Tag Archives: pennsylvania record stores

Pennsylvania Music Expo Record Show Sunday June 8 2014

Record Shows, , , , , ,

Pennsylvania Music Expo record show

A quick look at www.recordcollectors.org reveals the following info on the Pennsylvania Music Expo, hosted by the Keystone Record Collectors–the next one is Sunday June 8, 2014.

The show “…is held at the: Continental Inn, 2285 Lincoln Highway East, Lancaster, PA 17602 on the second Sunday of every month except Mother’s Day and when Easter conflicts. When those events occur, the show is moved to the first Sunday. Show hours for the always FREE admission event are 9 am – 3 pm. Access prior is open to current, card carrying members only.”

That’s actually pretty amazing–a record show held every single month! Compare that to the ones found near Turntabling HQ in Chicago, where we get a variety of shows, but only once every few months or so for any single record collector’s show.

This looks pretty damn cool…but then again, I say that about EVERY record show, don’t I? No matter–anywhere you can buy vinyl is potentially a good trip. Could this be a Turntabling.net excursion? Stay tuned…

–Joe Wallace

Allentown Pennsylvania Record Stores: Double Decker Records

Record Shops, vinyl road rage, , ,

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

Record Shops, vinyl road rage, , , ,

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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