Lusting for a simpler time, when record store browsing didn't involve all those bothersome subgenres muddying the racks? Wondering what tongue-twisting, avant-garde classifications like electroacoustic improvisation have to do with music? If you're merely aching for a catchy guitar riff and some big-name melody makers, Rock Records is sympathetic to your case.
This Loop fixture is kind of like The Gap of record stores; comfortable and practical for some, horrifyingly khaki-esque for others. Approaching Rock Records, you'll easily spot the trademark lightning bolt, a psychedelic hangover from the store's heyday in the early '70s. Step inside for a heady experience: the primary colored, comic book-bold interior looks a little like a kindergarten classroom, with cartooney cut-outs, glittering CDs and other kitsch dangling from the ceiling. A jangling strain of blues-rock, a la Allman Brothers Band and Bad Company, provides a temporary soundtrack for transient customers, as the clientele tends to beeline for one of the cleanly divided genre partitions with a specific CD already in mind.
If there's one thing Rock Records isn't trying to be, it's hip. At its (very) basic level, the shop gives area professionals a fun environment to duck into on lunch breaks, and it's a convenient stop for students who don't want to bother with the indie pretension at other record stores. Aspiring music snobs must subsist on the occasional Mastodon or Nick Cave purchase, so know that Rock Records' perception of obscure may prove somewhat baffling (during this writer's visit, the manager boasted that the store, from time to time, carries picks from a little band called…Wilco). But it does stock a decent soul section thrown in for good measure, various DVDs and karaoke CDs and, the universally appreciated, sale section (ranging from $2.99).
After overcoming some major obstacles to keep its location on Washington, including a false-alarm liquidation sale, Rock Records has a tight pocket of loyalists who are happy to see the classic standby stick around, even if it refuses to grow up.
Rock Records does not take special orders.
Centerstage Reviewer: Libby Ramer
