Category Archives: Record Shops

Shake It Records, Cincinnati Ohio

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by Joe Wallace

By the time Vinyl Road Rage got to Cincinnati, I was ready for something crazy. Something big, consistently good, and a little overwhelming. I’d seen big. I’d seen good. But the cramped quarters of some of the smaller shops was starting to make me feel a little claustrophobic, and the biggest shops were heavy on the new releases. In short, I yearned for a New York City style record store in terms of size and selection (not price, to be sure).

And that is EXACTLY what I got at Shake It Records in Cincinnati, Ohio. Friendly, well-lit, and a massive collection of used vinyl that forces you to cancel your plans for the rest of the morning, slow down and take a serious look.

Don’t let appearances fool you. This picture shows nothing but compact discs and books–and what an AMAZING selection of books it is, too. This part of Shake It Records is deceptive as it doesn’t LOOK like a book store, but there are enough titles along the walls and above the CDs to qualify this as a genuine bookseller. But not at the expense of distracting you from why you really came here.

Like many of the most impressive New York City record stores, Shake It has a downstairs area stocked to the brim with well-organized, easy to browse vinyl. It is a bit overwhelming at first–where to start? My advice is to begin looking at the rarer titles along the walls. Behold:

But it doesn’t stop there. The obscurities, the weirdness, all the things I love best about vinyl shopping were all handed to me on a silver platter at Shake It.

Shake It is one of those stores you go out of your way to hit, and on top of everything else, it’s located in a GREAT part of Cincinnati with plenty of indie coffee shops and restaurants nearby. It was by far one of my favorite parts of the trip and I can tell you I will DEFINITELY come back to Shake It at my earliest opportunity. This store is clearly a work of love–every single inch of the place is a joy to shop. DO NOT MISS.

Ear X-Tacy, Louisville Kentucky

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Independent Record Store Reviews and moreOur coverage of indie record stores continues as Vinyl Road Rage heads into Louisville Kentucky for another look at the indie record shop scene there.

Louisville has a nice collection of stores along a single road, and while they aren’t close together, it does make them quite easy to find. Ear X-Tacy is one of Louisville’s largest (from what I could find) and there is definitely a LOT of vinyl on sale here. This store is MASSIVE!

Crate diggers have their work cut out for them, as there’s a lot of digging to be done. You’ll have to wade through some grandpa rock–probably more than your usual share of Journey, Dio, AC/DC and other tired old titles, but there are also plenty of new, fresh vinyl releases to drool over here.

Ear X-Tacy Louisville Record Store

Like many good record shops, Ear X-Tacy doesn’t limit itself to carrying vinyl and CDs;  there is a decent collection of books here including this extremely funny and oh-so-relevant volume critiquing today’s modern tattooed scene-rats in ways I’m sure would get the author lynched by trust-fund kiddies at Ivy League campuses all over the country. Behold:

Ear X-Tacy gets big kudos for offering vinyl listening stations–this is a very important part of the experience for a new-to-vinyl buyer who doesn’t know Milli Vanilli from Brian Eno, and even for those that DO, the ability to test drive an album is a major plus. Nice going, Ear X-Tacy. Those of us who might reject an album based on too much surface noise just as easily as a crummy set of songs salute you.

Yes, there are plenty of those goofy old CDs to choose from to0…not a bad option when you can’t find Nurse With Wound’s Rock and Roll Station on vinyl without paying out the wazoo for it…at the end of the day, some things must be heard no matter what format they are delivered on.

If you’re in Louisville Kentucky, have a look in Ear X-Tacy, but be prepared to stay a while. Fortunately, the records are all off the floor in regular displays, so no spinal or knee discomfort here! Thanks, guys….

–Joe Wallace

Underground Sounds Louisville Kentucky

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by Joe Wallace

One thing I like about doing Vinyl Road Rage–there are plenty of contrasts out there. Some indie record stores are massive, multi-story affairs that are mind-bendingly tough to sort through.

Then there are the smaller, scrappy indie record stores like Underground Sounds in Louisville Kentucky. They generally don’t take long to shop for a dedicated crate digger, but they do often yield plenty of rewards.

Underground Sounds, like many similarly-sized indie record stores, has an eclectic mix of old and new vinyl, and while

I didn’t find much in the way of soundtracks at all (one of my own obsessions) the jazz and soul lover doesn’t get left out

in the cold while the indie rock kids get all the attention. It’s a diverse collection. There is also a nice case crammed full of boxed sets, so collectors of these should definitely take a look.

Underground Sounds is cozy, well laid out, and easy to browse. I didn’t have a lot of time to spend here but thanks to an intelligent, customer-friendly layout I was able to get the gist of what they had fairly quickly–and that is a real bonus for short attention-span browsers, I’m here to tell you!

Of all the Louisville record stores I found on my trip, Underground Sounds was hands-down the best. Another place of similar size had nothing but grandpa rock and battered Linda Ronstadt albums, and larger spaces–while organized well–didn’t seem as fun to shop. Maybe I just like small, scrappy indies better?

Underground Sounds has my vote for Louisville Kentucky’s best indie record store for the overall experience. Nothing beats selection, organization and atmosphere combined. I’ll be back here.

TD’s Records and CDs, Bloomington Indiana

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This building houses several things including a coffee shop (much needed) and the most excellent TD’s Records and CDs, which celebrated 10 years in its basement location in 2010.

There’s a damn good reason this store has been around for ten years. It’s small, but intelligently stocked and caters to people like me who are in search of Coil on vinyl and related obscurities. I found new fewer than five vinyl LPs by Goblin including the Dawn of the Dead soundtrack and several other lustworthy items.

Many record stores try to offer something to the obscurity-loving crate digger. This store seems to specialize in the great finds rather than offer them as one-offs.

TD’s is a different sort of beast entirely. The store does not promote online, preferring word-of-mouth. And there’s a reason why that word of mouth is good–the shop is efficiently organized, well stocked and you can easily lose a few hours going through all the sections.

I found several titles I’d been searching for to no avail, and there is a great collection of avant-garde, experimental and otherwise left-of-center vinyl. New vinyl enthusiasts will find plenty to look over, too–TD’s strikes a very good balance between the old and the new.

And like all the great record shops I’ve hit on Vinyl Road Rage, TD’s is run by someone with a genuine love for vinyl. This is another one of those shops that makes shopping for records fun and keeps the spirit of record collecting alive. I would definitely drive all the way out from Chicago to visit TD’s again. The store is friendly, crammed full of great titles and a real joy to browse.

Just be careful coming down the steps–the sign does warn you, but know going in that you’re going to need that extra five seconds of caution. Most of the really awesome record stores have some kind of tricky entrance or exit–why is that? Never mind. Don’t break your face on the way in and you’ll have plenty of time to dig.

If you are a vinyl obsessive interested in the obscurities and have to choose between going across the street to Tracks and shopping here, I’d strongly urge you to choose TD’s. I could be remembering wrongly here, but TD’s has little to no grandpa rock (sorry, Mark Farner and Peter Frampton…well, not really sorry at all, actually) and while the shop may seem smaller by comparison, quality is the watchword here, not quantity.