Hi all,
This is my first post to IDM (I've been lurking for a month or two) and
I'm really sorry that my first post is going to be a little pissed off.
The problem is that my fave record store has been dissed and dissed
hard.
I'll try to make this informative also...
first off a little background: I'm an
"ambient/jungle/triphop/breakbeat/techno/IDM" DJ in LA,
in short I love to spin everything (but house, sorry).
I've been a resident downstairs at Magic Wednesdays since almost the
start, spin at the Ambient Lounge occasionaly and generaly just having a
lot of fun.
By day I'm a 3D animator at a F/X house doing graphics for games and tv
shows.
I love music and therefore spend a lot of time searching, which brings
us to the original question, where to find cool shit in LA...
AAron's records: 1150 N. Highland Ave. Hollywood 213.469.4700
Which contrary to popular belief, does not suck...I'm there every other
day picking up shit. I won't go as far as to tell you what I've found
at Aarons but i'll just say that for the last 2 years, I've found 75% of
the new IDM release on my wish list and much more! Yes Tomas is gone,
then Jun(e?) took over and was doing quite well. now he's on tour and I
dont know the new buyer personally, but after a bad couple of weeks,
he's doing great...last week they had Plug, Cylob, Mike Flowers, etc.
So there.....(as you can tell, Aarons is my favorite record shop)
also with IDM, jungle and cool stuff:
Groove Riders: 14566 Ventura Blvd. Sherman Oaks 818.981.3366
With buyers like Brian and Daniel from Moontribe and Jesse from Fresh
Produce you can't go wrong...lots of good mainstream dance stuff and
more. I've been ordering tons of stuff here so they may start stocking
more IDM.
DMC records: on Melrose between Fairfax and La Brea
lots of good old stuff but you have to spend some time digging...mostly
house heads so they dont buy what we would jump on. Found many limited
pressing over a year after they came out. Also loads of techno.
Worth a look if you have some time. Ask for Casey.
Street Sounds: on Melrose Between Fairfax and La Brea, further West
I get a lot of electro and funky breakbeat stuff here, some jungle but
not much IDM or ambient. Ask for Jimmy.
Beat Non-Stop: on Melrose Between Fairfax and La Brea, further East
mostly house, very small ambient/IDM section...worth a look while on
Melrose...they had 3 copies of Simmons/Vibert last time I went in.
These are the shops I frequent and there are many, many more:
Prime cuts, Dr freeclouds mixing lab, Rockaway records, No-Life
records...
Well that's nuff said...LA doesn't suck and with exception of London, I
haven't found anywhere that offered as many quality choices for music
buying.
sorry for the long post, but I was sooo pissed, I was seeing red!
I'd like to extend the invite to anyone coming to LA area to please drop
me e-mail. I would love to hang out, spin records and show a good time
to any IDMers out there...we are all in this together!
peace out,
brock