by Joe Wallace
Record Exchange in St. Louis is one of those places a record collector can’t just GO to…a plan of attack is needed to maximize time and money. This store is so massive that it defies description. CDs are an afterthought, there’s a decently-sized DVD area, but the main attraction here is vinyl records and thousands of them.
The fact that the building this insanely cool record store is located in used to be a library only adds to its charm and buyer intimidation factor. As in, how much of my paycheck will I be parting with today? Maybe…ALL OF IT?
That depends–the 50s and 60s section alone is as large as most store’s entire collection of sale vinyl. You could get lost forever in the rock section–really a completely dated catagory as far as genres go–there really ought to be sub genres listed instead. “Bad Hair and Butt-Rock” “Jangle-Pop” and “Dylan’s Children” could all go on for miles. But instead, we’re stuck with “rock” everywhere you go. So be it.
Record Exchange has a decently-sized indie rock vinyl section with a good cross section of bands and titles–the usual suspects are all here; The Bambi Slam, China Crisis, Kajagoogoo, Lone Justice, Marshall Crenshaw, Wall of Voodoo, Hoodoo Gurus, you get the idea…but there were some really outstanding obscure finds for new collectors. Jaded types like me already have plenty of Pink Military Stand Alone and Slow Children, but if you haven’t got a stack of albums a mile deep yet, there’s plenty here for the indie/new wave/jangle pop lover.
In the soundtrack section I scored a copy of Breaking Glass by Hazel O’Connor and a good listenable copy of the Performance OST (yes, THAT Performance with Memo From Turner).
The shop has a small reggae section (one of the few places where it falls flat for me–I LOVE reggae/dub plates and there was only a small pile to rummage through unless I missed something, easy to do here though!) and for DJs and lovers of all things 12-inch single, there’s a large pile. I didn’t browse since I’m not into the 12 inchers much. Record Exchange has a staggering collection of bad Jesus records and show tunes. As a bad album art collector I was beside myself.
Record Exchange in St. Louis is definitely on my must-visit list, and it was great to make this the first stop on my vinyl road trip. I strongly recommend new collectors, indie music lovers, and sountrack fiends to hit Record Exchange. My obsessions were fed well.