Favourite music shops - past and present!

[Hepcat]

As a teenager in high school, I used to haunt Bluebird Records in downtown London, Ontario. I'd frequently stop to check out the new records on my way home from school. The other record shop which I visited on occasion was an even busier place in the Wellington Square Mall, the Disc Shop. Their were no chain record stores at the time and the only competition these two record stores had were from the record departments of the downtown department stores, Simpsons and Eatons, and whatever was being carried at the downtown discount five and dime stores, Woolworth, Kresge, Zellers and Metropolitan.

My favourite independent music shop these days is Soundscapes on College Street in Toronto. It has a good selection of everything I'm likely to buy from the blues to soul to British Invasion to garage rock to psychedelic to punk to indie. It's open until midnight Monday to Saturday and until 11:00 PM on Sundays. And typically the prices beat those at HMV and Sunrise Records. Here's the Soundscapes website:

Soundscapes website

My favourite used record shop is the Village Idiot in the Wortley Road Village neighbourhood of London. The prices are certainly not the lowest I've seen but the proprietor is knowledgeable, the selection is awesome and the vinyl he stocks is in truly excellent condition. He also pays top prices for vintage vinyl brought in for sale or trade.

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[LG]

The shops here are almost all gone now, but one deserves honorable mention.

The Gramophone, owned by a friend of mine who is in our local Symphony Orchestra, he plays trumpet. I wandered into his store by accident in the early 90's, and it was such a mind blowing experience I became a regular customer for years. He specializes in Classical music and taught me so much I will always be in his debt. His little shop ships CD's all over the world, it was amazing how loyal his customers were and although I don't buy many CD's anymore his first store on the pedway downtown will always be one of my favorites.

 

[Gearjammer]

Bull Moose Music here in Maine. Great selection of all types of music, both new and used. They have their warehouse store about an hour from me which has even more than the shop in town here.

Bull Moose is one of those shops where you can still get tickets for the local venues, and they are pretty active in supporting the local scene, in fact, the band Rustic Overtones is doing shows at most of the chains stores in promotion of their new album. They also open at midnight Tuesday for new releases.

Overall a great shop!

 

[Mr. Shadow]

I have spent thousands at "Books Do Furnish A Room" and "Nice Priced Books." Yeah they sell used books, but both have excellent used music available. My favorite new in the wrapper store is "Offbeat Music." Their selection is limited, but offers good finds. They also have used music, as well as hundreds of new $6.99 CD's.

 

[Magic]

Record shops are getting hard to find around here. There use to be a big place called "Bullfrog Records"....extinct now.