spinnin´around and around.. favourite record shops pt.3

Imagine making a cheesy independent french movie. You would have the soft yellowish light, dusty charming houses and green metal gates, girls in Doc Martens and flower dresses. Imagine the action would take place in a french record store. What would it look like? Of course you would find it dans un joli cul de sac avec déchets et poussière. Total Heaven records is hidden in one of this nice little streets quite close to Bordeauxs` university.
Who would run such a shop in the middle of southern France? Of course a bad ass charming frenchman wearing hawaiian shirts and showing his chesthair, wearing glasses and speaking some nice fantasy English with french accent. What a weird turnon!
This place can´t be named. It´s a mix of art/poster shop, record store and basement. The mix is an intimmidating proof of great taste. Indie, Sixties, Mowtown, D-d-dooooom, Dancehall, Dub, African Tunes... these people made a polaroid of my brain and translated it into music. It´s structured rather perfectly and clear, no useless roaming around. You will also find beautiful zines and diy art and photo books that just match the vibe. Maybe you would also like to walk with a silkscreen print of a masturbating Osama Bin Laden... or what about a bike or canned tuna? Well, their mix is special but perfect. The store smells like summer and eternal vacation.
I walked home with some nice Codein Bootlegs, Dorothy Ashby, King Tubby tunes and some zines from 92, when I was 8 years old and did not even think southern France does exist.
Should get back there sometime soon.... Close to it there´s a nice fleamarket where countless people from Algeria or Marocco sell awesome african vinyl.

spinnin´ around and around... favourite record shops pt.2

Some might say that Amsterdam is the nicest place on earth. Well, to be honest the name "Old Amsterdam" is pretty matching. It´s charming in its old slow and modest way. For a capital city its pace is incredibly slow and the atmosphere calm and chilled. To be honest: after some time it s rather unexiting. Anyway it happens to be the home of one of my favourite record shops. Distortion records is located on the Westerstraat pretty close to one of Amsterdams countless canals. The store follows a very own messy conception and unusual untidy design, a mystery to everyone besides the charming owner and shopcrew. The genre classification is rather individual and changes every once in a while. You might find your favourite record either in one of the unpacked boxes, or thrown down carelessly on the ground. Either way: they have EVERYTHING! the challange is just to find it. How they keep track of whats  where will always remain a riddle to me but I figured out that asking helps a lot and they will immediately get you what you are looking for + provide great new artists that also might float your boat. I just love browsing around there and catch some Vinyl from Kranky Records, Sahel Sound or a nice  Slint bootleg. Bring time and a clear mindset otherwise it migth just throw you off track and confuse you. 
Guess you just gotta love it.... I visit them on a daily base as they are a ten minute walk from my home on the Elisabeth Wolffstraat. The walk there is quite meditative and always a good approach to dampen my daily hate. You probaly won t leave empty handed. 

spinnin´ around and around... favourite record shops

Wherever you may roam a record shop is alwys a good spot to catch a feeling of home and comfort. As they are usually an extension of their owners, they vary in style, interior and genres sold.
Unlike most people I will always prefer a tiny shop with a good selection to Amoeba records (feeling lost and overwhelmed is not my prefered way of shopping records).
Luckily I happened to stumble over some of this shops, that would always offer a good time and great tunes.

Big Tiger Records (Bangkok)
What are you gonna do with a great taste in music and a very limited budget? Exactly: open up a two times three meter big record store in one of the worlds biggest cities. Located in the crazy JJ market in Bangkok Big Tiger Records offers a great selection of Molam, Funk and Worldmusic, that would provide samples for at least 50 years of Wu Tang and MF Doom tracks.
All Thai press so it s always a great suprise. Run by two boys from Bangkok and Hamburg the mix is just insane. They know what they are selling and will definetly keep cool stuff for themselves but  tell you whereelse to get it or play it countless times to make you jelouse. Jan loves to dj for hours ignoring your buying attempts. He wrote a book about traditional thai music. Free beers and fruit, great dancing, good people, portable record players from Japan. This little gem is only open on saturdays, so come early and bring some time to browse the countles boxes in this diy built cabin.

Skin is my second favourite surface

Skin is my second favourite surface. The favourite one is water....

Anyway: Thanks for spending the night.