Monthly Archives: September 2009

The Mad Vinyl Roadtrip Continues

Record Shops, , , , ,

stick it in your ear springfield missouri vinyl record store

By Joe Wallace

I am hiding out in the rec center at Central Bible College in Springfield, Missouri–blogging incognito and trying to get a full charge on the laptop before the born-again security staff sic the wolverines on me.

Today has been a day of disappointments and joy. Photos to come plus a full report but suffice it to say that large chunks of Springfield, Missouri are some of the ugliest stretches of endless strip malls you’ve ever had the misfortune to view. I stopped in three music shops—one had no vinyl whatsoever in spite of having the word “Vintage” in its name, another had a pathetic two bins worth of all-new releases from bands I really don’t care about (except the Misfits, perhaps, who were always fun in their heyday). However I struck paydirt with the ultra-friendly Stick It In Your Ear.

tuxedomoon ship of fools LP

Wes Nichols is the gent behind this VERY friendly store, and I highly recommend this place to anyone who wants to spend a couple of hours rifling through the stacks. There’s a large quantity of material here–hardcore collectors won’t be surprised by 75% of the titles, but I did manage to locate Tuxedomoon’s Ship Of Fools, which I hadn’t seen previously anywhere else.

I also scored Devo’s Greatest Misses on CD for the road, I needed a break from Big Youth, Morricone, Beck, and Big Black. What can I say, it’s been a long strange trip.

Tonight I plan to post some updates with more images including the uber-scary Shari Lewis LP I found and a picture disc I never, ever expected to be created for an album reissue that, well, makes me wonder who is BUYING this stuff. Besides weirdos like me, I mean.

The vinyl buying road trip continues. Vinyl Road Rage 2009 hits Joplin, MO next…I think. I didn’t hear good things about the shop I looked up so I might take a pass in favor of hitting Oklahoma next.

As I look around the room here, blogging away furiously, freshly scrubbed, 20-something faces stare at me. They know I’m not one of THEM, I’m not like the others. The girlies look slightly intrigued by my presence, the guys pretend to be indifferent while muttering “Praise the Lord”. I don’t know how much longer I can stay here before my cover is blown as an unrepentant libertine and non-trumpet player. More later.


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Record Exchange St. Louis Missouri

Record Shops

VINLY ROAD TRIP DAY ONE ST LOUIS 006by Joe Wallace

Record Exchange in St. Louis is one of those places a record collector can’t just GO to…a plan of attack is needed to maximize time and money. This store is so massive that it defies description. CDs are an afterthought, there’s a decently-sized DVD area, but the main attraction here is vinyl records and thousands of them.

The fact that the building this insanely cool record store is located in used to be a library only adds to its charm and buyer intimidation factor. As in, how much of my paycheck will I be parting with today? Maybe…ALL OF IT?

That depends–the 50s and 60s section alone is as large as most store’s entire collection of sale vinyl. You could get lost forever in the rock section–really a completely dated catagory as far as genres go–there really ought to be sub genres listed instead. “Bad Hair and Butt-Rock” “Jangle-Pop” and “Dylan’s Children” could all go on for miles. But instead, we’re stuck with “rock” everywhere you go. So be it.

Record Exchange has a decently-sized indie rock vinyl section with a good cross section of bands and titles–the usual suspects are all here; The Bambi Slam, China Crisis, Kajagoogoo, Lone Justice, Marshall Crenshaw, Wall of Voodoo, Hoodoo Gurus, you get the idea…but there were some really outstanding obscure finds for new collectors. Jaded types like me already have plenty of Pink Military Stand Alone and Slow Children, but if you haven’t got a stack of albums a mile deep yet, there’s plenty here for the indie/new wave/jangle pop lover.

In the soundtrack section I scored a copy of Breaking Glass by Hazel O’Connor and a good listenable copy of the Performance OST (yes, THAT Performance with Memo From Turner).

The shop has a small reggae section (one of the few places where it falls flat for me–I LOVE reggae/dub plates and there was only a small pile to rummage through unless I missed something, easy to do here though!) and for DJs and lovers of all things 12-inch single, there’s a large pile. I didn’t browse since I’m not into the 12 inchers much. Record Exchange has a staggering collection of bad Jesus records and show tunes. As a bad album art collector I was beside myself.

Record Exchange in St. Louis is definitely on my must-visit list, and it was great to make this the first stop on my vinyl road trip. I strongly recommend new collectors, indie music lovers, and sountrack fiends to hit Record Exchange. My obsessions were fed well.

Vinyl Road Trip Day One: St. Louis LP Frenzy

editorial, , , ,

VINLY ROAD TRIP DAY ONE ST LOUIS 027

by Joe Wallace

This is the view outside the famous St. Louis vinyl paradise, Vintage Vinyl–one of three stops on Day One of the first-ever Turntabling vinyl road trip from hell. It’s tough to choose name for this–Vinyl Road Rage 09 sounds like some dumbass MTV show, and Vinyl Road Trip sounds so bloody generic…whatever. The finds are the important thing.

And what finds there were! I’m on a bug hunt for the strange, the unusual, the unmistakably freakish and wrong…and a few dub and soundtrack LPs, too. One the freaky front, there was no shortage of material–who on EARTH thought THIS was a good idea?

VINLY ROAD TRIP DAY ONE ST LOUIS 016

I mean, sweet JESUS, this clown looks like he’s about ready to take some hostages and start screaming “DOG DAY AFTERNOON!”

And then there’s this little beauty, discovered in the “educational/how-to” LP section at Vintage Vinyl amid the typing instructional LPs and the “My Life In My Own Words” album by Douglas MacArthur. No commentary needed here, but I do want to meet the family that’s putting this idea into practice. And buy a half ounce off them:

VINLY ROAD TRIP DAY ONE ST LOUIS 030

I have plenty to write about both Vintage Vinyl and Record Exchange, both located in St. Louis, but I’ll save those for another post.  I just wanted to get something up here and say to all the new followers on Twitter and such THANK YOU FOR THE RE-TWEETS! I really appreciate it. To recap…I am now in full road trip mode, on a vinyl hunt that started out in Chicago and will go round trip via St. Louis (today’s leg), Springfield and Joplin Missouri, Oklahoma City and Norman OK, Dallas, Austin and San Antonio, Texas…whew!

If you know of any good indie record shops or places to buy vinyl along this route (I-55, I44, I 35), please drop me a comment and let me know, I’d love to take a side journey along the way!

Vinyl Buying Road Trip

editorial, ,

turntabling road trip

Today, the great Turntabling road trip begins–a long, winding journey by rail and by car in search of black wax platters-the odd, the unusual, and the obscure. Staring in Chicago, ending in San Antonio, Texas, the road winds through two Springfields (Illinois and Missouri), Oklahoma City and Norman, Dallas, Austin and finally San Antonio. There will be blog posts along the way and it should be an amusing voyage, to be sure.

The best part about a trip like this is the frequent stops, and if you know of an indie record store that definitely must be seen along the way (I-55 to I44, I-44 to I-35 is roughly THE journey, pretty simple, eh?) please drop a line in the comments section. This is a first for Turntabling, it should be an excellent adventure. More updates from the road!