Amazingly, we were out of town last weekend and my wife and I were walking in downtown Charleston, South Carolina last Saturday afternoon. Looking for a consignment shop my wife was wanting to visit before our dinner reservation, and we chanced upon a record store and she said that I should look at it. So we split up for investigate our fortunes separately. In all candor, I didn’t sweep the internet prior to arrival looking specifically for any stores [formerly a standard operating procedure for all travel] because I am losing the will to do so. Not only am I losing interest in buying any more music [without cutting a huge percentage of it free from my Record Cell first] but the nature of record stores in the present only serve to make gnash my teeth at their practices. There are few record stores in town I can shop at without getting my mood soured in the last five years. Stores out of town were usually better. Much better. Would this one make me smile?
On the face of it, Record Stop in Charleston started off well by having “est. 1974” on their façade. At least they were not one of the new breed of “hipster vinyl” stores that have popped up like mushrooms in the last decade seeking to jump on the record bandwagon. I entered at twilight on a Saturday to find the store packed with enough people to make a difference. As I entered I saw $9.99 bins. Having been burned on the visit to an out of town record store last week, I cut straight to the “U” bins. Did they have an “Ultravox” bin divider? The acid test for me. Yes! They passed the test. So I went there to see what it offered.
There were a few copies of Midge Ure’s “The Gift,” US pressing for $19.95. Pricey, but actual Ultravox goods were pricier still! US pressings of “Rage In Eden” and “Quartet” were $29.95! Ouch. The latter trends $2.00-$8.00 in the Discogs environment; which I thought was skewed high! I next looked at the DEVO section. A “New Traditionalists” copy had an “original pressing” sticker on it and the price was the same: $29.95…and up! Prices here were making my local gouging stores in the “Asheville Bubble” look positively demure in contrast!
The bin of 7″ singles caught my eye and when I wandered over there I saw a Cramps section! Always good optics, but the sad fact is there are less than 30 legit Cramps singles, with a core of perhaps half that if you ignore promo singles or foreign imports. Demand has always outstripped supply for that band, so the single above, when turned over, revealed its origins in Russia. So it’s a pirate recording of the “Peter Gunn Theme” from the “Shots In The Dark” compilation, and the two tracks that Lux and Ivy performed with Wanda Jackson on her “Heart Trouble” album. It’s a case of people creating the records that Cramps fans wish for but the Cramps never thought of making. Personally, if I were to buy pirated or bootlegged goods, it would have to offer something new and amazing to me; not just repurposed tracks from CDs on the now holy 7″ vinyl format. That the management deigned to stock this sort of rip off [though the price was the kindest I’d seen in the store yet…] crushed my spirits even further.
I next found the CDs, which were reasonably plentiful. As I seemed to be in the “L” section, I got a wild hair to see if I could score a cheap used copy of [yes, I know] Led Zeppelin’s “In Through The Out Door.” I had actually been wanting one of these since it’s been 45 years since I heard it played to death on the FM Rock I was listening to in 1979. Hardcore Zep Heads [like Brock Sampson] hate this album. I had not unkind memories of it though it’s been nearly half a century since I heard it. When I listen to my favorite Let’s Active album, “Big Plans For Everybody” the slide guitar and strings on it remind me of this album. But I don’t want to pay more than a fiver for it. It’s plentiful on Discogs for $2-3.00 but not in this store. $9.99 for a used CD even puts the famed Asheville Bubble pricing to shame. I would have paid “only” eight there.
At that point I was shocked to see my loved one enter the store and come up to me. She had only been apart from me for about ten minutes at the consignment shop. Which had fantastic Yelp reviews. “Wasn’t the store still open?” I asked.
“Everything in that store was really expensive.”
My Wife
“Really?! You should see this store!!” I gestured to a copy of the “Stop Making Sense” soundtrack by TVLKING HEVDS at the front of a bin near to me. It had seen better days and was discolored with what I hoped was a yellowish water stain across the top. The price sticker on it? $69.95!
It really felt like the Universe was sending me a message. Two out of town stores in the span of just eight days when I rarely visit a record store more than every six months. The last five years have been almost no fun on that score. The only good record shopping seems to happen in Akron, Ohio for me now. Either I can’t find the music that I want to buy, or the prices are sky high on what have always been affordable goods. And as I’m aging, the gravitational pull to record stores is really ebbing fast. A year from now, will I even care?
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Post-Punk Monk 
Interesting review. I think one of the downsides of Discogs is any two-bit, half-assed, bird-brained second hand record retailer thinks they’ve got a goldmine on their hands. I bet your retailer only ever looks at the ‘high’ sold value on Discogs, without any further context and that’s their price. Seems odd to me to have so much stock that will just sit there for years. Surely the idea is to actually sell something???
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Hugh Hall – And yet the store dates from 1974, but I’ll bet the current owners weren’t even a gleam in their parents’ eyes that year. By the way, your colorful description of a skanky record store owner was poetry, sir. It immediately played as a talking blues song in my mind.
Maybe the fact that both my wife and I were reeling from sticker shock during our shopping attempts in Charleston, SC was not a coincidence. All around us was evidence of trust funds and the proverbial “big money.” Their auto dealer row ran the gamut from Mini to Maserati and every tony marque in between. I wonder how much slaver money flows in that place.
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I can tell you with absolute certainty that the record store you visited did not exist in 1980 or beyond. I used to make occasional trips to Charleston for vinyl hunts in the early 80s and lived there for a couple of years in the early 2000s. This is a blatant attempt to rip off tourists in downtown Charleston. The best stores in the 2000s were always in low rent areas like the North Charleston or West Ashley area. No truly indie record store can afford a lease in downtown Charleston. If you look at your receipt for fine dining in the downtown area, it can easily be over 100 bucks for two. It is a very high rent area. Food is fantastic but not cheap downtown.
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Mel Creighton – Hah! Thanks eversomuch for your searing insider scoop! Because I can’t imagine a record store savvy enough to have lasted 50 years being so asinine in their pricing! Normally, such stores are bastions of wonderment. We must have got a break because our fine dining came in for well under three figures at Stella’s. Asheville has no real Greek restaurants, and this one was a delight. Possibly better was The Obstinate Daughter [though on Sullivan Island, not downtown Charleston] though the James Beard nominations were well deserved judging from our Sunday brunch that almost scraped $70. The roasted beet and burrata salad was to die for. The polenta frites? Superb!
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Hopefully you will have more luck when I take you to the legendary Cob Records in Porthmadog,during your visit to Wales.
Record stores are few in North Wales so I do rely on the internet or get the occasional bargain in the second-hand shops.
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Gavin – 2024 has started out on the worst possible foot for record shopping. So you’re taking me to a fine record store then? Yay! There’s nothing I like better than shopping with friends and riffing on the goods.
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Gosh how I miss doing that with RK. I use to have images of us as crotchety old men hobbling into stores with canes, still going through records and making fun of stuff.
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Next time you visit here, O Monk, I shall take you on a tour of our paltry offerings for record stores: one a little gem (but too focused on vinyl) and the other a hipster haven where you might find the occasional treasure. We recently lost one that was a cross between the other two, sadly.
That said, the real action is at the periodic record shows, where it is possible to locate gems from around the island. The toy/memorabilia shows are pretty interesting also, but I have no space or money to fall down that rabbit hole …
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chasinvictoria – Don’t tell me Lyle’s is gone! That place was the best of what we saw… 16 years ago! I’ve not been to a record show in… five years. The ones in town haven’t been excellent in about…15 years.
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I am sad to report that yes, the victim was Lyle’s. A really lovely little place.
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chasinvictoria – That’s disappointing! Lyle’s was by far the best shopping on your isle!
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