I Miss Going to the Record Shop
Thursday, July 5, 2012 at 8:59AMMy favourite place to shop for records in the old days was The Record Peddlar on Carlton Street, just across from Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. The place was always busy and there was always something interesting blaring on the stereo. It's where I first heard Ice-T's Bodycount project. It took about 2.3 seconds to decide that I needed that record.
Cashing out was an experience. The guy--and it was always a guy--at the cash register would flip through your pile, critiquing your selections. It would go something like this.
"Shit. Shit. Shit. Not bad. Are you out of your mind? Shit. Shit. This is good. Shit. Shit. And shit. Still want all this shit?"
I was fondly reminded of the abuse accorded to me by the Record Peddlar staff when someone sent me this link. God, I miss those days...
Reader Comments (9)
I don't understand. You can still go to record shops. There are tons in Toronto.
That's what happens when you move to Oakville, man.
Oakville record store - Reconds on Wheels - on Kerr St., just North of Lakeshore.
Record store clerk who waited on me during the teen metal years: "Your taste in music is about as subtle as an anvil dropping on ones foot."
Me too........and going to some hipster used record shop on Dundas....to pay stupid high prices for records in horrible shape........is just not the same at all....
It's a whole ritual listening to vinyl. Physically taking the record out, the distinct smell, placing the needle on the grooves, etc.
In a small record shop (name lost to mists of time) in Cobourg Ontario in '95 I bought Minutemen's 'Double Nickels on the Dime' on doulbe vinyl. The young mohawked slob behind the counter ran his hand over the cover sensually hissing, "yeeesss" as I paid.
I guess that's better then being told that it was shit. But calling it shit would be very wrong anyway.
Not long after Rotate This opened, I walked up to the counter with an Unrest record in one hand and a Grifters record in the other and the guy behind the counter said: "Best purchase of the day." Made me feel like $100.
Pretty sure it was Record Peddler, not Peddlar? In any case, one of the grumpy Peddler clerks was "Cryin" Brian Taylor, who will abuse you still if you go to Rotate This.