London people
 

3 weeks i leave for london, any good eats, record stores anyone recomends?

good. How long will you be in London for? When is it exactly you're leaving?
So i know when i can come back.
Till then ..bye!

youre awesome lets grab a beer

we have mcdonalds here so you'll be ok for breakfast :D

but on a serious note try and check out this record shop

Second Layer Records
323 Archway Road
Highgate
London
N6 5AA

sweet what kinda stuff is there

http://www.secondlayer.co.uk/shop-opening.asp

Over 3,000 titles in stock covering * noise * power-electronics * DIY underground * free-folk * avant-garde * post-punk * hardcore * garage-punk * avant-rock * free-jazz/improv * psychedelia * world/traditional * metal * outsider * krautrock * electronica * industrial * and generally music that defies categorisation.

the only really essential record shops in london are:

second layer/sound 323
sounds of the universe

and if you want to check out some grime then uptown or rhythm division

One London record shop to rule them all, one record shop to bind them, and in the darkness FIND THEM:

Sister Ray

http://www.sisterray.co.uk/index.php...40b73b567533b0

34-35 Berwick Street, London, W1F 8RP
Berwick Street used to have the highest concentration of record shops in London. Alot of them have closed down due to reduced sales, but theres still a good few there. Sister Ray is a retailer for NEW vinyl however, therefore the more expensive of the shops. Try Revival Records and Music And Video Exchange for cheaper, second hand records. They're both also on Berwick Street. Not sure if your an Oasis fan DNAINTHEDNA, but the front cover photograph of Whats The Story Morning Glory is of Berwick Steet.

To get there, walk out of Leicester Square as if you were going to Picadilly Circus, and look for Rupert Street on your right. Walk up Rupert Street, past a whole load of Sex Shops and you're there. Highly reccomended.

you all are awesome, thanks

ray's jazz in foyle's bookshop might be worth a look, but it is EXPENSIVE

and revival on berwick street is as good as you'll find for second hand stuff.
and flashback on essex road.

Rough Trade in Notting Hall is always nice, if only for sentimental reasons. The one off Brick Lane has a better selection but is a bit soul-less, and populated by people that look like Badly Drawn Boy.

Downstairs on saturday afternoons at Black Market records in Soho is great fun - but is strictly Drum and Bass, so may not be your thing. a good one-of-a-kind record shopping experience, nonetheless.

rough trade is ok, but you won't find anything there that you can't find anywhere else. it's really a compromise between the real underground stuff and then stuff you can find in HMV.

honestly record shopping in foreign lands is becoming an increasingly pointless excercise. What with Amazon.

and if you're american there's almost no point buying records here unless you want grime or dubstep because everything else will be far cheaper back home

Yeah, agreed about the cost thing. Saying that, going to less obvious places in the US can dig up some great local bands that would be impossible to get elsewhere. Picked up some great local punk stuff in Columbus Ohio that I'd never heard of before, or since.

really? what did you get?

it may be pointless in europe but when i was in tokyo i found so much shit i could never find on my my own surfin da nets

2000 dollars in records spent

T&B^^Mostly CD-Rs. Would have to delve into the crates for specific names, but some nice stuff amongst them. Nothing incredible, but that's hardly the point. America has tons of these local scenes that feature bands that'd be lucky to get a mention even in something like Maximum Rock and Roll. There's gold in them there hills (not that there was that many hills in Ohio).

Have you heard Necropolis? I got a 7" by them that is cool.

ohio has really good punk bands, i was really suprised

Yeah, I saw a few playing around the Ohio State Univ. A really lively scene from what I could tell.

Haggle Vinyl on Essex Road.

why surprised? there's not much else to do

record shopping while travelling can yield good surprises if you're willing to dig and be open to not look for something specific. that's how i found shellac's the futurist.

When shopping for underwear in London, be sure to visit Grace Brothers:

Nobody here is allowed to speak ill of Rough Trade, nobody.

Yeah so Sister Ray have gone into administration and apparently they were pretty dodgy. One of their favourite tricks was hiding new releases and then selling them a few months later as 'rare items'.

Rough Trade is vastly superior.

why not?

what?

I was in Selectadisc just a couple of days ago. What's going on?

i work on berwick st and walk past it every day, i'm pretty sure it was open on friday. plus i've never seen a rarities section in the shop either.

where do you work on berwick street? i work in the music and video there sometimes...

I rarely buy anything there, but I like a browse in Phonica, one street across from Berwick St.

Rough Trade East is horrible. Like someone said earlier, soulless. That doesn't stop me from being fond of what I guess must now be called Rough Trade West though.

Does anyone remember the record shop that was on Hanway Street, opposite the back doors to Virgin, many many years ago? Vinyl Experience, I think it was. That was good.

^^^^ you know covent garden rough trade is closed now right?

there's another one in ladbroke grove

i work for a film publicity company whose office is on berwick st

yeah, no real specialisation in anything & expensive. i remember when they announced the opening of that place they said it was going to be on the scale of amoeba records, i.e. like this:




HA! Turned out to be smaller than Sister Ray.

I like the Ladbroke Grove Rough Trade, although I've not been there in years. I was never much of a fun of the Covent Garden one. It always felt a bit like an opticians to me for some reason.

The one off Brick Lane is horrible. Like an internet cafe or something. Totally uninspiring - and, as has been mentioned, expensive as fuck. I have to confess to be a massive fan of Fopp though.

Fopp rules

though i'm not from london