best record stores in/around los angeles

Touch Vinyl on Sawtelle is cool. It's also sandwiched between two incredible used bookstores, an excellent Arabic food joint and Cinefile Video, the best place to get obscure/rare films in the city

annual thread bump!

this year, my trip coincides w/ RSD. i love RSD but am not interested in spending my whole day in line outside record stores.

i don't mind a crowded shop, but don't wanna do the whole lottery-style one-in-one-out walk-up-to-the-counter-and-tell-them-what-you-want thing.

so the question is: is RSD a clusterfuck at *every* (or at least the majority of) LA record stores? or is it more like Amoeba is a shitshow and everything else is fairly mellow?

i'm guessing the former but hoping for the latter.

fwiw, i'm a Vacation / Permanent / Gimme Gimme / Mt. Analog guy (as opposed to a old dusty used records crate-digger guy).

which of these places in LA is the place to go for inexpensive CDs no one wants like 90s ECM and Steve Roach and shit? I'm 80% CDs these days..

I think Record Surplus has some reasonably priced ECM CD's

Amoeba is still the best single location for CDs and vinyl, and probably for any genre you could name.

Thanks! Will definitely check Record Surplus.

Been to Amoeba a bunch but often get so overwhelmed I leave with nothing. I find I need to take a list in there and just be strategic about what I'm looking for, otherwise I just can't process what is basically an amazing record store the size of Target

have heard of cd trader, not sure if they're still in business and not sure if they have 90s ecm

also if you're driving/not too far from highland park try mount analog (mostly records and tapes) for weird stuff

i never go to a record store on rsd so i wouldn't know but i'm guessing there are peak hours so avoid them at those times i guess

CD Trader is still there, still a startlingly good vinyl selection. it's better than their cd selection tbh.

i do think amoeba has some cheap ECM and a lotta roach.

i've found that la amoeba is really lax on some of the more outsider stuff. classic rock and the sort of indie / punk / alt canon is clearly their bread and butter.

i've walked out of there with frank wright lps, derek bailey, etc. for really fair, even cheap prices. the kind of free jazz that they put on the walls (sun ra, ornette coleman) is going to be expensive, but if you go digging through the jazz bins you might be surprised!

That's good to know. Thanks! Will refer back to this thread when I'm out there. Good stuff.

PooBah's in Pasadena used to be good for small-label avant jazz (esp local stuff) on CD, but I think their CD section in all areas is pretty meager now. LPs will be better but I think you want CDs.

tbh i have a fairly high bar for what record stores are of use to me these days. L.A. has a ton of them but i really only regularly check in at Amoeba, Atomic, Mono, and Freakbeat. I like Mount Analog but it's priced a bit beyond my level these days. it's not them, it's me. CD Trader is way too far for me to go to beyond occasional stop ins when I happen to be near there. Same deal with Record Surplus.

Gimme Gimme, Permanent (two locations now, one where Origami used to be), and Vacation are all cool but I never find much there OR the prices are a bit above market. So I never go to those spots.

I live real close to Rockaway, it's occasionally got some bargains and actually the used CDs are super reasonably priced.

Have no use for Jackknife (overpriced), Record Parlour (overpriced, lots of LPs in dodgy shape), Counterpoint Books and Records (overpriced), Poobah (last time I was there was a big letdown), Touch (nothing selection), or The Last Bookstore (overpriced).

Yelp reviews on these places aren't much help, record buying is such an amateur hour proposition these days that a lot of people around here actually rated the VNYL brick and mortar location kinda highly because they don't know any better.

Yeah, I like Rockaway, though it's depressing too when I remember how big it used to be. And PooBah is even more depressing when I think back on it.

i rarely buy records in person

i usually buy them off the internet/discogs

actually i had no idea origami went bust?

highland park and the valley are both quite a ways from me

I still go to Fingerprints in Long Beach even though I'm up near Pasadena now.

This was posted yesterday FWIW, http://la.curbed.com/maps/best-record-stores-los-angeles-amoeba-permanent

I had a great haul at Mount Analog last time in town. Pricing was not cut-rate but generally competitive/in the ballpark.

i'm in Orange County and zipping into L.A. tomorrow to hit as many record stores as humanly possible in one day.

Priorities for me are Amoeba, Permanent, Vacation and Mount Analog. As I've said a couple times above, I'm much more of a "willing to pay full price for weird new records" guy than a "dig thru dusty crates looking for a gem from the '70s" guy.

So ... anywhere new I need to check out? Should I do Pop Obscure? Freakbeat? Anything else?

Thanks in advance.

Mount Analog is in the process of moving, so I'd call to make sure that they're open.

I like Freakbeat, if you're willing to go to the Valley.

Stop at Fingerprints in Long Beach on the way up or back!!
http://fingerprintsmusic.com

Man I used to hit Fingerprints every trip. Haven't been in a few years now. I should try to make it back. Love that place.

Mount Analog isn't open right now. they say they're reopening in fall.

More later.

If you’re looking for weird new records I’ll re-emphasize CD Trader and their vinyl selection/prices. It’s a good 20-30 min up the 101 from Hollywood though.

CD Trader's vinyl prices skyrocketed at some point during the pandemic, but there are still some bargains to be found in the bins. You just have to dig, and prepare to be disappointed. The CD prices are still the best around for the most part.

Record Parlour remains p awful, it's basically an Instagram thirst trap for vinyl tourists.

Record Surplus still has some deals in the mix, though their prices have also gone up b

There's a new spot in the valley called Deadly Wax, which isn't low priced but has a lot of good stuff.

There's also a new place in Burbank called Runout Groove, which I didn't find to be particularly cheap but it was a friendly spot.

The best go-tos for me outside of Amoeba are Atomic and Freakbeat. Mono I think closed their brick and mortar location, Rockaway is now appointment only.

highland park has a whole bunch of shops now, some of which just opened in the past few years:

On Maritime (mostly used records, great selection of disco/house singles)
estuario (thoughtfully curated if somewhat pricey selection of international records, owners are super nice)
Arroyo Records (new and used records, solid soul/jazz selection)
Gimme Gimme Records (former NYC shop that relocated here in the 2010s, haven't spent a lot of time here tbh)
Artform Studio (hybrid record store/hair salon, not actually been here yet)

Commune Records just opened up in old town Pasadena too
https://www.communerecordsla.com