Vinyl Collector of the Day, Sandy Smith

[moonbeams]

um, the question was "stores in your hometown," so no need to take offense to his answer. He wasn't talking about the US.

[bill]

Remember Sandy lives in Scotland - the UK generally speaking has very few good record shops left - 10 years ago there was one in every town, now it's left to a few in big cities.

This is very true. There is only one independent record shop I've been to in Scotland that I'd actually recommend to anyone and I've visited a fair few.

Which one is it?

[daysineuropa79]

you guys in the states are so so lucky to have all those stores and thrift shops in your towns , here in the UK its as Sandy says , theres bugger all record stores any more , the odd hmv or zavvi megastore in the major cities but they dont stock vinyl,it really is as bad as what he says .

@ Bill - only record store in scotland he could be referring to would be Avalanche ??

[Guest markovianprocess]

This is very true. There is only one independent record shop I've been to in Scotland that I'd actually recommend to anyone and I've visited a fair few.

Which one is it?

Monorail in Glasgow (near the 13th Note). Lovely and helpful staff, great selection of new releases and I've found some pretty decent stuff in the used section before. I got the Operation Ivy self-titled picture disk for £5, and a Billy Bragg - Peel Sessions record for even cheaper. Their selection is a bit weird because they stock popular music, indie, punk, metal, post-rock, different types of dance music, jazz and reissues of classics all on vinyl.

I'd say it was worth a look, but as someone said above, it depends what my opinion (collector of about 3 years, 500+ records) means to you.

[bill]

Which one is it?

Monorail in Glasgow (near the 13th Note). Lovely and helpful staff, great selection of new releases and I've found some pretty decent stuff in the used section before. I got the Operation Ivy self-titled picture disk for £5, and a Billy Bragg - Peel Sessions record for even cheaper. Their selection is a bit weird because they stock popular music, indie, punk, metal, post-rock, different types of dance music, jazz and reissues of classics all on vinyl.

I'd say it was worth a look, but as someone said above, it depends what my opinion (collector of about 3 years, 500+ records) means to you.

Thanks a lot, it sounds cool, I'll be back in Scotland for a couple of months over the summer so I'll try and check it out.

It's pretty rare for me to go to any record shop and not find something.

[Guest afsdan]

Love Garden, Lawrence Kansas

greatest record store

[daysineuropa79]

very envious of your skids -scared to dance blue vinyl , very rare that one !

[silentgods]

Love Garden, Lawrence Kansas

greatest record store

that place is pretty awesome.

[controlthebleeding]

i can ALMOST back the no good record stores around. there are some decent ones, and some OK ones, but only a couple around the country i would call GOOD. and ive been around the country numerous times.

Its relative though. Kids who grow up with no record stores around, and get some pseudo-record store that specializes in mostly bongs and weed paraphernalia and gets a handful of records in, is going to think that a store that has 3 rows of punk records as a "good" store.

I cant tell you how many times ive been out of town and asked people for good record stores in the area, and actually went, and after going went......what a fucking waste of time, i dont see how ANYONE could call that a good record store.

There is a local store here that gets lots of raves, and people even on this board told me how awesome it was before moving here. I went and doubt i will ever need to set foot in again. There was a lot of 70s common records for 15 bucks, and maybe 2 used LPs in the indie/punk category. The new LPs were all over 20 bucks and either reissues of classic rock, or only the biggest mainstream indie releases. granted, thats certainly better than nothing, but its a far cry from a GOOD record store.

So i can see how coming from the 80s someone might say that there are no good stores anymore.

granted there are gems to be found everywhere, and pretty much every place is worth at least ONE trip to, but ive been to literally hundreds of record stores around the US and Canada, and id probably give the "great record store" distinction to maybe 5 stores.

the older you get though, the pickier you get, and you get frustrated with stores only carrying the more mainstream new releases, which is what most stores do, since thats not at all what the average older long time punk collector is looking for.

So a 35 year old who has been collecting records for 20 years is going to have a very different perspective on what constitutes a good store for them, as say a 16 year old kid buying his first few records and just discovering the tip of "independent" music.

I seriously need to go to Houston and have a beer with you.. i couldn't have said it any better. I can bitch about crap on here and only like 3 people will understand. Damn me being old.

If ebay wasn't around i think record stores would probably be a lot more fun to go to. Then again i've found some gems (at least in my mind) on there. When the newest limited watered down punk rock record is going for $60 i can find some early 90's born against record lot for $4.