Category Archives: Record Shops

Moneytree Book and Music Exchange, Owensboro Kentucky

Our Vinyl Road Rage 4 record store reviews continue with a look at Moneytree Book and Music Exchange, located at 1421 Triplett St Owensboro, Kentucky.

I had blown through Bloomington, Indiana fairly quickly with a mind to making Nashville in the same night (day one of Vinyl Road Rage is always super-ambitious for some reason). Along the way I phoned home to get some map support from my girlfriend, Jen and together we found this record store in Owensboro, Kentucky.

It’s good to see people buying and selling vinyl in out-of-the-way places, and Owensboro, Kentucky was a bit off the beaten path. But a quest to find weirdness on vinyl and rare titles means taking the side journeys when you can.

Moneytree (which is an odd name for a book and record vendor, I have to say) has a strange way of displaying a great deal of its vinyl titles–the best albums are mounted on the wall.

That’s not so unusual for the rare ones and hard-to-find records, but they’re usually not quite so high up! It was definitely a challenge to look at them in some cases, and every section of the shop had vinyl along the walls.

And yes, you’re seeing that correctly, those records are right near the ceiling.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t a lot of weird, rare or hard to find vinyl there. If you like classic rock, funk, singer-songwriter LPs or other 70s and early 80s-era vinyl this shop would be worth a stop, but for a prog, new wave, or obscurities collector, chances are good you’ve already got what you need, no surprises here.

A new collector might do well at Moneytree as long as they are looking for the previously mentioned titles. The store was friendly, well-lit, but a challenge to browse for all those near-the-ceiling albums. Naturally they did have a regular record bin, but the really good looking copies seemed to be reserved for the wall space.

I can’t say it was bad to stop here, as you’re just about ready to pull over on a trek from Chicago to Nashville…but my vinyl finds on Day Two of Vinyl Road Rage Four would prove to be much more exciting.

There’s much more Vinyl Road Rage record store reviewing to come..this is only the beginning! Up next, record stores and flea markets in the Nashville area…and some outrageously cool shops in Memphis, Tennessee that cannot be missed.

–Joe Wallace

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TD’S CDs & LPs in Bloomington, Indiana

The second stop of Vinyl Road Rage 4 was another familiar shop–TD’s CDs and LPs in Bloomington, Indiana. This shop, located at 322 East Kirkwood Avenue, is a basement record store in a building with a good coffee shop and several other attractions.

It’s been running in the basement there for over ten years, giving love to local bands, selling rare and weird music and with quite a good, diverse selection too.

Any fan of 80s/90s electronic or experimental music should definitely have a look. Nurse With Wound is very well represented there (just one example) and the soundtrack section is crammed full of great, obscure and hard to find titles–especially Goblin. Vinyl and CDs are both equally represented–this is not a shop that has one or the other as an afterthought.

Like other great indie record shops, the notes about some of the more attention-worthy releases handwritten or printed out by the staff on stickers make the shopping experience a lot more fun and informative.

There’s something about notes written by the people who work in that particular shop that make you feel like you’re really connecting with the store overall. It’s a great touch and a habit I like to encourage.

I can’t tell you how many albums I’ve purchased strictly on the content of those notes alone, and my visit to TD’s was no exception–at least one of my purchases was on the strength of those little writeups. TD’s is friendly, fun to shop and very cozy. The fact that you can go right next door for a caffeinated jolt and review your purchases is also a big plus.

I highly recommend this record store and it’s definitely on my “must shop” list for anytime I am in the area.

Fellow vinyl junkies, why not join me on Facebook? You can also become a fan of the official Facebook page for the upcoming Turntabling.net book WTF Records: The Turntabling Guide to Weird and Wonderful Vinyl.


Landlocked Music Bloomington Indiana

by Joe Wallace

The first stop on the cross-country record store road trip we call Vinyl Road Rage was a familiar one-Landlocked Music in Bloomington, Indiana.

Bloomington is a great place to be if you’re a fan of good record stores, indie music, and weirdness overall. Landlocked Music has plenty of that–mostly found in the used soundtracks, ambient/experimental, and miscellaneous record sections. It’s easy to become a big fan of Landlocked as they’re open to a lot of musical craziness both genre-wise and in terms of format.

I found a nice selection of cassette-only projects which always makes me happy. I think today’s cassette culture people are totally nuts and I can’t imagine releasing anything on tape, which is why they are totally awesome to have around.

It’s good to see people fighting conventional wisdom so hard–AND making an interesting success of it as near as I can tell. Shine on, you crazy cassette people. (PS-I would love to know about cassette-only projects for coverage here. It’s just too retro not to do! Get in touch.)

Landlocked Music has a wonderful experimental/avant garde section that definitely needs a look if you’re a fan. I always gravitate toward the soundtrack/miscellaneous categories first as I’m a rabid collector of weird vinyl in the last couple of years.

While it’s true that I’ve covered Landlocked before, they deserve a second mention. Not only is the selection great, well-organized and fun to browse, but the staff are friendly and fun, too. The best record stores seem to have people who get it–the old cliche about folks being too cool to talk to you doesn’t exist at the really good shops I’ve found time and again.

Personality goes hand in hand with selection and Landlocked has both. Always approachable, never pretentious, and full of surprises (one visit I spotted a vinyl cutter on display and apparently for sale…) your opinion of Indiana as a vinyl destination will change after a stop here, rest assured.

Honestly, I wouldn’t go on and on about how fun and easygoing this shop is if it hadn’t been for some of the truly bizarre and unpleasant experiences I had at other shops on the road trip. When you find the awful stores, it makes places like Landlocked Music seem even more noteworthy.

Join me on Facebook as I’m quite active there and am always glad to make new friends–especially those obsessed with vinyl. Also, you can become a fan of the official Facebook page for my upcoming book WTF Records: The Turntabling Guide to Weird and Wonderful Vinyl.

More Video from Austin–Vinyl Road Rage

Vinyl Road Rage Four still has a lot of material to be written and posted including some vinyl reviews on video…the road trip itself is nearly over but there are more than 25 record stores awaiting reviews and a ton of vinyl finds to discuss. Here’s one of the clips shot in Austin Texas during the earlier part of the trip…we test drive the Crosley Revolution portable turntable and hear a bit of Allen Ginsberg on vinyl to boot.


Vinyl Road Rage gets off the highway tomorrow (Wednesday December 21) and the record store reviews begin in earnest…