A year or two ago, I got a record gifted to me from a professional colleague. There was a sticker for The Waiting Room inside and my friend mentioned that downtown Normal had record stores ‘up and down the street’. I had trouble believing him at the time, but he was basically correct. Inexplicably, there are two record stores almost next door to one another. I visited the area and checked out another shop a while back – I had been en route to The Waiting Room but slammed on the brakes when I saw another store (I was not disappointed). I didn’t have as good of luck here, but it was still worth the trip.
Approaching the strip from my parking spot, first up was North Street Records. Despite my introduction above, I was unaware as I strolled down the street that there were two stores in the same block. Some confusion ensued as I had to check, if this is North Street Records, then where the hell is the Waiting Room? Once I worked that out, I stepped inside.
I was greeted just inside the door was a $1 bin – always a welcome sight to this record hunter who is much more comfortable in a thrift store setting. I found some more copies of a sound effects record I grabbed a while back. Mine was autographed and a note on the rear jacket states that this was standard practice if you purchased via mail order from the artist. I was somewhat glad to find two copies in the dollar bin – one autographed, one not. Nice to know that EVERY copy isn’t autographed. I feel so special now! In the adjoining blue crate on the floor I did find a 12″ classic (as opposed to 2×10″) and also a Kudu platter – both of which I already own. Nothing to buy but at least they have good taste. I prowled around the rest of the shop…didn’t buy anything but the place was really well organized and a comfortable environment to shop in.
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| Make this the third card in my collection that uses the same template… |
And at least, The Waiting Room, whom I had heard so much about and waited so long to see. Again, I was greeted with the dollar bin just inside the door – positively nothing of interest there.
Did some wandering around the store….they probably had at least 1/3rd of the inventory in CD not vinyl and what vinyl they had was wildly overpriced at times. If I want to buy some 90s punk on vinyl it won’t be an album this late in a band’s career. Earlier stuff….MAYBE.
So I left empty handed but I got two more business cards and I got to blog about it take some pics – long ago became my ‘consolation prize’ in lieu of the record(s) I don’t really want. Two nice shops – glad I checked them out.