10 Best Record Stores In The USA

I've been to 3 of these - Grimey's, Newbury Comics & Waterloo.

I think at this point Waterloo must be coasting on its reputation...the last two times I was there it reeked of hipster and pretension.

NJB

 

Newbury's is nothing but new vinyl. And then like FunkPop figures. I would barely call it a record store.

 

From the list I've been to.............

Amoeba - all 3 locations, but majority of the time Haight St. (I'll be there again next month)
Electric Fetus - Minneapolis and Duluth
Jackpot - agree with others that Music Millenium is better
Easy street
and
Newbury Comics - don't think they're that great anymore

I've never been to Good, as I only buy CDs.

I'll add to favorite places the one closest to me.............
Vintage Vinyl - Fords, NJ

 

I hear ya, but as someone who used to go there weekly, I can say I keep an 'amoeba' wish-list on my phone, and sometimes I'll completely strike out, then the next week I'll walk out with my arms full. I've also learned that just because you're looking for that RL Steely Dan Greatest Hits LP and you don't see it in the Steely Dan bin, there are 3-4 other places in the store it might turn up. New Arrivals, employee picks etc.

My only problem as a geek like most here, is that if the used LP at Amoeba is in the $10 or more range, it's likely sealed in plastic by the staff. You can have an employee open it so you can inspect but that can be a hassle if you wanna check out 5-10 LPs. Especially if you have to say to the employee, "Yes it's clean but it's not a 'Wally' so no thanks".

 

I think the list might have been better/more meaningful if it said the best for X (fill in the blank here). For example, I really like Euclid in the Bywater district (as you stated) but as a CD guy, there's not much there for me. I give them credit for stocking a lot of New Orleans music, which you don't see in a lot of brick and mortar shops (especially outside of NOLA), but it's not like any of those items are rare or hard to find.

Out of their top 10, I've only been to Amoeba, Waterloo and a branch of Newbury Comics in Cambridge. I've been to Reckless but one of the original London branches. I love Amoeba for sure (have been to all three locations, but at the store on Haight more than the others). I haven't been to Waterloo since the early 2000s but during my first trip there I was seriously underwhelmed at their selection (again for digital media). These days I'm finding the larger cities in the U.S. seem to have the best selection of used CDs, likely because there's a larger population willing to sell/trade titles to them.

 

Yes, that is one WTF entry at least to me. Best store in America?!? I like my record stores to have more,than just a handful of "curated" records. This reminds me of when Pitchfork put that nightmare dump The Thing on its list of best record stores a while back.

You'd be better off heading to Brooklyn to find several better stores including Academy, Captured Tracks, Rough Trade and even the small but well-stocked Earwax.

 

Whew! that article was a miss, all my favs are safe,
Thank You Rolling Stone for consistently missing the beat since '73!

 

Perhaps a special Record Store Day edition...

 

Just outside Baltimore City there's a store called Trax On Wax in the suburban town of Catonsville. The store, which opened in 2010, is unique in that it only sells vinyl. No CDs or tapes. Just records -- and so many of them that the bins are brimming. It also has a great mix of high-end collectibles and bargain bin discounts, plus a cool jazz section. They sometimes do discount bin super sales on Wednesdays (call ahead).

It's also worth mentioning that Catonsville's nearby sister town, Arbutus, has been hosting a monthly Record And CD Show in the basement of its fire hall for 25 years. They were vinyl when vinyl wasn't cool. This show takes place the third Sunday of each month (except in July) and features scads of dealers selling all sorts of odd, obscure records (including 45s). One of the regular dealers is Skip Groff, who owned the fabled Yesterday And Today Records in Rockville (now a mail-order biz) and produced Minor Threat and the Slickee Boys.

If any collectors are passing through this area, I'd recommend these two venues for vinyl.

 

Jackpot in Portland is awful.

Another vote for Music Millennium from me.

 

I know nothing of how these stores rate in terms of vinyl, but in terms of CDs, I wasn't excited about any of the MN stores I visited last year...

 

Ooh - that's close to home! Do they have a good used CD selection?

 

Any "best of" that leaves off PREX isn't worth the time it took to read!

In terms of CDs, Wonder Book has always been something of a disaster, mainly because they apparently will buy anything, no matter how beat-up - and they'll charge top $ for it.

I remember finding some decent CDs there but they were serious cat toys. If they'd been $1 or $2 I might've purchased them, but WB wanted like $8-$9 for CDs that might not have actually been playable!

They also had some homemade CD-Rs on the shelves!

 

Didn't they call Soundgarden in Baltimore the best record store in the US a few years back? Interesting that it no longer makes the list at all!

 

The Cheapos on 36th and Nicolette is awesome. There could be a list of the 10 best record stores in Minneapolis and/or the Twin Cities (Roadrunner, Hymies, Know Name, etc).

 

Man I hate that. Another well known record store in New Orleans (that shall remain nameless) does this as well (or did at least). I get it, times are tough and rents can be high. Resorting to selling CD-R copies of out of print (British origin) compilations of New Orleans music with poor quality cover scans while charging full retail price, however, is not a cool way to do business IMHO.

 

What I came home with was truly excellent. Wonderfully organized and catalogued, prices fair, h lpful, courteous staff.

 

They picked Jackpot for Portland??? That place never would have crossed my mind for such a list. Seems like someone didn't do their research!

I've always felt that Crossroads and Music Millennium were far better, at least in terms of used records.

As for which of the three Amoebas is actually the best, I might actually lean towards San Francisco, but all three stores are worthwhile. I go to the one in Berkeley the most by far since I live in the East Bay, though it is the smallest.

 

Just a reminder that Rolling Stone is at least a half a decade behind the times...

Also, I wonder how come Silver Platters never gets any love. That's MY favorite store.

 

Crooked Beat in Alexandria is predominantly vinyl, but does have a small used CD section.

 

I have just one question: how much money did Good Records pay to get onto this list?

I wouldn't have considered them even in the conversation for for top 3 of NYC right now, and NYC is wasteland for record stores compared to what it was 10-15 years ago.

Vintage Vinyl (Fords NJ) and Princeton Record Exchange (Princeton NJ) both utterly trounce it.

Great big-city record stores are becoming a thing of the past. The rents make it practically impossible to exist, unless one of the owners mysteriously has a back-door channel to the estates of hundreds of record collectors that nobody else knows about. You can charge double for a cheeseburger in NYC because buyers can't order that cheeseburger from a guy in North Dakota on Amazon. But you can't charge double for records.

Smaller cities and towns are where it's at for these nowdays.

 

I posted this due to Reckless being listed. They have a great selection of cds. Though i hardly buy anythe vinyl selection is pretty good. If I do, it's only to frame it.

I prefer the location on Milwaukee vs the one on Broadway, but both are good. Both locations have in store signings, and performances as well. There is a third location in the Loop.

Another reason the Milwaukee location is better is due to the fact that 2 other good stores are a short walk away. Theres also a higher end used equipment store. In between stores, you can stop at Stan's donuts, and hit up Demon Dawgs as well.

Whatever you do, don't park in Jewels lot on milwaukee.

 

Funny thing about Amoeba. I get that it's huge and I get that they have many registers. But I've been to the one in San Fran and I've been to the one in LA and not only were the workers I dealt with at the LA store rude, but I only found a couple of items worth buying at either store. Nothing really rare that I don't come across most other places. Meanwhile in my favorite stores, I come out with a box full of records without a problem. So as much as others love Amoeba, I can't say they do much for me at all.

 

Silver platters sodo is great. We are really spoiled up here...I’d have a hard time calling any one shop my favorite!

 

Last Vestige? Haven't been there in about 10 years - did it get better or something? Seemed pretty small and run-of-the-mill.