For the Record

By
July 2024 View more

Browse for new and used vinyl at these three shops

Mudroom Records

Mudroom Records

494 N. Main St., Glen Ellyn

Julie Hughes grew up scouring indie record shops to build her own vinyl collection—“I am a child of 1970s AM radio,” she says—but it was actually her two teen sons who inspired her to open her own business on Main Street in downtown Glen Ellyn. First, her older son asked for her help starting his own vinyl collection. “We got him a turntable and speakers and every single Green Day album ever made,” she says. “I had forgot how fun it was to open a gatefold album and read about the band and read the lyrics. It’s a whole process that you don’t get with CDs and you don’t get with streaming, that’s for sure.” Then, her younger son had a dream that she owned a record store. “I thought: This is a sign that the kids are grown, and all right, let’s do something new.” The store celebrated its first anniversary last month and carries a curated selection of rock and hip-hop records, both new and used, plus posters, stickers, books, and a killer selection of thrifted concert tees.
Good to Know: Check out framed concert photos from fellow Glen Ellyn resident Jennifer Rosiere of Lyla Lane Live Photography, which range from Lollapalooza crowd scenes to moments captured from Billie Eilish, Megan Thee Stallion, and Foo Fighters shows.

 

Purple Dog Records

Purple Dog Records

231 S. Washington St., Naperville

It takes a little effort to find this downtown Naperville storefront—enter through the alley between Standard Goods and Poppy—but it’s worth the extra steps. Erin Gavin first opened the business in 2014 with her late father, Joel Sicker, near the Naperville Metra station. When that building was sold in 2020, the shop relocated to its current location in Sound Summit’s former performance space. It’s due to celebrate its 10th anniversary this summer. “Most of our stock is vintage that comes from people selling their old record collections,” says Colin Sicker, Gavin’s brother and the store manager. “We have a lot of the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, soul and funk stuff like Aretha Franklin, and jazz—Miles Davis and John Coltrane—all the way to ’80s albums, Def Leppard and Bon Jovi, and new wave, like Talking Heads and Blondie.”
Good to know: “We do work with a distributor, so if someone comes in looking for a specific record that we don’t have, I can see about ordering it, and we can usually get it within a week,” Sicker says.

 

Superjumbo Records

Superjumbo Records

102 E. Galena Blvd., Aurora

Mike Mancuso says he’s on a personal mission to make downtown Aurora a little cooler, and he’s doing it one storefront at a time. Co-owner of artsy screenprinting company the Yetee, Mancuso has hosted pop-up art galleries around downtown over the years, operates Yetee Station arcade nearby (11 N. Broadway), and opened Superjumbo in 2021. Along with used records—Mancuso’s personal collection seeded the original inventory—the shop also sold vintage action figures and collectibles. “I’ve been going to record stores my entire life and I’ve always wanted to have a record store,” he says. Today, the store sells mostly new records from hip-hop, punk, and indie artists. “We carry a lot of video game soundtracks and anime soundtracks, and we are trying to grow our K-pop selection,” he says. Though records are the main event, the shop still sells some nostalgic goodies worthy of an impulse buy. “We have Godzilla figures, vinyl toys—little things that if you grew up in the ’90s, you would appreciate—to keep on your desk or to hang up in your office,” Mancuso says.
Good to know: When customers fill up a punch card, they can redeem it for a free arcade pass for Yetee Station.

 

Photos: Mudroom Records; Purple Dog Records; Superjumbo Records