Record/CD stores in Toronto

Sonic Temple on the east side of Yonge St., north of Sheppard. I used to buy lots of exceptionally clean vinyl from them and they also carried rare imports (not boots).

R

 

Sonic Boom is very good...so is Deja VU (there's one is Scarborough at Kennedy Commons - 401 and Kennedy)

I really miss Harmony on Mount Pleasant...that was great for cheap vinyl and a good selection too...Vinyl Museum was cool in it's day (Yonge and Dundas) with the .25 cent 45 rpm's in the basement...OR the incredible Record and Book store south of Wellesley?...

I remember the old Vortex on Dundas east in the early 80's...what a time! Bert knows my face since 1981 too...Vortex is still best for me. Prices are reasonable and an excellent variety of stuff...

Does anyone remember the used record shop just a block or so west before Vortex on Dundas east from the 80's?..a long haired bearded hippy kinda guy who ran it... a very small store but I bought quite a few cassette from him in the day. It was always the pit stop before or after Vortex.

 

I've always shopped at Discovery Records on E. Queen while record hunting in Toronto. I haven't been up for awhile, but I used to bring stuff up to trade and always found good records there.

 

I remember that place! I always parked my car beside it in the lot that belonged to the cleaning store beside his place.

Gord and Sammy's "Back Beat" was across the street from Vortex on Dundas; remember that?
Also Jeff Wood's "Discworks" was around the corner on Church St.

Memories.

 

I remember Don's Discs. I also remember wanting to punch Don in the nose.

 

We used to laughingly (he was in on the joke) call him Mr Doo Wop!

 

He wasn't shy about telling you what you bought sucks, that's for sure!

 

Yes, when my apartment got broken into back in '96, apparently most of my discs wound up there, despite the fact that my taste in music (electronica at the time) were a far cry from the shop's usual offerings of vintage rock 'n roll, which makes one wonder why they took them in the first place. The owner sold them off to Bert at Vortex, where I found some of them. Bert was thoroughly unimpressed with Back Beat, and made an angry remark about how the guy was running a fence there and he would never do business with him again. To my astonishment, Bert gave me back every disc in his store that I claimed was mine, no questions asked. That blew me away. I was thinking I'd be lucky if he let me buy them for his cost.

When my insurance company replaced some of the discs that I'd recovered, I gave the sealed discs to Vortex as thanks, and I've continued to shop there whenever I can.

 

Bert is a class act. Vortex rules...

 

I'll be careful what I say here as I'm not sure which "guy" you mean. The store moved in 97 and the ownership changed somewhat.

Back Beat (Gord in particular who was a very stand up and much loved individual) were always good to us. I never saw any questionable goings on there.

I also worked there in 2000/2001 when they were on Yonge St.

Having worked in used stores in Toronto for 4 or more years in the past, sometimes you don't know when you're being sold stolen CD's. It happened to me once by a kid who was a good con and I almost ended up arrested over it. Sorry for your loss then, of course, but sometimes these things happen and there's more to it than meets the eye.

 

Unfortunately they are liquidating and will be history by the end of January.

 

All this reminising about old record shops in Toronto, and no mention of the Record Peddler?? I remember cutting class in '91 and going to the Peddler with a friend of mine and I got a Dayglo Abortions cassette. Hehe.

there's Eastside records on Danforth, I haven't been there in years though, so I'm not sure what it's like now.

 

Peddler was much more than a store, they were also a distributor. So many of the imports sold in this city went through Peddler. I still find LPs with their distinctive stickers on the back upper right corner.

I've heard that Peddler also distributed bootlegs, but I don't know how if they did. I certainly never saw any at the store.

 

They never sold them in the store but I do know that they did sell them at flea markets. They had stall for a while, maybe 1-2 years max at the Dixie Mall weekend flea market. Unmistakable that it was them because they used the same Record Peddler price stickers!

Eddie

 

Vortex and Sonic Boom are the places to go.

I just heard the bad news about Sonic Temple. Gonna try and swing by there soon before its gone.

 

Oh no!!! I live just north of there and have spent many hours and dollars in that store.

I'd better visit before they close up.



R

 

If you're in that area, do you ever hit the Sunrise Records at Yonge & Sheppard?

 

No! I didn't even know it is there! Which corner is it on? I'll drop by tomorrow or Thursday.

R

 

Oh NO!!! I buy about half of my music (about 3/4s of my jazz) from them! I was just in there a few days ago and saw no sign of liquidation!!

Beauvoir, what's special about the Yonge & Sheppard Sunrise? That's the one in the basement of the Grande cinema complex, right? I'm in there all the time but never find anything all that exotic (compared to the downtown flagship).

 

Right at Yonge & Sheppard in the Sheppard Centre.
Small store but some good stuff (better selection than most Sunrise stores). Lots of Universal Deluxe Editions, strong jazz and R&B sections.

A board member recently picked up the Dead Can Dance boxed set from there, apparently the only place in town that still had one.

 

The Queen Street East location: That's where I bought all my Beatles UK Parlophone import LP's in the fall of 1980 weeks before Lennon was shot.
They gave me 2 comp tickets to some new band's show at the El Mocambo who were playing the club the night after we lost Lennon on Tues Dec 9th. The band was a group I'd only recently heard; they were called U2.

 

No, Dundas East was my Vortex initiation...how long was he (Bert) at Kensington? How long has he been in business...

 

I used to love coming into his store on a Saturday afternoon and watching him hold court.

I still see him around at Toronto record shows.