Chicago area record stores past and present (with photos)

Discussion in 'Music, Movie and Hardware Store Guide' started by larry333, Mar 19, 2012.

  1. weaselriot

    weaselriot Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago, IL
    There was a Crow's Nest on Ogden somewhere in Westmont/Downer's Grove also, south side of the street in a strip mall.
     
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  2. EddieMann

    EddieMann I used to be a king...

    Location:
    Geneva, IL. USA.
    Remember When was in a small strip mall on the south side of Ogden east of Cass in Westmont.
     
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  3. weaselriot

    weaselriot Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago, IL

    That sounds like the approximate location of what I remember to have been a Crow's Nest location in the late 1990s to early 2000s. Maybe it is even the same location, either before or after the time when it was Remember When. After all, Crow's Nest did take over Rock Records downtown, Rose took over Laury's, and then Tower took over Rose. All of those record/music store chains seemed to be in a constant game of corporate Pac-Man in those days, just like the banks.

    The Crow's Nest I remember on Ogden was south side of Ogden, probably east of Cass but west of 83, in a wing of a little strip mall. I was in that area frequently until about 2005 because I made weekly visits to another place, QED Laser Video, in a little strip mall on the north side of Ogden sandwiched in between a couple of car dealerships (one was a Toyota). The Crow's Nest I remember as being a few blocks further west on Ogden. I stopped going to that area about 2005 because QED was forced to move after losing its lease when the strip mall was sold. Lots of laserdisc and DVD purchases there, the best place in Chicago suburbs for that (drove all the way from northwest burbs every Tuesday new release day). I also visited Audio Consultants (further east on Ogden closer to 294) on those weekly trips.

    Though I didn't know it at the time, those first few years after Y2K now retrospectively seem to have been that one last glorious "Indian Summer" of brick and mortar retail before the coming retail apocalypse winter, with no prospect of another spring on the horizon this time.
     
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  4. Agree, I stopped in a few weeks back and walked out with a few nice LPs. Like you said, the owner is a really friendly guy too which makes it all the better to shop there. Not the easiest place for me to get to but I’m sure I’ll shop there Every couple of months.
     
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  5. Planbee

    Planbee Negative Nellie

    Location:
    Chicago
    Considering how many trips I took all the way down to the Crest Hill Crow's Nest and how often I was in and around the western suburbs back then, I'm surprised that I have no recollection of a CN on Ogden. Seems like I should've LIVED there... :laugh:

    I've never been to places like Tower on Sunset, so for me the Crow's Nest on State & Jackson was the single greatest CD store I'll ever see. Their jazz section downstairs was insane, a little better even than the Tower around the corner on Wabash. I'd only been into jazz a couple years before the downtown Crow's Nest had their store-closing sale, and I remember thinking there's probably a ton of CDs I should be buying, but you can't really buy artists you don't yet know.
     
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  6. If I'm remembering that Crow's Nest correctly, it was definitely bigger than Tower on Sunset. Eventually Tower opened the Tower Annex right across the street to house its jazz/classical section but even then Crow's Nest was bigger I think.
     
  7. weaselriot

    weaselriot Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago, IL

    It may be that if there was a Crow's Nest on Ogden, it may have been for a very short time. Every week I would make at least one after work jaunt to downtown Crow's Nest and Tower on Wabash, so I was very familiar with the brand. But the time frame was very early 2000s, about 2002-2004. I first saw the one on Ogden after my weekly stop at QED Laser Video, and I remember thinking "oh, they've got a Crow's Nest out here, have to stop in". I was on the hunt for SACDs at that time and not all titles were always in stock even downtown. The one on Ogden was OK or even a little better, but nothing particularly special in the end. They may have even taken over another store at that location (much like they did Rock Records downtown) for a brief period before heading off into the retail sunset themselves.

    Y2K and the first year or two after that saw Best Buy, Circuit City, Tower, Borders and the other big box chains all with very robust selection, plus increasingly DVDs too. But suddenly after about 2002, the handwriting was on the wall everywhere. I never saw anything like it before, and brick and mortar recorded music retail being ten years now into flatline precludes any chance of ever seeing anything like that again. First it would have to rise again, and that just ain't gonna happen.
     
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  8. sa5150

    sa5150 Forum Resident

    Wasn't Crow's nest , This shop was small but had bootleg cds as well as new cds kinda like Rolling Stones but much smaller , It was definitely Downers Grove .

    Does anyone remember the massive Musicland on Harlem and forest preserve drive , Then they shrunk it to a tiny little shop . I liked the giant one that had everything from laserdiscs to minidisc even 8 tracks .
     
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  9. fitz436

    fitz436 New Member

    Location:
    Bartlett, IL
    Just found this thread and it brings back all kinds of memories. In high school, I worked at the Big Apple store in Des Plaines, 643 W. Golf Rd, now a dentist's office. There were 2 other locations that I remember, one in downtown Highland Park and the other on Waukegan Road in Glenview.
     
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  10. weaselriot

    weaselriot Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago, IL


    Are you sure that wasn't Big Daddy Records? I bought R.E.M. "Murmur" there in fall 1983, today still in shrink with "Big Daddy $5.99" still on it. I shopped at Big Apple too, but that one was on Waukegan Rd in Glenview in a little strip mall that had a baseball card/sports memorabilia shop a couple doors away. I think there was a Burger King right by there also.

    Or maybe Big Daddy became Big Apple or vice versa? What years did you work there?
     
    Last edited: Feb 21, 2022
  11. matsellah

    matsellah Active Member

    Location:
    Yokosuka, Japan
    This thread... what a way to get started on this board!

    I grew up near Portage Park but family expanded beyond the size of our two-flat so we moved out to Northlake. When I hit "that age" my first store was a place called Revolver. It was on Mannheim, near North Ave. When I got older, I started spending more time back where my cousins remained, so a lot of time in Rolling Stone and the Flip Side on Foster (where I bought my first concert tickets; Golden Earring at the brawlroom and then CheapTrick/UFO a week later in Hammond). Had a nice little collection that I unloaded just before going into the military.
     
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  12. EddieMann

    EddieMann I used to be a king...

    Location:
    Geneva, IL. USA.
    When McCartney and Wings added a third Chicago show to their Wings Over America tour we waited all night on the sidewalk at Flipside to get our tickets.
     
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  13. matsellah

    matsellah Active Member

    Location:
    Yokosuka, Japan
    Those where the days!
     
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  14. Matt Richardson

    Matt Richardson Forum Resident

    Location:
    Suburban Chicago
    This thread has brought back some fine memories!

    I went to university at Loyola in the 80's, therefore I often found myself at Round Records on Sheridan Rd just across the street from the school. The second floor had a decent used section. I also had a thing for the lady clerk who worked up there. She seemed like a bohemian hippie to my yuppie sensibilities of the time.

    Also in the late 80s/90s, I periodically took the L to Morse Ave on the far north side where there was a little used record place named Record Exchange. Later, I think they moved to Belmont Ave in Lakeview. I seem to remember the owner was a professional double bass player perhaps(?). He was a nice chap who would even thank you for stopping by if you happened to leave the store without making a purchase.

    Other than those two places, it was always Rose Records on Wabash or the big Tower Records on Clark. Tower was such a cool place in the 90s. You could go there at 11:00pm on a Friday night and the place would be packed-it had such a vibe. Great video rental room too with laser discs playing on the TV. I still have many VHS tapes that I bought there when they sold off their rental stock cheap in the switchover to DVDs.
     
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  15. Hogues

    Hogues Forum Resident

    Was that the lady with the huge, very scary, staff thing? She used to walk around the neighborhood with it and no one messed with her! I remember seeing her at Bruno's with that thing propped up against the bar. I used to love the Tower records on Clark as well, but Round Records was my go to. That was the first place near us that had video cassettes to rent. They would keep the adult movies in the same case as the normal movies. I asked for Flash Gordon and they handed my mom Flesh Gordon which was right next to it. My 10 year old self thought that that was great.
     
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  16. Hopping Tiger

    Hopping Tiger Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago
    Was that the place in the strip mall on the northeast corner of the big 75th & Lemont intersection? The strip mall had a Dominick's on the north end and a Venture (later Best Buy) on the south send closest to 75th. The record store was about in the middle.

    I have been trying to remember the name of that place for a while and I am thinking Sound Warehouse might be it. That's what led me to this thread actually. I wish I could find a picture. I tried to give that store all my money in the late 80s early 90s.
     
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  17. Chee

    Chee Forum Resident

    Location:
    Denver
    Did Chicago have a Peaches store?
     
  18. Planbee

    Planbee Negative Nellie

    Location:
    Chicago
    No, Sound Warehouse was directly across Lemont Rd. from Best Buy in the northwest quadrant of the intersection as you're coming up north on Lemont Rd. from I-55. IIRC, Sound Warehouse was very close to Lemont Rd. (only an Amoco station was between the two). At one point, there WAS a used CD shop somewhere between Dominick's and Best Buy, but it wasn't around that long and was nowhere near the size of Sound Warehouse.

    If you're recalling a CD store of any decent size in that intersection around that time, Sound Warehouse HAD to be it. I still remember standing in a line for Prince tickets that wrapped around the outside of the building. Then, the night of the show, we all had to stare at his cardboard cutout on stage until he finally appeared a couple hours late. Anyway...
     
  19. I want to say yes but can’t say for sure. We had an Oranges though, in Arlington Heights or thereabouts.
     
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  20. Planbee

    Planbee Negative Nellie

    Location:
    Chicago
    Yeah, we had Peaches. I think they became FYE.
     
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  21. Chee

    Chee Forum Resident

    Location:
    Denver
    Ours became a big Mexican dance hall and the other a Sound Warehouse then Walgreens.
     
  22. bunkaroo

    bunkaroo Forum Resident

    The became Coconuts first.

    75th and Lemont strip mall was I think another Crow’s Nest but can’t be sure. Went there a lot.
     
  23. KevinP

    KevinP Forum introvert

    Location:
    Daejeon
    Any other fruits?
     
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  24. Chee

    Chee Forum Resident

    Location:
    Denver
    Morris Levy had Strawberries or was it Strawberrys.....is that a fruit?
     
  25. matsellah

    matsellah Active Member

    Location:
    Yokosuka, Japan
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