Man, these roads in California just don’t stop twisting and turning. I think we keep taking the scenic route, when really we should just be on some other highway. Yes, the scenic route would be the prettiest view, but we keep hitting the scenic routes at night! One wrong turn and we’ll be tumbling down a cliff. But hey, we made it and here we are, and it’s been great so far. Woke up in San Francisco, we stayed at Troy and Cody’s friend Matt’s house.

1st stop for Saturday morning was Streetlight Records. This stop was nice and easy, super fast. Within a blink of an eye we were sitting down having some breakfast at a cool little joint called Knead or something. We needed some food since San Francisco kicked our asses only a little the night before. OK, back to normal and ready for stop number two, Groove Merchant. This place was all vinyl, and they mostly specialized in soul, jazz, blues and cool re-issues. Perfect for us, because we’ve gots lots of that stuff. They pulled a bunch out and made this yet another successful stop. This also was our last stop in San Francisco, which it was sad to say goodbye to our friends Jeremy, Sakura, and their daughter Brown.  They are childhood friends of Troy and Cody’s, and they had been riding around with us for these stops in San Fran. We did not say goodbye to Matt though, the dude who let us stay at his house, he was ready to tag along to LA and help us out!

Yes! Thanks Matt!! The more the merrier.

So we piled into our van which is now a tiny bit less crowded, thanks to these great record stores buying our product. Off to Santa Cruz to stop at yet another Streetlight Records. This town was interesting. Very much a beach town with lots of cool stores and places to eat. Streetlight is a BIG store and they were awaiting our arrival. This stop took some time because they wanted to see everything, which is good because, well, that’s what we’re here for. They bought alot, making us happy, and the feeling was mutual. We left them with cool psych stuff, Monks, great compilations, and much more. We found a Mexican restaurant to have some dinner, and I (Troy) bought yet another pair of American Apparel underwear (and no, I wasn’t paid to say that) I’m just trying to collect all colors for some dumb reason. Time to load back into the van and head to San Luis Obispo.

This drive was intense. This is the drive that had the curviest roads we’ve seen, and it was pitch black outside. Tyson is such a fucking champion, he has pretty much driven this entire time. I think he’s even starting to get used to having tunnel vision when he drives. We kept ourselves entertained with our 3rd grade humor and our strange playlist of everything from M83 to Tenacious D. We arrived in San Luis Obispo to meet up with a cool dude named Malik. Malik is the man who is letting us stay at his pad. He is so cool, we pulled up at midnight and he said, “make yourselves at home, I’m going to stay at a girlfriends house, so have at it”. WOW! None of us have ever met him and he is cool enough to let 5 guys crash at his house without him even being there! That’s trust. Thank you Malik!!!!

Anyway, it’s bed time, LA is just around the corner, and we are hitting so many record stores in the coming days that it’s frightening.

Frighteningly badass.

Stay tuned for day whatever it is.

Love,

Troy, Cody, Sandy and Tyson

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Whoa, that drive into California last night was intense! 12am, dark, and roads that seemed to twist and turn for eternity. Tyson has been doing most of the driving, and right when he mentioned he was getting tunnel vision, we were only 10 miles out of our sleeping destination, Arcata, CA. We all knew we had to get to bed because the following day we had to hit two record stores in Arcata, then dive 4 hours to Santa Rosa and hit Backdoor Disc in Cotati before they close. We woke up at 8am and had an identical continental breakfast as the previous morning, and we may have had the worst coffee ever brewed this side of the Mississippi (obviously, we’re not in Seattle anymore).

Our first stop was Missing Link Records. This place was new, small, and fantastic! These dudes were so cool and chill,  it really just felt like we were hanging out with old friends from childhood. They were super excited for our arrival, and went through our records like crazy. They pulled out a little bit of everything, and started listening to it right there and then. They had this mirror that they made that was a sasquatch but without his face. If you lined your face up correctly, you became sasquatchified! So undoubtedly we all participated in that.

It was time to say goodbye to our new friends at Missing Link, and head not to far away to The Works. The Works was a pretty big store and had lots of vinyl, and we met Bandon (yes, without an “R”) and
he looked like a friggin’ rock star. Real cool, calm, and collected dude. He was so nonchalant that I (Troy) thought maybe he would just buy only a couple records and we’d be on our way. Holy hell was I wrong.
We were there for a LONG time and I ended up wondering if he was going to buy EVERYTHING! He was pulling out stuff from most of the Light in the Attic distro catalogue. Stuff from Vampi, Munster, Light in the Attic, and even ripping into the 45’s.

After that, we had to eat something, so we walked around Humboldt County and observed the interesting scene that is there. It’s almost like another country, or a commune if you will. We all felt like city boys in this place. We kept thinking that someone was bound to come up to us and say, “you boys sure aint from around here, are ya?” But everyone was nice (and probably high) and were very accommodating  when it came to asking for directions and what not. We needed to get back on that familiar road and get to Backdoor Disc in Cotati before they close shop. For the first time on the trip, Tyson needed a small break from driving, so Sandy took the wheel. I called shotgun and regretted it soon because everyone’s possessions were up front and Tyson and Cody seemed to need me to hand them something every 5 minutes. No big deal though, these trees out here are fucking majestic! Many of you know how pretty it is here, and it’s always nice to drive through it during the day.

Arrived in Santa Rosa which is about an hour away from San Francisco.  We stopped at a record store called The Last Record Store (which is funny, because it’s far from our last record store we’re stopping at). Nice people with a great selection of vinyl. We all had to prevent ourselves from spending hundreds of dollars there. Cody picked up yet another Coup LP, and I picked up an Egyptian Lover LP, yes! Doug, one of the owners, looked through the Light in the Attic catalogue and made a list of what he wanted.We went out to the van and grabbed his order, totaled him up, and we were in and out with the quickness. On our way out, he gave us a tip on a good place to get a drink.

Guess where we’re headed.

See you for day 5.

Troy, Cody, Sandy and Tyson

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The boys took some time between hocking our wares to the good people of Eugene, Oregon to throw together this fantastic little video of those who truly, truly love vinyl.

Enjoy.

Waking up in Eugene to free continental breakfasts and crappy wi-fi connections. The internet may be down, but we’re not. There’s nothing like good sleep and a mediocre breakfast! Off we go to CD & Game Exchange. We pull up and do what we do best, start unloading records right there onto the sidewalk. Tyson is a madman at unloading these boxes and crates. The manager came out and started sifting through the goods, then SNAP! One of our wooden record crates explodes during the unloading process. “SOLDIER DOWN” Troy yells, we stay calm and save any records from being damaged. Whew. Thanks to the dudes at the record store, they hooked us up with a sturdy box that will suffice until we can find another crate. Nice. There was a Circle K next door (which we all haven’t seen since 1982) and we stocked up on vitamin waters, chips, candy, red bulls, and ice for the cooler.

Back in the van and bolting over to House of Records. This place was literally in a house, and you could feel the history inside of there. The sweet lady behind the “counter” informed us that they had been there since 1971. We all immediately loved this place, and it was a nice man named Fred who wanted to go through all of our stuff. He went through EVERYTHING Including the 45’s! He knew his shit, and he wasted no time grabbing a bit of everything. On the way out, Cody managed to grab a rare Coup record that he has been looking for. After only 2 record store stops, we are still running short on time. We HAVE TO be in California tonight, which is about 5 or so hours away, and we don’t feel like driving through curvy roads at midnight. At least not in this beast of a van with all this product!

Time to go to CD World, our final stop in Eugene. We arrived, Troy and Sandy went in to find a man named Skip, while Tyson and Cody started unloading product right in the parking lot. Skip came out, and we said, “hey we’re with Light in the Attic, want to look through our records?” and he said, “maybe if I had time, I didn’t know you were coming today and I have to run, sorry guys.” As we were about to leave to tell Tyson to start loading everything back into the van, he looked at Troy and said, “Hey, my daughter Alex texted me last night mentioning that you may be stopping by, are you Troy that works with my daughter?” WOW, turns out Troy and Skip’s daughter Alex work together in Seattle!!! So Skip said,”I’ll have my colleague, Will, come out and look at the records.” Yes, thank you Skip! And Will!! Will came out and saw all of our records nicely displayed outside and said, “well, this is a day at work that does not suck”. He looked through everything grabbing everything from the Monks to obscure Brazilian psych to Rodriguez. Nice!! So CD World was not a bust, and that store is very cool as well. Thankfully there was a sub shop next door to fuel us up for our extended jaunt to California. We filled up on only our second tank of gas (this van is huge) and off to the land of sunshine we go.

Day 3 was yet another great journey, but the days ahead are going to be insane. Soon it will be San Francisco, LA, San Diego, and everything in between.

How will we do?

Stay tuned.

See you for blog 4 tomorrow.

Troy, Cody, Sandy and Tyson

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Well well well, day 2 was extremely productive. Our vinyl train rode around Portland, OR, stopping first at a place we were at the day before, The CD and Game Exchange. This wasn’t on the itinerary, but they called us and said they wanted us to come back! They wanted to spend more time going through our boxes and boxes of records and cd’s, so of course we obliged. They have one of the best back rooms of a record store we have seen. A huge room with cool sweet posters, full on kitchen, and according to the guys, they have Friday night poker there which Troy wanted to join since he loves Texas Hold ‘em.

But, this wasn’t Friday, it was Tuesday and we had to haul ass over to Jackpot Records.  Jackpot has been around for a while, and for good reason. Sandy went in and immediately they were picking out what everyone starts right in on, Monks and Serge Gainsbourg. We had a suspicion they would since they had Monks and Serge displays in the store. We were in and out since we now are locking into a routine and getting this system down like champions.

Over to Exiled Records, a cool little shop with lots of great vinyl. They wanted a ton, and they grabbed a ton! After that, we noticed that we were next to a liquor store. As we were carousing the liquor store isles for the evenings beverage, one of the dudes from Exiled Records came in there and said, “hey guys, any chance I can get more Monks cd’s? “Of course man”, Sandy replied. We may have left without stocking up on booze, but we left Exiled stocked with Monks!!

We stopped at Craig Moerer’s place (Records By Mail), which is a mail order joint that sends records out to people all over the world. We pulled up and opened the back of the van to reveal our endless crates and boxes of records. Instead of having a look of excitement, he had the look of determination. He wanted to see EVERYTHING. So Tyson took a deep breath, flexed his tattooed arms, and jumped in the back of the van and was hauling these crates and boxes out at lightning speed. We have so many different titles from so many different labels from Light in the Attic to Munster to Vampi Soul to many others.  We displayed them all and he went through it, pulling vinyl out from every box. So much so, that Troy thought we should’ve just parked our van in his living room. He was happy, we were happy, and we were off to Albany, OR, near Corvalis.

We pulled up to Ranch Records right on time where Kit, the owner, was eagerly awaiting our arrival. This store not only had cd’s and vinyl, but had amazing rock memorabilia from The Beatles, Elvis, Stones, Nirvana, etc. He knew exactly what he wanted from us and he was FAST. Troy found a Joy Division AND a Leaving Trains vinyl that he’d been searching out for ages. As he was debating what to buy (these hard to find beauties are rare and not cheap) Troy just purchased the Joy Division and Kit said, “hey, that Leaving Trains vinyl is yours, no charge.” Yes! This guy is top notch. Great store, great guy, off to Eugene we go!

It was starting to get dark, so this was our first night drive in the vinyl train. We’d better get used to it, we’ve got a long way to go till San Diego, not to mention about 40 more record stores to hit. So here we are in Eugene in our hotel, thinking about our adventurous 2nd day, thinking about free continental breakfast in the morning, and thinking about the California Sun.

First things first though, Eugene record stores.  Then California, be prepared, these four dudes are coming prepared and armed to the teeth.

With records, of course.

Troy, Cody, Sandy and Tyson

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First of all, we have to apologize for the delay in our first official correspondence. We had an unexpected run in with the law. We got into a shot contest at the Doug Fir bar with the Russians. The last thing we remember we were trying to steal a boat.

The day started off slow as we had no room in the van and the seat belts in the back weren’t working. We called our friend Brent who was nice enough to loan us his band’s van (Brent Amaker & The Rodeo) and told him they weren’t working. “Cowboys don’t use seat belts, but for your safety, there are some condoms in the glove box. Welcome to the Rodeo” he said. So we all took a deep breath and hit the road.

Our first stop was Hi-Voltage Records in Tacoma, where the owner spent a good deal of time looking through all the vinyl and cd’s that we are hauling. He had first pickins’ of the goods and he grabbed a bunch! So our first stop was a total success. Our stop at Rainy Day Records in Olympia was great, and the wind was blowing like a tornado mixed with a hurricane mixed with hell. Troy was excited to find a Black Lips vinyl he’d been looking for, so he made his first purchase. Olympia was cool but we had to bust outta town to get to Portland since we were behind schedule.

In the van, the four of us were laughing so hard at our own jokes (mostly about a fictitious man with the last name Utthole, first name Rob) that it distracted us from finding our way at times. Then we started coming up with other first name’s that would be funny if you had the last name Utthole. Sandy looked back from the passenger seat and said, “what about Herb”.  We all collectively busted out laughing so hard that we missed our first exit into Portland. This led to a 40 minute scramble trying to find out where the hell we were. We finally found our first record store in Portland and we put our game faces back on. Time to sell some mutha fuckin’ vinyl, yo!  Mississippi Records is amazing. The music knowledge these guys had made me feel like I’ve been listening to Miley Cyrus records for 32 years. Super cool people and they dove head first into all the product we brought. They were like kids in a candy store, so we spent a good amount of time there. Cody shot some great footage of the store and interviewed the owners a little bit, Troy bought a cassette copy of Yip Jump Music by Daniel Johnston, then we were off to the next stop! More stores and more hauling crates upon crates of vinyl and cd’s in and out of back doors, side doors, ally ways, and sometimes even on the side of the road. Tyson, our driver has been a big help since he is tougher than Cody, Sandy and myself combined. It was approaching night, and it was time to find our Hotel and get checked in. We knew we had to get up early and hit more stores in Portland before we head further south. The four of us went to The Doug Fir, which may be the coolest venue ever, and we FINALLY got to sit down and have dinner at 10pm. Oh, and of course cocktails.

Day two is upon us, a bit more of Oregon and then look out California record stores! We are on our way.

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