Do you go record hunting while you are on a trip?

Rude not to.

 

This for me as well.

Whenever I travel, and it's usually for work, I try to check out local independent record stores AND sample local craft beers. I find that different cities/regions will have different used selections than what I'm used to seeing at home. Plus, record stores are just plain fun. As is unique, locally brewed beer.

 

What else am I going to do while the wife is looking at STUFF mate?!

 

Absolutely

 

The more beer you drink the more records you suddenly seem to be able to afford.

Do tell where?

 

Absolutely! The two are best experienced together and sequentially. With all the breweries, Seattle is a good place for this, as is Portland Oregon. Also NYC (a Heartland Brewing is usually nearby). Also SF. Had the best time one afternoon in London this past April, between Soho and Covent Garden; good used vinyl stores (Berwick St area) plus The Harp and The (relocated) Whisky Exchange (no longer near The Rake in Borough Market); all within a quick walk from the Tottenham Court underground station. Also, Brew Dog is the reward at the north end of Brick Lane after cruising the vinyl in Shoreditch.

 

Where in Amsterdam? I'll be there in mid-Sept. Also, know any good used vinyl stores in any of the nearby towns? (Utrecht, Haarlem, Leiden...)?

 

It used to be mandatory, but not in recent years.
Before, I was always looking around for great record stores, nowadays I've mostly given up on physical records.

 

Reckless or Sister Ray? The Harp is a great boozer, I can just about remember the last time I went there...hic!

 

I liked Reckless best, and here is what I posted on a different thread:

 

Concerto (Utrechtsestraat) is essential. Also, Record Friend.

 

Thanks! I figured out where most of the jenever distilleries are, might as well find all the record stores

Looks like Concerto is on the #4 tram line, one block from the Haring stand at Prinsengracht. i've probably passed that place dozens of times!

 

Only if I stay longer... otherwise it is a waste of time.

 

Hmmm, you did some crazy editing there, because I wasn't the poster who said that. But trying to help anyway.

I'm always looking for used CD's, so I never notice consciously whether a store also selles used vinyl. I know there are a lot of shops in Amsterdam and certainly some in Utrecht. I don't know about Leiden (have never been there myself), but if you travel there, you might stop in Delft. I saw 3 record shops in Delft with lots of new vinyl last week, but I'm not sure if they also sell used vinyl (none of them sold used CD's).

I think this is an informative site: http://www.iamexpat.nl/read-and-discuss/lifestyle/articles/the-best-vinyl-record-stores-amsterdam. I found it while searching on "used vinyl site:.nl" in Google. The "site:.nl" part instructs Google to look only for results on Dutch websites (.nl domain).

This is the site I mostly use to see if there are record shops when I travel in The Netherlands: Platenzaken in Nederland - Plaatzaken.nl » (in Dutch).
This is another list with many record stores in The Netherlands: https://www.platendraaier.nl/platenzaken/nederland/ (in Dutch).

Some translations to help you browse Dutch websites:
- A "record store" is called a "platenzaak" or "platenwinkel", plural "platenzaken", "platenwinkels". (plaat = record; zaak/winkel = shop/store).
- We used to call a record a "plaat" or "LP", but nowadays many people will call it "vinyl" (and write it like that), only we pronounce it differently than English speaking folks.
- "Second hand" or "used" are "tweedehands" or "gebruikt".

You could also visit thrift shops, but here they are outside the city centers most of the time. We call them "kringloopwinkels" (recycle shops). Most of them have websites. Most of them have used CD's and vinyl nowadays, but for CD's quality differs wildly across shops.

Good luck!

 

My wife and I honeymooned in Victoria, BC. Before we went I made a point of finding the "best" used record store in town (a place called The Turntable) and emailed the owner with a list of records I was looking for at the time. I told him when we were planning to be in town and he actually emailed me back with what he had that I was looking for, even offering to hold them for me. Our second day in Victoria I made a beeline for the place (my wife tagged along but clearly was bored out of her skull- she got her turn the next day: clothes shopping!) I didn't grab everything he had for me (some of the prices were a little steep) but damn right, whenever I go on holiday I make sure I hit at least one good record store in town. How can I not?

I have found this to be true as well, on a few occasions...

 

Not a lot of records, but I've taken CDs from trips to the UK, USA, Germany, Belgium, France, Spain, Italy and Andorra. I remember I couldn't find a CD store in Monaco.

 

Shipping from Italy to my country is quite expensive, somehow. So, when I was on holidays in Italy last year, I had the Italian eBay sellers ship their CD's to my holiday address.

 

On our 2005 honeymoon, I went into D'VINYL records in Cardiff and picked up Scott Walker's SINGS SONGS FROM HIS TV SERIES for 16 pounds. Brought it all the way back to Australia. My late friend Pete had looked after my vinyl in Cardiff, since I left in 1998, so I picked up my other Scott vinyl from him as well, plus other LP's. I have him to thank for hanging on to it all.

 

35 years ago I went record shopping in every new city and country that I went to. There was so much recorded music that had been in print and was then out of print and so many regional variables in distribution that there was substantial variability in what was available in one city or country or region and another, and so you could find very different things from city to city (or you had to mail order stuff, I remember in the '70s getting the mimeographed sales lists from record dealers around the globe, buying Heptones albums and Big Youth singles and the like by mail from Toronto).

Now, in the global internet distribution age, and in the digital era when nearly every nook and cranny of recorded music has been made continually available, and with businesses like eBay and Discogs basically creating a single national and international market for used stuff, I don't really find a need to go record shopping anywhere, not even around my home (my home is metro NYC, and most of the great record shops are gone anyway, between the falling sales, online competition, and cost of real estate).

I pretty much get everything online, and can almost get anything I want any time I want it with a click. Sure, there's stuff that still hasn't properly been anthologized -- like the Soul Stirrer's 1930s through early '50s Bronze and Aladdin sides; but no amount of looking in different locations is going to help me find a record that never existed.

 

i'm trying to think of a record store in seattle that's not within walking distance of a brewery, and i'm drawing a blank.

 

Always (and often to the detriment of my 'domestic arrangements'...!)

 

I was up in Quebec City a couple of weeks ago and purposely blocked out an entire day to hit the record and thrift stores. Record shopping in different countries is a lot of fun.

 

In my case, it's do I trip while I record hunt?

 

I was in Poland last year and was in a department store that had a tiny record department on the 4th floor, I found used copies of Help and A hard Days Night - both German copies!!

 

Always! +2

sean