Cool record stores in Amherst/Northampton, MA?

June 9, 2011 7:30 AM

Cool record stores in Amherst/Northampton, MA?

Are there any good record stores in Amherst or Northampton, MA? I want to shop for used cds. Thanks

posted by vincele to Shopping (10 answers total)

Is this a trick question?

I've picked up some hard-to-find used CDs here in Northhampton: http://www.turnitup.com/
There was also a place in Amherst, I don't think it was Mystery Train, that I've picked up stuff from before, but I can't think of the name or google it and it has been a few years. Obviously, a few years and no immediate results on google may mean "gone" given the current realities of music retail.
posted by nequalsone at 7:37 AM on June 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

Mystery Train Records is definitely still in business and located at 12 N Pleasant St.
posted by duomo at 7:39 AM on June 9, 2011 [3 favorites]

Yeah, my first thought was Turn it Up, too.
posted by dinty_moore at 7:48 AM on June 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

There's another Turn it Up in Brattleboro, VT, as well as the excellent In the Moment. Brattleboro is only about 40 mi north of Northampton, and totally worth the trip - there are a bunch of great restaurants, and it's also home to McNeil's Brewery.
posted by brand-gnu at 7:54 AM on June 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Can I break etiquette and ask if there are any cool shops to browse near the UMass campus? I'm not concerned with restaurants or bars, but with window shopping for funky stuff.
posted by vincele at 7:58 AM on June 9, 2011

Nth-ing Turn It Up! -- If you're looking for jazz or modern classical at all, you might want to take a trip to the one at the Montague Book Mill, which is, in its own way, well worth finding for everything else there too.
posted by .kobayashi. at 8:08 AM on June 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

The book mill is lots of fun too. You could spend the day there. At least I could. There's a cafe, a restaurant (too expensive for me last time I was there), and a beautiful view of the river. Note that the record shop at the book mill is only open Thursday through Sunday, afternoons.

Northhampton is definitely fun to walk around and browse shops. The walking section of Amherst seems smaller and is less interesting to me.

This article confirms that Amherst only has one record store now, Mystery Train, so whatever I was thinking about above either is Mystery Train or is gone.
posted by nequalsone at 8:28 AM on June 9, 2011

If you're looking for more experimental stuff, or just a really cool record store try Feeding Tube Records. They're over on King Street right next to the Subway. There's also a Newbury Comics that just opened up over on Crafts Ave.
posted by BishopFistwick at 11:52 AM on June 9, 2011

Most of the record stores have been mentioned, though there's also Platterpus in Easthampton, perhaps a bit out of your way. Turn It Up! is definitely your best bet, with multiple locations, and Nthing the Bookmill as an all-around awesome place.

Unfortunately, you missed the WMUA record fair, which was in April.

Also, in terms of cool shops, check Food For Thought Books in Amherst, and if you're in Northampton, check out the Don Muller Gallery.
posted by mistikle at 1:52 PM on June 9, 2011

In NoHo:
Feeding Tube Records
Newbury Comics (on Pleasant St, not Crafts Ave)
Turn It Up!

In Amherst:
Mystery Train Records

Downtown Amherst doesn't have a great selection of funky stores to browse, but Northampton does. I'll give a second shout out to Food for Thought Books, though, in Amherst.

If you make it to the Bookmill in Montague, you could spend a whole day browsing -- it's an INCREDIBLE used book store - and then read your new treasures while drinking a beer overlooking the waterfall. AND you can hit the Turn It Up there, too.
posted by missmary6 at 2:08 PM on June 9, 2011