Any Good Vinyl Record Stores In Denver?

A friend of mine is going to Denver in September. He is a big collector of vinyl (like me).

Can anybody give some advice on stores that sell vinyl?

Any tips would be greatly appreciated!
JG

 

There's one called twist and shout, at alameda & broadway. They have a big CD store and the vynil store crossing the street.

 

I was there last summer and found two that were quite good: Wax Trax and, I think, Final Take. It's northwest of the city in Wheat Ridge at 10109 W 37th Pl. Maybe someone in the Denver area will respond.

GM

 

There are at least 3

The 2 mentioned plus Black and Read on the corner of 80th and Wadsworth (Near Hobby Lobby). All three have good selections, but I have not been to Wax Trax in a while. Twist and Shout and Read and Black both have great new and used selections. In case you want to know, Wax Trax is on the 13th, in down town Denver.


Tim

 

As mentioned, Twist & Shout (actually, Alameda and Logan--Logan is just east of Broadway), Black & Read, and Wax Trax (13th Ave and Washington).

Twist has a CD store on the SW corner of the intersection; vinyl, NW corner.

 

It's worth the drive to Boulder and check out Bart's on Pearl St.

 

I visit Denver several times a year and always make a point to check out Black and Read and Twist and Shout. Wax Trax used to be great for vinyl (separate stores for new and used vinyl), but not any more. It's close to downtown, so it's worth stopping in if you're close, but don't go with high expectations.

Black and Read is my favorite Denver source for vinyl. Not to be missed. On the other hand, Twist and Shout has the largest selection of CDs in town. Their vinyl shop across the street vies with Black and Read for selection, but the prices are on the high side. It's definitely worth a visit, but I consider it more of a "last resort" kind of shop, a place to check for LPs I really, really want but haven't found elsewhere. For example, they have a lot of Beatles LPs, but the prices are silly—usually at least twice as much as Black and Readn will ask for. Not surprisingly, Beatles LPs sell quickly at Black and Read, and they sit for years and years at Twist and Shout. My nickname for T&R is "Twist and Spend."

One nice thing about Black and Read is that they don't know how highly we audiophiles prize German pressings. In the past year, I bought NM German copies of Joni Mitchell's For the Roses and Elton John's Madman Across the Water for $3 each.

Both B&R and T&S usually have lots of Mobile Fidelity LPs: $20-75 each at B&R and $100-200 at T&S. If you're desperate for, say, MoFi Beatles LPs, Denver is a good place to shop. For whatever reason, I almost never see DCC LPs in Denver (I see many more here in Nebraska).

I haven't been to (or heard of) Final Take. I'll have to check that out.

Oh, if your friend has time, I'd suggest a 30 minute drive north of Denver to Boulder. Bart's in downtown Boulder has CDs downstairs and a good selection of LPs upstairs. Bart's sometimes has terrific finds. I bought a NM '82 mono repressing of A Hard Day's Night there for $20 a few years ago. I also have VG+ copies of Who's Next and Tommy (UK Track first pressings) that I bought at Bart's for $25 each. The selection has thinned in recent years, but I still always walk out with something happily tucked under my arm.

 

Wax Trax is (was?) a great place to build your back catalog without spending too much money. These days they seem to be putting their better stuff on eBay, but you can usually still walk out with a handful of records and have money left over for lunch.

Twist and Shout, like the others have said, is somewhat pricey but not to the point of being a rip off, IMHO.

Right in the middle of downtown on Colfax Ave. there's the legendary Jerry's Record Exchange. Unfortunately he seems to be shying away from vinyl and concentrating more on CDs. It's worth stopping by and snooping around though, there are plenty of LPs stacked around in there. Really musty old dumpy place. Absolutely wonderful.

dan c