Mishawaka, Indiana Record Stores: Michiana Used Music and Media
Mishawaka, Indiana is a good place to stop on the way out of Chicago. Just two hours out of the city, you can stretch your legs, top off, buy an Indiana lottery ticket and keep your fingers crossed.
But don’t cross your fingers over finding gigantic piles of rare vinyl at Michiana Used Music and Media. Sadly, the picture below shows the sum total of all the vinyl you can sift through here–two bins with some above and some below.
It wouldn’t be so disappointing for a hardcore vinyl junkie–or even a newbie collector–except there was not much here except for the usual pile of vinyl cast offs from every collection in the world. The requisite AC/DC albums, all the Joe Walsh records you didn’t want alongside the couple you already have. Show tunes nobody listens to. And isn’t there ALWAYS a Fleetwood Mac record in there?
I really wasn’t expecting too much from this first stop on the vinyl road rage trip as the shop doesn’t present itself very well online–an afterthought really, but I WAS amused by a couple of things here. You may not be able to locate that copy of Danny Elfman’s Nightbreed soundtrack here, but if Barry Manilow makes you shriek in ecstasy, you have DEFINITELY found your new home away from home:
And I WAS amused/horrified to find this reissue of the Blind Faith album with one of the most crass and possibly illegal covers in recorded music history. At least tone-deaf Satan Metal bands like Witchfinder General have the decency to put topless women of LEGAL AGE on their covers. Not so with Clapton and company. Those at work should probably NOT click “read more” now.
This is just one of the reasons why I call him “Eric Crap-ton”.
The one thing I thought this shop had going for it has nothing to do with vinyl at all–there was a GOOD collection of Criterion Collection discs selling for about $15 a pop including My Dinner With Andre and other good titles.
All in all, vinyl lovers, you can safely avoid this shop for your vinyl collecting shopping sprees. There’s not much to see here, unfortunately. But if you want some of those Criterion titles for cheap, give this place a look. I walked out of this shop with a single solitary release, Big Black’s RACER X EP vinyl, which was a decent find, I give you…I put it in the crate, fired up the Dreadmobile and hit the road. Next stop, Cleveland, Ohio to find Music Saves and Blue Arrow Records.
Next time try Orbit on McKinley – just up Grape road and a much larger vinyl selection.
That cover is almost as bad Scorpions’ “Virgin Killer” LP.
In response to your post we have increased our vinyl selection by nearly 2000 pieces. We have also moved to a bigger location which allows for more room for our vinyl selection. We continue to increase the amount we are buying. We now have a 50 cent bin, a dollar bin and then 5 bins of records priced individually. We are also working on a real time website where customers can view what we have in stock and also order from us directly.