I’ve made it back from record digging across Houston, Austin, Los Angeles and Tokyo, and while a lot of the records are boxed up and sailing back here via boat (you’ll see them in the shop in a couple of months), I did load up my luggage with some of the finds that I picked up for the shop and I’ll be doing a second hand drop this Saturday. I’ll be behind the counter so it would be great to see a bunch of you from 10am to chat about some of my finds and travels. Later that afternoon there will also be some live music in the shop as part of the Tune In event. Here is just a selection of some of the records out from Saturday morning.
While I did a Record Stores Of The World feature on Houston and Austin, I’ve previously covered Tokyo and Los Angeles so I thought I’d just put some highlights here instead of doing full features. Tokyo is dominated by the larger shops, Disk Union, HMV and Tower and it has seen some of the smaller ones disappear since I first started going there. There are still a lot of small specialty record stores there though, a couple worth checking out are Coconuts Disk in Kichijōji and Flash Disc Ranch in Shimokitazawa. A similar thing could be said with Los Angeles and Aomeba but as that is just one huge shop, and the spread of the city is so big, you can find some other great stores. Some of my personal favourites across the city are Arroyo Records, Freak Beat Records, Permanent Records and Commune. It is also well worth a trip out to Long Beach as Fingerprint Music has a huge range (although they had moved since I was last there and still look to be in the process of being fully set up) and Toxic Toast Records is great for punk, Japanese imports and soundtracks.
Next Friday, L.O.W. release their debut EP Runination on vinyl via the Fowl Taste label. The band appeared on the scene probably no longer than a year ago but is made up of crew that have played in plenty of local bands over the years. It is the first release on the Fowl Taste label, an imprint we set up under Farmer & The Owl to release all things heavy, under the creative direction of longtime employee Angus. You can pre order a copy of the 7” here, or drop by the shop next Friday to grab a copy.
