Chicago Record Stores: The Old School Records

I have a sentimental fondness for the Chicagoland indie record store The Old School. Located at 7446 W. Madison Forest Park, The Old School Records put me back on the collector’s game in 2005 after being out for well over three years. I’ve found more than a few lovely vinyl titles here including part of the Aphex Twin Analord series, Danny Elfman’s Corpse Bride OST, and one of my favorite slabs of vinyl by The Orb, Komplott–which I like to play DJ sets with at half speed and mashup Harold Budd under.

The Old School Records does have one thing going against it–there is a large amount of vinyl on the floor and I’ve given myself plenty of grief on hands and knees crate digging here. I strongly recommend a beer after digging through those floor-based stacks–a muscle relaxant is a very good thing indeed. Ergonomically speaking, The Old School isn’t good on knees or spinal columns more than two decades old.

The Old School has a collection of old cassettes, too. I just so happen to have a cassette deck in my vehicle–the mighty Vinyl Road Rage machine christened last year as the DreadMobile, so this collection would be tempting if I didn’t already have an amusingly large number of dusty old tapes.

I’d rate this shop as a great place for new collectors to start out, especially if you’re looking for post-punk or want to fill holes in your new romantic collection. I also found a small pile of my favorite genre, weirdness on vinyl, and the soundtracks section is worth the spinal injury you’ll get–I scored the soundtrack to A Zed and Two Noughts and some other things I’ve never seen elsewhere. Nice.