Small Southern California record stores

Hi everyone,

I'm going to be in CA in a few weeks. Making a few stops between (and in) LA and San Diego, with a side trip to Palm Springs.

I've done some crate digging in SD and LA, but I know there are lots of spots in between - especially south and east of LA.

Just curious if anyone has suggestions for stores worth checking out in those areas. Will be heading down to SD on the coast and already have a plan to check a place out in Temecula on the way NE. Curious if there are any must-see spots worth stopping for.......

 

Assuming the store in Temecula is Spindles Music Shack? It’s a cool little store that’s worth a visit. My kids like going with me because I’ll buy them a mystery grab bag of LPs or CDs for a buck. I like their deep selection of new wave and ‘60s rock, and decent prices (I found a NM copy of Die Beatles, the German Please Please Me, for $20 last year).

I’m in north county San Diego, and we have a few great stores in my area:

1) Standards - Vista - A small store but one of my favorite places to shop. There’s definitely a bias towards punk, but they have a well curated selection of obscure psych, garage, reggae, soul, rock, jazz, etc. I can spend hours digging through the dollar bins, and the owner Colin will sell a milk crate of those records for $25. I just stuffed a crate full of 83 LPs last weekend, and it wasn’t your usual bargain bin fodder (on the most part) - a lot of ‘60s & ‘70s soul, some power pop, several Sweet albums. Sorry if I cleaned them out of the good stuff though...

2) Spin Records - Carlsbad - Excellent CD selection, including a lot of OOP titles and imports that have been in their backstock since the ‘90s & early ‘00s. As for vinyl, they carry a lot of things that no other brick and mortar in the area would, i.e.Flying Nun reissues. The only nuisances to me are: 1) they keep the records and CDs themselves behind the counter, so you’re never getting sealed product when you buy something “new”; and 2) they cram the sleeves in the shelves pretty tightly, so it makes it tough to thumb through the racks at times.

3) Lou’s Records - Encinitas - 20 years ago, Lou’s was bar none the best store in San Diego county. With two separate buildings, one for new and one for used product, you could count on them having everything you wanted and then some. It was tough for me to walk out of there without spending $100 or more. Times have changed, and it’s a shadow of its former glory. Still, you can stumble upon some gems, they stock a decent number of new releases, and the prices are better than most shops. And, it’s right on the Coast Highway in the cool Encinitas/Leucadia area. Definitely worth checking out.

4) Gary’s Record Paradise - Escondido - It’s an interesting place. They’ve been around forever and have moved multiple times, and are now located in an unassuming strip mall on Escondido Blvd. Their stock doesn’t turn that frequently, thus it’s not on my regular rotation. Some of the albums I remember from when I first started shopping there in the early ‘90s. Just a couple of years ago, I finally bought the two sealed 1992 Springsteen LPs that they had in stock since their release - both still priced at $8.99 - and Van Dyke Parks’s Song Cycle CD in a longbox. Prices are hit and miss...sometimes they grossly overprice, sometimes you stumble on a bargain. And the owner (who bought from Gary many years ago) is a quirky cat that’s always interesting to talk to.

There are some relatively new stores that have opened up in south Orange County that are on my hit list, but I haven’t checked them out yet.

If you venture deeper into San Diego, that’s another list entirely. I’m happy to share that info if so.

 

Lou's was awesome back in the '90's. I still go occasionally.

 

Swing by Long Beach and check out Fingerprints. Luckily, I live pretty close by. Great staff and selection and certainly worth your time. You'll be pretty close to LA so Amoeba should be on your itinerary. I haven't been there in almost 2 years. I don't like driving into LA if I can avoid it. That plus the 5 Freeway is a mess and the road condition is awful.

 

Record City is my usual go to spot in San Diego. Great selection of new and used and when it comes to used, the quality is always great. My other go to place is a hi fi shop in the Sports Arena/Pt. Loma area of town called Stereo Unlimited. They not only have a killer selection of audio gear but the best selection of new audiophile reissues that I have found at a local store. All the latest mofi, analogue productions etc. are available and even some rare titles like music matters 45's and 33's are lurking on the shelves. Happy hunting!

 

I worked there in 2004. This was after years of worshipping the spot and it’s legend. There were actually three buildings at the time (new, used, and dvds’s). Stopped by a few years ago and was saddened to see that it was down to one building, but Lou still remembered me even though I was there only briefly. He’s a great guy once you get to know him and is obviously incredibly knowledgeable on everything music.

 

Do any of you San Dieagan's remember Blue Meanie. God I loved that store.

 

Factory Records @ 440 E 17th St, Costa Mesa, CA 92627

Dave James, the owner, is an old friend of the family and a legend in the Southern California music scene.

The Return of Noise Noise Noise as a Record Label Was a Labor of Love - OC Weekly


Rhino Records @ 235 Yale Ave, Claremont, CA 91711 is worth a stop on your way from SD to LA.

Glass House Record Store @ 248 W 2nd St, Pomona, CA 91766 is downtown next door to the Glass House concert venue and around the corner from the Fox Theater.

 

A legendary store! In the 70s, they would also bring rare records the record meet in the parking lot next to the Capitol Records tower every month.

 

When I was in LA vacationing this past summer, I spotted several interesting looking vinyl stores on Melrose in Hollywood as our tour bus was slowly passing through - it was killing me that I couldn’t get off the bus and browse, lol! I made up for it later on in my trip at Amoeba in San Francisco, though!

 

Good ol, El Cajon. Seem to remember them having a great Metal selection.

 

Also try Second Spin in Costa Mesa on Newport Blvd.

Spin by the beach in Carlsbad is a great place. Packed to the gills.

Have not been there for a decade. I was in Second Spin a month ago and asked them if they had moved up the block from 17th Street? They told me no. I must have been thinking of the Factory.


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Second Spin in Costa Mesa is a good place, I just forgot to mention it . It's no Music Market, but it'll do I guess. I was in Factory about a year ago. I moved back to Orange County a few years ago after being on the east coast for 15 years, and I did not even recognize Dave when I saw him. Awkward.

 

I loved Blue Meannie, when they largely specialized in The Beatles (kind of like Pepperland in Orange). When (I believe) they changed hands and converted into more of a metal Mecca, it went downhill as far as my personal tastes are concerned. There was a great little stretch of stores in a small radius in the early ‘90s - Off The Record by SDSU, Music Trader in El Cajon, the Tower in El Cajon, the Tower clearance center on El Cajon Blvd, Blue Meannie, even an 8-track store...ah, the good old days.

 

You didn’t miss anything, IMO. Most of those stores on Melrose are obscenely overpriced. I remember wading through one store a few years back and pulling out a copy of Blondie’s Parallel Lines, only to find that a quarter of the cover looked like it had been bitten off and that there was a deep scratch across the 2nd side. All that for the princely sum of $25! After seeing a few Smiths 12” singles proudly displayed behind the counter for $100 a pop, I quite happily walked out empty handed.

 

Speaking of Costa Mesa, check out Port of Sound if you're in the area. It's a nice store with a good selection. I used to work there a few years ago.

 

Music Market? Was that the one semi-underground at Adams & Harbor? That was a great store!

 

The semi-underground place was Noise Noise Noise, located on the back side of the shopping center where Music Market was located. It is now Factory records.

Music Market was huge. It was a Music Mecca! Before I could drive, I used to ride my 10-speed from Huntington Beach twice a week to go adventuring through the bins of this magic place.

The Foo Fighters' Taylor Hawkins Says Costa Mesa Record Store Gave Him the Influences to Start Chevy Metal - OC Weekly

EDIT: oh, now I get it! lol yes Music Market was literally semi-underground. You walked in for a ways and there were stairs that opened up to a larger sales floor.

 

I lived in Vegas in the mid 1980's and I would make the trek to El Cajon and spend the day at Blue Meanie, that was when they specialized in Beatle stuff, imports etc. When I went there, I thought I died and went to Beatle Heaven.

 

Thanks everyone...I appreciate all the info! This is exactly what I was hoping for.

chickeninna, I actually wasn't planning to hit Amoeba - I'm sure it's massive and cool but the key for me is that Amoeba's stock is online, and I want to check out places that aren't.

My want list is kinda quirky - lots of UK stuff and that hard to find late 80s/early 90s stuff - but hoping to find some goodies up and down the coast!