Cool places to buy CDs in person.

[NAD]

Sure it's usually more expensive and you have to actually pay tax, but you cannot beat a good independent music store. I do 90% of my music shopping online, but mainly because I have reclusive tendencies and how else can you shop for new music at 4am?

List your kickass local music stores. Or not, whatever. Just don't say Best Buy or Tower Records.

Sounds Like... Music
This is one I've gone to for years, they have a separate death metal section where I can usually find obscure out of print stuff that has been buried for years on the shelves. They also have a decent used CD section, mostly stuff for under $3 each. Used to be called Mad Platter, part of Rhino Records.

Mad Platter
The original one changed it's name, so they opened this one across town. Pretty small place, but has a knowledgeable staff, and a separate progressive rock section. I usually go to this one for non-metal stuff.

Rhino Records
Decent sized store (2 stories even), with lots of boxsets and rarities. I've only been there once since it's a bit out of the way (Upland), but I just realized that my girlfriend now lives about 5 minutes away from there so I may become a regular.

Amoeba Records
This is the fucking granddaddy of music stores. They have one nearby in Los Angeles, but I've only been to the one in San Francisco (the third original store is in Berkeley). If you travel to California, GO HERE AND BRING LOTS OF MONEY. You have no idea how huge these places are, you walk in and this gigantic 10,000+ sq. ft. expanse of music opens up before you. They have separate rooms for certain genres, and the entire massive back wall is dedicated to vinyl.

 

[bloodfiredeath]

Metal Haven in Chicago is an awesome metal store, but I'm not in that city too often. Around me, I usually go to a place called Record Time. Pretty good, but not great, metal selection, and a large used cd section.

 

[Erik]

These are the ones I usually go to when I have the chance. Not that it'd be of much interest to any of you...

Heavy Sound Rock Shop, Stockholm
Record & CD Exchange, Stockholm
Knastret, Karlstad
Uppsala Skivbörs, Uppsala
CD-Fyndet, Uppsala
Skivcentrum, Uppsala

My personal rating of how good a record store is something like ((amount of records / size of store) * percentage of metal records)

 

[J.]

In Houston:

Diamondhead Records - excellent metal section with a seperate area for black/death and another area for power/prog. Excellent used CD section as well.

Vinal Edge - very little metal here, but they do occasionally get the rare CD in. They specialize in the -core genres, having an extensive section. Huge used CD area.

Sound Exchange - very small store, but very good. Occasionally has some hard-to-find stuff, and the prices are pretty good.

Sound Waves - there used to be two good Sound Waves in Houston, but one went belly-up and the other is still pretty good with a quality metal section and a great -core section. Massive used CD section too.

I also visit three different Wherehouse Music stores on occasion, because sometimes you can find rare used CDs. I also visit Hastings for the same reason.

 

[R.I.P.2]

There's a shop called Resurrection Records in Camden Town. That's about it.

[Edit: http://www.resurrectionmusic.com/acatalog/index.html ]

 

[JayKeeley]

Before I put my list down, everyone note that NOW is the time to go to your Used CD stores. It's at this time of year when you'll get some real good finds at cheap prices, just as students return to university for their second semester, most of which having spent the first semester discovering that metal isn't trendy at college and so it's best to ditch all their CDs and start stacking up on trendy crap just to get laid and make friends to go clubbing with.

Vintage Vinyl - New Jersey. Put it this way, it's like Disneyland for metal fans. Huge store filled with obscure metal that you wouldn't find in the mall. Of course it has an on-line store too selling some rarities at www.vvinyl.com.
FYE. This is a chain of stores, not sure if anyone else has one of these near them, but they do have a reasonable selection, but nothing less than $18. These you do find in the malls.

Bleecker Records - NYC (Greenwich Village). Good selection of old vinyl, but excellent for semi-professional bootleg CDs. I'm not sure how they get away with selling bootlegs in the high street in downtown Manhattan, but anyway, cool store.

Living around NY, I have to imagine there are tonnes more stores, but I just don't see the point in spending more money (although I do love rummaging through CDs on the chance I find something cool) when everything is cheaper on-line.

 

[Black Winter Day]

i've been to amoeba in SF, NAD, and i was cursing myself to no end for bringing a whopping forty bucks.


only a few good places around here... the best chain is Manifest Discs and Tapes, which are huge stores specializing in underground music. usually can find some really good stuff here (the closest one is in charlotte, nc).

and right near the maryland/delaware border is a great shop called Wonderland. it is a total metalheads place, run by metalheads (i.e. they have two rooms: one for metal, one for "the rest"). i forget the name of the town it's in, but i make sure to visit it every time i go up there (some relatives live in elkton, md.)

 

[NAD]

i've been to amoeba in SF, NAD, and i was cursing myself to no end for bringing a whopping forty bucks.

I got out of there with just over $100 on my tab, mostly because it was on the way home from a not-so-cheap vacation. Next time I'm up north I'm going there first, spending all my money, then staying at Motel 6 eating Ramen noodles the rest of the vacation.

 

[Ayeka]

Just CDs? Errrm...Different Class in my town would be best for that...if you're into alternative/punk/emo and stuff :Spew: but they do have some good stuff amongst it. I filled the holes in my Slayer collection here, got my first Bal-Sagoth CD here as well. They got loads of Emperor and Darkthrone as well, and happily order anything you can't find.

Music & Video Exchange has a CD bit which is worth a flick through sometimes...but that place is better for vinyls. Sadly, it suffers from the same problem that Kew The Music (my favourite shop) does - I bought half the stuff in there already

 

[Demonspell]

Another great store in the NYC area: The Virgin megastore in Times Square. The place is gigantic and has the best selection of metal and prog I've ever seen outside of an independent store, and is the third biggest personal money pit behind The End and Laser's Edge.