In 1995, The Washington Post ran an article called “The Unsound of Music” about the glut of record and tape stores in the area. At the time, chains like HMV, Borders, Blockbuster Music and others has just opened stores in the Washington area. Kevin Ferreter, then regional manager of Tower Records, told the Post, “The pie is just way too thin. … There’s just not enough room for all these retailers.”
Twenty years later, all of the chains stores are gone, but this is a good time for record stores in the District. News that a record store is opening in Georgetown next month has been met with a combination of surprise, good wishes and skepticism. Despite reports that vinyl sales actually increased in 2013, you may ask, why Georgetown? Twenty and thirty years ago, the area was lined with record stores. As of today, the only place in Georgetown that sells vinyl is Urban Outfitters. But on February 7, that will change when Rob Norton’s Hill and Dale officially opens. In the meantime, let me tell you about what record shopping used to be like in Georgetown.
Smash! Records, 3285 1/2 M Street NW (1984-2006): This punk rock outpost moved to 18th Street in Adams Morgan and was one of the last record stores standing in Georgetown. The space is now home to a tattoo parlor.
Kemp Mill Records, 1260 1254 Wisconsin Avenue NW and 3061 M Street NW: The local chain once had more than thirty shops open in the metropolitan area, including two in Georgetown. The M Street branch was a great source for used vinyl in the ’80s, often bringing in dollar stock from the Princeton Record Exchange, one of the great American record stores. I remember seeing mono copies of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band at the M Street Kemp Mill for $4.99, which seemed expensive at the time. Those mono issues now go for three figures. The M Street Kemp Mill is now a Kate Spade location. The Wisconsin Avenue address corresponds to Martin’s Restaurant, but the record store was next door where the Gap now stands location is now a women’s clothing shop. Staff at the only remaining Kemp Mill Record store branch in Temple Hills, Md. estimate that the Wisconsin Avenue store closed in the late 1990s and that the M Street store closed in the mid-1980s.
HMV 1229 Wisconsin Avenue NW (1994-1999?): The Georgetown location of this national chain gave Tower Records a run for their money in the 1990s with a good selection of imports at the height of the CD era. But it didn’t last very long. The shop closed around 1999, and is now home to an Apple store.
Orpheus/Penguin Feather, 3225 M Street NW: The original Orpheus records opened around 1970. A Washington Post article from that year named the store as a good source for bootlegs. Penguin Feather records opened up in the space after Orpheus closed. In 1989, six Penguin Feather stores, including the Georgetown location, were raided by customs agents in a crackdown on drug paraphernalia, which led to an indictment of company executives in 1990 and the demise of the chain. The spot is now the location of True Religion Brand Jeans.
Record and Tape Exchange/Orpheus, 3249 M Street (1977-1999): The Record and Tape Exchange’s original Georgetown shop was a narrow, crowded space where I remember seeing a beat-up Chocolate Watch Band album with the cover half destroyed for what at the time seemed an astronomical $18. I bought Abba’s Waterloo there for $1.99. The store expanded into the head shop next door and took the Orpheus name after the latter shop closed its doors. Orpheus relocated to Arlington in 1999 before finally closing its doors in 2008. The building, in an inadvertent nod to its one-time head shop neighbors, currently houses a tobacco shop.
Record and Tape Ltd., 1239 Wisconsin Avenue NW. (?-2002): In 1958, John Olsson got a job at the Dupont Circle shop then known as Bialek’s Discount Records. Olsson moved up to manager and eventually opened up his own store Records and Tapes Ltd., which turned into a chain that bore his name (Olsson’s Books and Records). Record and Tape Ltd. is where I bought first pressings of the early Dischord EPs, which sold for $1.99 and which I currently have locked up in a safe deposit box. The Georgetown branch opened around 1976 and closed in 2002. The building is currently home to a women’s clothing store.
The Wiz, 1365 Wisconsin Avenue NW: In the 1990s, this building was painted in bold turquoise and yellow, which you can see here. The chain closed in 2003, but I don’t know how long the Georgetown shop lasted. It most recently housed a BB&T branch, but it’s now vacant.
The future:
Hill and Dale, 1054 31st Street NW (2014-): Next month, this space will become Washington’s first shop specializing in new vinyl in I don’t know how long. Rob Norton has filled the shop with some 2000 LPs, and in an ecumenical touch, he is dispensing with genre divisions, sorting all the shop’s records in one alphabetically ordered category: music. The shop will carry a good selection of specialty vinyl labels like Awesome Tapes from Africa, Mississippi Records and Numero Group, and will also exhibit photography and artwork.
Not pictured:
Music Now, 3209 M Street, NW: I never shopped there, but the store specialized in electronica vinyl in the 1990s, and was bought out by Deep Dish label Yoshitoshi, who operated it until 2003.
CD Warehouse, M Street: I really miss the concept of the neighborhood record store. For years, CD Warehouse at 30th and M streets NW was mine, and not just because I lived a block away for a time. The small shop always seemed to have the best new stuff plus lots of good used CDs, free posters and swag, and friendly staff who remembered you and would suggest albums based on what you bought — an analog Amazon, maybe. They had a loyalty program where you got a free CD after buying a few, and to make its loss even more depressing, the space is now another froyo spot. — Andrew Wiseman
Record World, Georgetown Park.
