Record Shop Reviews

Portland continues to be the absolute best city in the country for record stores, and the fantastic Landfill Rescue Unit further cements that reputation. This store gives “dumpster diving” an entirely new meaning with its kooky landfill aesthetic allowing visitors to browse through literal dumpsters full of records. The Belmont neighborhood shop has one of…

Record shops can have a reputation for being a little bit snooty, so if you’re looking for a more layback experience, it doesn’t get more casual than Boise’s Jam Session Records. Just a few minutes away from the Record Exchange’s gargantuan selection, Jam Session offers a far more calming experience. Pop in after lunch to…

Now Boise is not known as a particularly musical city, in fact, if you ask someone what they know about Boise the answer will almost certainly include the word ‘potato,’ BUT that doesn’t stop The Record Exchange from kicking ass. Seriously, this is a great record store with a ton of cool and unique stuff…

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…

Only a few record stores across the country have earned elite status. The entire west coast of the United States has maybe three such stores; record shops that not only offer a large and great selection of music but are cultural icons in their own right. Shops as amazing and important as Seattle’s Easy Street…

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…