not writing the city off yet.
 
Not yet :D

If anyone is in The St. Louis area we have two really nice shops for sure, one that used to be very nice but is more into cd's and dvd's these days and one out in St. Charles that always was a treasure but I have not been there for a few years.

The Record Exchange is an old city library converted to a record shop that also sells vintage gear(although the prices are a bit steep on the gear). They have a massive amount of records and an entire room dedicated to 45's if you're into them.


Euclid Records has become my favorite for selection, price and LP condition

Vintage Vinyl used to be tops around here but they are now more interested in CD's and DVD's than vinyl. I bet they change back w/ the new found intrest in vinyl that the younger kids have.
 
I once planned a trip for my girlfriend's birthday to Santa Barbara because I found a SX-1280 in so called 'mint' condition in Hollywood. We left SB early so we could make it down to HW. I didn't mention anything about it to her until we were in LA. But of course the whole weekend I was dreaming about it. :D Needless to say, she put it all together and was not happy about having our 'romantic' vacation based around a stereo. LOL. Good times. :thmbsp:
-Derek:music:

PS, the SX-1280 was a piece of **** and I felt kinda bad about the whole thing after seeing that turd of a reciever for $500. :thumbsdn:
 
Book stores, yes, but not record stores. But I always look for the local seconds shop (both music and hardware) when I go for a walk around a new town.
 
No, but I have planned vacations around two "Jam Cruises". Cruise ship with 20+ bands and their gear on-board. Every day was 12+ hours of non-stop jamming.

The week of 9/15 I'm heading to Portland OR for a few days of bumming around, including stops at the local record shops.
 
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