Record Shop Reviews

Few record stores have the name recognition that Amoeba Music has. With 3 stores across California, this store has reached a near Mecca-like status for record collectors. But is it worthy of such high esteem? Well, yes. It’s widely recognized as one of the largest record stores in North America and possibly the largest independent…

So you’ve finally made it to Hollywood. Congrats! As a native Californian, allow me to say: Sorry! We know it’s gross! And no The Wax Museum is not worth the price. So you got your Walk of Fame picture, and now you’re wondering, is there anything else I should do before leaving this tinsel-town hellscape?…

The final stop on our sun-kissed road trip took us to the streets of downtown San Diego to check out the small but mighty FeeLIT Records. While many of the record stores we checked out had the feel of surf shops that happened to sell records, FeeLIT has a feel all its own What to…

My romanticized version of Southern California was shaped almost exclusively by my love of the 2005 film, Lords of Dogtown. It made the streets of Venice Beach out to be a sort of grungy wild west for incredibly cool and underprivileged teenagers. Which, more than anything, was what I wanted to be: cool. This culture,…

The humble strip-mall record store is rarely a shop that gets the recognition it deserves. Often nestled between a Chinese take-out restaurant and an AutoZone, these shops are the real hidden gems. Devoid of foot traffic, the strip-mall record store must offer something unique, something worth the dangerous journey to the suburbs. Record City does…

Like many tourists, when I’m traveling, I tend to try to seek out the very best. The biggest, grandest, most famous a city has to offer. If you’re in Denver and you are seeking out a record store, you will probably see countless recommendations for Twist and Shout. A truly gargantuan record store worthy of…

If I were in Nashville, I would want to go to a record store filled with country music and operated by a guy wearing jeans, boots, and a Stetson. If I were in New Orleans, I would want to go to a record store filled with jazz, operated by a guy who knows how to…

When you close your eyes and imagine a record store in San Diego, COW Records is exactly what you imagine. A small shop mere yards away from the beach, its glass windows displaying all manner of colored pressings. Records, CDs, and posters covering every wall and even the ceiling. Punk music is playing over the…

Once known as hot, dry, and dusty little desert towns where ill-prepared hikers go to die of dehydration, Yucca Valley and Joshua Tree are now hot, dry, dusty, and filled with hipsters from L.A. People who refused to accept $10 lattes and 100-degree summers as normal, trading them in for $8 lattes and 110-degree summers….

At the ripe old age of 27, which is 131 in alien years, I am now able to reflect on the record stores of my youth. The ones that enchanted me with the smell of old cardboard and dust and whatever old people use to make their house smell like that. In my early days…