Off the Record on University

Off the Record is a used records/CD store on University near the North Park sign. Turns out that the Hillcrest location closed years ago. This is the only Off the Record now.

Painted green box right next to Off the Record.

I wasn't looking to get anything; it was more of a look-see...

The guy in the corner was sorting cd's; he was the sole employee there. Whatever music he was playing was pretty cool. I should have asked him what it was. I remember asking an employee at the old Off the Record on El Cajon what was on and it turned out to be the Rutles, a British parody band of the Beatles (check out their mockumentary, "All You Need is Cash"! It's classic! Plus it has Eric Idle playing the Paul McCartney character). This was pre-internet (probably 1992 or 1993) and I had to special order the damn cd for $13.99 and pick it up at the Hillcrest location. I'll never forget that day because it was raining and I got a fkg parking ticket while parked in front of David's Place (a coffee shop that used to be next to the Brass Rail gay bar).

I didn't take too many shots in here but I had to take one of this wall of old soul/R'n'B records.

So it was just a look see kinda visit. This place is smaller than the Hillcrest Off the Record. They also had lots of LP's there. No cassettes, ha ha. The cd's ranged in prince from $4.99 (used) to $16.99 (new). still I like M-Theory in Mission Hills since they had that 2 for 1 deal going last Fall.

View of the store as we were leaving (we parked two blocks away and headed up 29th):

A free Record Collectors newspaper I picked up while at Off the Record featuring Stones guitarist Keef Richards. It's a wonder he's still alive after all these years. Now he's just known to the youngsters as Captain Jack Sparrow's father in the 3rd installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.\

[Update 2/24: I finally had a chance to leaf through this magazine and it's pretty cool. I didn't realize there were tons of record stores in LA! The Bay Area also has some good ones like Amoeba and Rasputin. Sadly, the only ones mentioned in San Diego were Record Heaven and Lou's with nary a mention for Off the Record or M-Theory. The article on Keith Richards was pretty good too. I could tell the mag was definitely for audiophiles and record lovers. In the late 80's, I bought a pin from Rhino Records with a design on it for "Save the LP". Vinyl seems to be making a comeback too and not just for Dj's.]

All the record stores I used to go to are gone: Licorice Pizza (I'm showing my age here), Blue Meannie (in El Cajon), Tower Records in the College Area (and later in La Jolla)...Sigh.

Song currently playing as I post this:
"Drive My Car" by the Beatles from the album "Rubber Soul".
Actually the whole album has been playing. I had to endure the Bieber earlier (TC's choice), then I got to put on "Hard Day's Night" which segued into "Rubber Soul". Seems like the Biebster is unable to sing without the help of Autotune. Unfortunate. A lot of these singers use Autotune and they all sound the same, robotic and boring. Whatever happened to real singing and actual musicanship? Sigh.

Okay, song playing as I sign off from this post:
"Norwegian Wood" - The first Beatles song that featured the sitar (played by George Harrison/taught by Ravi Shankar/father of Norah Jones), it was also a lilting ballad about Lennon's extramarital infidelities.