Everybody’s Records, Pleasant Ridge Ohio

by Joe Wallace

An outsider might not be able to tell the difference between Cincinnati proper and Pleasant Ridge, Ohio but one thing’s for sure–if you’re at Everybody’s Records looking for vinyl, you won’t care WHERE it’s at as long as you’re there.

Everybody’s Records has a nice collection of vinyl that looks like a typical pile of titles–at first glance. But look closer. There are plenty of the usual suspects lurking in the stacks–a dedicated crate digger will likely note the Alice Cooper new wave record “Flush The Fashion”, the occasional Gary Myrick and the Figures album, Our Daughter’s Wedding, and other fun titles. But look further still.

On my visit to this shop, I scored not one, but THREE albums by The Legendary Pink Dots. These titles are sought after by a certain rabid type of collector and are not what you’d call readily available simply lurking in the record shop stacks. But there they were, waiting just for me, it seems.

All this stuff was hiding in, if memory serves, the “Rock” section–one reason why it’s important to give those bins a closer look. “Rock” to me says AC/DC, Aerosmith, and a lot of other crap I don’t have much interest in. It’s a real stretch to call Skinny Puppy or Coil “rock”, but more often than not, they get lumped in to that category.

I can’t REALLY blame the shop for this–who wants to spend endless hours creating new categories to fit all these bands?

“Bands That Sound Like Erasure But Who Worship Satan” won’t fit on a category card unless you write REALLY SMALL, and there are only a handful of groups that would fit into “Electronic Performers Who Enjoy Semi-Consensual Buggery In Public Places But Only While Wearing Goat Horns” or “The Ghost of Brian Eno Eats Peanut Butter”.

Back to Everybody’s Records–they also have a healthy collection of oddball titles–one of my favorite sections in any record store–and some REALLY tasty finds in the soundtrack bins. I wound up dropping a nice chunk of change at this Ohio record store.  Final verdict? No trip to Ohio is complete without dropping by Everybody’s Records. Recommended.

Shake It Records, Cincinnati Ohio

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.

Vinyl Road Rage Day #2: Bloomington Indiana, Louisville Kentucky, Cincinnati Ohio

by Joe Wallace

Day Two of Vinyl Road Rage #3 was filled with highway hypnosis. I went from Bloomington Indiana to Cincinnati Ohio, hitting a LOT of indie record shops along the way.

There are pictures, but they will be posted tomorrow–my camera is charging now and I’ll extract the images later. Suffice it to say that the trip so far has uncovered plenty of great shops.

I can tell you that Bloomington Indiana is great place to stop all around, but especially TD’s CDs and LPs at 322 E Kirkwood Ave. Not only did this shop have no fewer than four Goblin titles on vinyl (more? I lost count!) they also had a copy of the Terror soundtrack, which I have been lusting after for quite some time after letting a copy slip away ages ago, thinking “I’ll grab it later.” Foolish mortal!

Also great–Landlocked Music at 202 N Walnut Ave in Bloomington. Lots of new vinyl, but plenty of used titles to browse too. Like TD’s, this shop has a respectful section of experimental records that deserve a long look if you’re into those sounds (I am). I’ll have more in-depth reviews of these shops and others individually but I HAD to touch on some of the highlights.

Bloomington was much more clean-cut than Louisville, KY, which has a more Austin, Texas vibe to it. Sadly, there were no real rare, bizarre or otherwise lustworthy titles in Louisville. Record shops there seem to emphasize new titles more, and while there are plenty of used bins to pour over, my own personal obsessions went un-fed. Fans of 60s and 70s psych, garage and hippie titles will be pleased and any jazz fan will probably have a lot to crate-dig for.

Cincinnati record shops had to wait–there was a parking lot-style standstill just outside the city and I missed the shops thanks to the traffic. Tomorrow I will hit them and write up some notes later in the evening. Vinyl Road Rage #3 wraps up for the day on Saturday in Columbus where there are more record shops than police officers, near as I can tell.

Vinyl Road Rage Day #1: Joliet, Champaign, and Beyond

by Joe Wallace

Vinyl Road Rage #3 is underway and day one was a crazy mix of brain-melting finds and wild goose chases. Joliet, Illinois was the first stop where plenty of interesting vinyl was found including a Legendary Pink Dots album on Play It Again Sam Records I didn’t know existed, some silly blooper vinyl (more on that later–the joys of DJing with that stuff can not be underestimated) and much more.

After Joliet, it was Champaign, Illinois–but first I had to escape Joliet, which wasn’t as easy as it sounds. After my first stop there, I went chasing after the apparently non-existent Monaro Records (the address and phone number turned out to be residential), then chased my own exhaust pipe trying to find the road out of town.

I did pass the old Joliet Prison, complete with a sign which reads “You’ve escaped Joliet”. If only. And why was EVERY SINGLE PLACE I stopped in today completely devoid of toilet paper? Just sayin’.

The hardware store I saw in one small town said it all; a neon sign proclaiming “Heating, Plumbing, GUNS”. If the zombie apocalypse happens, that’s where I want to live…but on a search for obscure vinyl, not so helpful.

Equally amusing–the tiny little cafe I went to this afternoon. When I walked in, the entire place STOPPED TALKING for a moment–the only thing really missing, as I mentioned on Facebook earlier, was the voice of a small child saying in a scared voice, “STRAAAANNNGER!”

Once I did get back on the road, Champaign was fairly profitable thanks to the very cool Backbeat Records, which yielded the Sisters of Mercy Some Girls Wander on delicious vinyl, Sousxie and the Banshees’ The Rapture on translucent vinyl, plus a fistful of soundtracks.

What I wasn’t prepared for is how early Central Illinois rolls up the sidewalks. Several record stores closed up shop at 5PM, which was fairly depressing in one case, and a great relief in another as the second shop to close before sundown seemed to be all CDs.

One of the craziest finds of the day, found in Champaign’s Exile on Main St. Records, was a record made in Russia which was apparently an unauthorized collection of Led Zepplin covers. I didn’t have the heart to shell out 20 bux for this, but the concept certainly is amusing to say the very least.

I am absolutely CERTAIN I made this joke LAST YEAR during Vinyl Road Rage #2, but apparently this Disney record is haunting me, so I say again–WHERE ARE THE DISNEY QUAALUDES to go with the Disney Disco Record?

I will be reviewing the individual record stores at some point, no time to hit all the ones I’ve covered so far in the earliest days of the trip…but the updates from the road will continue. Stay tuned for more vinyl road rage…including some video I’ve shot from the road. Tomorrow it’s Bloomington, Indiana, and Louisville Kentucky. On Saturday Cincinnati beckons, then Columbus on Sunday.

–Joe Wallace

Philadelphia Record Stores: Repo Records

During my visit to Philadelphia, I was very pleased to shop at Repo Records at 538 South Street. From the moment you spot the store, you know you’re in for a crate-digging safari you should set aside plenty of time for. I realize that most of the reviews from this particular Vinyl Road Rage trip are glowing (I had very good luck most of the way) but Repo Records truly deserves the praise.

South Street is full of touristy places to lure you in, but I get the vibe in Repo Records that locals shop here. Like all the good shops on my trip, the staff were friendly and chatty. No sullen-faced wankers who have seen High Fidelity too many times here.

I was pleased to find a good combination of new material and re-issues. There’s so much good stuff coming back on the market these days that a new record collector will have trouble picking their battles. Behold:

Yes, that’s Here Comes Shuggie Otis on 180-gram vinyl, brand new and ready to be discovered by a whole new generation. But I was happier with this discovery which, in spite of its ruined cover was a very pleasant find indeed as I’m a bit of a nut for anything on vinyl related to the Justified Ancients of Mu.

You couldn’t have made me happier if you had given me a white label pressing of a late night drunken collaboration between William Shatner and Mark E. Smith (with Brian Eno playing a MicroKorg through seven echo boxes).

For some reason, the farther east you drive, the more prevalent record stores with basements become. I don’t know why this is, but I’m very pleased that the phrase “bargain basement” is still more than just a cliche.

The Repo Records bargain basement was fab–not just for the usual crate digging, but as a connoisseur of tasteless, poorly thought out or just plain goofy album covers, I was in heaven.

Look at that HAIR. Now THAT’S a SIN.

You people quit your day jobs, decided make a career in music and the best name you could come up with after pondering it for AGES and AGES was….

But I digress. Basically, Repo Records was fun to shop and I crawled around the old, new, and very used bins for quite some time. If you’re in Philly and are tired of all the other South Street stuff, drop into Repo Records and stay a while. Just make sure you’ve got a nice, cool place to stash all that vinyl when you’re done shopping…the trunk of your car might work in November, but in the dog days of summer you need a better plan.