Best Vinyl Shops - SoCal Edition

Damn it...u mean I have to give up all my super secret vinyl stores?

 

Well, first and foremost there's Amoeba Records in Hollywood.

 

Factory Records (literal hole in wall) in Costa Mesa has always been my favorite dive

 

Left of the Dial in Santa Ana.

https://www.instagram.com/leftofthedialrecords/

 

There's quite a few in my neighborhood (Highland Park).
Gimme Gimme Records - Probably the best of the lot
Wombleton Records for super obscure stuff
Mount Analog is all around good
Gnar Burger on Fig has decent selection and is a block away from my house. Now you guys know where I live!

 

Goathill Records in Costa Mesa was always good for Jazz, Record Surplus in Santa Monica Blvd. has a mishmash of things, used to be an awesome two story store when it was in Pico Blvd. , but they still get good material from the West side 'hood . Go to place for first and early pressings. Bagatelle Records in Atlantic on Long Beach, if you have a day to dig through their unpriced stuff. I've found great early pressings of mono Jazz records here and a few promo copies, unpriced. You go up to the counter and the person in tells you how much. Pure pleasure.

 

I'll have to checkout Goathill Records since it's so close. Never heard of it.

 

Record Surplus used to be my go to spot until Amoeba opened. These days I find them a bit overpriced, but there are some good items there to be found and they definitely care about vinyl.

 

One place that's NOT worth your time, unless you're already in the hood for other reasons, is Mr. C's in Old Town Orange.

 

My favorite local shop is "Soundstations" on La Tijera near Sepulveda

http://www.soundsationsrecords.com/

And I just discovered a cool place in Montebello called "Record Jungle"

http://recordjungle.com/

Record Jungle has got a good selection, They've put them in genres, but they don't alphabetize them!!! They're just bins and bins stuffed with records. At first I was thinking, are you f'ing kidding me??? But it forced me to look closer at stuff, and it was actually a lot of fun, mystery bins, you never know what you'll find. I bought a ton of stuff too. Prices are better than Amoeba. Records seemed to be in generally good shape. But if you're looking for something specific, this is not your place.

 

Hey, I see that Brooks Berdan is clearing house for a move. There might be some gold in those bins, but this will be fifties and audiophile (kinda) old fart stuff. Maybe...

https://losangeles.craigslist.org/sgv/ele/5569355602.html

 

I was just there and picked up a Living Stereo copy of "Rhapsody in Blue", I believe it's Arthur Fielder and the Boston Pops Orchestra. It's 90% classical and the condition varies wildly from record to record. On the plus side the one I got was only $2!

I was mostly there to check out turntables, since they're a VPI dealer.

 

NIce! That should sound good on your table. Hope you got a good shaded dog. You can also look at the Master and stamper, but those mostly all sound good.

http://www.shadeddog.com/labelography/

 

Brooks Berdan is hosting the LAOCAS monthly meeting on Saturday (5/14) from 2:00 p.m.

 

Brooks Berdan's... Where have I heard that name before...

Now that I have joined the ranks of the turntabled, guess it's time to beef up on genres I don't have. Thanks for the resources. Guess you have one more person fighting for some scarce quantities of whatever.

 

You're just going to have to join us old farts on Saturday Insidious... , that is if my arthritis isn't acting up...

 

Ah, I would.. if I didn't already have my Saturday planned around lunch. But then after lunch I can look up this thread and head out to look for vinyl nearby.

 

I had no clue that was a thing. It looks like I have a 1960-62 release, shaded but with the "TMKS" instead of "Trademarks".

 

Oh, yeah, definitely a thing. These, Deccas, Mercury Living Presence are a great reason to start to listen to classical, and enjoy your table. Rock is a harder thing, because the quality for pressings deteriorated into the seventies, with Dynagroove for RCA, , and thin vinyl pressings as the bean counters needed more coin. Jazz and earlier pop fare better from the mid fifties into the mid sixties, but suffer the same fate.