Category Archives: vinyl road rage

Mishawaka, Indiana Record Stores: Michiana Used Music and Media

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Mishawaka, Indiana is a good place to stop on the way out of Chicago. Just two hours out of the city, you can stretch your legs, top off, buy an Indiana lottery ticket and keep your fingers crossed.

But don’t cross your fingers over finding gigantic piles of rare vinyl at Michiana Used Music and Media. Sadly, the picture below shows the sum total of all the vinyl you can sift through here–two bins with some above and some below.

It wouldn’t be so disappointing for a hardcore vinyl junkie–or even a newbie collector–except there was not much here except for the usual pile of vinyl cast offs from every collection in the world. The requisite AC/DC albums, all the Joe Walsh records you didn’t want alongside the couple you already have. Show tunes nobody listens to. And isn’t there ALWAYS a Fleetwood Mac record in there?

I really wasn’t expecting too much from this first stop on the vinyl road rage trip as the shop doesn’t present itself very well online–an afterthought really, but I WAS amused by a couple of things here. You may not be able to locate that copy of Danny Elfman’s Nightbreed soundtrack here, but if Barry Manilow makes you shriek in ecstasy, you have DEFINITELY found your new home away from home:

And I WAS amused/horrified to find this reissue of the Blind Faith album with one of the most crass and possibly illegal covers in recorded music history. At least tone-deaf Satan Metal bands like Witchfinder General have the decency to put topless women of LEGAL AGE on their covers. Not so with Clapton and company. Those at work should probably NOT click “read more” now. Continue reading Mishawaka, Indiana Record Stores: Michiana Used Music and Media →

Vinyl Road Rage 2: The Journey Begins

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The road rage begins! The Turntabling quest to find cool indie record shops, interesting vinyl, and eye-grabbing album covers good and bad.

The trip started out saying ta-ta to Chicago and getting right over to Indiana for a visit to Michiana Used Music and Media–I’ll be posting reviews of each stop along the way so each individual record shop can get its own 15 minutes in the spotlight. The good, the bad and the ugly will all be here…

The first day ends in Cleveland, with Day 2 headed to Akron, Youngstown and Pittsburgh. Stay tuned for record shop reviews on Michiana Used Music and Media, Blue Arrow Records in Cleveland, Music Saves in Cleveland, and points east.

Vinyl Road Rage 2 Begins Thursday August 12 2010

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I’ve been writing about this for ages, it seems, but the time is FINALLY here. Vinyl Road Rage 2: Chicago to NYC begins on Thursday. The road trip starts with the steeplechase that is getting out of Chicago itself, and the first stop of the journey is Michiana Used Music and Media, which promises used vinyl as well as DVDs and compact discs.

That first stop is only an hour or so outside the city of Chicago, and then a few more hours of driving on the first day to the next stop. I’ll be blogging the entire trip and while the entries may show up at odd hours, rest assured you’ll be taking the trip with me. There will be tons of photos, posts, even some podcasting from the road–a first for Turntabling.

Vinyl Road Rage Two goes all the way to Manhattan, provided there’s no alien abductions or zombie attacks along the way. If you’re digging the posts, please do us a favor and pass them along to your other favorite vinyl bloggers–we’d love to spread the word far and wide about the 12-day trip.

My journey includes a stop at the Andy Warhol museum in Pittsburg in hopes of catching some images of Warhol’s contribution to vinyl. Keeping my fingers crossed on that one.

And in case you’re interested, here’s a map of the journey. It’s not QUITE complete–there are a couple of vinyl destinations in NYC I haven’t added yet to the itinerary, but it’s more or less the whole thing:



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Chicago Record Stores: The Old School Records

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I have a sentimental fondness for the Chicagoland indie record store The Old School. Located at 7446 W. Madison Forest Park, The Old School Records put me back on the collector’s game in 2005 after being out for well over three years. I’ve found more than a few lovely vinyl titles here including part of the Aphex Twin Analord series, Danny Elfman’s Corpse Bride OST, and one of my favorite slabs of vinyl by The Orb, Komplott–which I like to play DJ sets with at half speed and mashup Harold Budd under.

The Old School Records does have one thing going against it–there is a large amount of vinyl on the floor and I’ve given myself plenty of grief on hands and knees crate digging here. I strongly recommend a beer after digging through those floor-based stacks–a muscle relaxant is a very good thing indeed. Ergonomically speaking, The Old School isn’t good on knees or spinal columns more than two decades old.

The Old School has a collection of old cassettes, too. I just so happen to have a cassette deck in my vehicle–the mighty Vinyl Road Rage machine christened last year as the DreadMobile, so this collection would be tempting if I didn’t already have an amusingly large number of dusty old tapes.

I’d rate this shop as a great place for new collectors to start out, especially if you’re looking for post-punk or want to fill holes in your new romantic collection. I also found a small pile of my favorite genre, weirdness on vinyl, and the soundtracks section is worth the spinal injury you’ll get–I scored the soundtrack to A Zed and Two Noughts and some other things I’ve never seen elsewhere. Nice.