Kstarke has intrigued me for a while and I have no excuse for not having investigated sooner. It is about one mile maximum on both sides of a $1 train ride (incremental fare with my Metra monthly pass). However I always kind of worried/wondered that it seemed like everything I read emphasized their large inventory of house music – something that does not really interest me (except maybe for these, which I have owned for years on vinyl). The location worked perfectly into my south Western Ave. return from Lincoln Square and it turned out to be a really great experience.
The store is perfectly sized – they don’t sell any CDs or other junk. One square room, full of bins of records. They had the largest selection of John Coltrane and Miles Davis I have ever seen – excluding other collections I’ve seen that include sealed reissues or costly old (and often trashed) copies of famous albums. Had to be a solid 18″ of records between those two artists – impressive. Starting in the jazz ‘A’s, I immediately came across another Azymuth record – scooped it immediately. Turned out to be nowhere near as good as the funky ‘Telecommunication’ or the modern ‘Pieces of Ipenema’ but still a valued piece in my collection.
Had a great time chatting with Joe behind the counter about Chicago rarities like The Pharaohs. After a less than stellar service experience at Laurie’s just an hour previous, it was nice to just kick it with another down and out vinyl addict. As I was the only customer at the moment, it was just two guys chatting. And while I was sure I’d leave with some purchases, buyer/seller kind of floated away.I dug through all his bargain bins and came across a copy of a Larry Carlton album – I have considered buying pieces of his discography many times – then I put it back. But I put it in the back of a bin, feeling I might return to it and grab it anyway.When I finally checked out, Joe said I could go back and grab a bargain record for free, since I was a new customer. Wow! I told him it wouldn’t take long – I knew exactly what I wanted. Ironically, I have been enjoying this album big time when I did not have super high hopes, especially in regard to the Azymuth which I was so excited to find.
What a great and totally overlooked store. So easily accessible, any stop to Permanent Records deserves a swing through Kstarke. I shall return!
