Phil's Record Store
Field Guide
An Explorer's Guide to the Record Stores I Love
For nearly forty years I've been buying music — records, cassettes, CDs — from shops big and small, legendary and long-forgotten. This field guide is my way of mapping those places: the current neighborhood favorites, the vanished gems, and the online stores that keep the hunt alive. Part directory, part diary, all crate-digging.
- Stardust Records
- Sound Garden
- Celebrated Summer
- Normal's Books
- El Supremo Records
- Reckless Records
- Dusty Groove
- Signal Records
- Bucket O' Blood
- Record Breakers
- Record Connection (Niles)
- Cycle Breakers (Ygst'n)
- Fat Hippy (Warren)
- Used Kids (Columbus)
- Hanson (Oberlin)
- Cheapo (Cambridge)
- Big Dig (Cambridge)
- Armageddon Shop
- Princeton Rec Exch
- Third Man Records (Nashville)
RECORDS
Chicago, IL
★★★★★
"The holy grail of soul, jazz, funk, and Latin. I've pulled some of the best finds of my life out of these bins. An essential stop on any Chicago run."
- NEW: Princeton Rec. Exchange
- Third Man Records
Tower Records(closed)- Discogs (online)
Vol. 1 — My Finds
- 1. Kind of Blue — Miles Davis (LP) Dusty Groove
- 2. Remain in Light — Talking Heads (LP) Stardust
- 3. Sandinista! — The Clash (3xLP) Cheapo
- 4. Bitches Brew — Miles Davis (2xLP) Princeton
- 5. My Favorite Things — Coltrane (LP) Normal's
- 6. Tres Hombres — ZZ Top (LP) Rec Connection
- Tower Records — Chicago
- Dr. Wax Records
- Rose Records
- Second Hand Tunes
- Schoolkids Records
- Camelot Music
- Record Revolution
- Sam Goody
RIP. You are missed. — P.P.
Buying music since the '80s. Records, cassettes, CDs — from shops big & small
across 40 years and too many cities to count. This is my map.
Also known as DJ AudioPhil — usually downstairs
from Stardust at Brewer's Cask, Baltimore.