Montreal vs Toronto for Vinyl shopping


Montreal is one of my favorite destinations for vinyl shopping, Aux 33 tours being my favorite shop. I have also done pretty well at Beatnik, in the same area. I heard Toronto has an abundance of Vinyl shops, and wanted to know what others think. I am planning a trip for September. Cheers -Don
fjn04

Showing 4 responses by fjn04

Yes Albert- I have had some nice finds there. Most recently a nice copy of The Beach Boys: Sunflower. It's an Orange label, and appears to be an early pressing. They also specialize in Japanese LP's. I believe Pierre (the owner) has a nice connection for Japanese imports, because there is always plenty of them. I have passed on many titles, because they were Japanese pressings. I'm not sold on them, especially at the 3-4 times the cost of US or Canadian pressings.
Thanks- Acoustic Sounds still has I'm New Here in stock. Albert- Beatnik is no Aux 33, but it's a pretty good shop. It's right on St Denis, off Mont Royal, where of course Aux is located. I tried 3-4 more shops in Montreal, and they were a big letdown. I think Aux is the place though. Oddmorning- thanks for the heads up on COSMOS WEST and SONIC BOOM. Will check them out next month.
Thanks very much Banerjba. I should be busy there. I had not heard of Amoroso or Around again. Here's my list beyond those: COSMOS West, GOOD MUSIC,ROTATE THIS, KOPS, SONIC BOOM,SUNRISE, VORTEX, JUNE RECORDS, DISCOVERY RECORDS, GRASSHOPPER, TINY RECORD SHOP. SOUNDSCAPES, SHE SAID BOOM.
Toronto was a nice trip. Lots of great food, highlighted by the Neapolitan style pizza at Pizzeria Libretto.
All the great choices made it difficult to come back to the Albany area. Cosmos West(Pop/Rock)was a waste of time.
It was very overpriced. I didn't quite understand it, based on what they were offering. I never went around the corner to their jazz store, but I found out later that the Jazz side is quite good. I was told the rock side was an afterthought. This info came from another store owner, so I would think it's genuine advice. Rotate This (my favorite store name) was definitely worth checking out. Quite a bit of new stuff, with some used mixed in. JUNE Records on College had a decent selection of USED, probably the best I ran in to. Sonic Boom is a must too, but mostly for NEW. Their selection of used was in front, but not abundant. A very busy store, so I'm sure they buy and sell a lot of used. Play De Record was a little seedy, but I even found an LP there. In summary, I really liked SONIC BOOM and JUNE. I ran out of time, so I missed some of the others. There are a few on College Street, which is also a nice area.