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Philly Record Store Day fail

In Philly for the holidays, thought I'd check out Record Store Day offerings while here. My experiences:

(1) The place I used to go to on Record Store Day -- a shop called AKA Music -- is now permanently closed.

(2) Milkcrate Cafe & Records -- which used to be a pretty unassuming shop with a decent and varied selection -- is now apparently too hipster-ized to participate in record store day. Saleperson's quote when asked: "We don't participate because the releases aren't up to our standards." (meaning, I think, insufficient punk or obscure electronica). Flipped through the bins, literally nothing whatsoever of interest to me.

(3) Third stop: Beautiful World Syndicate. People raved about this place when I lived here and I checked it out a couple of times, but was always deeply unimpressed, both with the selection available and dismissive attitude of their (also hipster) staff. They also don't participate in Record Store Day, and the few minutes I spent browsing the used bins reinforced that I truly never need to go there again.

(4) Liquid Vinyl Underground: Closed on Black Friday.

(5) Bridgeset Sound: Did not participate in Record Store Day. Otherwise, a small but good selection (nothing I didn't already have, though) and a nice staff.

(6) Final stop: Repo Records. Not much there is to my personal taste, but they do have a high quality (if small) jazz selection. Picked up an original mono copy of Coltrane's Ole and a couple other things.
chipcarterdc
chipcarterdc OP
22 posts
 
Oregon,

Two suggestions:

(1) Jazz Record Center, 236 W. 26th St. Note: there's no external signage for this store: you have to go to the street address, press the buzzer for their suite, and ride the elevator to the 8th Fl. First time I went here, I expected it to be a hole in the wall given its relatively unmarked location. I was overwhelmingly positively surprised upon entering. Be prepared to spend significant time and money there if you like jazz! Large selection, a mix of new and used. One of my three favorite record stores in the country (the other two being Jazz Record Mart in Chicago and Jerry's Records in Pittsburgh).

(2) Bleecker St Records (note: ***** it's no longer actually on Bleecker St.,**** it's now at 188 W. 4th St. If you're googling and find an address for them on Bleecker St, be aware that that's the old address. Just wanted to point this out, since the location change but same name might be very confusing as an out of tower).

Great selection, many genres, I always managed to pick up at least 2-3 nice records there each time I go.
roxy54's avatar
roxy54
2,651 posts
 
Third street Jazz was a good store when I lived the. I do t know if they're still in business.
lowrider57's avatar
lowrider57
3,018 posts
 
Roxy, Third street Jazz is gone. I would have to say that they were THE BEST record store in Philly.
infection's avatar
infection
593 posts
 
@Chipcarterdc- do you listen to anything contemporary?
chipcarterdc OP
22 posts
 
If by "contemporary," you mean music released in the past couple of years or so, no, not really.  I'll occasionally download a catchy new song for my gym playlist, but beyond that, the only instances of contemporary music on vinyl that I can recall buying in the past couple of years are:

D'Angelo, Black Messiah
Norah Jones, Little Broken Hearts
Jerome Sabbagh, The Turn
Vanessa Fernandez, Use Me (which I bought on the strength of online reviews, but found to be so horribly execrable that I truly couldn't listen to it after the first couple of songs)
Melody Gardot, My One and Only Thrill (truly excellent)
Cecile Salvant, Woman Child
Cassandra Wilson, Coming Forth By Day
More to discover