Category Archives: Record Shops

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.

Criminal Records, Atlanta Georgia

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criminal-records-atlanta-little-five-points

Ahh, Criminal Records…I haven’t been there since the mid 90s when I was kicking around that part of the country on and off, but I am quite pleased to see they are not only alive and kicking but have also branched out and gotten even cooler. Criminal Records is in the alt-culture magnet known as Little Five Points, arguably the coolest part of Georgia, hands down.

I remember visiting family in Atlanta at the time and hearing them talk derisively of Little Five Points as “the place where all the freaks hang out”. I knew that meant good things for me and bad things for them…I forced ’em to show me Little Five Points and laughed inwardly at the obvious discomfort of those not really used to cool record shops. What did they expect, Gershwin tunes on the overhead and posters advertising another run of 42nd Street? If you’re in the area, I strongly urge you to go to 1154-A Euclid Ave NE, Atlanta, GA 30307. The store has moved from when I knew it, but the rave reviews Criminal Records gets indicates they are still the coolest shop on the block.

Turntabling Records Presents GOOP “Synthetic Reasons”

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goop-synthetic-reasons

From deepest Texas comes GOOP. The result of a toxic waste spill mixing with a nuclear radiation leak, GOOP presents a mutated new wave/punk sonic attack that calls directly back to early DEVO, Fad Gadget, and The Cars.

Goop’s first album is Synthetic Reasons, 11 absolutely mad tracks featuring the vocal stylings of Max Trash and Eddy Current, plus band mates Billy Lazer and Mick Quark. During the recording of Synthetic Reasons, Billy Lazer claimes to have played at least one note on every synthesizer ever made. The album is described as “new wave for the Goop Age” and will thrill any fan of old new wave or today’s new wave redux bands like Nancy Boy, The Prima Donnas, Epoxies or The Dials.

Turntabling Records is proud to present Goop’s Synthetic Reasons, soon to be available on iTunes, Amazon, Napster and elsewhere. It is now available for immediate download and look for additional information on the band, the music and the Texas indie scene coming soon to this space.

Track listing for Synthetic Reasons includes:

1.  Prom Night Overdose

2. Nuclear Xmas

3. Mutations

4.  Life

5. Wraparound Shades

6.  Do It

7. Negative Capability

8.  Space Voyage

9.  Quitting Time

10.  Styrofoam!

11.  Theme From Goop


Goop Synthetic Reasons is copyright 2009, Turntabling Records/Turntabling.net.

Obama Vinyl? Not Quite

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president-obama-happy-new-day-shirt

Just for laughs, I googled “Obama Viny Record” to see what would come up. Lo and behold, this goofy bit of President Obama kitsch, just in time for Inauguration Day. It’s sold at Zazzle.com and comes in a variety of styles from slacker grey long sleeves to fitted.

The reason this image is lumpy is because I used the “muscle tee” style image from the Zazzle site. I have seen plenty of other “album” style shirts before, but this has got to be the one with the most cheese. Kitsch is fun, so I can’t bash this TOO much, especially in light of the OTHER shirts I found while surfing around for Obama vinyl. Like the “Jews Against Obama” shirt. According to Gothamist.com this shirt costs a staggering $250 and was designed by a guy who doesn’t like Obama for a variety of personal and political reasons, including that Obama’s middle name is Hussein. I am sure you can draw your own conclusions here. In crayon, if need be.

You can see a picture of this guy on the Gothamist post. In this photograph he appears to be the kind of person you find at record conventions who refuses to listen to The Damned because they were “too commercial” compared to the Sex Pistols. You know the type–the kind of dude who gets three beers in him and starts yammering away about how nobody understands his “genius”.

Yeah….riiiighhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhht.