Let's Take A Walk Inside Dusty Groove, Shall We?

[xybert]

That's really cool. Much smaller than i pictured it.

You think? Looks like a pretty good size record store, IMO (did you look at it from the back?). Nice to know at least one still exists...

Definitely a nice looking store, one i would love to be able to visit; over the years i'd just built up this mental picture of it being a sprawling, dusty warehouse-like space with stacks and stacks of old records... way smaller and tidier than i had imagined it!

[Chuck Nessa]

They have a bunch of material, especially old vinyl, not displayed in the store.

[Jim R]

...look forward to the day when we can rent a droid by the hour as a surrogate anywhere on the planet to go digging the second hand LP racks for us and beam back pictures of any findings pending a 'buy' command from home base. May well turn into robot wars in some stores though..

I can see it now... droid A is going through a rack of rare LP's. Droid B, hovering right behind, reaches in and tries to grab a clean original copy of a rare Blue Note, and immediately gets vaporized by droid A. Now, if we could just develop the technology to make sure that droid B's owner also gets vaporized. Not that I ever had anything like that happen to me, of course, at record shows... flea markets... estate sales... CHURCH rummage sales...

When I looked at the interior photo of DG, I almost immediately began to wonder how much of that building and inventory I paid for. I know it's gotta be less than half...

[Eric]

Their Facebook page is worth a look too ...

[Noj]

I thought we called them the bastards because they fucking have everything!

[David Ayers]

What happened to the take-away window?

[mikeweil]

If I'll ever get to the US, thi seems like a place to avoid at all costs ...

[sonnymax]

I went there quite a few times in the 90's and it's looks very different. Also, there used to be an archway about halfway down the wall that led to the LP section, which was another room by itself.

Of course, I could be remembering it all wrong too.

You're thinking of the Jazz Record Center in NYC.

[johnblitweiler]

Very good people there. The owner is a former WHPK disk jockey.

[Kevin Bresnahan]

I went there quite a few times in the 90's and it's looks very different. Also, there used to be an archway about halfway down the wall that led to the LP section, which was another room by itself.

Of course, I could be remembering it all wrong too.

You're thinking of the Jazz Record Center in NYC.

Yeah, the JRC is set up like that too, but Dusty Groove's was a bit different. For one thing, it wasn't as gloomy as the one in the JRC.

I remember seeing some (very expensive) rare vinyl in that Dusty Groove vinyl room. I think they had a turntable in the hall where you could ask them to play certain LPs for you.

My concern about remembering it right is that I went to a few record stores in Chicago back then and I might be remembering a different one. The location I'm thinking of was near the canals in downtown.

Edited March 17, 2014 by Kevin Bresnahan

[.:.impossible]

Are you thinking of Jazz Record Mart?

[Kevin Bresnahan]

Are you thinking of Jazz Record Mart?

I don't think so. How often has Dusty Groove moved? Where were they located 1995-99? That would be when I visited several times.

[sonnymax]

According to the website, DG moved to Wicker Park at 1180 N Milwaukee Ave. in the summer of 1997. Prior to that, they were running the business out of an apartment on the south side. They opened at their current location in 2001.

So, maybe you are thinking of the Wicker Park store.

[Eric]

Are you thinking of Jazz Record Mart?

That was my guess ...

[Chuck Nessa]

Me too.

[Kevin Bresnahan]

It says that they also used to open one Saturday a month in 1996 and I'm pretty sure I visited them during that time too. Any pictures of the inside of the Wicker Park store?

[David Ayers]

I asked about the take-away window. Nobody's talking. Suspicious.

[sonnymax]

It says that they also used to open one Saturday a month in 1996 and I'm pretty sure I visited them during that time too. Any pictures of the inside of the Wicker Park store?

Yeah, one Saturday a month at their "back-alley office with very low rent in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The space is very hard to find, and was previously used as an apartment by a low-profile prostitute." I think if you visited them there, you'd remember it!

No interior pictures of the store at 1180 N Milwaukee Ave. that I can find, but here's a street view of the current storefront (they were on the 2nd floor where the "Young Chicago Authors" program is now located: DG historical site.

Edited March 18, 2014 by sonnymax

[Kevin Bresnahan]

It says that they also used to open one Saturday a month in 1996 and I'm pretty sure I visited them during that time too. Any pictures of the inside of the Wicker Park store?

Yeah, one Saturday a month at their "back-alley office with very low rent in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The space is very hard to find, and was previously used as an apartment by a low-profile prostitute." I think if you visited them there, you'd remember it!

No interior pictures of the store at 1180 N Milwaukee Ave. that I can find, but here's a street view of the current storefront (they were on the 2nd floor where the "Young Chicago Authors" program is now located: DG historical site.

You should've seen some of the CD shops I visited in Taiwan, Korea & Hong Kong back in those days. Back alley? No problem! They are all a bit of a blur by now though.

I used to research local CD shops and plan my business trips around the stores' hours, often staying an extra day (Saturday) to get some shopping in. The one place I've always wanted to go to that has eluded me is the Princeton Record Exchange. I really should plan a weekend trip down there someday.

Edited March 18, 2014 by Kevin Bresnahan

[Hot Ptah]

It is much smaller than I pictured it. They have such a good website, a great deal better than the websites of stores of comparable size in other cities.