< "My 3 Songs" for Tuesday | Main | The Stream 04/16/08 >

Do You Still Go "Record" Shopping?

Posted at 7:49 PM on April 15, 2008 by Mark Wheat (9 Comments)

Record Store Day is coming up on Saturday. There's tons of special giveaways, hand outs, performances and releases happening to coincide with this, a day to pump the peeps who are still trying to make a living out of selling music in a store! Some bands are finding crazy ways to get involved, like Menomena's Foosball Challenge!

I'm getting involved by helping Keri Miller put a show together for this Friday's 'MidMorning'. Do you still like going to the store to buy music, why? I'd like to include some of your stories about fave record stores...in-stores, the counter staff, the smell! Maybe we'll get time to cover the resugence of vinyl sales, did you see Chris Robert's story? Then tune in and call in Friday at 9a.m. on KNOW 91.1FM and then go to your fave store on Saturday!

Comments (9)

I love spending an afternoon flipping through vinyl at Cheapo, just waiting to find the buried treasure. And-- getting a little giddy when I find something I've been looking for. I've gone as far as holding up my find and giving a little "whoo-hoo"! I did that last week when I finally found a copy of The Byrd's "Sweetheart of the Rodeo".

I can't imagine shopping at a large, corporate chain and having the clerk say, "Hey nice finds!". No way, I'd just get the old, "Have you signed up for our ___ ___ card yet?"

Posted by Jill Riley | April 15, 2008 11:01 PM

I love shopping at Roadrunner Records in south Minneapolis. You can find a lot of old records there, plus all the new bands who are putting out vinyl.

I still buy vinyl because it's so enjoyable to put on at home. My friends love it when they come over and I've got one spinning on the turntable. It's like I put a log in the fireplace--warm and special.

Posted by Christina Schmitt | April 16, 2008 9:04 AM

I love the sound of vinyl and by far don't own enough of it.

My biggest challenge is that I want the best of both worlds: portable and great sounding. I find myself spending money on Itunes for two reasons: instant access to a large selection of music and I am on the go a lot. However I then want to have the stuff I really love on vinyl becuase the sound is so much better.

I think I would buy much more vinyl if I could find an easy way to convert those albums to a digital portable format to use on my ipod. I would love some recommendations for a user friendly program/device for converting the tunes. I use an Imac G5 so anyone with recommendations please post a link or shoot me an email at the_mighty_mighty_dr@mac.com.

Thanks all, and remember if you are on this site and haven't donated to this most awesome of services please keep MPR strong and running!

Posted by Damon Runnals | April 16, 2008 9:05 AM

I still own a lot of LPs, but I haven't purchased any vinyl in ages. I think my last vinyl purchases were Freur's "Doot Doot" and Bram Tchaikovsky's "Funland" because I had a hankering for a few songs from my youth and they are not to be found anywhere else, on CD or iTunes.

My big record shopping days were in high school in the '80's. I used to blow my entire paycheck from my dishwashing job on records. Growing up in the suburbs of Minneapolis, all we had was Musicland at the local mall. Getting a chance to go to Northern Lights and Oarfolkjokeopus was like going to Mecca. It was a funky, strange land, with huge posters of rock stars, and mountains of records. I was always in awe of those stores.

Eventually we were lucky enough to have Third Stone Music and later, Harpo's/Hot Licks in downtown Hopkins. I used to spend hours and hours in those stores and picked up some pretty great stuff, plus I learned a lot from the guys behind the counter. I got to know a few one guy at Harpo's pretty well. While all the rest of my classmates were hanging out at the football game, I'd spend my time perusing the racks there. I pretty much memorized the whole store stock.

And, It was by hanging out at Harpo's that I first learned about REM and other great bands. I was well into synth-pop at the time (Gary Numan, Ultravox, Devo, etc.) and I'll never forget hearing the "Chronic Town" EP for the first time. It spun my head around. That opened the door for all sorts of new adventures in music.

The other bonuses were if I was curious about an album, the guy would open it up and play it for me. And, when Harpo's sadly closed, because I had been such a good customer, I got half off all my final purchases, and they even threw in some albums that I had longed for but couldn't afford previously. The one I remember most vividly, and still own, is "Neuromantic" by Yukihiro Takahashi from Yellow Magic Orchestra. It had a song "Drip Dry Eyes" that I loved because it sounded like Roxy Music and Andy McKay, the RM sax player played on it.

I still prefer to shop for my music in the stores be it CD's or vinyl. I need the tactile part of buying music, holding the jewel case or staring at the album covers. I love Roadrunner, Cheapo's, Eclipse, and Down in the Valley for my shopping fixes.

Posted by Frick | April 16, 2008 10:15 AM

Goodwill is hands down my favorite place to find vinyl. The location in Apple Valley seems to be the cheapest with most of their records being 99¢. If frees you up to buy more off-the-wall and silly things. I have found a great Barbershop Quartet competition record and a copy of a Weavers album. It takes a little doing to sift through the Christmas, Classical and, Polka stuff but that's half the fun, right?

Posted by Derek | April 16, 2008 11:39 AM

There is a definite difference in sound quality between vinyl and CD's. Vinyl sounds better. That being said, there are many disadvantages to vinyl. You can't take vinyl with you in the car, a hike, bike, or anywhere for that mattter. Vinyl also has to be treated with such care, making listening while drunk very dangerous...very easy to scratch vinyl when when not at full capacity. The last disadvantage is it's two-sided. Every time you want to listen to a record start to finish, you have to stop and flip the thing over, ruining any momentum the record had going as well as creating another opportunity to scratch the record.

If I was a wealthy man, I'd buy both vinyl and CD's, but since I'm not I have to do a cost-benefit analaysis....and after that....vinyl loses out.

Posted by Mark S. | April 17, 2008 8:50 AM

I'm 25, and just bought my first vinyl the other day at a show. I'm late to the vinyl resurgence, I'm pretty sure. All these bands seem to realize that many people hate CDs, won't shell out for them anymore, but still want the ability to have music on their computer. And with so many ways to illegally find mp3s out there, they have to go old school to give kids any enticements to lay down cash for merch...

so a lot of these bands offer free download codes of their album when you buy it on vinyl (ex: The Tapes n' Tapes record I bought last week). So you don't sacrifice portability (or the ability to hear the music when too drunk to put the needle on).

MY problem is I don't have a record player. I was relying on my grandma's old record player as a hand-me-down, but when I talked to her about it, it sounds like the turntable is integral to the entire piece of giant furniture it's attached to. Ugh. So now I have to find one on a shoestring budget if I'm to have any hope of playing records at home!

If anyone knows a good way to find a cheap/decent-quality record player, I'd be happy for the guidance! I'm a total noob.

Posted by Alison | April 17, 2008 9:27 AM

I still go record shopping - mostly the VFW shows, Roadrunner, the Fetus and Treehouse - because I must! It's etched into my DNA. I worked at the Wax Museum '83 - '86. I have countless funny memories of those years, but I can name 2 local record store owners who might dis-own me if I blogged about their shenanigans. My favorite memories are the little things like being able to smoke at work (record stores used to have a distinct combination smell of dirty ashtrays, mold, incense, and unwashed clerks). But the best was knowing people like the late Matt Marcus. I worked at the West Bank Wax with him. I submitted that story to "Great Moments in Rock 'n' Roll" and Joel Orff turned it into a sweet comic. It lives here:

http://www.jorff.com/rock/WBWax.html

Posted by Lynn | April 17, 2008 10:24 AM

I grew up in a house full of music. Vinyl, Cassette, CD...you name it, we had it. My dad was at the helm of this music-addiction and I could tell you a million record-related stories here. But there's one that rises above the rest. One Christmas Day afternoon my father suggested that we don our jackets and scarves and walk as a family around Lake Calhoun and pay Cheapo Records a visit. We had spent the past day and a half overstimulated with large dinners, opening gifts and non-stop family time, so the opportunity to get out was an easy sell. I remember it being a mild Dec. 25th but we were still cold enough after reaching Lake St. that we had to stop in at Cafe Werd (now Barbette's) for coffees and cocoas. Finally arriving at Cheapo, we broke into our own private hunts. I can't remember what anyone else got. But I bought "Revival" by Gillian Welch, a record I still can't get enough of.

Posted by Josiah Titus | April 17, 2008 10:55 PM

April 2008
S	M	T	W	T	F	S
		1	2	3	4	5
6	7	8	9	10	11	12
13	14	15	16	17	18	19
20	21	22	23	24	25	26
27	28	29	30

Master Archive

	E-mail this page
	Print this page
	Submit to Digg
	Save to Delicious
	Share
	Audio help

Do You Still Go "Record" Shopping?

Comments (9)

Post a comment