― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Wednesday, 12 January 2005 21:07 (nineteen years ago) link
Still there (but a bitch to get to), and it and Orpheus Records probably have the best vinyl selections in the DC area.
― j.lu (j.lu), Wednesday, 12 January 2005 21:14 (nineteen years ago) link
― Mark (MarkR), Wednesday, 12 January 2005 21:17 (nineteen years ago) link
crooked beat is a happy new addition. those guys are indeed great.
― e--- s-------and don't i know it, Wednesday, 12 January 2005 21:18 (nineteen years ago) link
As Vincent Furnier might say, welcome to my nightmare. Seriously, though — DC has more opportunity for professional fulfillment than probably any city in the US. And when the life thread is "TS: Professional Fulfillment/Good Record Stores", there's really no contest.
― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Wednesday, 12 January 2005 21:22 (nineteen years ago) link
― j.lu (j.lu), Wednesday, 12 January 2005 21:23 (nineteen years ago) link
Plus, how much does anybody really depend on a record store nowadays?
I hear that one is able to find lots of new music on this thing called the InterWeb. Bill Bradley invented it.
Or something.
― The Mad Puffin (The Mad Puffin), Wednesday, 12 January 2005 22:21 (nineteen years ago) link
― Pete Scholtes, Thursday, 13 January 2005 02:38 (nineteen years ago) link
One other thing: There was this incredible record store in NE (or was it just Eastern NW) whose name I forget. It was stacked to the ceiling with old vinyl. You could play records and buy old 45s cheap. I bought all the old funk singles. This was a couple years before the funk reissue boom, so the guy who owned the place, for $25, would tape you every Parliament-Funkadelic record he had. Anybody know this place? I got a haircut in NE a couple years ago and the barber told me it had closed years ago.
― Pete Scholtes, Thursday, 13 January 2005 02:46 (nineteen years ago) link
I saw John Cale there.
― The Mad Puffin, Thursday, 13 January 2005 02:47 (nineteen years ago) link
― Edward Bax (EdBax), Thursday, 13 January 2005 03:43 (nineteen years ago) link
― Edward Bax (EdBax), Thursday, 13 January 2005 03:44 (nineteen years ago) link
Can't figure out how I managed to miss that place called Joe's, though. I do remember Phantasmagoria. Got Cabaret Voltaire's "Nag Nag Nag" 12" there.
― Bimble... (Bimble...), Thursday, 13 January 2005 04:15 (nineteen years ago) link
― mookieproof (mookieproof), Thursday, 13 January 2005 13:59 (nineteen years ago) link
THAT'S A BOOST!
― peter smith (plsmith), Thursday, 13 January 2005 14:05 (nineteen years ago) link
― j.lu (j.lu), Thursday, 13 January 2005 14:07 (nineteen years ago) link
― steve-k, Thursday, 13 January 2005 14:27 (nineteen years ago) link
WWW.WMUCRADIO.COM !!!
― peter smith (plsmith), Thursday, 13 January 2005 15:30 (nineteen years ago) link
― steve-k, Thursday, 13 January 2005 15:36 (nineteen years ago) link
― peter smith (plsmith), Thursday, 13 January 2005 15:36 (nineteen years ago) link
Well, I travel a lot and have visited many used cd stores. CDepot certainly has the deepest used selection in the immediate DC area. But I would say that the prices are actually on the high end - stuff marked $9.99 that would be $6.99 or $7.99 at most other used stores.
― Edward Bax (EdBax), Thursday, 13 January 2005 15:51 (nineteen years ago) link
re buying cds, the pickings were pretty slim the last time I was at Cd cellar in Falls Church. Plus kinda pricey for used cds- $ 9.99...
Are these used cds stores collaborating to keep prices high? Maybe I should get soulseek and just download?
― steve-k, Thursday, 13 January 2005 15:55 (nineteen years ago) link
― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Thursday, 13 January 2005 16:00 (nineteen years ago) link
Maybe it's just a coincidence some of the area cd stores are all trying to get $9.99 for used cds.
― steve-k, Thursday, 13 January 2005 16:48 (nineteen years ago) link
― The Mad Puffin (The Mad Puffin), Thursday, 13 January 2005 17:03 (nineteen years ago) link
― Edward Bax (EdBax), Friday, 14 January 2005 01:35 (nineteen years ago) link
― Edward Bax (EdBax), Friday, 14 January 2005 01:39 (nineteen years ago) link
― Mike O. (Mike Ouderkirk), Friday, 14 January 2005 02:40 (nineteen years ago) link
― Mike O. (Mike Ouderkirk), Friday, 14 January 2005 02:43 (nineteen years ago) link
― Edward Bax (EdBax), Friday, 14 January 2005 03:44 (nineteen years ago) link
― Aaron_Spell1ng, Friday, 14 January 2005 09:49 (nineteen years ago) link
this just isn't true. maybe it is regarding their vinyl selection, i never look there, but their cd selection is large and all over the map. big electronic, international, jazz and used cd sections. their reggae/dancehall section is kinda weak. (wtf is a "fashionable re-discovery"? is this some sort of comment like "boo hoo, my favorite formerly-obscure band is now being listened to by a larger audience!")
normals is great for vinyl but their cd section has almost zero turnaround. i used to sell/trade shit to them weekly and was always disappointed to see the same cds. the rap cd section is funny though, lots of wack shit to be found since they obviously don't listen to that stuff.
a couple new places in baltimore - oncetwice sound on charles st. deals mostly with experimental/electronic/psych/indie end of things and the true vine in hampden which has similar taste to oncetwice but more obscure/rare and quite a bit of vinyl.
― contribute, Friday, 14 January 2005 10:22 (nineteen years ago) link
― contribute, Friday, 14 January 2005 10:30 (nineteen years ago) link
― TOMBOT, Wednesday, 19 January 2005 20:32 (nineteen years ago) link
And why in God's name would you move to Arlington? Northern Virginia is the very asshole of the earth.
― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 20:53 (nineteen years ago) link
― W i l l (common_person), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 21:44 (nineteen years ago) link
― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 21:45 (nineteen years ago) link
Suffice it to say: I suspect that the things you like about whatever place it is that you like (Soho, Bombay, Iowa City) probably are findable here, and the things that you don't like about Northern Virginia probably exist in profusion elsewhere. But if you've already made up your mind, I'm unlikely to be able to change it.
Generally people who say that sort of thing about NoVa are just looking at the wrong parts of it. It's like that thing with the blind dudes and the elephant.
― The Mad Puffin (The Mad Puffin), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 22:01 (nineteen years ago) link
― TOMBOT, Wednesday, 19 January 2005 22:44 (nineteen years ago) link
What irks me about wholesale judgments of the form "Northern Virginia is the very asshole of the earth" is how much selective vision it takes, and how that skews the argument away from fairness.
The disparager gets to select (for example) traffic on I-395, the McMansions of Ashburn, Oliver North, Reston's nightlife, and the Tyson's Corner parking lot the Saturday before Christmas and say: "Aha! THAT is Northern Virginia therefore Northern Virginia suxor!"
Typically, it goes further and involves a comparative disparaging, vis-a-vis (for example) New York. So the disparager gets to choose totemic New york stuff like the Knitting Factory, CBGB's, Strawberry Fields, and seeing Dave Letterman pick up his dry cleaning and say "Aha! THAT is New York and therefore New York roxor!"
This is fundamentally unfair.
The disparager sets the terms of the argument; he or she picks the attributes to compare and thus stacks the deck.
Notice that the disparager never wants to let the defender choose examples. Behold: New York also has the cruddy toilet in the back of Louie Vitello's third avenue pizza joint, a patch of pigeon shit on a Bronx sidewalk, Donald Trump's hairdo, a pool of vomit by the side of a bench in Prospect Park, and the cops who shot Amadou Diallo 41 times.
Yes, Northern Virginia has McMansions. But it also has Dr. Dremo, and the Lost Dog, and Iota, and playing frisbee in April by the Netherlands Carillon, and the Serbian Crown, and my cats, and and and and. The disparager will never allow the shoe to be on the other foot and compare, say, Whitlow's on Wilson vs. the Prospect Park pool of vomit.
Instead, twistedly, the defender of what has been disparaged is called upon to defend Ashburn's McMansions as being not all that bad, and/or weakly counterattack by saying that the Knitting Factory isn't all that great anyways. This is stupid. We should just object to the whole framing of the debate.
I don't even pretend to be reasonable about this. I should say that I don't know Naive Teen Idol, and don't know what NTI's beef with Northern Virginia is. But I distrust and dislike the ease with which NTI dismisses the region wholesale. It is at best a grotesque oversimplification; at worst it is the worst kind of snobbery.
― The Mad Puffin (The Mad Puffin), Thursday, 20 January 2005 18:57 (nineteen years ago) link
― steve-k, Friday, 21 January 2005 02:23 (nineteen years ago) link
But it doesn't make me want to go, much less reside there. Forget Ashburn's McMansions for a moment; the architectural landscapes of Arlington, Crystal City and some (but not all) of Alexandria, are atrocious to the point of forbidding. There are so many white baseball caps present on Wilson Boulevard, one could be forgiven for thinking it was the permanent site of a date-rapist convention of some sort. And the drivers are bar-none the most dangerously clueless assholes I've ever come across. And I'm from Boston.
Which, of course, has its own issues. But I'm not NYC or comparing NoVa to it. It's just become the worst kind of sprawl you could imagine, and for that, I can't stand it. Esp. not when you have DC across the Potomac, which is pretty nice. It even has a Best Buy now, meaning NoVa's main attraction would now appear to be the potpourri of Alamo's and Enterprises along Jefferson Davis (!!) Highway.
That said, mid-VA is quite attractive — so much so, I could imagine raising horses there someday. On my horse farm.
― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Friday, 21 January 2005 17:12 (nineteen years ago) link
Let's get back to the thread subject here--record stores. Does Crooked Beat stock just new indie-rock, or new and used rock, or new and used music of many genres?
― steve-k, Friday, 21 January 2005 19:13 (nineteen years ago) link
― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Friday, 21 January 2005 19:30 (nineteen years ago) link
While I think they'd like to have a lot more on hand, the guys who run CB seem to really know and love pop music and want to share it, which in and of itself makes it a great leap over just about every other store in DC that I know of.
― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Friday, 21 January 2005 19:36 (nineteen years ago) link
― Chris H. (chrisherbert), Saturday, 22 January 2005 07:31 (nineteen years ago) link
Is Orpheus Records in Clarendon and run by a guy with a huge beard and really gross fingernails? I bought a Tim Buckley cd there once....
Really, NoVA and Maryland are the assholes of the asshole. I hate it here (I'm currently in Alexandria -- from Cleveland originally). The sprawl is just awful...it honestly depresses me, and I don't even know why. I cannot wait to get out of here....
And the record store situation sucks. CD Warehouse is just OK...maybe a better collection than a Best Buy, not too cheap, and very rarely will you make an interesting discovery. Smash (?) down the street in Georgetown is kinda neat, good selection, but the prices are what you'd expect in Georgetown.
― PB, Tuesday, 1 March 2005 04:08 (nineteen years ago) link
PB, isn't there sprawl everywhere--suburbs, and exurbs outside Cleveland and L.A. and everywhere in the U.S. of A?
― Steve-k (Steve K), Tuesday, 1 March 2005 04:42 (nineteen years ago) link
― Hurting (Hurting), Tuesday, 1 March 2005 04:43 (nineteen years ago) link
And yes, PB, the guy at Orpheus has really, really gross fingernails. I was going to say that I wasn't the only one who noticed, but as I think about it, I can't imagine anyone not noticing them. I myself bought a Colin Blunstone CD there once.
If you hate NoVA, PB, you should try and move into DC. The record store situation isn't great beyond the ones mentioned, but there's loads more happening than in Alexandria. I live just off 18th Street, and aside from the infiltration of the Bridge and Tunnel crowds on the weekends, it's a certified good time.
― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Tuesday, 1 March 2005 18:04 (nineteen years ago) link
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/music/2012/08/30/red-onion-records-books-not-closing/
Changed his mind
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 30 August 2012 20:12 (eleven years ago) link
so where should a record-store addict and vinyl lover be sure to check out in DC these days? bonus points for a good selection of psych/metal/noise/experiment/etc. many thanks in advance.
is this still basically the deal:
So with Melody RIP as of last week, the District's got SOM, Smash, Red Onion, Crooked Beat and Joint Custody (which I want to check out, but never seems to be open when I do my rounds). I need to visit the new Metro-accessible Joe's Record Paradise, too.
― alpine static, Monday, 26 August 2013 22:14 (ten years ago) link
pretty much - http://dcrecordmap.tumblr.com/ is a good visual reference. i'd be sure to stop by red onion.
joe's and record exchange in silver spring are both excellent too, though their best sections (imo) are mostly dance/go-go
― scream blahula scream (govern yourself accordingly), Tuesday, 27 August 2013 05:10 (ten years ago) link
and actually, for psych/noise stuff, the baltimore recommendations upthread are still pretty much valid. true vine, old guru, celebrated summer...
― scream blahula scream (govern yourself accordingly), Tuesday, 27 August 2013 05:12 (ten years ago) link
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/articles/44717/disc-men-kemp-mill-records/
Once a big D.C. area chain, now there is only one Kemp Mills left--in Temple Hills, MD with lots of go-go and rap according to this article
― curmudgeon, Monday, 2 September 2013 03:49 (ten years ago) link
Mostly all on cd
― curmudgeon, Monday, 2 September 2013 03:53 (ten years ago) link
Is CD Depot at College Park walkable from the CP/UofM Metro stop?
― andrew m., Monday, 24 February 2014 21:10 (ten years ago) link
Well, it's looking like a No. Quite the trek. Guess I could bus it from the metro.
― andrew m., Monday, 24 February 2014 21:12 (ten years ago) link
yep.
― curmudgeon, Monday, 24 February 2014 22:17 (ten years ago) link
http://www.metroweekly.com/2015/01/vinyl-record-stores-in-washington-dc/
― curmudgeon, Friday, 30 January 2015 04:52 (nine years ago) link
A few I don't know, but i don't buy that many records these days...
― curmudgeon, Friday, 30 January 2015 20:15 (nine years ago) link
I'm in the middle of a 5 week work trip to DC and I have to say, the record stores have been incredible. Som, Joint Custody and Red Onion are excellent stores. I'll definitely go back to these three stores but where else should I go?
― brotherlovesdub, Sunday, 29 March 2015 15:38 (nine years ago) link
Crooked Beat maybe, and out to Md for Joes and to Va for CD Cellar and others. Check out that metroweekly link I posted in January.
― curmudgeon, Sunday, 29 March 2015 16:53 (nine years ago) link
Joe's Record Paradise in a Silver Spring just for the experience. It's unlike any of the others and massive.
― Walter Galt, Sunday, 29 March 2015 20:07 (nine years ago) link
Whoops - er, like curmudgeon said.
― Walter Galt, Sunday, 29 March 2015 20:08 (nine years ago) link
Sweet. Thanks for the tips. Think I'll try to hit joes next weekend. Metro accessible?
― brotherlovesdub, Sunday, 29 March 2015 20:24 (nine years ago) link
Yep. Here's your link: https://www.google.com/maps?ll=38.992121,-77.026942&z=15&t=m&hl=en-US&gl=US&mapclient=embed&q=8216+Georgia+Ave+Silver+Spring,+MD+20910+USA
― Your Ribs are My Ladder, Sunday, 29 March 2015 22:53 (nine years ago) link
Don't sleep on the Music & Game Exchange 1/2 block north of Joe's -- pulled some good stuff out of the new arrivals and $1 bins there. My boy found a Fairport test pressing in the $1 bin but it got yanked at the register.
Joint Custody has been killing it lately.
Arlington Flea Market starts up again this weekend, might go see what that's all about. I think it is Saturday morning.
― a-lo, Tuesday, 31 March 2015 02:18 (nine years ago) link
Nice tips! I was thinking of making Saturday my big record hunt day so that would be convenient.
― brotherlovesdub, Tuesday, 31 March 2015 23:53 (nine years ago) link
but it got yanked at the register.
What do you mean? The clerk just went "whoops - that's mislabeled" or something?
I've never found anything in the Music Exchange vinyl-wise but they have tons of CDs for like .50 cents - I got some great Go-Go discs there.
― Your Ribs are My Ladder, Wednesday, 1 April 2015 13:31 (nine years ago) link
Record Exchange in Silver Spring is closed until mid-April. They're moving up to the street next to the Fillmore (condos are going up in the current space).
― Chris L, Wednesday, 1 April 2015 14:11 (nine years ago) link
yeah, clerk said he'd already seen it and had pulled it to be looked up/marked up, though it was still sitting over by the cheap bins.
― a-lo, Wednesday, 1 April 2015 16:01 (nine years ago) link
Joe's Record Paradise was awesome. Spent 2hrs there but could have easily spent another 2. All the shops in DC have been great. Even Hill & Dale, which I wouldn't go to again, necessarily, but for what it is, where it is, it's good.
― brotherlovesdub, Sunday, 5 April 2015 00:54 (nine years ago) link
In Arlington, most of us are aware of CD Cellar but brief shout out to Blue Groove in Westover.
http://www.bluegroovesoundz.blogspot.com/
― Ye Mad Puffin, Monday, 6 April 2015 12:46 (nine years ago) link
http://bandwidth.wamu.org/joes-record-paradise-is-moving-again/
Lee says he found out today that the store’s landlord won’t be renewing its lease come March 2016.
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 18 June 2015 17:39 (eight years ago) link
was going to joke that they shd move back to their og space in plaza del mercado and it looks like they are
― 😭 (am0n), Thursday, 18 June 2015 17:56 (eight years ago) link
red onion moving over to u street too
― Aglet, Friday, 19 June 2015 03:40 (eight years ago) link
http://patch.com/virginia/oldtownalexandria/record-store-moving-dc-alexandria
Crooked Beat moving (moved?) to Old Town Alexandria.
Joe's Record Paradise will supposedly finally open in new Silver Spring location soon.
― curmudgeon, Friday, 19 August 2016 14:48 (seven years ago) link