Vinyl Shopping

In my relentless quest to find music in Montreal, I’ve visited a ton of record stores of various kind. Mont Royal East has a series of used ones, and some of them are pretty decent, so here’s a quick review:

Le Pick Up

262 AVENUE DU MONT-ROYAL EST - (514) 849-9484

This place is pretty chill. They have THOUSANDS of 45’s stuck away under all the racks, but they are in no particular order. I’m sure there are a few gems in there. A pretty decent organization system, and a solid jazz collection. Very relaxed atmosphere, and they’ll let you test out anything you want before you buy it.

Paul’s Boutique

112 Mont-Royal E. (514) 284-7773

This place is less chill. Definitely a more intense approach to music. A large selection, but is pretty poorly organized. Loosely grouped by genre, and supposedly by artist, the system breaks down repeatedly. Prices aren’t spectacular either. A good punk selection, a lot of rock and that kind of thing.

Marche du Disc

793, Mont-Royal Est - (514) 526-3575

Some really good finds, and WICKED prices. I was able to nab License to Ill by the Beastie Boys for $2. The first floor has a bunch of Cd’s, and some decent vinyl. The basement is FULL of vinyl, but is pretty poor quality. Not stuff most people are that interested in (A lot of Julio Iglesias and Engelbert Humperdink)

Pop Shop

4081 ST LAURENT - (514) 848-6300

This place has an amazing organizational system. Everything is broken down into genre, and sub-genre in a way that blows my mind. Selection is kinda poor, but some good hip-hop records were slipped in there.

Zeke’s Gallery

3955 Saint Laurent - (514) 288-2233

Possibly THE coolest place. You walk down St. Laurent, and all of a sudden there are just some records stuck to the wall outside with a tiny, handwritten sign saying “Vinyl for Sale.” As you walk in, there’s this HUGE comic strip running on some snow fence that’s strung up all over the place. Zeke, this guy, has created this huge perfomance space on a busy downtown street. Inside, he’s got a few boxes of vinyl (he’s just selling off his personal collection slowly), but the entire place is covered in art and there are piles of ‘zines and other books people have made. The records are good, and extremely cheap. I got the Temptations Anthology for $6, a three-LP set! According to Zeke, it’s just a way for people to get stuff seen, and it’s only vaguely “shop-like”. They host poetry readings, film screenings and all kinds of other stuff. Check out http://zekesgallery.blogspot.com
Check out the pics here