Defend Your Taste Chicago's record-store clerks

Welcome to Defend Your Taste, wherein Chicago's cultural curators go to bat for the art they love. In preparation for the second annual Record Store Day on April 18, The A.V. Club grabbed coffee with the “voracious nerds” of Reckless Records, Dave’s Records, and Laurie’s Planet Of Sound to talk about the records they want off their shelves, Journey, and why snobby record store clerks are a thing of the past.

The A.V. Club: What are the records you never want to sell again?

Dave Crain, owner of Dave’s Records: I don’t mind selling anything. There are things that people try and sell back all the time, but I’m happy to sell someone John Denver’s Greatest Hits if that’s what they want. In terms of things that come through too often: [Barbara] Streisand records of every way, shape, and form. Men At Work, Business As Usual, comes through all the time. Culture Club comes through all the time. And it’s not that I’m against any of those or wouldn’t sell any of those, but people sell them back all the time.

Sam Ross, clerk at Laurie’s Planet Of Sound: Journey LPs surprisingly are quite hot right now.

Matt Jencik, buyer for Reckless Records: We sell a lot of Journey records.

SR: Yeah, it’s shocking.

DC: It used to be something that you wouldn’t buy anymore because you had too many, but there are things that have a wave of coming back all of a sudden—like Journey.

MJ: It’s not that things annoy me, because clearly anyone coming into a record store at this point and spending money is awesome. We’re psyched about it. The days of snobby record store employees looking down their noses at people for buying stuff are definitely over because why would you want anyone to leave your store empty-handed at this point?

SR: I’m happy selling Bob Seeger and Steely Dan. I have no problems.

AVC: Is Record Store Day a way of getting people into the store when sales are low?

SR: Last year was the first one. We had no idea what to expect.

MJ: I don’t think anybody did.

SR: It was crazy. It was definitely, sales-wise, our biggest day. Labels were sending us pizza. People were dropping off beer for us. This year they’re just marketing it so differently, whereas last year we had this tiny little box of things that were exclusive for Record Store Day. This year the list is just huge.

DC: I had so many people who were just in a good mood because they’re like, “Hey, it’s Record Store Day.” It’s to celebrate something that is such a wonderful institution for a lot of people.

AVC: What Record Store Day-exclusive releases are you excited about?

DC: The Tom Waits single that’s coming out. I’m a big Tom Waits fan, and anything off of Orphans is fine.

SR: Magnolia Electric Company is doing a 7-inch of all new stuff that hasn’t been available in any other format, and he hasn’t really done any singles for a while, so I’m excited for that. Big fan.

MJ: It’s a Neil Young bootleg record. It’s one of the most amazing solo performances. He’s by far my favorite artist. I pretty much buy anything that he puts out, and that specifically is a really exciting record for me.

AVC: If a new shopper were to walk into a record store for the first time on Record Store Day, what would you want them to know?

DC: The alphabet. No, I didn’t say that. It’s just, you know, something I do on a regular basis. Elton John, under J.

SR: You do need a turntable to listen to that.

MJ: Have the willingness to browse, to look through everything. Ask to listen to something you’re interested in.

DC: Yeah, spend some time.

SR: They just don’t look cool on your wall. You can listen to those as well.

MJ: Yeah, that’s the whole point. You’re supposed to learn. Don’t be afraid to ask questions.

DC: Don’t be afraid of records—they’re not going to bite. Unless they’re really good, and then they really are.

SR: And we’re not going to make fun of what you’re bringing up to the counter.

MJ: Yeah, because chances are we like way worse music than you could possibly like.

SR: Exactly.

For more Record Store Day fun, here's our surprisingly specific Record Store Day goodie guide.