by Joe Wallace

What follows is the press release I wrote up for Vinyl Road Rage #3, which hits the road this Thursday, April 21 2011. This year’s trip is going to be a real doozy, running from Chicago to Indiana, parts of Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan and back to Chicago.

Vinyl Road Rage is a blogging road trip covering vinyl record shops and related fun along the way. I have 31 record stores to hit along the trip–who knows how long it will actually take or how much good vinyl there is to be had?

I am on the prowl for rarities, soundtrack LPs, and good old-fashioned weirdness on vinyl. Vinyl Road Rage is a way to expand my collection of weirdness (I DJ with it as well as collect it for its own sake) and share some of the greatest record stores on the planet you AREN’T reading about on all those top ten lists.

Here’s the press release. The posts on Turntabling will be a bit spotty this week until I hit the road and start sharing my adventures and discoveries. Thanks for taking the journey with me…I look forward to getting feedback and comments on the trip!

Turntabling.net Vinyl Road Rage #3 Itinerary Announced

Turntabling.net, the Chicago-based blog covering all things vinyl, has announced the itinerary for this year’s Vinyl Road Rage–the cross-country blogging road trip dedicated to indie record shops, vinyl records, and the strange discoveries that can only be made on an extended road trip across America.

Since 2009, Turntabling founder Joe Wallace has hit the road for seven to 12 days per trip, blogging and photographing the record stores he finds along the way. The first Vinyl Road Rage went from Chicago to San Antonio, Texas. In 2010, the shops between Chicago and New York City got a look. This year’s Vinyl Road Rage is a bit closer to home, starting with the first stop in Joliet, Illinois and winding through Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Michigan.

Each day of the journey is packed with record store visits, photo ops, and blog posts about the good, bad and ugly finds along the way. Vinyl Road Rage covers everything from the stores themselves to the vinyl finds within from the rare and hard-to-find (obscure Italian horror soundtrack vinyl by Goblin, anyone?) to the utterly reprehensible (the Charles Manson vinyl record comes to mind.)

There’s plenty of kitsch to be blogged about, too–still sealed 8-track tapes, televangelists playing rock-and-roll, and all the Saturday morning cartoon nostalgia records you can shake a stick at. The stranger the vinyl, the better. Joe Wallace listens to it so you don’t have to.

Vinyl Road Rage kicks off Thursday April 16. Wallace has no set return date, but thinks the journey should last ten days. There are a whopping 31 record shops scheduled. The owners are largely unaware of their upcoming 15 minutes of fame in the Vinyl Road Rage spotlight. “I try to e-mail everyone in advance to let them know I’m coming, but that sort of thing often gets lost in the shuffle. I do love meeting the record store crews, regardless. They’re awesome and the whole reason why I can do this in the first place. Without them, we’d just be buying records online and that’s not nearly as much fun.”

Joe Wallace runs Turntabling.net and works as a freelance writer, editor and social media guru. “I couldn’t really do this if I had a traditional desk job. This trip is open-ended and I could be gone a lot longer than ten days if I needed to be…I’m grateful for free coffee-shop wi-fi and the iPhone. I get up early, get my work done, then hit the road for another day of vinyl obsessive blogging and buying.”

Wallace is available for media opportunities on Vinyl Road Rage–call 312-504-1264 to schedule or for more information.

The Vinyl Road Rage #3 itinerary is listed below. All stops are tentative and may be changed without notice.

TURNTABLING.NET VINYL ROAD RAGE #3 RECORD STORE ITINERARY

Disc Replay – 1701 North Larkin Avenue # 400, Crest Hill IL 47.0 mi –

Monaro Records 1309 Woodruff Road Joliet, IL 5.7 mi –

BackBeats 120 E. Sangamon Rantoul, IL  101 mi

Exile On Main Street 1 E Main St, Champaign, IL 16.7 mi

Parasol 303 W Griggs Street, Urbana IL  2.1 mi

Record Swap 114 E University Ave Champaign, IL 1.8 mi

Chart Records 131 North Vermilion Street Danville, IL 35.5 mi

Headstone Friends 1142 Poplar Street Terre Haute, IN 47807-4566 59.8 mi

Landlocked Music 202 North Walnut Street Bloomington, IN 58.9 mi –

Tracks 415 E Kirkwood Ave Bloomington, IN 0.4 mi

Ear X-Tacy 2226 Bardstown Rd Louisville, KY 40205 109 mi –

The Great Escape 2433 Bardstown Road, Louisville KY

Underground Sounds 2003 Highland Avenue Louisville, KY 2.4 mi

Moles Record Exchange 111 Calhoun Street Cincinnati, OH 45219-1526 102 mi

Everybody’s Records 6106 Montgomery Road Cincinnati, OH 45213 3.3 mi

Shake It Records 4156 Hamilton Avenue # 1 Cincinnati, OH 45223 9.4 mi

Everybody’s Records 6106 Montgomery Road Cincinnati, OH 45213

Omega Music 318 East Fifth St Dayton, OH 45402 47.3 mi –

Magnolia Thunderpussy 1155 North High Street, Columbus OH 70.8 mi

Roots 1357 N. High Street Columbus, Ohio

Used Kids 1980 N. High Street Columbus, OH 0.9 mi

Lost Weekend Records • 2960 N. High St. • Columbus, OH

Spoonful Records 116 E Long St, Downtown Columbus, Ohio 4.3 mi –

Ace in The Hole 1153 Kenny Centre Columbus, OH  8.9 mi –

Jerry’s Records 2136 Murray Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 196 mi –

Blue Arrow Records & Boutique 16001 Waterloo Road Cleveland, OH 44110 144 mi –

Record Graveyard 2926 Caniff Avenue, Hamtramck 182 mi –

Cousins Vinyl 13101 Eckles Rd Plymouth, MI 20.6 mi –

Underground Sounds 255 E Liberty St Ann Arbor, MI 22.6 mi –

PJs 617 Packard St Ann Arbor, MI 0.7 mi –

Corner Record Shop 1710 W Main St Kalamazoo, MI 99.9 mi –