Record Shop Reviews

There may be one record store in Seattle whose heritage and size can outshine many of the other stores in the city, but Sonic Boom Records is still well worth your time. Located across Salmon Bay in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood, Sonic Boom is a neighborhood shop on steroids. Sporting an impressive selection of new and…

On my first trip to the Oregon Coast, it was the kind of cold and dreary day I had come to expect and love since moving to Oregon. The rain sort ambled from the sky in a passive-aggressive manner and the ever-present sea breeze of Newport blew the gentle drops righto not my glasses rendering…

Perhaps the best thing about shopping at record stores in small towns like Grants Pass, Oregon, is the small number of hands that pass through the new arrivals bin compared to other shops. Albums that would last mere minutes at Music Millennium or Twist and Shout can sit for days or weeks in the bins…

Vinyl Revolutions New York City, Nashville, Los Angeles, Grants Pass? OK, maybe one of these is not like the other but just because a town is small and has an arts scene that is on the…shall we say underdeveloped side, doesn’t mean it should be completely ignored. Grants Pass is a small town, if you…

It’s pretty unusual to encounter a despondent record shop owner, but there are few record store proprietors as openly passionate about record collecting as the owner of Portland’s Too Many Records.  One of the newest record stores in Portland, this shop is owned and operated by one of the more well-known faces in the online…

While the shiny, multi-story record megastores get the most attention, the humble used-record stores are doing the often thankless work of keeping this hobby alive, shops like Dig Vinyl. This humble, no-frills vinyl record shop in Southeast Portland’s Sellwood neighborhood is the calm, relaxed, and browsable store of introverted record collectors’ dreams. This is one…

It might surprise you to learn that among the charred ruins of downtown Portland, just a block from the ANTIFA headquarters and the free fentanyl vending machine is a damn great record store. 2nd Avenue Records is one of many Portland musical institutions that survived the pandemic and the many disasters Fox News believes have…

Music Millennium: Where the Music and People Still Matter. While many record stores have similar mantras, almost none have had the level of impact on independent music culture that Music Millennium has had. The oldest record store in the Pacific Northwest, Music Millennium is in an elite group of record stores that have achieved legendary…

Just like a good dive bar, every neighborhood needs a solid record store. A place where you can unwind with your head down and pretend nothing else in the world exists besides you and the thin sleeve of cardboard at your fingertips. Speck’s Records and Tapes in Northeast Portland is exactly that shop. A place…