And so, it begins again.
The year end of awarding the Crabby Awards to my favorite places. And they're getting to be few and far between.
2002. Was the year that CD sales were sliding down and places to hang out to buy CDs are now faded memories. 2002 was the year that Pawnshops decided that CDs weren't worth selling and nobody was bringing their Pink Floyd or Zeppelin but the tons of dog shit rappers and plastic pop and American Idol rejects making shitty EPs or CDs. But in 2002 we still have FYE and Hastings to find the cheap stuff. Trans World or who ever owned FYE bought up the Wherehouse Music stores, which made my trip to Seattle tolerable since the woman I was seeing at the time was making my vacation a trip to hell. At that time, I had a choice of 7 Wherehouse Music stores or in Spokane 4 Hastings stores to keep me occupied.
Going to the big cities would enable me to find the hard to find stuff. Cellophane Square Music in Seattle was the place to go to, in Phoenix there was FYE, Wherehouse Music, Zia's, at least 25 stores in the area, not including Goodwill. For a bargain hunter I was doing well. But as the 2000's continued on, record stores were closing up. The Virgin Music Store in Vegas and Phoenix closed their doors, so did Tower Records, yeah they were overpriced as hell but I could waste 2 to 3 hours looking at inventory. Up in my town, Relics closed shop, so did Rock n Bach. Co Op Cedar Rapids and Waterloo were no match for either stores but at least I didn't have get on a airplane to look.
Northern Arizona had Hastings as well and all of a sudden, I had a place to hang out when I was in Kingman or Flagstaff and even discovered one in Ames before they pulled the plug in 2010 in the area and gave up the ghost in 2016. I haven't been back to Arizona in over five years, but as far as I know Zia's is still going strong, but FYE did closed my favorite hangout on Longmore across from Fiesta Mall, now also history. The places that I used to go to are now long gone.
I think the vinyl revival is finally slowing down, however Wal Mart and Target continue to shrink their CDs down to a paltry 500 and Best Buy stopped selling them this summer. We still places that sell records and CDs, and they're still hanging on. The places and people are changing tho'. Thrift stores are doing well but Marion decided to boot the Salvation Army out of their longtime area on 7th Avenue in favor of a Dollar Tree. One less thrift store to find records or donate. The demise of Best Buy has opened Books A Million to have their own used DVD and CD section and I managed to find some cheap finds at both Dubuque and Davenport locations. The Books A Million buy back program is no different than say, Half Price Books but at least you can get something back for your unwanted stuff. The BAM selection will not wow people but once in a while they might have something 30 percent off if you planned it just right.
So anyway, the rules are simple. I put up the best places to look for records being used or whatever. But it's not what it was were. What is number 1 is my go to place and the rest do get a visit. But the top rated ones are, shall we say, more reliable than your local Wally World or Target or the obsolete K Mart.
Best Record Stores In My Area
Moondog Music-Dubuque
Analog Vault-Cedar Rapids
Ragged Records-Davenport/Rock Island
Wax Ecstatic-Marshalltown
Co Op Records-Moline
Weird Harolds-Burlington
CD's 4 Change-Dubuque
Record Collector-Iowa City
Metro Records-Cedar Falls
Mohair Pear-Cedar Falls
Books A Million-Dubuque/Davenport
Wal Mart-(Various locations)
Barnes And Noble-(Cedar Rapids, Davenport)
Target (Various)
Best Buy (Lp's only)
If you're looking for new releases on Cd, Moondog Music remains, hands down, the best for that. Look hard enough and they might have some new releases on sale. Ragged Records has grown so much that they now have a second location in Rock Island. Bob Harrington continues to outdo the competition on new vinyl releases. Analog Vault is the closest and therefore remain the second best place, they're in New Bo, what better place to relax and chat and hear music from scratchy LPs. Wax Estatic in Marshalltown had a tornado that tore through town and cause the store to shut down for about six weeks but they have rebounded quite nicely. Co Op Moline does a better job in terms of new CDs, Reid Robinson has done wonders. The new owners of Record Collector in Iowa City continue the tradition of Kirk Waltier and they still are worth a trip to Iowa City, even if they are the last standing record store in Iowa City. But I have found going to Dubuque is a better place, they have three record stores in a two mile radius, with Books A Million getting into the used Cds field. Until Dubque or Davenport get a Half Price Bookstore, they're not match for BAM. Davenport has their share of good stores, but Waterloo is lacking and Cedar Falls I only heard of Metro Records, and judging by their inventory, I wouldn't be in there very long. Mohair Pear is owned by the leader of House Of Large Sizes band, and is the place to go if you're looking for their music on vinyl.
As for the the retail stores, It's Wally World or nothing else. Target only has the top 10 best sellers or new releases. They haven't been relevant in quite some time. Barnes N Noble, better on the lesser known but still overpriced most of the time than not.
Best Used Stores for Music;
Half Price Books (CR, Des Moines, Madison)
Stuff Etc: (CR, Coralville, IC, Davenport, Waterloo)
Sweet Living Antiques (Iowa City)
Housewerks (Iowa City)
The Closest Door (Iowa City)
Goodwill (Various locations)
Salvation Army (Davenport, Cedar Rapids, Waterloo)
St. Vincent De Paul (Madison, Waterloo, DBQ)
Books A Million (DBQ, Davenport)
Super Pawn (Iowa City, Cedar Rapids, Waterloo)
As long as there's a Half Price Book store in the area, there'll still be plenty of bargains to be found in their bargain bins, And still will be my second home. Per usual, the thrift stores and bric bracs stores are always hit and miss, but I did notice that Stuff Etc did have, for a while, major inventory of decent music. For old time pop 45s, St Vincent De Paul have them, tho' the only rock records they get are scratched up to the point of decent plays. The closing of the Marion Salvation Army store, now has only the Council St Army still in business. But now, that 45s are now no longer made, except the overpriced Record Store Day crap that really makes no dollar sense to get. I'll take my chances of one song both sides promo every time.
What's missing from this list? Pawnshops. Super Pawn up in Waterloo has the most, but even what they have are junk that nobody wants but for 50 cents you might score a Beatles Sgt Pepper CD. Iowa City did have Klaatu's first on CD but it was too scratched to buy, but they did have Ted Nugent's S/T remaster and also where I got a cheap copy of Pearl Jam 10. Siegal's Jewelry has dropped out of this list, they don't sell CDs any more.
Best Stores for music instruments.
Uncle Ike's (Asbury-DBQ)
965 Guitars (CR)
Bob's Guitars (Cedar Falls)
Musician's Pro Shop (IC)
Rondellei's (DBQ)
West Music (CR, IC, DBQ)
Guitar Center (CR,Davenport)
Griggs Music (Davenport, CR)
It's sad to see the kids of today not playing music as we did growing up. The internet has made slaves out of us all. Uncle Ike's in Dubuque always takes me back to the days of hanging at a old forgotten store and they still have the best used drum selection in the area. In town, you're got a choice of Guitar Center or West Music, who seems to have the latest drums and cymbals than Guitar Center. Darwin at 965 Guitars is the place to go if you're in Cedar Rapids, Bob's Guitar in Cedar Falls worth the drive itself. Griggs continues to disappoint but then again nobody can't afford the latest DW sets.
CD Reviews:
The Monkees Christmas Party (Rhino 2018)
Mostly the Micky Dolenz show with Davy Jones singing two from the grave and Mike Nesmith adding two off the wall traditional numbers. Peter Tork adds a Christmas Turd and if you really care, Target has a CD with two bonus tracks. I'm certain that the Old 97's Christmas album is better, but this album does start out with a couple pretty good Dolenz numbers and House Of Broken Gingerbread is fairly good. Nesmith really doesn't go all out, his take on The Christmas Song is nice. Questionable stuff remains, Alex Chilton's Jesus Christ is tedious, and the world doesn't need another Wonderful Christmastime, tho' it's not as odious as Paul McCartney's original. Compared to Cheap Trick's Christmas album, this isn't in the same neighborhood but for yuletime background music you can do worse.
Grade B
