Second-Hand Seduction: Raleigh Record Stores

Used Music Feels Good

Like the great buffalo hunts, the search for killer used CDs is a calling staring its own demise square in the eyes.  People aren’t buying many new CDs any more, meaning there are less to recycle.  And a lot of potential second hand shoppers just head to the Web.  Are they nuts???  Coming across a treasure in a row of discards is a hit of pure pleasure iTunes will never equal. 

But the thrill ain’t gone yet.  The Triangle’s best collection of used CDs is at School Kids Records on Hillsborough St.  The atmosphere is hipster without being haughty – so even a dad feels welcome. And it boasts the key ingredients to a great used collection: volume and diversity.  So there’s a good chance you’ll unearth a blast from the past and the thrill of the new in just about any pop genre you choose. 

A dig through the pile at School Kids uncovered striving Brit It band The View for two bucks (note to band: good record, but pick a name that doesn’t conjure images of Barbara Walters), Spoon’s insta-alt-classic Gimme Fiction and – YES! – Ace Frehley’s 1978 solo album.  Thanks to a brain cell imprinted when I was 10, I know Frehley managed exactly three cookin’ cuts.  All are probably on iTunes.  But what I won’t get there is the immediate tactile sensation and emotional connection of holding that CD and tearing through its packaging. 

A block or so up Hillsborough Street is Nice Price Books with its own less sprawling but still satisfying stash of used CDs.  The big plus here is the books to browse while wrestling with your decision over whether to pick up Junior Senior or the “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack.  Heck, I started thumbing a used copy of the (relatively) new Phil Spector bio and bought that instead. 

Used CDs are also a fascinating guide to the albums that made it and those that faded.  I’ve never seen the Stones’ Sticky Fingers in a used bin, but Steel Wheels?  Always plenty of those!  Ditto AC/DC’s For Those About to Rock …, Elton John’s countless “comebacks,” Aerosmith’s entire post-rehab catalogue.  Oh, and lots and lots of emo (which might get those guys whining even more).  And lookie here, a good number of original buyers have decided that, yes, they can leave behind U2’s All That You Can’t Leave Behind. 

Where you find used CDs, you usually find a staff that knows its stuff.  Music lovers with strong, sometimes surprising opinions – like the guy at the Record Exchange who frowned on my interest in the Candy Butchers but whole-heartedly recommended a $5.99 two-disc Hall & Oates best-of.  The gloriously ragged Record Exchange on Hillsborough St. shut its doors in ‘06 as customers moved online.  Here’s hoping the second-hand sounds at School Kids, Nice Price and a few other spots rock on.

Photo Credit “Hemingway Gyro”

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