Saturday 23 February 2013

Round & Round Records

Round and Round Records at 513 Sydney Rd, Brunswick VIC 3056.
Round and Round is my 'local', being the closest record shop to where I live and this is a damned fine thing too because it's one of the best record shops in Melbourne, IMHO.

Round and Round's owners are pretty friendly and welcoming and happy to provide additional information upon request.  The vinyl selection has been carefully curated and lovingly laid out with crates or records categorised loosely according to genre such as electronic, jazz, shoegaze, metal, Italian prog, experimental, punk, psych and psychedelic?, and a significan section arranged by decade. All sections are well populated often with seminal recordings and obscure gems you may not have known even existed, for example my Slowdive find (see below).
On top of the arrangement you will find almost every record's plastic sleeve contains a label either typed or hand written with a few sentences of essential information about the recording and although some of the blurbs may have been lifted from sites such as http://www.vinylsearcher.com/ this provides additional detail assisting in your selection.

I've visited this shop many times and find the selection has changes with the coming and going of records and even in relation to whats currently popular. One example of a sweet find is the Slowdive E.P. pictured below, this is a limited edition reprint with a hand screen printed cover (woot!). When I went to pay for this album the owner lamented the bitter sweets of seeing a newly stocked piece going out the door only a day after putting it on the shelf. I suggested that isn't that what you want 'fast stock turn over', to which he replayed 'yes, but it's also nice to have a few such gems on the shelf's so people can appreciate what cool taste we have'. Then there's the 1991 Shock records pressing of MBV's Temolo, a very sweet pickup indeed.


 Most recently Round and Round has fed my shoegaze retrospective and provided ample crossover with contemporary bands such as Toy, Ringo Deathstarr and Wooden Shjips. I have also enjoyed digging through their industrial and experimental crates and recently trued up Oren Ambarchi's 'Grapes from the estate' only to be informed that Oren also lives locally and often drops into the shop.

The only real criticism would again be the electronic section which is dated and limited with too many records which seem to be others castoffs. However this is such a huge area that anything but a dedicated record shop can't hope do more than a token offering.
Otherwise Round and Round is my benchmark record shop and holds a high bar.

Friday 15 February 2013

the music jungle

I checked out The Music Jungle today, a very cool old school record shop located at 746 High St, Thornbury next to Tago Mago bar/bistro/live music venue.
The shop had a comprehensive selection of Australian music broken into genres, a large A-Z general rock pop collection of mainly second hand records (all in good nic) plus other subsection such as Krout rock, Psy/folk, jazz and even a electronic/techno section (although this was pretty dated).

The guys were friendly and super knowledgeable and have established a strong community atmosphere with links to the local scene. For example when I was buying The Scientists and The Johnny's album the guy said that 'it was a shame that I wasn't there yesterday as Kim Salmon was in the shop and could have signed my copy', missed it by that much. And that Kim had recently collaborated with Spencer P. Jones form The Johnny's to preform and release an album together.

The Johnny's first album "Highlights of a dangerous life" is a very cool album and I'm glad to have found a copy, but I still on the look out for their second album "Grown up wrong" which contains the song of the decade "motorbikin'". Guess I'll just have to keep on look'in.
My third pickup is Do-RĂ©-Mi first album 'Domestic harmony', this was a fantastic find for only $8 and still sounds as fresh today as it was in 1986.
All albums are in very go condition and come in their own plastic jacket.

Overall a great shop with good atmosphere and a collection which could yeild hidden gems with repeat visits and knowledgeable staff who will happly point you in the right direction.

Saturday 9 February 2013

Thornbury Records

 Record shop initiation: 

591 High St
Thornbury 3071
Victoria, Australia

Email: info@thornburyrecords.com
Phone: 03 9942 0754
Good selection of contemporary pop and rock.
I picked up 2 new records, The Breeders: Pod and Moon Duo's: Circle. Both are pretty cool albums and I'm just getting into Moon Duo as part of my shoegaze/psychic revival.
The shop itself has been recently refurbished I think with lots of space in the middle of the shop and a band was setting up on a low stage just behind the front window, supporting the local community and keeping it real.