TD’s Records and CDs, Bloomington Indiana

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.

Landlocked Music, Bloomington Indiana

by Joe Wallace

There are plain old boring record stores, and then there are indie record stores that simply define the business. Landlocked Music is one of those stores that, for me at least, define what a record store should be all about. Landlocked isn’t too big, it’s not too small. It’s in a space that is absolutely perfect for the volume of records and the variety of merch they carry.

I tend to gush a bit when I find a store I truly love and Bloomington has not one, but TWO great shops. Landlocked is the first.

The store has a great selection of both new and used vinyl, nicely categorized and with price ranges that serve budget-minded crate diggers and collectors who know what their titles should be worth and are willing to pay accordingly.

The thing I was most impressed with is that the store tends to fill out my favorite genres rather well. There is a good selection of electronic, experimental, obscure funk, off-the-beaten-path stuff for slightly jaded record store addicts like me. A good effort has been put into least a decent showing across the genres outside the usual R-n-B, grandpa rock, new indie, and punk sections.

I found an Emo Phillips live performance record here, as well as Sonic Youth and Lydia Lunch, so I’m probably a bit biased in this department. I love obscurity on vinyl, general weirdness, and any of late 80s/early 90s alt/indie/WTF projects so I had a very happy experience with Landlocked Music.

On top of that, the shop is friendly, well-organized, and above all FUN TO BROWSE. There are plenty of record stores where the atmosphere is non-existent, the shopping is clumsy and painful (you only have one set of knees, after all) or the records are jammed in so tightly that you can’t look through them easily.

Landlocked gets major points on all fronts. I will be returning here again all the way from Chicago for another visit or three. I recommend Landlocked to anyone within driving distance as it’s not only a great place to find the vinyl, it’s also situated near plenty of great restaurants and other fun.

Or, to put it more succinctly:

Shop. This. Store.

Exile on Main Street, Champaign Illinois

by Joe Wallace

Rolling into Champaign, Illinois in search of Exile on Main Street was a bit of a challenge only because after six years of living in Chicago it was difficult to adjust to parking meters that accept only loose change. If you’re coming to Champaign to check out record shops (there are several in the area worth looking at) be sure to bring a handful of quarters!

For some indie record stores, new vinyl is the main attraction, and while there is a decent selection of used records to choose from, the new releases seem to be what keeps Exile on Main St. alive and kicking. That’s not necessarily a bad thing–plenty of collectors are scooping up the new titles as well as the old, so Exile on Main St. is a good stop if you need a fix of the shrink-wrapped records.

What I liked best about Exile were the curiosities. There were some great displays including a steampunk-esque video contraption under glass and some other miscellany. Hands down, the most oddball thing on vinyl at Exile was a copy of some sort of Soviet-era Led Zepplin cover album done behind the Iron Curtain. Very trippy indeed.

Be sure to take some time looking at the more obscure vinyl on the walls of this shop–if you’re looking for some used, off-the-beaten track vinyl and don’t mind paying a wee bit extra you’ll do well. There was a nice copy of the Shaft’s Big Score soundtrack hanging there, if memory serves…that is a pretty sweet find, I must say. I would have been tempted if I didn’t already have it in the record bins back home.

Champaign being a college town, it’s no surprise there are a few good record shops in the area. Exile on Main is a great place for a first stop. Get your bearings, see the sights, and you’ll probably be back there picking up some new records after they’ve had a chance to nag at you for a while. This is the kind of place I shop at all the time thinking, “I’ll have to come back for that…”

Naturally, when you get back, it’s gone…so give in to your shop-a-holic vinyl junkie urges while at Exile and don’t look back. I personally regret not having picked up the Russian Led Zepplin thing if only for the sheer novelty of having it.

Backbeats Record Store, Rantoul Illinois

by Joe Wallace

I had been dying to check out Backbeats Record Store in Rantoul, Illinois since I read a very good online review of the store in 2010 while planning Vinyl Road Rage #2. I was never able to make the trip until this go-round, and I have to say I was not disappointed.

Backbeats is the kind of record store I like–one that has some thought put into the overall presentation, doesn’t limit itself to the easy genres (grandpa rock, new wave, R&B, etc) and has some style and atmosphere going for it.

The store isn’t open seven days a week–and in a small town like Rantoul, Illinois, it’s a wonder there’s enough of a buying community to support a store I enjoy this much–but it’s well worth the wait.

At the time of this writing, Backbeats has a weekend schedule starting on Thursdays.  The store is closed Mon/Tues/Weds/ so out-of-towners, plan accordingly. And yes, you should definitely make the trip.

There’s plenty of mainstream vinyl stuff on sale at Backbeats, but I managed to find plenty of more obscure 80s and 90s titles, and there was a nice selection of 12 inches from record store stalwarts Souixsie and the Banshees. Backbeats is no slouch in the soundtracks department, either. Soundtrack junkies should definitely take a look–I did pretty well in this section, which often gets overlooked at record shops that don’t think those titles are just as fun to browse as all those Ohio Players albums and Nancy Sinatra titles. Good prices, too.

The store is well organized, very friendly, and there is plenty to see aside from vinyl; this is a safe destination for what I personally call a “lopsided couple”–two people who don’t have the same obsessive fascination for all things vinyl can shop at Backbeats without either one feeling like they’re just marking time while the other browses.

Backbeats lives up to the reviews, and I’ll definitely be coming back here. I hope Rantoul appreciates what it’s got in its own back yard, I hope the community supports this excellent indie record store the way it deserves.

Disc Replay, Crest Hill Illinois

by Joe Wallace

Technically speaking, Disc Replay is a chain–I knew this going in, but unlike so many music chains that I’ve experienced, this particular Disc Replay has a large selection of vinyl and is not completely useless the way some such shops seem to be.

Granted, there is an enormous hodgepodge of vinyl on the floor–a major challenge to the knees and spine of any crate digger older than 25–but the rewards are worth the amount of Glucosimine and Chondroitin you’ll be required to take when you’re done abusing those poor old kneecaps. Cue the music for that tired old Billy Joel song and sing along;  ”Say goodbye to cartilige…”

The good news is, there are plenty of good finds OFF the floor, too. There’s a nice selection of vinyl in varying degrees of quality in a proper bin.

The better quality vinyl is better organzized but a dedicated crate digger knows better than to trust the categorization in any shop–the day you skip the country and western section is the day you miss a Death In June limited edition picture disc misfiled by a bored, gum-popping part timer who thinks YMO is a flavoring agent in Chinese takeout.

 Disc Replay dedicates a large amount of space to compact discs, but vinyl junkies will be pleased to note a large number of music books–reference and otherwise–in the collection. It’s great to find more and more record shops that carry used music tomes as well as vinyl–a well-rounded shop is a fun one.

I managed to score a few rarities and fill some holes in my collection including a surprising Legendary Pink Dots title at a reasonable price. Gotta give Disc Replay points for having some eyebrow-raising titles even if my joints suffered accordingly.

In spite of a large number of what I’m starting to think of as Grandpa records (Mark Farner, ZZ Top, every mid-80s Alice Cooper record, Ronnie James Dio and fifty million battered copies of Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours album) you can walk out of this shop feeling like you bought indie–and that’s a hard trick to pull off for a store that’s part of a chain.