Record stores in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island & Connecticut!!

Last Thursday, I took a drive out Joe's Albums in Worcester, MA. They also have a location in North Hampton, MA. I have been buying mostly used albums from their online store for over a year now and have been favorably impressed. I've wanted to do an in-person visit for a while now and yesterday was a beautiful sunny day in the mid 70's. The perfect day for a drive. I planned to arrive when they opened at 10AM because I am on immune suppression drugs and I am an old fart, which makes me a prime candid for getting COVID. Joe's Albums is in downtown Worcester about 2 blocks away form the DCU center. Coming from Lowell on Rte 290 their exit is 2 exits past where Rte 190 merges with 290. The exit is for MLK Blvd. When you get off at the exit, you turn left and go 4 blocks on MLK Blvd. which just ends at Main Street. You turn left, onto Main St. and Joe's Albums is about 1 block, or 500 feet away. Piece of cake.

The sales area is approximately 18' wide x 100' deep. As you enter the store you will see a glass case serving as the cash counter. Along the rest of the left side wall are 2 level browser racks tight up against the wall. The bottom level consists of flat bins where the records are placed spines facing out. Most of these floor level bins are duplicate overstock titles. The upper level features 2 tired browser racks containing the Rock LPs starting from A at the front. On the right side of the store you will find these racks continue to almost the front of the store. The Rock LPs stop at the back wall. They continue along the right rear side and go form ... to Z towards the front. Rock uses up about 60% of the total right side run. The remaining 40% of the right side browser racks contain Jazz and a few other genres. The floor bins below on the right side contain a mix of over overstock, $1 and $2.00 box sets and some box sets. There are also some more boxes in the lover shelf in the center and also behind the cash counter. The racks running down the left and right sides have a continuous shelf above that containing featured albums and grail items. The wall space above the contains posters and art work. The rear of the store has Pro-ject and Rega entry level turntables and some speakers. Records were my primary interest on this first visit so I didn't pay much attention to anything else. Turning to the center of the store there were various mid-height shelves and clothing racks containing clothes, books and record related paraphernalia. There is a browser bin running left to right near the front with the new arrivals and a browser bin running parallel to the outside walls containing CDs. The interior picture below may help clarify this further.





I will cut to the chase: I love this store.It is a throwback to the great record stores of the 70's. Several other customers also said this very thing while I was there. They are very customer focused. Their goal seems to be to give you a great record buying experience at the store and again when you get home and actually play the albums. I was there for 2 hours and spent far more money than I ever expected. You could easily spend a day there looking at everything. I walked out with 15 LPs-8 used, 7 new.

Some of the highlights for me:

• They seemed to have a more in depth selection in the Rock and Jazz genres compared to almost all of the records stores in my area. Or at least they had more of the records I like. They seemed to have a good selection of other genres, but I didn't really have time to look.
• They seemed to have more high quality pressings of new LPs than any local store I have seen. Many of these LPs were/are titles I've had to order from the 'In-Groove', Acoustic Sounds, Elusive Disc. etc.
• I might guess that they would be a great place to go for RSD. I saw many, many titles I had to go to several stores to find a copy of. Some of these titles were non-existent at the local stores near me and I had to get them online. Joe's often had multiple copies of some of these hard to find LPs.
• The used LPs I bought were in great shape. I would say at least VG+ for everything I bought. The surfaces were free from any large scratches and any scratches were minor. They say on their website that all records are visually inspected. When in doubt they are played before they are put out for sale. I have bought used records on line from them before and they were all in good shape. I will say the jackets sometimes were a lesser grade than the LP itself, but the condition of the vinyl is the most important to me.
• The 8 used records I bought all appeared to have been cleaned. Joe's web site says they use a Pro-Ject vacuum based RCM. There were no sighs of smudges, finger prints, or other crud on the surfaces of the records I bought. I also cleaned them on my Klaudio UCM when I got home as I do with every record, but they were already in great shape.
• 6 of the 8 used records I bought were re-sleeved with new paper inner sleeves with a die cut center hole for the label. The other two already had a poly-lined paper original sleeves. If the original inners had printing, advertising, lyrics, or were colored; they were also included along with the record. I liked this. In an ideal world they would be poly-lined sleeves, but I realized that is a whole different level of expense. These die cut paper sleeves did not appear to be shedding in any way. IMHO this is certainly way better than using the original sleeves. When I got these LPs home, I replaced the paper inners with rice paper inners, but I appreciated this customer focussed "nice touch".
• The browser bins were not overstuffed, at least on the day I went. This is one of my pet peeves.
• The records were organized A-Z by genre. Each letter featured dividers for a few major artist and/or artists they had a lot of titles for. Unlike many stores the random sections of the each letter of the alphabet appeared to very well organized. Again at least on this day. You didn't see an Abba LP at the end right after the Average White Band. This could be something the store keeps track of when they sell an LP and go to the overstock bins to replace titles. It also could be because since the browser are not overstuffed and it is easy to put an LP back where it belongs.
• As I mentioned they have two locations. They have regular shipments going back and forth between the two stores so they have similar inventory. You won't find 6 copies of an LP in North Hampton and none in Worcester. In case one store is sold out of a title, they will ship a copy of an LP from one store to the other for free in store pick-up at the other store
• The salesman was very helpful and customer focussed. He went out of his way to help me find where titles I was looking could be found. Be sure to ask. Titles can be in one of several places: New Arrivals, Newer Used Arrivals and also for artists that cross genres. Each record store has their system for artist that span multiple genres, so don't hesitate to ask.

The only negative for me is not unique to Joe's Albums. Being right in downtown Worcester, they don't have their own parking lot. There is street parking right in front of the store and several garages or lots nearby. As a result parking can be very easy or problematic depending on time, day weather, other events etc. I went Thursday at 10:00 AM and got a space 60' away on the street. This store was right up my alley. YMMV and your type of collecting may vary. IMHO definitely worth a stop if you are going to be near Worcester.

 

Nice review of Joe's Albums. I think I was at the Northampton location a few months ago. I wasn't as taken with that store as you are with the one in Worcester (if indeed it was actually Joe's Albums).

Your negative is exactly why I hate driving in cities anymore. Driving in Boston is a nightmare and I basically won't go unless somebody else is driving. I imagine Worcester is much the same and I haven't been there in years. Finding the actual store usually isn't the challenge; it's trying to find parking that always proves difficult. I miss the days when I was young and brave. Just can't cut the bigger cities anymore. Manchester, NH is about as large of a city as I can handle without having a panic attack.

 

@Barnabas Collins Thanks. My positive reaction may be for several reasons which are peculiar to me.

First I always preferred having a good sounding new pressing of an LP to crawling around on the floor or going through 10's or 100's of bins looking of an OP or a used copy in better shape than the one I own. I was this way back in the 60's, 70's and 80's too. Life is t0o short and for me I would rather spend time listening to my records than to be on a constant endless hunt for perfection. I also hate noisy vinyl. This is what caused me to give up on vinyl for 30 years. When I returned to LPs in 2018 after 3o years away from if, I will admit I soon became addicted to buying audiophile or at least high quality reissues of old titles. So now my first choice is a new high quality (BN Tone Poet, BN Classic series) or an audiophile reissue (Analogue Productions, Speakers Corners, Impex, Intervention etc.). Short of that I want a good sounding, clean used version of the LP. That is just me I know. Other's love the crate digging and constant search for a better pressing aspect of this hobby which is cool for them. Joe's LPs had far more of the HQ or audiophile pressings I have to order online.

The second thing that I liked about Joe's is it seemed to be well organized and did not make me browse through massively over-stuffed bins. Nor did I have to crawl on the floor to find most of the things I was interested in. Many records stores, particularly in the city, are organized chaos. The records are in different boxes and bins and it is up for you to sort it all out. Life is too short for that. I have a limited tolerance for record stores that make it hard for me to find something and I have to look trough tons of LPs only to come up blank. I like going to a store where I can quickly see if the have the titles or artists I am interested in.

Lastly from my online dealings with Joe's this past year and from my first in-person visit, I get the impression Joe's is very customer focussed and I appreciate that. All of these nice touches they do, such as new inners and cleaning aren't free and I have no problem paying a little more for them.

Other's mileage may vary. Those are my built in biases and may be the reason I was more impressed with Joe's than you were.

I also totally agree with you about the record stores in the city. I worked in Boston or Cambridge for 25 years and I took the Commuter Rail from Lowell. Staying I the city later after work to hit stores was easily arranged. Now with COVID, the fact I am old and have several issues that make public transit unfeasible. Now being recently retired, I can pick and choose when to hit stores to minimize both car traffic and foot traffic.

 

But what are the prices like?

 

It’s been years since I’ve gotten down there but 4 or 5 years ago they were good prices. Not the cheapest but not overinflated Discogs high+ that I’ve seen in other places.

I remember the score of the day was a Weird Al/Jason and the Scorchers King Biscuit Flower Hour.

 

Agreed. I picked up some really cool stuff there over the years including a holy grail (for me) first press Bathory record.

I wish there were more stores like the late Aquarius Records in SF who really focused on curating exciting new and old music and making you excited to try new things.

 

Something like Stranded would go down a storm somewhere on Mass Ave.

 

I’m in the NH White Mountains for the weekend and found two stores next to one another in tiny downtown Laconia.

One of them, Defiant Records and Craft, is a combination record store and craft brewery (or perhaps the other way around). The selection is small but it makes for a fun visit if you’re in the area.

The second store, NH Vintage Vinyl, was closed by the time we arrived then, after going for coffee across the street at Wayfarer (worth stopping at if you’re a coffee-phile), I found that I was too early. From looking in the window it looked like a fun little shop. From their Facebook page they recently opened and they’re pretty active with their posting. I doubt that I’ll be back but hope they do well.

 

If you're asking about Joe's Albums, the new records were in line with the prices I've seen in other brick and mortar stores around here. As for used records: Factoring in the good condition of the LPs, that the albums received new inner and outer sleeves (I failed to mention the new outer sleeves), the albums were cleaned and the fact this is a brick and mortar store; I personally felt the prices were quite reasonable. Not the cheapest, but the seemed quite reasonable to me. YMMV. The used records were typically within +/- $1 - $2 of the Discogs median price. Lastly, the whole vibe/attitude of the place, coupled with my previous online experiences with them, gave me peace of mind that I could shop for used records with confidence. That intangible is worth something too.

 

I was right there a week and a half ago when I went to see Heilung at the Palladium, wanted to stop in and check this store out but by the time we got to Worcester and found a parking spot there was no time. I'll have to make time to go check it out.

 

I lucked out when I went and found a spot 60' away. But there is so much else going on in that area I realize that parking will be the biggest problem I face going there. But now being officially retired I can pick and choose a day for my visit when there is less going on downtown.

 

a little bit off topic, but any recommendations for audio shops in the Hartford or New haven areas?
i'm aware of the Stereo Shop on Farmington Ave in Hartford, but i haven't been in there since the late 1980s.
i'm mostly interested in hearing about personal experience any of you have had.

my main destination here in NH is AV Therapy in Nashua -- 10/10 service every time i've set foot in the store. John and crew are absolutely fantastic.

 

I couldn't agree with you more about AV Therapy

 

What's good up around Lebanon? I assume there must be something with the university and all. We're doing the usual leaf trip this weekend.

 

Lebanon, NH? Not much of anything, unfortunately. There is a Newbury Comics there but the last time I went, there was more swag than LPs and CDs. In Hanover, where Dartmouth College is, there is a place called rpmNH. I can't vouch for it as I've never been. If you're coming up I-93, you're probably better off stopping either at Record Connection in Manchester or Pitchfork Records in Concord on your way back from leaf peeping.

 

Hanover is what I was thinking of, sorry. We spend most of our time in Norwich and White River Junction and I forget which NH town coincides with which.

That kind of Newbury Comics often has better remainder bins than the ones where the clientele know what they're looking for, so I might stick my head in there. We generally stick to the state roads on these trips so I'll probably give Manchester and Concord a pass. Thanks!

 

I went to the Portsmouth NH Bull Moose w/a couple of friends of mine today. I’m a CD guy myself and there seems be a good enough selection of them, both new and used. The prices were half decent. I picked up a couple of Van Morrison CDs used for under $5 each and a Paul Weller DVD/CD combo, also under $5. As for records, there seems to be less than Mystery Train in Gloucester, MA. All in all, I was happy going there and would do it again. We also went to the FYE in the nearby Fox Run Mall, which was a sad experience. I wish we went to Savers instead.

 

A few of us have commented on the Portsmouth store, but in terms of perspective, those comments are relative to other stores in the chain, especially Scarborough and Mill Creek (So. Portland). The Portsmouth location is at a minimum the equal or better of many mall level Newbury Comics stores, but with better prices.

 

The Portsmouth Bull Moose is a lot better than my local Newbury Comics at the Northshore Mall in Peabody, MA. There's more DVDs, books, records and CDs. Newbury Comics has more novelty items like shirts, dolls, etc.

 

Very true. Although this forum is focused on music retailers, Bull Moose is also a videophile’s dream when it comes to their selection of new/used movies.

 

I will admit I am not interested in CDs, DVDs, books, nicknacks and other gimmicks. For me judged as a record store only, I found it very underwhelming. It seemed smaller than the downtown Portsmouth store circa 2018 before they downsized their record section. It is around the same size as the old BM after the downsizing. It is not worth the 60 minute drive for me, unless I was driving to Maine and was passing by and I had the free time. Plus the Salem BM seems to have about the same amount of records for a less than 30 minute drive for me.

 

Hit the record conventions in Massachusetts/Connecticut.

 

Man, I miss Bill. He was such a good guy. I do still like stopping in, though. And they've really expanded the vinyl in the past couple of years.

 

Unless something has changed, drastically, Record Connection is nice to stop in to look at records you can get, with shipping, for half the price off Discogs. I'm all about supporting local and brick and mortar stores and all but his prices are often 2x the Discogs High.

 

respectfully, i believe you mean Fidelis?