There's nothing I love more than thumbing through piles of used records, CDs and other musical stuff. The feel of a record store is something I love: being surrounded by people who love music as much as I do and work hard at making sure that everyone is happy with their musical purchases. Every year, I take a major 2-3 day trip to Vancouver specifically to buy music. I usually don't go to buy new music, but to get deals by getting used music. It's really shocking to me how much good music you can find used, and for very cheap, in Vancouver. Even their Salvation Army stores have amazing collections.
The major stops on the trip are Audiopile Records, Zulu Records and Red Cat Records. Audiopile is my favourite record store in Vancouver and I always find something surprising there. Zulu is next on the list, and that's where I usually drop a lot of cash, often for a huge pile of music, from their huge used section. Red Cat is usually where I buy new stuff, since their prices are a bit high and they tend to specialize in new stuff. I used to stop at a couple of places on Granville, but they seem to have disappeared, but I did find a store about 6 blocks up from the Commodore.
Last on the list is Krazy Bob's out in Langley. I like Krazy Bob's just for the atmosphere and being able to talk to Bob about music, since he knows his stuff and is passionate and upbeat about what he does. He also gives you a free mystery pack of music if you buy more than $15 worth of stuff there (I got Don Henley and Bushwick Bill of all things).
Now, the haul (I've marked off any Canadian music with a *, for those interested)
Bought new:
Brian Eno - Drums Between the Bells
Thurston Moore - Demolished Thoughts
Washed Out - Within and Without
Used: (All under $10, most under $5)
Add N to (X) - Avant Hard
Adult. - Gimme Trouble
Frank Black - The Cult of Ray
Broadcast - Pendulum EP
Bugskull - Bugskull and the Big White Cloud
Bugskull - Distracted Snowflake Vol. 2
Chris Connelly - The Episodes
Didjits - Full Nelson Reilly (out of print, contains an awesome cover of Devo's "Mr. DNA")
The Double - Loose in the Air
Etre - A Post Fordist Parade (weird electronics from Europe, on the Compost label)
Flying Luttenbachers - The Void (noise-industrial. Awesome!)
*Hilt - Get Stuck EP (I think this completes my Hilt collection, barring single EPs I don't know about....)
Lali Puna - Tridecoder
Legendary Pink Dots - The Whispering Wall (CD release on ROIR Records)
*Les Georges Leningrad - Sangue Puro
*Leslie Spit Treeo - Don't Cry Too Hard (back in my collection at last, has a great cover of John Prine's "Angel from Montgomery")
Magic Numbers - S/T
Meat Beat Manifesto - 99% (replaces a scratched copy)
*Microbunny - Dead Stars
Microstoria - _snd
Muslimgauze - Extreme
Mussolini Headkick - Themes for Violent Retribution (very surprised to see this in a used record store, classic Wax Trax releases go for a good $50, especially obscure stuff like this album. Now, I just need to find their second album...)
Northern State - Dying in Stereo
Out Hud - Let Us Never Speak of It Again
*Pork Queen - Strang (weird electro-noise on the Scratch label)
Revolting Cocks - Beers, Steers and Queers (old Wax Trax version, since re-released and expanded on Ryko)
*Sailboats are White - Turbo! (electro-noise-punk!)
Savath and Savalas - Folk Songs for Trains, Trees and Honey (lo-fi folktronica from the guy behind Prefuse 73)
Severed Heads - Come Visit the Big Bigot/Dead Eyes Open (nice CD package, got both albums on vinyl)
65daysofstatic - One Time for All Time (sprawling drone rock, very good)
Squeeze - Argybargy (CD copy, already had it on vinyl)
*Stereo Image - S/T
SubArachoid Space - Also Rising
Tarwater - Rabbit Moon
*Dandi Wind - Sacrificial
V/A - Yes New York (modern rock from New York, Rogers Sisters, Calla, Secret Machines, and more mainstream stuff like The Strokes and Interpol)
V/A - Branches and Routes (2 CD comp from Fat Cat Records: Sigur Ros, David Grumms, Kid 606, Matmose, Fennesz, Black Dice, etc.)
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