Report shops are flourishing within the East Bay. Listed here are our favorites.

At first, I attempted visiting on weekends, however the shops had been often too full of prospects for me to have actual conversations with the house owners. Throughout me, strangers stood shoulder-to-shoulder, flipping via densely stocked cabinets, placing up spirited conversations about long-defunct bands and bargaining jovially over the worth of uncommon collectibles, whereas other people popped in to put up flyers for native reveals. Most of the shops host their very own free live shows and pop-ups, too, solidifying their place within the native music scene. Feeling the buzzy vitality, it was clear that folks had been right here for extra than simply commerce: Report shops have develop into de facto group areas for music lovers, together with these younger sufficient to have been raised with limitless entry to digital albums.  

After a number of scouting missions to get a grasp on the wildly numerous panorama of file shops, I made a decision to give attention to 5 outlets that embody varied points of the Bay Space’s ongoing vinyl craze — and went again to every of them on a weekday, when the store house owners really had time to speak.   

Contact Data

The idea of promoting often-obscure LPs out of a delivery container subsequent to a trash-strewn freeway embankment in Oakland may not sound like a profitable marketing strategy, however in 2016, Hannah Lew and Andrew Kerwin, the house owners of Contact Data, determined to present it a shot. After years of working in different outlets, the couple felt like they understood the retail music trade nicely sufficient to hold their very own shingle. 

“We determined to take an enormous leap of religion, as a result of the house was inexpensive,” Lew defined, waving her arm at almost 4,000 expertly curated information whereas perched on a stool behind the store’s tiny counter. “We traveled all around the nation shopping for nice information and amassed an enormous pile.”  

Their gamble labored: After I interviewed Lew, she was simply on the brink of transfer from the cramped delivery container within the shadow of the MacArthur BART station to a brick-and-mortar store in Oakland’s fashionable Temescal neighborhood.

“Once you’re flipping via information in a store, you detect issues in a approach that’s so totally different from buying on-line,” Lew mentioned. “And because the pandemic [has faded], individuals actually need to go locations and see different individuals.”  

It was a deal with to pay attention in as Lew and Kerwin, each musicians, tapped their deep musical data to share suggestions with prospects. I additionally availed myself of Contact’s well-stocked low cost bin. Most Bay Space outlets have a big variety of used information, which makes gathering way more accessible at a time when new information usually price $25, or much more. Lew joked that “we’re actually like a glorified recycling heart” as I handed over 15 bucks for a frivolously worn Creedence Clearwater Revival album.

Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE
Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE

The method wasn’t as handy as letting some mysterious algorithm serve up an ephemeral playlist, however the feeling of spontaneously rediscovering a traditional from a legendary East Bay band, and the anticipation of dropping the needle on it as quickly as I obtained residence, had been each extra satisfying than something Spotify might serve up.  

“Since social media is so loopy and everybody’s all the time on their telephones, I feel persons are craving authenticity and actual life issues. That’s a part of why vinyl is so interesting,” Lew informed me. “Getting as much as flip a file forces you to be in your physique at that second and actually take into consideration what you’re listening to.” 

Cone Form High 

Cone Form High opened on the bottom flooring of a North Oakland residence advanced in 2019. House owners Cat Lauigan and Matt Brownell knew they wouldn’t be capable to depend on random foot visitors to assist their little store, tucked away from busy retail corridors. As an alternative, the couple drew guests by internet hosting poetry readings, movie screenings and DJ workshops amid cabinets of domestically curated information, zines and paintings. The house is barely greater than a lounge, however the coziness contributes to the tight-knit communal vibe of their occasions, which regularly spill onto the sidewalk. Lauigan sees the store’s small measurement, and correspondingly inexpensive hire, as a key asset.

“There’s freedom to experiment with out having to fret concerning the threat of massive losses,” she defined. 

Regardless that I take note of native music, I solely acknowledged a number of names in Cone Form High’s crates throughout my go to. To indicate me how they market such an esoteric assortment, Lauigan and Brownell invited me to the studio of Decrease Grand Radio, a streaming platform and de facto hub for the Bay Space’s underground music scene. Over the previous eight years, dozens of native musicians and DJs have hosted an eclectic mixture of reveals on Decrease Grand, sharing one another’s newest tunes. 

On a wet weekday night, I sat within the Broadway storefront that serves as Decrease Grand’s HQ and watched Lauigan combine information for “The Cone Zone,” their month-to-month program solely that includes music from their store’s present stock, which regularly contains music produced by their mates. Like many points of proudly owning a file retailer, the radio present was a mix of enterprise and pleasure.

“It appeared like a enjoyable strategy to type of promote what we’ve got in inventory,” Brownell mentioned. “And in addition to interact with these information in a extra private approach.”

(Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE)
(Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE)

Lauigan and Brownell’s willingness to promote information produced by underground DJs, offering a bodily house for the Bay Space’s ever-shifting galaxy of microgenres, has endeared the tiny store to an upcoming crop of creatives. Additionally they promote many information on consignment, placing albums on the cabinets and sharing the income as soon as they promote. It’s a typical technique amongst unbiased outlets, and helps perpetuate a thriving music scene.

“Consignment permits us to inventory extra selection than we might afford to pay for up entrance,” Brownell defined. “It’s crucial for us to attempt to assist native artists and be tied into the ecosystem.” 

The Stacks Report Store

Though vinyl loyalists have lengthy proclaimed the format’s audio superiority to digital music, the entire house owners I interviewed for this story emphasised the emotional and communal points of file gathering way over the technical angle. 

Gabriel Dela Cruz determined to open The Stacks in 2021, after he moved from San Francisco to Hayward and realized his new city had just lately misplaced its solely file retailer, Rasputin, a void he discovered insufferable. Dela Cruz, who DJs beneath the alias Mighty Delrokz, has been digging via dusty racks of information since his teenage years. He fell in love with soul and funk whereas trying to find “breaks,” snippets of songs that hip-hop DJs combine into their routines. Even now, flipping via countless crates of wax is therapeutic for him. 

“Some individuals go fishing, some individuals play video video games. We wish to dig for information,” he mentioned. (A buyer eavesdropping on our dialog nodded in silent settlement with out wanting up from the jazz bin.) “It brings us to our pleased place. It is calming, stress-free. Individuals want that proper now.” 

Dela Cruz has cultivated a laid again, clubhouse-like vibe in The Stacks. One thing groovy is all the time bumping via the audio system, and loitering right here is actively inspired; there is a lounge house within the again, with a sofa, a espresso desk and a DJ sales space. Classic lunch bins and novelty motion figures of Wu-Tang Clan members beautify the partitions.

“Once you come into the shop, I would like you to be transported to a unique time, easier days,” Dela Cruz informed me. “Music is an escape.”

In addition to offering a hangout spot, The Stacks has additionally hosted a pop-up restaurant, file launch events and even a number of dwell bands. On squeezing a trio of musicians into the lounge space, Dela Cruz joked, “NPR has the Tiny Desk collection. Now we have the tiny store collection.”

(Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE)
(Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE)

Earlier than The Stacks moved into this B Avenue storefront, the house was occupied by a hair salon, which didn’t survive the shutdown section of the COVID-19 pandemic. Not like extra capital-intensive small companies like eating places, which require in depth allowing and excessive startup prices, opening a file store might be as straightforward as transferring bins of vinyl from the proprietor’s basement or storage unit, hanging some artwork, and slapping an indication on the entrance door. 

Like many new file outlets, the cabinets right here had been seeded from the proprietor’s huge private assortment. Essentially the most difficult half, in response to Dela Cruz, is the separation nervousness of placing a price ticket on a beloved album and releasing it into the wild. I used to be grateful for his sacrifice when I discovered a used Dave Brubeck file with Mount Diablo on the quilt. (As an East Bay historian, I’m a sucker for album artwork that includes native landmarks.)

“It’s arduous to let some issues go, however that is the enterprise I am in now,” Dela Cruz mentioned with a shrug. “I can not preserve every part.”

Ska Canine Data

Ska Canine Data is situated immediately throughout the road from The Stacks; the proprietor, Chris Hill, was additionally motivated into enterprise by the closure of Rasputin. He opened Ska Canine — coincidentally, on the very same day Dela Cruz opened Stacks — to indulge his lifelong ardour for music, after retiring from a profession in banking. 

Hill thinks having one other file store throughout the road advantages each shops: Diggers coming to Hayward to go to one often can’t resist testing the opposite. They aren’t precisely direct opponents, as their inventories skew towards totally different genres. The Stacks focuses on hip-hop and funk, whereas Ska Canine is oriented round offshoots of rock like punk, shoegaze and storage. Hill additionally shares a wholesome quantity of music from or impressed by Jamaica.

“I most likely have the most important number of ska in Northern California,” he informed me.

Throughout my go to, I seen a number of youngsters testing information that had been launched nicely earlier than they had been born. After I requested Hill how highschool children may be discovering bygone genres like Krautrock, he informed me Zoomers usually discover obscure music movies and documentaries through YouTube and TikTok algorithms, which then make them vinyl. 

“There’s a technology that has by no means owned something. All the things has all the time been digital for them. They need one thing tangible,” he mentioned with a chuckle. “Younger musicians got here in yesterday and acquired each single Steely Dan file I had.”

Ska Canine additionally hosts free, all-ages live shows on the sidewalk out entrance which are well-liked with younger Hayward residents. Low-cost leisure for the under-21 crowd is a vital area of interest being stuffed by file shops, after twenty years of closures among the many East Bay’s small venues and casual warehouse areas. Such alternatives are essential for brand spanking new artists, honing their chops in entrance of small audiences earlier than climbing the gig ladder. Free reveals are additionally a breath of recent air for followers struggling to afford the ever-increasing costs of theater and stadium live shows. 

(Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE)
(Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE)

When Ska Canine brings in additional established acts, they host the reveals at The Bistro, a bar across the nook. Once more, this sort of an association is designed to learn followers and bands in addition to Hill’s retailer, whereas boosting foot visitors to neighboring companies. Hill used an upcoming showcase referred to as “Massive Ska Power” for example.

“Earlier than they carry out, the bands are doing a meet-and-greet with their followers within the store. They’ll be promoting their merchandise, which actually helps the bands afford to go on tour,” he informed me.

Hercules Data

For my final website go to, I traveled to Hercules Data in Berkeley, named after a dynamite firm the place proprietor and musician Christopher Ford’s grandfather as soon as labored. A number of different retailer house owners had really helpful the store to me, raving about its nice choice and honest costs. Ford, who hosts a present referred to as “Soul Explosion” on the group radio station KPOO, informed me that he constructed up a big base of standard prospects throughout the early phases of the pandemic, due to the density of millennials with disposable incomes within the Bay Space.

“Throughout COVID, we made tons of cash as a result of these guys weren’t going out, so that they had all this more money to purchase stuff with,” he mentioned.  

Ford was fast to level out, although, that he’s made efforts to counterbalance the inflow of techie visitors he is drawn to this space, which was as soon as the border between Black and white neighborhoods throughout redlining.

“I’m aware of our half in gentrification, so we’ve linked with the group by doing in-store reveals with native rappers and producers,” he informed me. He’s additionally helped set up lowrider events out entrance, on Alcatraz Avenue.

Ford sells his information for lower than what they might go for at on-line marketplaces like Discogs. His objective is to introduce customers to thrilling music, not curate a vinyl museum. “We do not need to have a very cool file with a excessive worth sitting on the wall eternally,” he mentioned. 

(Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE)
(Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE)

On the subject of competitors with an ever-increasing variety of different outlets, Ford informed me “there’s sufficient prospects for everyone,” although he added with some annoyance that “generally you’ll go to the flea market and must elbow your approach via a crowd of different file retailer guys.”

After I requested if he thought the file resurgence would final, he merely shrugged and mentioned he’s pleased simply to be surrounded by nice music and people who find themselves excited to speak about it with him. As for whether or not it is sustainable to have so many outlets round, “I do not fear about it an excessive amount of,” he informed me, and dropped the needle on one other lovely slab of wax.