Hello, my name is Peter Mavrik and I have an addiction to vinyl. There, I said it; I'm addicted to all glorious 12 inches of a vinyl record. There's nothing quite like putting your needle in the groove and listening to the thump of a warm analog bass line.
My apartment is slowly being consumed by stacks and stacks of records. It has morphed from a cozy spot into a veritable shrine to the great goddess Vinyl. Every week I'm online buying up a stack or two of records.
"Records?? Where do you buy records these days??" I think I've been asked that question 24,601 times. And every time the quick retort is "Not in Chicago". While Chicago may be the birthplace of House music, I personally find the choices we're offered in the vinyl department locally are lacking. If you're not the first one to get to the store, you can't get the record. Annoyingly tacky but true. Bitterness aside, I regularly shop at online stores in the UK, New York, and San Francisco.
The online world is absolutely chock full of great places to buy music in general. But for the vinyl enthusiast, it's a utopian paradise. Where else can you listen to hundreds of record samples in a day? So, because I'm a loving person and I want to share everything with all of you, my top three spots on the 'Net to find hot vinyl with no attitude and a brilliant selection are:
In third, Hard To Find Records (www.htfr.com/) in the UK. They have a LOT of obscure titles and a database that I sometimes use just to reference an out-of-print title. You never know what you might get in their magic £15-£30 bargain packs. They're usually fun and totally worth it.
In second, Tweekin Records (tweekin.com/) in San Francisco. A decidedly West Coast sound, Tweekin can give you all the soul you need to fill up a room and then some. Their in-house (no pun) label Tweekin has some nice cuts as well to get you started with their flavor.
And finally in first place, the shop that gets more of my money per month than the average bar on Halsted, Satellite Records (http://www.satelliterecords.com) in New York. Their website is second to none, with an efficient interface for the serious listener and a million categories to help you find that specific sound. Their techs do a great job of making samples of nearly EVERY record in stock and offering them up in RealAudio format. I have spent hours on end sifting through their catalog and falling in love with records again and again. Internet shopping done right!
Shameless plug: Listen to me on the radio as I host Windy City Radio with the glorious Amy Matheny on Sunday, September 5 at 11:00PM on WCKG 105.9FM. Fifty-thousand watts of me and Amy in your living room. Can you handle it?
With you in 4/4,
Peter Mavrik