Cratedigging in Copenhagen, Denmark, at Second Beat Records

Copenhagen's Second Beat Records Store Front

Related to Elements: Crate Digging, DJ

Denmark native and fellow crate digger Jesper was kind enough to provide a nice, short and sweet guest blogger's Record Store Review for one of his preferred local record sellers.   Besides being a well-versed jazz head and knowledgeable record collector, he's also producer of the original diggin' documentary Beat Diggin' available at crateescaperecords.com 


Jesper writes:

One of my favorite local used record shops.  They carry pretty much all genres of modern rhythmic music from Hip Hop, soul, funk, jazz and rock, to afro, reggae, electronic, punk and world music.  Sometimes you can even find some avant garde or classical.  It’s a pretty small space, but there are usually new records in several times every week, and the prices are fair.  Sometimes they price a lot of stuff down to move stock faster and make room for more.  And when they get bigger collections in, you can usually get a nice discount, if you buy a bunch.  There’s usually also a bunch of bargain bins on the floor with the occasional odd gem.  A great thing for hiphop heads is that they don’t seem to take hiphop very serious, so it’s often priced pretty cheap (yay!)

The Jazz section holds vintage, jazz funk and avantgarde

 

I highly recommend this shop for any digger or collector visiting Copenhagen.  The only setback is that there’s no listening station, but they will usually play you a couple of tracks on the turntable, if you ask nicely.  As a service to customers they have started posting about new arrivals on their Facebook group.

Psych, prog and punk is found in the Rock section

They also sell used books (mainly music, art and philosophy), collectable comics and vintage toys.  And when you’re in the area, you can take a stroll though the nearby Assistens cemetery, where a number of jazz greats like Dexter Gordon, Ben Webster and Kenny Drew have found their eternal resting place. 

Jazz and more Jazz!

10 of my best recent pick-ups: 

Siah & Yeshua Da Poed: Visualz EP, NM – 4 Euros

Main Source: Peace is not the word to play PC 12”, NM – 10 Euros

Tribe: Check the rhime 12”, NM – 1,5 Euros

Ice-T: Ya don’t quit 12”, NM – 2,5 Euros

Funkdoobiest:  Brothas Doobie LP, NM, stickered sleeve – 4 Euros

Kam: Neva again LP, German press PC, NM – 4 Euros

Gary Bartz NTU Troop’s Harlem Bush Music: Uhuru LP, VG++ – 6 Euros

Leon Thomas: Spirits known and unknown LP, VG++ – 6 Euros

Roy Ayers: Virgo vibes LP, VG++ – 6 Euros

Jorge Ben: A tabua de Esmeralda LP, VG+ – 7 Euros

Buses: 18, 6A, 5A, 350A. 

Address: 

Second Beat

Jagtvej 129, Nørrebro

Copenhagen, Denmark

 

Website: www.secondbeat.dk

Thanks for the informative review Jesper!  

Guest record store reviewers always are welcome if they are members of the Cratedigging Cooperative, contact me via private message at the forum if interested in contributing.  If not interested, but you love the hunt for good music, please join us!

Black Friday Crate Digging At Moondog Music, Dubuque IA

Moondog Music, looks like your typical small-town, strip-mall record store

Related to Elements: Crate Digging, DJ

Black Friday (historically) conjured up so many bad mental images before the advent of Record Store Day.  Now, I consider Black Friday a must dig day for crate diggers worldwide.  Why?  Well because like RSD, RSD Black Friday releases very limited, high-quality audiophile pressings for music lovers who love records.  If you don't get it on Black Friday, you might not get it at all.  This year there were many 2012 RSD Black Friday records I had to get my paws on.  These are records worth battling shoulder to shoulder against other diggers for.  No matter how early I had to get up and no matter how far I had to drive, I was gonna land this record.

Fat Boys - Fat Boys LP ( Pizza Box Picture Disc)

The "Cover" is an actual Pizza box

The record looks good enough to eat...

Sure, you might say this record is a bit gimmicky, but I'm a sucker for these kind of over-the-top, extra effort fat pressings.  Besides that, they remastered one of the first Hip Hop albums I had as a kid, and I needed to get that throwback vibe.  They did a spectacular job of remastering this, it sounds as good as it looks!

So after I claimed the second to the last pizza box, and had the guys behind the counter stash it for me, I took time to dig the everyday stacks. 

Brainchild digging unobstructed through the new vinyl section on Black Friday at Moondog Music.

In a nutshell, Moondog music is a small, quaint, average-looking, hippy-smelling record store.  Well, I'm being nice, it's tiny.  They had mostly brand new records, and they were fairly over priced in general, so I wasn't overly surprised at how dead it was on what should be one of the biggest shopping days of the year.  They had almost no good used Hip Hop, a weak soundtrack section, and new and used CDs dominated the space in the store so I knew it'd be a short dig.  

At 200 dollars, this was a hefty price for Flaming Lip's Heady Nuggs.

Most of the used wax at Moondog Music was what you might expect to come out of Dubuque IA, mostly common classic rock, a bit of country, and predictable soundtracks that every Tom, Dick, and Harry had in the 70s and 80s.  Their 45 section was so small that it was literally stored right on the front checkout counter, filled with mostly new rock and punk.  The staff was very down to earth, helpful and friendly as you would expect in such a small town atmosphere.   In reality, they are probably perfectly sized for the limited number of crate diggers in that area, but diggers who are more experienced with larger metropolis record stores might walk away empty handed due to an underwhelming stock of "special" records.

Regardless, they came through for me and stocked the RSD Black Friday records on my hit list, so I can't complain too much.  Although it may take a while before this pizza box loses the patchouli smell that sticks to everything coming out of that store.  Still, they are seemingly good people at Moondog, and worth checking out if you are in the Dubuque area.