Category Archives: Record Shops

Philadelphia Pennsylvania Record Stores: The Marvelous

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Philadelphia record stores are quite diverse, from the crate digging pleasures of the vinyl-only stores to the new-n-used modern feel of Philadelphia’s The Marvelous. Located at 208 South 40th Street, this is one hell of a record shop.

When I walked in the door, I was greeted by an impressive collection of empty, crushed beer cans and bottles. Far from making me cringe at the clutter, I felt envious of whatever event I had missed out on that created this post-modern sculpture of party refuse. A quick glance to the right reveals a large (for a record shop) performance space, which explains everything.

The Marvelous specializes in a range of new stuff, reissues and reissued obscurities–I scored big at The Marvelous with the vinyl reissue of Japanese freakout music by Flower Travellin’ Band, name-dropped in Julian Cope’s JapRockSampler and a holy grail record of mine ever since reading that lovely tome.

On the overhead while I was digging through the stacks of vinyl goodness,  the gent behind the counter had some Magazine playing which made the experience even more lovely.

There is a lot to love about The Marvelous–they’re one of those record stores (of which there are many) that make Vinyl Road Rage a joy to do. I couldn’t possibly have walked out of the shop with all the titles I wanted, and when the selections were small, they were still pretty comprehensive for the size of the genre.

I scored Gary Numan & Tubeway Army, Soft Boys and The Bongos plus the glorious reissues previously mentioned…it was quite difficult not to just load up the old credit card to the max in this shop…

I highly recommend The Marvelous, my only regret was not being able to hear what that in-store performance space sounds like–it had one of the more generous stage areas I’ve seen in a record shop–rivaled only by the late, great 33 Degrees in Austin which cleared out an entire section in the back end of the shop for bands to play. If you are in Philly, you owe it to yourself to check out The Marvelous.

Allentown Pennsylvania Record Stores: Double Decker Records

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Double Decker Records in Allentown Pennsylvania is a crate-digger paradise. The selections are excellent–once more the big winners are fans of post-punk, new wave and metal. But the vinyl weirdness category is also a strength of Double Decker Records…I walked out of this shop a very happy vinyl junkie.

Double Decker is another shop where the people working don’t mind telling a brother where to find more vinyl goodness–I got the down low on several other good indie record stores along the Vinyl Road Rage 2 route and it’s so great to encounter down-to-earth people willing to chat about other shops and all things vinyl. Double Decker, I WILL return!

There are plenty of rarities on the walls, as it should be in every good record store…and the collector-friendly selection includes the old left-of-center favorites:

The classics…

To the utterly reprehensible…

Double Decker Records, like many of the shops on my journey, had at least one section that was quite literally a disaster area of vinyl—in other words a cluttery hodgepodge certain to yield at least one irreplaceable treasure, usually of sentimental value rather than collector cash cow cred.

What a great shop! Comfortable and easy on the knees–no bending and stooping to get to the weirdo vinyl titles usually relegated to a crate on the floor or under a table someplace…everything is easy to access, with plenty of surprises. Bravo!

Pittsburgh Pennsylvania Record Stores: Jerry’s Records

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I have been looking forward to this particular post ever since I walked in the door of Jerry’s Records–the Pennsylvania record store that wins hands down for size, selection and overall coolness. And I mean that literally as well as figuratively–Jerry says his air conditioning bills are $1300 a month for this staggering collection of vinyl.

As you can see, when you get to Jerry’s, at 2136 Murray Avenue
in Pittsburgh PA, you’re in for quite a treat. The 78s section advertised on the door is sure to draw out the obsessives in that part of the vinyl junkie kingdom, but I thought the main store was more than plenty to keep me going–no need for me to obsess over a whole new undiscovered country yet.

A newcomer to the store really cannot prepare themselves for the volume of vinyl here. If you’re into post-punk, 80s new wave and related sounds you will spend all of your money and all the money you’re GOING to make in the next year at Jerry’s. No contest.

And the prices are extremely reasonable, I might add.

Soundtracks were a bit frustrating to wade through as there was a filing system at work there that completely escaped me. I was looking for the horror stuff, naturally, but found so much broadway mixed in with the other titles that it made things quite difficult. The soundtracks section was full of the old standbys and in the short time I was able to spend back there (in a labyrinth all its own) I couldn’t locate anything I didn’t already have–the curse of the collector rather than an indictment of Jerry’s, really.

Don’t go into Jerry’s Records in Pittsburgh for the first time if you aren’t able to spend at least 90 minutes. Seriously. You WILL be late for whatever appointment, rendezvous, tryst or meeting you’ve set up for the day. There is too much, too too much here to skim over or simply glance at.

What I loved best about Jerry’s, aside from an excessively fussy classification system that lists MANY bands by name (even obscure ones that might be better in the general alphabet sections) is the attention to one of my favorite genres—weirdness on wax.

Jerry’s breaks down the weirdness into subdivisions I’ve never found in any other record store–I was soooo grateful to find the strange vinyl handled as lovingly as all the other genres—no short shrift given to THESE records just cuz nobody but me wants to buy them. I mean, really–they listed all the weird records with ANIMAL COVERS.

Jerry’s Records was one of my absolute favorite record stores on the entire Vinyl Road Rage 2 trip. I say you’ll be hard-pressed to find another shop that is as large, exhaustively stocked, and fussed over. Jerry himself is on duty at the store, which tells you something about how he likes to run things…and he told us he’s got a whole warehouse of vinyl that hasn’t even made it into the shop yet, so you know this place isn’t running out of the good stuff anytime soon.

I highly recommend Jerry’s, in case you couldn’t tell from all the breathless hype. I will be back there and soon, I hope.

–Joe Wallace



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Vinyl Road Rage is Off the Road

Record Shops, vinyl road rage

It’s official, Vinyl Road Rage is off the road. It was a HELL of a trip–25 record stores between Chicago and New York City. There are still plenty of record store posts from the trip to come, including Philadelphia, Allentown, Toledo, more Pittsburgh, and New York City. But the road trip itself is done. I am back in Chicago, safe and sound.

Many, MANY thanks to all who retweeted, posted on Facebook and blogged about Vinyl Road Rage. There were many highs, a few lows, and a LOT of great record stores along the way.

Quite possibly the largest, most daunting and overall amazing record store of the trip was the mighty Jerry’s Records in Pittsburgh. It was absolutely staggering in every way and you’ll marvel at the size and scope of the place when you read the review.

Biggest disappointment of the trip? Fun as it was, I would have to say that from a vinyl junkie’s point of view, the Andy Warhol Museum (also in Pittsburgh) was a major letdown–from the lack of a return call when I phoned to get press access to the Warhol archives to a serious neglect of Warhol’s involvement in the music business from the Velvets to the Rolling Stones.

I had high hopes for the Warhol Museum, but maybe it was just a case of bad timing…I certainly hope so. I loved the place, vinyl gripes aside, and will be very happy to go back.

As I mentioned, there are MANY more posts bearing the Vinyl Road Rage logo to come…just wait til you see the record shops I found in NYC. I’ll post many more of these record shops this week, but next week the remaining posts will go up combined with our usual WTF bad album covers, vinyl blogs to watch and other features. THIS week, it’s ALL about the Road Rage.

–Joe Wallace