Cool record stores in NY, SF, LA that I need to visit?

[preqwal]

Hi Guys,

I'm from the UK doing a 3 week trip of America. Going to New York, then over to San Fransico, then heading down the coast to LA and San Diego.

I'm looking to buy LOADS of records as England is pretty pants for record shopping.

Any cool stores you guys recommend? I'm wanting to do some diggin, but also get some beat stuff on vinyl like Dibiase, Jonwayne, Knxwledge etc...

[dishwater]

poobah records should already be on your list.

I'm not from there, but that's where I'd go.

don't hurt your back.

[yo-yo crunch]

academy, sound library, A1 in nyc

[thetownie]

England bad for digging?? interesting...it seems the UK has all the good stuff

[JZTR]

.

[Dr Van Nostrand]

pretty sure the sound library is closed wig, its a shame too, i never got to hit it, but i hear it had a selection that was right up my alley, stuff you probably weren't gonna find elsewhere to easily.....but i would also add these spots to the NYC list

big city records
good records
tropicalia in furs

good and tropicalia are within like 2 blocks of eachother, and the dude who owns good records has been diggin with roots in hip hop for at least like 20 years, dude from tropicalia apparently makes yearly trips to brazil to haul back the dopest in brazilian fuzz and psych shit, plus they're jazz and soul is pretty on point, and i've only been to big city once, but they had an excellent selection of moderately priced shit all across the board, plus the cheap bins underneath had a ton of good stuff in slightly beat up condition for cheap

also you can check out the thing in brooklyn, which you can search and read about online, hundreds of thousands of records packed in the back of a second hand shop and completely filling the basement, everything 2 bucks, lots of junk and beat up stuff, but you can definitely pull plenty of worth while records, and if gettin dusty and diggin for hours is your thing then its definitely worth the trip, also in the same neighborhood is a new spot called the grouch which can be pretty good, although they changed locations and my buddy said the new spot wasn't providing the heat like they had at the old location, might just be spreadin the wealth slowly though as to keep people coming back instead of puttin all the dope shit out at once to get bought up.....

i took a trip to LA with a buddy a few summers back that started with me flying outta NYC, and he lives in the city, so i went down a few days early and hung around, hit a few places, we went to LA for a week and hit a bunch of places, and i came back with at least 50 records which somehow i was able to carry onto the plane in plastic bags i got from the store (he also had a bunch of records, i think he had 4 bags and i had 6), we kept them at our feet and constantly got yelled at to move them, just told the stewardess to get us another drink, so we get back and i hit more places back in NYC (i think i took my first trip to tropicalia at that point), needless to say takin the train back upstate was a fuckin hassle, i had to borrow a crate from my friend which got packed to the brim, and i had my backpack stuffed with some more records, a grip of 45s i brought down, and my 404 shoebox, plus my bag with clothes and shit i took with me, he lived in queens so i had to walk to the subway and take the train in to grand central to jump my amtrak train back upstate, i was stoppin at least every block to set shit down and catch my breath in the july heat, it was brutal, wouldn't take any of it back though, except for maybe some of the more common titles i grabbed and hauled around, but my collection was much smaller at the time and i didn't have as much knowledge to where i would turn down the bullshit and save it for a thrift dig back home, i have also gone back down at least 2 or 3 times where i took the train (instead of just driving) with a crate of records and my 404, got more records in the city, and then struggled gettin them outta there when it was time to go home, so it must be worth it....

enjoy the trip homie!!

[dStx]

Surprised no one has mentioend this but...

Amoeba Records in San Fran is huge and has a great selection. Also, Aquarius Records in San Fran, smaller, but still nice. Go to both of them!

If you're in New Jersey at all, come to Princeton Records (central Jersey not far from Trenton). Great record store, near my home.

Peace

[juniormungus]

if you make it like 20 min south of San Fransisco hit up "the record man" in redwood city. awesome selection of records but kind of pricey. if your with a girl let her pay for the records and you'll likely get them for way cheaper. also behind the store is a lot of their duplicate records sold for 5 a piece. Amoeba in SF is usually picked through pretty hard, I'd check out the one in Berkley, plus there's Rasputin record store like right down the steet

[tyrone_biggums]

NYC here!

Good records, big city, and a1 are the must visits...A1 has the illest hip hop selection...dope 12 inches!

Basically alphabet city is where it's at, the east village.

[kiki kouva]

u need to get on ur PDSA/oxfam tip yo