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Best "Ave" record shoppe from back in the day

YellowSnow
YellowSnow Moderator, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 37,222 Founders Club
in Yellow Snow's Record Shoppe

Best "Ave" record shoppe from back in the day 14 votes

Tower Records
71%
DerekJohnsonSwayeMad_Sonalumni94chuckdfleaLebamDawgYellowSnowBleachedAnusDawgFishpo31 10 votes
Cellophane Square
14%
El_KJoey 2 votes
Disc Go Round
0%
2nd Time Around Music
7%
huskyhooligan 1 vote
F.O. Row Peter Puffer, you left off...
7%
biak1 1 vote
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Comments

  • Fishpo31
    Fishpo31 Member Posts: 2,626
    Tower Records
    Back in the day, Tower was epic for “small town boys” like me...
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  • alumni94
    alumni94 Member Posts: 4,862
    Tower Records
    I would guess I bought the most from here, but there were some hole in the wall place that had some crazy stuff.
    I recall my friend's brother would just go through the $1 bin to find strange things.

    There was a band called "Fluff". Picture of the band with a green cloud around them. Classic.


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  • chuck
    chuck Member, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 11,674 Swaye's Wigwam
    Tower Records
    This was a tough one. I bought my first nice stereo to move up there with. It was a Sony rack system with the big ass speakers and Dolby surround sound, damn near $1000 worth which was the most I had ever spent in anything aside from my car.

    So I had to build a cd collection and that was my focus. I ripped off Columbia House and the other mail order music company who's name I don't remember...BMG or something like that. That put me up to about 30. I bought about 100 more cds from Tower and 2nd Time Around in my first year living in the U District. Tower seemed to always have a three for $25 thing going so I bought more there.

    I remember Cellophane Square only vaguely. I could be mixing them up though. I seem to remember that I didn't like something about that store and didn't go in it very often.
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  • YellowSnow
    YellowSnow Moderator, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 37,222 Founders Club
    Tower Records
    Fishpo31 said:

    Back in the day, Tower was epic for “small town boys” like me...

    I probably spent the most coin buying CD's at Tower. A lot of the stuff I was looking for wasn't in the used bins at the other stores. Plus back in them days, used CDs weren't even that good of a deal.
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  • RaceBannon
    RaceBannon Member, Moderator, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 113,777 Founders Club
    Olympia's non corporate place to buy vinyl.



    Had a friend who worked here

    Golden Oldies Records: 201 N.E. 45th St. (206-547-2260 or goldenoldies-records.com). Dean Silverstone has been selling cardboard bins of 45s — that’s right, Elvis, Everly Brothers, Crickets, Beatles — since 1973 and was around when the Sonics were playing the first time around. Vintage Billboard charts remind you what to look for.
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  • YellowSnow
    YellowSnow Moderator, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 37,222 Founders Club
    Tower Records
    RaceBannon said:

    Olympia's non corporate place to buy vinyl.



    Had a friend who worked here

    Golden Oldies Records: 201 N.E. 45th St. (206-547-2260 or goldenoldies-records.com). Dean Silverstone has been selling cardboard bins of 45s — that’s right, Elvis, Everly Brothers, Crickets, Beatles — since 1973 and was around when the Sonics were playing the first time around. Vintage Billboard charts remind you what to look for.

    I bought a shit ton of used vinyl from Golden Olidies from about 2010 to my departure. Great little shop with fair prices.
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  • Purple_Pills
    Purple_Pills Member Posts: 2,110
    RaceBannon said:

    Olympia's non corporate place to buy vinyl.



    Had a friend who worked here


    I grew up across the street from the previous, long time owner. As a kid I had to bike past the mall with their multiple music stores to go to Rainy Day to buy anything with an explicit lyrics sticker. I remember biking there the week Ice Cube’s first solo album dropped.


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  • El_K
    El_K Member, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 1,488 Swaye's Wigwam
    Cellophane Square
    I said Cellophane because you could buy-sell-trade. And you could listen to the used records. It was more KCMU feel to it than Tower. Most of my music purchases were made at Tower Bellevue or Fred Meyer.
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  • DerekJohnson
    DerekJohnson Administrator, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 68,325 Founders Club
    Tower Records
    El_K said:

    I said Cellophane because you could buy-sell-trade. And you could listen to the used records. It was more KCMU feel to it than Tower. Most of my music purchases were made at Tower Bellevue or Fred Meyer.

    I almost voted for Cellophane because they were a lot friendlier and cooler. Fond memories of both places.
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  • Joey
    Joey Member, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 7,255 Founders Club
    Cellophane Square
    They had a Cellophane in Bellingham. Blew a lot of hard earned money there
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  • LebamDawg
    LebamDawg Member, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 8,785 Swaye's Wigwam
    Tower Records
    You have a good one down in Bend Yella - I can't remember the name of it but bought some obscure CDs there - Velvet Underground was one...
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  • YellowSnow
    YellowSnow Moderator, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 37,222 Founders Club
    Tower Records
    LebamDawg said:

    You have a good one down in Bend Yella - I can't remember the name of it but bought some obscure CDs there - Velvet Underground was one...

    Ranch Records is ok, but pales in comparison to best Seattle shops. The Central Oregon hicks didn’t have great collections that made their way to the used bins.
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  • huskyhooligan
    huskyhooligan Member, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 5,924 Swaye's Wigwam
    2nd Time Around Music
    One of these places had nudey posters and titty mags in the back, and the rest did not. Fags! (Send nudes.)

    Also the CD that was stolen from your car ended up at 2nd time for a fraction of the cost.
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  • YellowSnow
    YellowSnow Moderator, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 37,222 Founders Club
    Tower Records
    huskyhooligan said:

    One of these places had nudey posters and titty mags in the back, and the rest did not. Fags! (Send nudes.)

    Also the CD that was stolen from your car ended up at 2nd time for a fraction of the cost.

    Yeah those didn’t dudes didn’t really care if the merch was hot. I wonder if meth heads even steal CDs anymore.
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  • huskyhooligan
    huskyhooligan Member, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 5,924 Swaye's Wigwam
    2nd Time Around Music
    YellowSnow said:

    huskyhooligan said:

    One of these places had nudey posters and titty mags in the back, and the rest did not. Fags! (Send nudes.)

    Also the CD that was stolen from your car ended up at 2nd time for a fraction of the cost.

    Yeah those didn’t dudes didn’t really care if the merch was hot. I wonder if meth heads even steal CDs anymore.
    I think cellophane bought used stuff. I remember Warehouse on 45th and Roosevelt did as well. Probably the best in the area was Silver Platters on 1st Ave NE near Northgate. They had everything. They had those silver platter bucks that basically equated to if you bought 10k of cd's you'd get a single free but it kept one coming back. Extra star for free accessible parking.
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  • alumni94
    alumni94 Member Posts: 4,862
    Tower Records
    I also took advantage of the buy 3 get 19 free deals each time I changed my address as all good college students did at the time. A lot of full albums of 90s one hit wonders.
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  • Fishpo31
    Fishpo31 Member Posts: 2,626
    Tower Records
    alumni94 said:

    I also took advantage of the buy 3 get 19 free deals each time I changed my address as all good college students did at the time. A lot of full albums of 90s one hit wonders.

    Wasn't it 10 for a pemmy to get you locked in? Followed by the many "Oh shit, I forgot to decline" moments for the "Album of the Month"...My intro to Steely Dan (Countdown to Ecstasy) as a 12 year old, taking 10-plus years of living to figure out what the songs were about, Nils Lofgren, Garland Jeffries...Lots of good shit that never saw the radio.

    With all the traveling for work I have done, I spent so much down time in record (and book) stores...I miss that (NOT the travel)...
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  • Purple_Pills
    Purple_Pills Member Posts: 2,110
    YellowSnow said:

    huskyhooligan said:

    One of these places had nudey posters and titty mags in the back, and the rest did not. Fags! (Send nudes.)

    Also the CD that was stolen from your car ended up at 2nd time for a fraction of the cost.

    Yeah those didn’t dudes didn’t really care if the merch was hot. I wonder if meth heads even steal CDs anymore.
    They don’t. Catalytic converters are the new bag.


    I wonder if 2nd Time sells them...

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  • El_K
    El_K Member, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 1,488 Swaye's Wigwam
    Cellophane Square
    I also remember the Cellophane at Bel Square. I think it is where the McDonalds is down that hallway. I bought Number of the Beast and Her Satanic Majesty’s Request with check #666 at Silver Platters in Overlake. Another cool location for a record store was Easy Street at Park Place in Kirkland. It was also a Ticketmaster outlet.
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