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We've compiled the best of the best in USA - browse our top choices for the top things to see or do during your stay.
Looking for that "High Fidelity" Chicago record store experience? Reckless Records ranks as one of the city's leading alternative and secondhand record stores. Besides the indie offerings on vinyl, CD, or cassette, you can flip through jazz, classical, and soul recordings, or catch an occasional live in-store performance. Look for other locations in the Loop ( 26 East Madison Street) and Wicker Park ( 1379 North Milwaukee Avenue).
This large independent records shop has been an integral part of the local music scene since 1982. With an outstanding selection of vinyl, CD, DVD, and cassette offerings, superb customer service, funky Austin-inspired gifts, and a packed calendar of free in-store concerts (including some pretty impressive names during SXSW), it may be the only Austin record store you'll ever need to visit.
With an emphasis on local blues music and Texas players, this shop was opened by the legendary local Clifford Antone as a hangout for showgoers back when his original Antone’s Nightclub was located across the street. Over the years, performers like Memphis Slim, Pinetop Perkins, and Doug Sahm played the club and recorded for the Antone’s label, which operated its "headquarters" out of this humble record store. Today, you’ll find bins of vinyl here as well as new releases and various posters and gifts. An expert staff can help serious music lovers with any and all inquiries. Check the events calendar for news on upcoming in-store performances and SXSW showcases.
This local musician-owned record store features a wide variety of albums, plus equipment, books, movies, and more.
Kids of the 80s and early 90s, prepare to have your nostalgia buttons pushed: in addition to a great selection of used vinyl, this is the spot to peruse vintage Simpsons merch, He-Man toys, and WWF figurines. On-site coffee shop, the Brewed, has a horror theme; ogle campy movie posters while you snack on retro cereal like Count Chocula, sold by the bowl.
Indie record shops were once a big part of the American indie-pop culture landscape. At this shop, you can pretend it's the '80s or '90s again by shopping for CDs and vinyl. While Generation Records stocks many genres of music, its forte is punk and metal, so if you're looking for Celtic Frost or the Dead Kennedys on vinyl, this is the place.
Jacknife has all the charm of a neighborhood record shop without the pretension. Among a vast selection of vinyl across all genres, Jacknife boasts one of the most mind boggling, esoteric tape selections in town. For the music hunters, allot enough time to get lost in all of its retro oddities.
Whether you're looking for a hot new release, some deep cuts on vinyl, a cult classic on DVD or VHS, or just something new to spin during your visit, the staff at Laurie's will be happy to help find what you need or suggest something new.
Part of the vinyl resurgence since 2013, Permanent Records stocks new and used vinyl for every musical taste and does it without any snobbery. The record store, which often has in-store performances, also runs its own label that focuses on local bands, limited-edition runs, and reissues.
Looking for some new or used tunes? Rattleback Records has a wide selection of vinyl, CDs, and even cassettes, plus a variety of band and album posters, prints, movies, books, and works by local artists.
Ostensibly a record store, with the largest collection of new and used vinyl in Montana, the original hipster department store is best known as a unique and eclectic gift shop that will keep you entertained for hours even if you forgot your wallet. Locals know it well, and every first-timer comes away gushing superlatives and swearing they'll be back. Great place for T-shirts, jewelry, cards, journals, and so on.
With black cement-block walls and a white drop ceiling, this no-frills record store isn’t going to win any awards for interior design, but what it lacks in the looks department it makes up for in inventory. Well-organized bins of new and used vinyl teem with rock, punk, rap, and jazz classics and recent hits. There are also small sections of preowned CDs and DVDs as well as a rack of T-shirts.
