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

Agree!

 

I actually disagree that the store should remain nameless. I wanna know which store this was so I can go spend some money there! Sounds like they deserve the business.

 

The Deja Vu lady is still around? I remember her from the Taunton store in the early 1990s... Frank Biedak's law office is in that location now. I always walked out of there with about 100 more records than I intended to buy, because she pretty much put them in my arms and said to take them. I really need to take a trip to Natick now.

Sunset is in Somerset, not Swansea... I haven't been there in forever but it's great to know that Bob is still running it. His original place in Dartmouth was basically a shed behind Sound II; I somehow got my dad to take me there (I was probably 13 or 14) and was spooked by the place but I did buy Jellybean's "Sidewalk Talk" 45 that night (I remember everything, really). He eventually moved across Route 6 to a barn-looking place that had an musical instrument store upstairs called... wait for it... Music Barn. Somebody there had a connection to a store that sold baby furniture in New Bedford and they used to run all of the credit card transactions through that store's merchant account. If you paid with a credit card, they'd tell you that it would show up on your statement as "Baby Boudoir".

Bob loves Nils Lofgren as much as he loves the Beatles. I'll check the hours and pay him a visit soon. I've also been meaning to check out Max J records in Fairhaven... I guess I've got some plans for this Saturday now.

 

That is an awesome story. As a strong introvert I have trouble wrapping my head around the idea of getting to know a shop owner so well he’d do this for you. But that does not change how nice of him it was to do it.

Here’s to your continued health.

 

I found two NM Cars albums in a local record store (N.C.) for $4 each. Those would have gone for $10-$15 minimum in Massachusetts, based on my last visit.

 

1991 prices. Good deal.

 

Thanks to everyone for their best wishes! I have every intention of trying to stay healthy-there is still a lot of great music to listen to.

Thanks. I am actually kind of shy and an introvert like you. Plus I'm a Virgo if you follow that stuff. I am very much the typical introverted Virgo. However a record store or an online forum about this hobby is one place I am comfortable coming out of my shell. I am not usually the first one to speak, but I can become a bit of an extroverted-introvert.

In 2018 when I got back into buying and playing LPs, I started exploring record stores in the Merrimack Valley and Southern N.H. and ME. This particular store I first visited on a Saturday and it was packed but looked promising. The owner wanted to know what music and artists I was looking for. I began visiting at 5:00 PM on Thursday and Friday nights to check out the weeks new releases. I found around suppertime was a good time to go and I often had the store to myself. I From my profile you could see I have very eclectic tastes and I found the owner had an even wider range of styles he liked and/or was familiar with. We also shared many genres and artist we liked. This often spawned conversations about the artist, our favorite LPs or songs. We often were at the same concert here or saw the same tour for an artist when I lived in Michigan. After one or two visits he had learned my tastes and a pattern soon developed: I would walk in the door and the owner greeted me by name and started telling me what had come in that I might be interested in, both new and used. Before I had even browsed any of the bins, I often had enough suggestions to fill my needs and my intended "allowance" for the week. I would still stay and browse to learn what types of music he typically got in and the condition of the LPs. As we know every record store has a "personality" which is a reflection of both the owner and the customers.

After a few months, the owner would see me come in and would start scurrying around plucking new LPs and new used LPs he had gotten in that might be of interest to me. It was funny because my tastes were eclectic he would be bouncing all over the store like Ricochet Rabbit. I had often met or exceeded my "allowance" before I browsed a single LP myself . Although my purchasing would be through, I often stayed and browsed. I love looking at LPs. They are like little works of art. I have an interest in history, graphic arts & photography and records reflect all of those disciplines. Sometimes I would find an LP and would say: "Will I like this?" Often I would blind buy one of his recommendations without ever hearing it. He has been right 95% of the time. For the few misses I just sell him back the LP. As I browsed the empty store, we would have a running conversation from across the store. If a customer came in we would suspend the conversation so he could attend to their needs. That done, we would pick up later where we left off. With most of my purchases being accomplished in the first 10 minutes I would simply be browsing and chatting after that. After a while I would attempt to leave saying: "My credit card is smoking, no more for me today. I'm going leave and let you get some work done." The owner would reply: "You don't have to leave, I'm enjoying our chat. One of the reasons I bought a record store is for times like this-talking music with a fellow music lover"

Over time our chats evolved and expanded to other hobbies, our personal lives both past and present and life in general. There were only a handful of people I shared the details of my life threatening liver disease and cancer-to my surprise he became one of them. Many nights I would end up closing the place. I would wait while the owner closed up and secured the store and we would walk out to our cars together. Even after chatting for the last 3 hours, we would often chat for another 10 or 15 minutes out at our cars. Friends of the owner would often come in just to say hello. If someone was at the cash counter talking with the owner he would introduce them by saying: "John meet a long time customer of mine, Peter" or "John meet one of my favorite customers Mary." After 6 months I got an introduction of " ....meet my good friend Jim" I was shocked when I heard that the first time. I have had record store owners that I am friendly with, but I never considered them friends in the true meaning of the word. I realized that neither of us expected it to happen, but we had become real friends. Since then he has gone above and beyond what I would ever expect from any friend. I would never ask for some of the things he has done for me voluntarily. He now has a customer and friend for life-although he doesn't treat me they way he does because he wanted me to spend money at his store. He is just an incredible human being. I will always buy my LPs from him if he carries a given LP. He has even told me Elusive Disk or someone else has a better price than him on a given item, but his distributer for that product charges more than that. Doesn't matter to me-he has supported me and this is the least I can do.

 

Great story, @Jim0830 -- and a wonderful example of why we need to continue to support these sort of small, local shops -- the kind of stores that can give you this level of care, respect, and attention. Acknowledging the hard work these good people put into their business is so much more fun than complaining about how there are no good stores anymore (which, of course, is entirely untrue).

 

To be far, in Boston the Cars are local legends (in addition to being global hitmakers) and that always raises the price in a band's hometown. DMZ records always cost 2-3 times more in Boston than they did elsewhere...meanwhile, Arrogance LPs will cost you nothing outside of N.C. (with good cause -- they're terrible)...

 

Happened to be running errands and stopped by there today. Huge sale on everything in the store, it was packed. Records 40% off. I made off with some really sweet stuff at that discount. The best being a mono 1st press of The Pleasure Fair and an upgrade copy of Veedon Fleece. One of the employees was back by the records and we were chatting. I brought up your LZ hoping they may be behind the counter or something but he said Patrick "collects" (sounds like he meant just for the sake of having them. Especially KISS stuff) so may have kept them.

 

Interesting experience at Electric Eye in Florence, MA this afternoon. On my first-ever visit, the owner charged me $80 for $85 worth of new Italian soundtracks, and then charged me $20 for a stack of LPs and 12" singles that were marked $85 total. They all came out of the $5 bins at floor level, but all of it was quality stuff in decent nick. And when I protested, he was basically "Well, you'll be back."

I think it was mostly an Armageddon-like issue: this is clearly a classic rock/metal store and the stuff I bought was mostly 80s/90s indie and college stuff. Still, he's right: I'll be back.

 

Most of the places I got still have Cars going for about $5. Boston's first is starting to creep up.

I've been down in the RDU area for work a few times. Usually stayed in Chapel Hill. I could walk to the places downtown. Found some amazing stuff down there on those trips. Hunky Dory, All Day, and a bunch more. There was another one in an multi-unit building near Sorry State that I did well in and of course Sorry State. I went for a bunch of great bootlegs at Sorry State the last time I was there and really really regret not getting the Townes Van Zandt that was in the recent arrivals. Looking online just now it looks like a bunch of places have opened up since I was down there last. I'm jealous.

The team I joined a few years ago unfortunately doesn't have anyone based down there that I would need to travel to see. So, now just local for me!

 

I visited last fall and bought a couple of things. More brand-new records than I like, but I'd go back, too even though I didn't get a discount. His taste in new records is a lot like Feeding Tube's - are they still in business as a shop?

 

The only new records I saw were in the soundtracks and jazz sections, but I admit I didn't look in the rock section for lack of time.

I suspect the similarly to Feeding Tube is that both get distribution from Forced Exposure. And no, I don't think Feeding Tube still is op

 

I've just gotten back into it recently myself. My son took over the living room as a toddler and that got me out of the habit of using the stereo. We had the living room and bathrooms remodeled over the last half of last year, partially because I wanted to start using the stereo again and get some of my vinyl up from the basement.

My musical tastes are all over the place as well. The best way I can sum it up is old and/or weird.

Checking your profile you're actually two towns away from me, I'm in Tewksbury.

Then you aren't as much of an introvert as you think you are. After several visits I would have yet to have said a a word to anybody.

 

I forgot his 50% off sale was this weekend. I did want to check that out, although he has very little for comics I would want. But seeing as I dropped $200+ on vinyl today and put a deposit down on a mid century antique credenza to use as a record cabinet I think I'll avoid that for now.

I think I actually had 3 copies of that which means I still have one more left. I don't think I gave him both the duplicates.

 

There was definitely some other good stuff I didn’t pick up because I already had it or because a decision was made. Nice promo copy of Sandy Denny - The North Star… that I put back to get a couple of other things. At 40% it’s at an attractive price.

 

relevant to my interests--requesting pics once you have it !

 

To respond to the OP's original inquiry, I use the link below to find record stores in a specific location. From there I google each store for more details...

recordstores.love - all record stores on one map

 

The dealer had this one and while I was waffling on whether to buy it or not it sold. He got another one which is currently at the restorer it won't be ready until late March / early April. But it looks the same. Each cubby has a single drawer on top with enough space under to fit vinyl box sets no problem.

Units like this are pretty rare, usually it's a mix of drawers and compartments. Even the dealer said he almost never sees them like this, so I'm glad to have it. If you look at the pictures in my profile it will go behind the sofa where you can see a similar unit now (which used to be for the TV before we remodeled the room).

 

@rangda that's NICE ! thanks for the pic

 

i can't vouch for what they actually have in stock, but I was at Fidelis yesterday and they've added some record bins and seem to be organizing their vinyl and i did notice there's a dedicated country bin now

 

All the cubes along the back wall were Bill's. When he passed away right at the beginning of the plague times, the store sold his collection to raise money for his family. For all I talked to him about music I found a couple of things I didn't expect.

 

i just wanted to pass this on:
on Wednesday i got a call from Bob @ Garnick's--he told me he'd bought a collection of 1000 jazz records!
i made the trip today and picked up about 20 records. there's still a lot of big band type stuff including a whole box of 10" records that looks great.

 

Finishing up a quick Vermont trip.

Stayed one day/night in Montpelier and visited Buch Spieler. Friendly shop owner and I grabbed a few things for good prices.

Second day/night was in Burlington. Hit Burlington Records first and came away with a few records. Great store, lots of used stock at good prices, and a solid cheapie section. Next, I went to Speaking Volumes, which I had never been to before. Walking in, it was overwhelming but that was okay, I was ready to dig. Didn't take me longer than 5 minutes to realize this was a waste. Everything, and I mean everything, was wayyyyy overpriced. I was bummed because I probably could have made a stack of about 25 records, but I wasn't about to pay 5x-10x max discogs prices. Finally, went to Autumn Records. Another great shop where I grabbed a small stack. Nice owner, PLENTY of space, and a nice selection.

I didn't get to Pure Pop this time around but I seem to recall the last time I went, not being overly impressed.