Vinyl record stores will be my undoing someday. They’re usually tiny, almost hidden, and ran by some interesting folk. Vinyl Guru proved to be no different. Dark and not much bigger than a walk-in closet this little shop was just waiting for me.

I walked in and Judy Collins was playing which seemed somewhat odd but it really mellowed me right the hell out. It played for a while as I skimmed through the categories that interested me before one of the two employees tried deciding on something else to play because a whole album of Judy Collins was a little too much to which the second employee argued he really liked it. I laughed.

In the bins were a really lovely variety. My companion plucked out an album with David Bowie’s The Laughing Gnome on it. Ugggggh. I couldn’t really leave that there… I mean that’s just so fucking bizarre it has to come home with me. Even the cashier was perplexed as to my pick and said something to the effect these early Bowie albums sounded really different and kind of childlike. I shrugged and muttered something about it reminding me of my own weird childhood (WHICH IT DOES.) It was $33. On the other side of the shop the cheaper vinyls waited for our attention. Some of them were as little as $2.99 (for an Evening with Tom Lehrer – seriously you can’t beat this!) and really ran the gamut of genres. Part of the fun of vinyl record stores is enjoying the profoundly odd covers on some of them. I’m not unknown to buying things I have no idea what they are just because of the art. Not today though. I was cleaned out on the one record that came home with me. I am not complaining though! Granted 1492 The Musical had me intrigued.

This looks like a fun place to maybe hit up every now and then, definitely worth it if you happen to be in town and love vinyls.