New York City digging spot recommendations.. (and Boston / Cambridge too)...

I'm in the final stages of planning/booking my first trip to the US at the end of March - Will be spending 6 nights in New York, then a couple of nights in Boston/Cambridge..

So far, I've got a list of about 25 vinyl spots in NYC culled from various web articles, but obviously won't have enough time to hit them all. Any recommendations for must visit stores while i'm there?

I'm mainly looking for Afro reissues, 60's-70's folk-rock, pop-psych kind of stuff.. oh and i love digging in bargain bin sections - so any places with half-decent dollar bins would be high on my list!

Also, any flea market/thrift store spots worth checking out while i'm there?

Go see Ian at Academy Annex in Brooklyn

in cambridge, Weirdo is fantastic for afro/folk/psych/experimental/younameit reissues. it's tiny but charming and jam-packed. not much in the way of used vinyl there, though. but you must visit, and talk to Angela. she's a wealth of friendly info about everything in her well-curated store. check her website and have her hold stuff for you because she typically only gets one or two copies of things. great prices too. a must visit.

i'll post more later about other Camb/Boston places but it's no new york. we ain't got no Academy.

yes, come visit me at academy! i work in the brooklyn store. the manhattan store on 12th street is good too, especially for jazz.

other nyc stores i highly rate--

co-op 87 (some ex-academy bros of mine opened this spot in greenpoint)
gimme gimme (only open friday-sunday, but great stuff. good blues and sixties rock and country, as well as soul, punk, jazz, reggae etc.)

worth checking out as well are A1, Good Records (kinda over this place, selection is small and somewhat overpriced but they DO have good records sometimes.), big city records (soul & hip hop)...

there's the flea market in fort green on weekends--my pal casey sells records there.
there is the record grouch in brooklyn (beware of things marked 'as is' cuz condition is not always top there)
mercer street books has a selection of records which can contain gems if you hit it at the right time.

there is this place called THE THING in greenpont, where i have never been but have meant to go, and i gather you have to spend MANY HOURS there in the DARK, DUSTY, FILTHY BASEMENT, but can come up with gems. especially obscure 12"s and things like that which would have been 'missed' by other record buyers.

housing works thrift shops, salvations army stores on atlantic ave & quincy street.
goodwill on livingston street has never had a single good record in my experience but you can get trashy sci-fi and fantasy paperbacks.

for 60s-70s folk-rock/pop i would DEFINITELY hit Gimme Gimme though. i have gotten many great records there over the years--mike nesmith, sand, chris darrow, stuff like that. the guy who runs it is a big fan of the genre and buys records out in the LA area and ships them back to the store.

between nyc and boston, if you feel like stopping in providence there is Armageddon, and a couple other spots I could list for you if you're interested.. the antique store in wayland square has some records sometimes, and there's a new-ish place on Broadway on the west side, and the antiques mall in pawtucket.

Good records is still open right? I tried to go a few Fridays ago and they weren't open but I'm sure they've been open on Fridays in the past.

yeah, good should be open as far as i know.. i was last there maybe... three weeks ago? a month ago? i once tried to go with ilx user '69' and they had a sign on the door saying 'back in ten minutes' and we waited for a while but they never came back. so we left.

there is this place called THE THING in greenpont, where i have never been but have meant to go, and i gather you have to spend MANY HOURS there in the DARK, DUSTY, FILTHY BASEMENT, but can come up with gems. especially obscure 12"s and things like that which would have been 'missed' by other record buyers.

― one dis leads to another (ian), Sunday, March 4, 2012 1:20 PM (36 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

while at the record grouch recently i overheard that someone had recently cleaned up and organized the thing basement.

yeah I saw somebody's facebook post last week that was like "last chance to get to The Thing before they reorganize"

I still have never been. think I first heard about the place from sanskrit.

or maybe longer ago than last week. I can't remember.

ian and talcum, there's now an Armageddon branch in Harvard Square, where Twisted Village used to be. they're metal specialists, but have good used bins of everything.

yeah! i haven't been to the boston armageddon shop, but i see all their mailing list stuff.. their providence location is AMAZING for local stuff, i imagine they have a lot of boston stuff as well...?

I don't know if Roses records or roses second hand records is still around, but if it is, Don't Bother!! Fuck her and her store! I spent hours digging there and found really amazing records, none were priced and when I brought my pile to the counter, she flipped through them and told me to come back tomorrow and she'll have a price for me. I've never went back and almost told her where she could put those records.

second hand rose! awful store!

People who have too many records to sort through and wait for guys like to me sort through them to find the good ones can go to hell. Price your records or close shop! Anyway, there were random flea markets in NYC on saturdays were I found really great records, wish I could remember street names. Just walking around NY on saturdays, you can find records on for sale on sidewalks and random places. I miss that part of the city.

Thanks everyone for all the tips.

Gimme Gimme sounds right up my street.

I did try to visit the academyannex.com site a few days ago but chrome gave me a malware warning for the site.. :-(

My list has 3 Academy stores, on the 18th St, one on East 12th Street, and Annex in Brooklyn... Definitely planned to visit Academy for African reissues - will drop by Ian and say hi!

Someone told me yesterday The Thing was not worth the effort, as he heard most of the stock comes from other stores like A1, and have been picked over numerous times.. I will definitely check it out if i'm in the area..

for books, mercer st. : http://mercerstreetbooks.com/

I did try to visit the academyannex.com site a few days ago but chrome gave me a malware warning for the site.. :-(

^^ we're working on this problem tbh, it's a frustrating thing to deal with cuz we don't know abt comptuers reallys.

I checked the Academyannex site on my Mac and it opened ok.. so it just seems to affect PC's..

But i guess the stocklist is a bit out of date...

yeah, we have a very small percentage of stuff from the store actually up on the website, and thousands and thousands of used records too.

talcum are you still coming to Boston / Cambridge too? if so:

Cambridge:
Planet Records just outside of Harvard Square--just moved to nice new digs (right by a fantastic sandwich / cafe Darwin's)--can be overpriced but i've found great things there
Stereo Jack's--between Porter and Harvard Square--good for jazz lps and $2 bins
Cheapo--in Central Square (this place makes a good combo w/ Weirdo Records, nearby) leave a lot of time though.
In Your Ear--Harvard Square (ditto on lot of time needed; pretty disorganized,,,) they also have a Boston store if you're in that area--near Boston University

the only place in Boston i've been to kinda recently is Loony Tunes, which is a good place; classical and jazz specialists--it's near Berklee College of Music--although their 'rock' section is no slouch either

all of these places CAN yield great records; unfortunately none of them are OMG-YOU-MUST-GO-THERE like an Academy.

also go to Armageddon in Harvard Square... forgot

yup.. will be hitting Boston/Cambridge on the 5th April.. Thanks for the list update!

Looks like there's way more digging spots in Cambridge than Boston..

Really looking forward to Weirdo as their online store lists a whole heap of interesting stuff..

Does Newbury Comics carry used vinyl?

yes, yes they do:

you'll never guess where i bought these records

although now that I think about it that might not refer to the ones actually in Boston.

Tons of great scorez from The Thing. Takes time and a dust mask, but always worthwhile.

Haven't been since President's Day weekend. Did they really reorg? That would be a shame. Loved the chaos of the place.

xp yes the Newb. Comics are now selling used lps, but i have never seen anything interesting there. your basic rock lps.

yeah its just that one newbury in the hinterlands that has good used vinyl. not the boston one or any other one. though i think they boston one has MORE than they used to 5 or 10 years ago. you'd still be better off in the other stores in cambridge. no need to go to newbury there.

bookmarked, see you in a week, NYC! saving room in my backpack.

La Lech, I dunno if I'm gonna be able to come to your drinking event but please visit me at brooklyn (williamsburg) academy where i work everydays but sunday & monday.
we have some musical records.

sorry i didn't get a chance to see you, ian. who knows when i'll be in NYC again! when they finally get the train going from greenfield to nyc i will definitely be there more. can't wait for that. it'll be a while though.

it's okay scott, i was busy all weekend with work and stuff anyway! but i hope to make it up to your store sometime too. we just need to borrow our roommate's car for a weekend. or maybe sometime from RI, but i have no idea when I'll be going to RI.. summer? thanksgiving?? probably not going up for passover or anything.

Ok!! Will do! It'll probably be Tuesday -- what time do you open? I'm flying out Tues. night. One of my favorite record buying experiences was the last time I was in NY and I found this, which I never expected to find because I'm not a particularly diligent or motivated shopper.

http://www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/~zierke/peter.bellamy/images/largerec/theyoungtradition_tra142.jpg

we open at 12, i get there at 1.

nice, see you then!

good to know when you're in the shop Ian - will plan our Brooklyn digging trip on the Tuesday or Wednesday next week... or maybe even Saturday if I make it to the Record Grouch opening of their new store...

awesome! be sure to ask for me when you come in, and i will give you the nice price ilxor discount.

will do! and discounts are always welcome :-)

Iaaaaaan can you answer one v impt question for me? (Actually, this goes for anyone who has an answer to this question):

If your store had any Popol Vuh records, where would they have been filed? I navigated the store pretty well for a first timer, I think, but I found Richard Youngs in 2 different sections, and was confused by the separate New Wave area.

main point ----> I have never actually successfully found a single PV record in a store outside of one place in Paris that was filed under P (and it was like a zillion euros so I couldn't bring myself to buy it) but I sure do spend a lot of time looking in a bunch of different places.

My home store in Chicago has a krautrock/psych section where I always look, but I always scour the soundtracks too because you never know. The place I worked around 99-2003 had them (CDs) in New Age. It was pretty stupid, but at least I was in charge of that section.

AAAAANYWAY I had a delightful time at Ian's store. I could see his fingerprints (figuratively) all over the extensive country section. The end.

I realize that I could always ask someone in the store, but I've tried to avoid doing that for so long that it's only an emergency measure.

I also had fun looking through the school section. What a bunch of weird stuff!

i think if we had any popol vuh records they would probably be on the wall... if they were used copies of reissues, they probably wouldn't make it past the new arrivals bin, at the front of the store--those records are in high demand, you know!

yeah i figured -- not sure why i bother thinking that I, of all people, will find one. endless optimism i guess :(

the new arrivals bin was kinda swamped so i didn't get to properly go through it as i should have. i still had a very nice experience at your store!

I visited Academy on Tuesday and purchased a stack of great records..... Such a great store, and the prices were probably the best I found of all the shops I visited.

Asked for you Ian, but the guy i spoke to said you weren't in....

Visited loads of other shops.. Co-op 87 and Permanent Records were other highlights.. Bought loads of records...

off to Boston tomorrow.. especially looking forward to checking out Weirdo Records..

cool--you'll have fun at Weirdo. how are you getting up here?

taking the Amtrak train....

aww, yeah, i took tuesday off cuz i had a lunch meeting with a guy. sorry talc!

translation: *weed man finally answered his phone*

lololol no!
i'm actually gonna start doing some distribution/direct sales stuff for my friend's distro starting soon.

no worries ian.. it was great to spend a few hours in your store... really great mix of stuff... and a really good african section too!

oh and you were right about second hand rose's music.. what a dump... after flicking through a few records and finding junk like ELP albums for $25 each i walked out again!

really hard to believe how places like that still remain open...

i figure they must own the building or something.. who knows.