Remembering Record Stores

[Quad Linda]

Wax Trax

If you were into punk, industrial, or raucous shit, you know Wax Trax. Jim Nash and Dannie Flesher began in Denver in '78, and moved to Chicago in the same year. The original store was on Linclon Ave., just down the block from the Biograph Theater, where John Dillinger caught his lunch. The store also begat the record label. "Hey, you got any Hugo Montenegro?" I don't think so. You could get TVOD by the Normal, though. http://waxtraxchicago.com/ Get a huge safety pin and stick it through your cheek in remembrance.

"As important as Chess Records was to blues and soul music, Chicago’s Wax Trax imprint was just as significant to the punk rock, new wave and industrial genres." - Richard Giraldi, Chicago Sun-Times

 

[Quad Linda]

Round Records

Growing up in Toronto... Get off the subway at Bay Street and head up to Round Records (upstairs on Bloor Street between Bay and Yonge).

Speaking of Round Records, there was a store by that name on Sheridan Rd. in Chicago near Loyola U. A small narrow storefront, with a second floor four times that size. Gone in the late '80's. A great selection of rock, jazz, used and imports. The gal who does my hair talks of it often. One day, I was in her chair, and in walks the owner of Round, who now lives in California. Before Round, he owned Record Shack in Skokie.

 

[user 1679]

ALL the record stores in Vancouver are gone (OK there are a few small indies that focus more on vinyl, but that's it).

A&B Sound
The King, deep catalog, killer prices, multiple stores...... RIP

Sam the Record Man
Great selection, but a bit pricier than A&B, only one big store

A&A Records

Kelly's Stereo Mart (later Kelly's Electronic World)

Miller's
Gone by the late 80's absorbed by Kelly's IIRC

Yeah, that block on Seymour Street - I always made sure to make time to browse/shop when I was over from Victoria (we had an A&B there as well). When I first moved to the west coast in 1990 A&B had a fabulous selection, even of imports and oddities. Same for the Sam's in Vancouver. There was Odyssey as well in that block though they seemed to cater a little more to the dance crowd.

 

[Quad Linda]

Do you Canadians remember King Biscuit Boy and Crowbar? I LOVE THOSE GUYS. RIP Richard Newell.

Oh, what a feeling! What a rush!

 

[Quad Linda]

Hegewisch Records

THE place to get yer tunes in Chicago's Southern 'burbs and NW Indiana in the '70's & '80's. Their stores had everything in print in the US in Rock/Jazz/Blues, and a smattering of imports. A "no frills" environment, in keeping with the blue collar 'burbs. "Ray's Music Exchange" that holds the famed Ray Charles "Shake Your Tailfeather" scene of the movie, was a tribute to Calumet City's Hegewisch Records Store. Founded by "Hegewisch Joe" Sotiros in the far Southside Chicago neighborhood of Hegewisch in the '60's, the flagship store moved to Calumet City. Joe was slain in '91.

 

[Quad Linda]

From the mid '60's until the mid '70's, every chain grocery and drug store, and many independents had a gondola full of LP's, filled by a rack jobber. The Jewel-Osco in Glen Ellyn, IL even stocked 2ch prerecorded reels!! My 1st copy of Laura Nyro's NY Tendaberry and Moby Grape's Truly Fine Citizen came from Osco. Sgt. Pepper, Bookends and even Pharoah Sanders came from Walgreens.

Of course, back in the late sixties and into the seventies and eighties, almost every kind of store was a "record store". I got my copy of "Woodstock" at a Red Owl grocery store.

 

[The Rang]

Yeah, that block on Seymour Street ....

Yup, that block was amazing.

The BIG A&B and Sam's store side by side and A&A a half block down, on the corner.

Then one block over on Granville another A&A, two Kelly's and Miller's.
I used to spend hours (and countless $$$) down there.

That Victoria A&B was awesome, great old building with stuff spread all over the place.
The only A&B that could match it from "a cool building" standpoint was the one in Downtown Calgary, in a converted heritage bank building.

Ah....the good old days.

 

[Quad Linda]

Polk Brothers

Imagine a local superstore, with locations in every part of Chicagoland. A couple "stores" were a block long collection of buildings called Polk City. I especially loved the Elgin store, whose lower level was split between carpeting and records. Prices were cheap, and their sale prices rivalled Korvettes. Nearly every store had records and tapes. Polk City stores carried virually everything in print. Everything on prerecorded 2ch reel. Appliances, electronics, carpet, furniture, cameras, you name it. The first store I was in that carried Quad hardware. The biggest Sansui dealer in Chicago. Founded in 1935. They went out of business in the late '80's, just as BB & CC announced they were entering Chicago. Polk exited the record business in the late '70's. Although long out of business, their memory lives on in the Polk Bros. Foundation, which funds a variety of charities.

Hi-fi Stores

Remember when nearly every hi-fi store in town carried records and tapes? Needless to say, Quad was featured prominently. Lafayette was huge into Quad, as well as sporting some KILLER SQ decoders, both seperate, and built into their receivers . Allied (pre Radio Shack and Quad), Olson, Stereo City, Schaak and many others devoted floor space to software.

 

[Hepcat]

Do you Canadians remember King Biscuit Boy and Crowbar?

Remember them? I bought their first two LPs shortly after they were released and I still play them every so often. In fact, I think I'll give one of them a spin right now!

 

[user 1679]

Of course Linda - Crowbar especially were a great band! What a russsshhhhhhhhhhhhh!

 

[Quad Linda]

I've rebought them all on Stony Plain CD's, and a couple new compilations, besides. I found that Epic King Biscuit Boy on a Japanese CD. I still have those old Daffodil's on mint LP's. Very few US fans know of these guys - a shame!

The Guess Who and BTO were/are great, but Crowbar may be my fave Canadian band! BTW: This is not to be confused with the recent Louisiana "sludge band" named Crowbar! You Alice Cooper fans may know Crowbar's Jozef Chirowski from his band. From '71, a sample of what the fuss is all about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=truzy5iOUKM What a russsshhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Of course Linda - Crowbar especially were a great band! What a russsshhhhhhhhhhhhh!

 

[Bob Squires Jr]

3rd Street Jazz & Rock in Center City Philly... a small private store but they had everything!!
Bootlegs, Quads, Imports.

We had Peaches here in NE Philly
and Korvettes... bought many a platter there as well!
(I even got my reel to reel tapes there!)

 

[The Rang]

I've rebought them all on Stony Plain CD's, and a couple new compilations, besides. I found that Epic King Biscuit Boy on a Japanese CD. I still have those old Daffodil's on mint LP's. Very few US fans know of these guys - a shame!

Some of those Daffodil albums are available on CD from the Montreal based Unidisc label.
They're quite good at releasing old Canadian Music.

 

[Hepcat]

My favourite record shop in London, Ontario when I was in high school was Bluebird Records on the south side of Dundas Street just west of Wellington Street. It was less than two blocks away from my high school and was perhaps my favourite after school haunt. I can recall only three different sales clerks. Two of these were always in the store and they seemed quite knowledgeable to me at the time. One of my recollections is that the three Rolling Stones' EPs were always up there on the wall near the counter. Here are pictures of two:

Bluebird closed its doors sometime in the mid-seventies in the face of other, perhaps better capitalized, record stores opening their doors in downtown London.

The other record shop I frequented in my early record buying days was the Disc Shop in the Wellington Square Mall. The Wellington Square Mall was anchored by an Eaton's department store and was a block south of Bluebird Records. While prices were the same, it did much more volume than Bluebird and could be a bit of a zoo. As a result, the Disc Shop seemed more chaotic and less organized and I just didn't patronize it as much.

 

[Odys]

Flipside Records on Foster Avenue in Chicago was where I did most of my record buying in the 70's. I lived about a mile away and walked there whenever I could get my hands on some money, or more often just to hang out. It's where I used to buy my copies of Creem Magazine too. Boy Howdy! I found this picture of it from the 70's on the Internet. Memories!



There was also a record store on Howard Street in Chicago that I bought my first records at in the 60's. I can't remember the name. It was between the El and Ashland Avenue. Linda, perhaps you could help?

Then there was Rose records on Irving Park Rd. and later I made a killing when Coconuts on State Street was going out of business. This was in the 00's sometime and I bought every DVD-A and SACD they had at clearance prices while I was back in Chicago visiting relatives. A huge chunk of my MC collection came from that clearance sale.

 

[Quad Linda]

Sorry, Odys, the store by the Howard el is one of the few I never visited. It might have been the same people who were later on Pratt, primarily a used store. More incredibly, I was at the Pacific Stereo in Evanston for a while.

I was in all the Rose stores. I remember when the Irving Park Rose was called Sounds Good, which was originally what Rose called all their suburban stores.

Deluxe Music

Around the corner from Rose on Irving was the BEST STORE EVER FOR 45's. Deluxe Music on Milwaukee Ave. had most 45's that were ever in print. They closed in the '80's. I pretty much stopped buying 45's in '68. In the mid-70's, I discovered that there was a wealth of B sides that never made it to albums. I resumed collecting 45's for a different reason. Deluxe was my 45 connection.

 

[Frantic]

Great memories!

Back in my neck of the woods we also had E.J. Korvettes and a little ways down the road we had Waxie Maxies and my favorite, Record and tape Traders.

 

[Odys]

Eastside Records on University Ave. in Tempe, AZ was a great spot for new and used vinyl. They had the best collection of punk records around, even categorized in sub-genres. I also found some great hard to find Zappa gems on vinyl at decent prices there. They closed down last year and re-opened briefly as The Ghost of Eastside Records in a small, windowless space on Southern Ave., but the owner, Michael Pawlicki, never planned to stay there long. They are closing again this week and it looks like Pawlicki is scouting locations on Sunset in L.A. for his next resurrection. Best of luck, we'll miss you in the Valley of the Sun.

 

[Quad Linda]

1974 Korvettes ad: http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/1322/korvettes.jpg "The World's Largest Seller of Records & Tapes"

They had me in mind: "Put These in Someone's Christmas Pantyhose" http://i.ebayimg.com/t/RARE-1975-E-J-Korvettes-Record-Dept-Ad-/06/!C!7nfj!!Wk~$(KGrHqYOKiYE0FRrFU7kBNFRRtL5k!~~_35.JPG Is that a Q8 in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me? :banana:

 

[Quad Linda]

1976 Korvettes ad from the Village Voice: http://news.google.com/newspapers?i...wDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5956,1406904&dq=korvettes&hl=en Many titles available in Quad!!