For music loving students here at Ohio State, record stores along High Street offer a huge selection of music from every imaginable genre at a handful of locations.
At the northern boundary of the campus district sits Gold Mine Records, an all vinyl establishment owned by Chris Cromley. He has managed the store for the past year and a half and said the classics are still his best sellers.
“I get collectors from the ages of 18 to 60 looking for records. Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Who; pretty much all the big bands from the classic rock era still sell the best,” Cromley said.
Gold Mine is located near Blake and High streets, across from the Blue Danube restaurant.
The majority of the record stores closest to campus are located between Woodruff and 15th avenues. Beginning with the northern most store, Used Kids Records sustained a fire which forced them to relocated a couple of store fronts down from their original basement location.
Now holding residence above Penn Station, Used Kids is once again thriving with the largest used CD selection on campus with prices ranging from $3 to $9. The store also boasts an impressive array of vinyl from hip-hop to the only classical albums anywhere on campus. More than 1000 of those LP’s run for $1 with the average for the rest at around $4.
Kyle McCarty, an employee for more than eight years, said he likes working there because they owners treat the employees well.
“Its a nice environment to work in. I like the people who come in and I like the people I work for, and I get to listen to good music all day,” McCarty said.
According to management, the store has been open for 17 years and business has been better after the fire in the new location.
Just a block south, in between 17th and 16th avenues, resides Johnny Go’s House O’ Music. As one of the more well known store owners on campus, John Petric has been a fixture on High Street for 15 years.
“As a college record store you have to be a master of all niches, and we fly below the radar,” Petric said.
As with all the record stores vying for the college business the House O’ Music has a large used CD collection with prices on par with the others $0.47 to $9. Indie rock, jazz, soul, hip-hop, classic rock, and everything in-between is somewhere in the stacks, as well as a local music section which Petric said does pretty well.
Speaking on the topic of local music, Petric was the first record store owners to carry O.A. R. records and was featured in a short piece about the band on MTV news.
Concerning OSU student’s tastes in music, Petric said the kids are healthy and are buying what’s good and what was good.
“I’m always pleasantly surprised when they buy some of good old music,” Go said. The big sellers of the summer have been Johnny Cash, the Flaming Lips, Radiohead and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
A signature characteristic of the store is the single beat up speaker outside of the front door belting out whatever selection is being played inside.
The third in the cluster of music stores is CD Warehouse which sits next to the Discount Carryout. With 95 percent of its inventory invested in used CDs, this is the place to go to buy, sell or trade used CDs.
Alejo Ramirez, a CD Warehouse employee, said he thinks the staff at the store is knowledgeable about one genre or another and can usually help the customer find what they are looking for.
Not the local advocate as some of the other stores, Ramirez said the local stuff wasn’t selling and was constantly over-stocked, so it isn’t a big priority.
The major genres offered are pop, rock, hip-hop and soul with Gangstar, Ben Harper, Coldplay, Evanesence and the new 311 albums selling the best over the summer.
Previously the store offered a listening center for patron to sample the CD they were interested in purchasing. That has been replaced by a T-shirt display which really catches the eye as customers enter the store.
“We hope to get more styles, sizes and artists to keep the selection fresh,” Ramirez said.
CD Warehouse also offers a selection of video games and VHS.
“We guarantee all our products and we fix scratches in the CDs we buy. We also have a great porn section,” Ramirez said.
The next record store on down the road is Singing Dog Records, which also has had to relocate in the recent past as the Gateway project demolished the old location. Construction at Chittenden has had a negative affect on the business.
Neither the owner nor the other employees were available to answer any questions, but the selection was comparable, if not larger, to the others, although the prices seemed to be higher.
The Singing Dog seemed to be the last destination on the record store tour, but Magnolia Thunderpussy, which used to be on 11th Avenue, but moved three years ago to 4th Avenue and High Street, so that became the final stop.
This last stopped proved to be the wisest. Owner Chuck Kubat of the store, which has been around since 1970, presented the largest selection of CDs and everything rock ‘n’ roll.
The self described “rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle headquarters” store offers everything from vinyl to clothing to video games to bobble head dolls to patches and buttons. With so much inventory, Kubat couldn’t nail down specific genres which were prevalent in his store.
“We only sell good music. If it sucks we don’t carry it,” Kubat said.
Much more involved in the local music scene, a large section was present as well as numerous posters and flyers for upcoming shows around the area.
“With Little Brothers across the street and Scully’s next door bringing in good rock ‘n’ roll, this is a cool area,” Kubat said.
Thunderpussy has the most extensive death metal/metal section as well as a decent Goth section which is getting smaller as the fans are getting older and fatter, Kubat said.
“One of our best sellers now are the music DVDs, with today’s masses watching more music than they listen to, these DVDs do well,” Kubat said.
With such a great selection of music up and down High Street, OSU students should have the opportunity and privilege of having access to a plethora of music for years to come.
