Toronto Weird Boys

TCell said:
Fun Kops Fact from someone who’s never been in their physical store, but orders from them occasionally:

Their webstore is based off of their Queen St inventory, but their Discogs is based off their Danforth Ave inventory. And if you call they’ll transfer from Danforth to Queen St. to avoid discogs.
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Good info on the inventory difference, thank you!
 
TCell said:
Fun Kops Fact from someone who’s never been in their physical store, but orders from them occasionally:

Their webstore is based off of their Queen St inventory, but their Discogs is based off their Danforth Ave inventory. And if you call they’ll transfer from Danforth to Queen St. to avoid discogs.
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Yeah, this is great.
I also have a discount code for their discogs store I think. Any good?
 
Hey so it looks like I'll be taking the go train into Toronto on Monday for a day trip with my daughter. Will probably take her up the CN tower but after that our day is pretty loose. Planning to make our way up to Queen then Spadina, hit a few record stores and whatever my daughter fancies and maybe have something asian for lunch in Chinatown.

Anyway, thought I'd hit you guys up if to see if you have any pointers, local tips, etc (record shopping wise or otherwise). We'll probably stick to the area within walking distance of Union.
 
Not sure how excited Little Turbo will be with hanging out in record stores, but Sonic Boom on Spadina at Queen has lots of other stuff for her to look at while you dig through over priced vinyl. Plus it is close to Kensington Market and Chinatown west. About a 30 min walk from Union and you could take the street car back to Union at the end of the day.
 
Kops on Queen is about a five minute walk from Sonic, and you've also got Cosmos Records East, and Cosmos Records West that are both within walking distance on Queen Street West of Spadina. Cosmos East is mostly used stuff but can be very good and Cosmos West is all Japanese Pressings of jazz along with some rock and other stuff. That one can be very pricey due to the rarity of some of the stuff he gets. And Jason Momoa frequents that store so if he's in town you may run into him there...
 
Thanks guys - I did see Kops & Sonic there on the map, so that was part of the idea behind walking to queen and Spadina. Will put a pin on Cosmos as well - did not know of that one. Also didn't know about Kensington... adding that to the things to do as well. We're complete noobs when it comes to Toronto. My daughter is pretty amenable when it comes to record stores, especially if they have toys and such as well.

I just realized Monday is a holiday, so I probably should go tomorrow or tuesday, right?

You guys don't happen to be around, are you? I'm suspecting you're working and all (plus @jamieanderson1968 is probably as far out of town as I am right now - I'm on the outskirts of Hamilton at my in-laws). Anyway, just throwing that out there if you want to meet up, shake hands, have coffee and/or hit the record stores.
 
Yeah, decided we're going in tomorrow (Sunday) instead of Monday. Looks like everything has good business hours on Sunday so we should be good. Train schedule is fine too.
 
I'm working so I won't be able to meet up but I hope you guys have a great time. Keep in mind that it's Caribana this weekend in town so it will be BUSY in certain areas. But if you're traveling by train and walking the downtown you should be fine. Driving will be a nightmare...
 
Sadly I am not close enough to pop in. For the Go it is about 2hrs each way for me with driving down to Oshawa. Have fun.

Kensington is fun. If you have time, check out Good Egg. It is a cookbook store with tons of books and a little bit of vinyl. Neat place to poke around. We hit it every time since my wife is a former chef. Also Blackbird bakery is great for a pastry fix.
 
jamieanderson1968 said:
Sadly I am not close enough to pop in. For the Go it is about 2hrs each way for me with driving down to Oshawa. Have fun.

Kensington is fun. If you have time, check out Good Egg. It is a cookbook store with tons of books and a little bit of vinyl. Neat place to poke around. We hit it every time since my wife is a former chef. Also Blackbird bakery is great for a pastry fix.
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Oh you're definitely farther out than I am currently. I'm just an hour out with the train station about 20 minutes away. My wife and father in law are dropping us off in the morning so we get in Toronto around 10am.

Thanks for the bonus tips... these are all things I enjoy so I will check it out. Daughter may need a pastry fix as well, so this is great.

Tickets are purchased so it's happening.
 
Turbo said:
Eating lunch at Isshin Ramen on Queen right now. Day is pleasant so far… hitting the record stores and market after.
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Nice, Kops will have the best prices, followed by Cosmos East, then Sonic then Cosmos West which is VERY EXPENSIVE. But that's mainly because it's all vintage Japanese stuff.
 
Turbo said:
Thanks guys - I did see Kops & Sonic there on the map, so that was part of the idea behind walking to queen and Spadina. Will put a pin on Cosmos as well - did not know of that one. Also didn't know about Kensington... adding that to the things to do as well. We're complete noobs when it comes to Toronto. My daughter is pretty amenable when it comes to record stores, especially if they have toys and such as well.

I just realized Monday is a holiday, so I probably should go tomorrow or tuesday, right?

You guys don't happen to be around, are you? I'm suspecting you're working and all (plus @jamieanderson1968 is probably as far out of town as I am right now - I'm on the outskirts of Hamilton at my in-laws). Anyway, just throwing that out there if you want to meet up, shake hands, have coffee and/or hit the record stores.
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Unfortunately I'm out of town till tomorrow, but have a great visit!
 
So we finished off by picking up a few Shumai's and a Bahn-mi for the train ride home. Ended-up getting Little Feat, Maggie Rogers and Otis Rush LPs, almost got an OG REM document but a hairline scribble scratch I saw in the last track scared me off. All and all a fun but exhausting day to spend with my daughter. Going to sleep well tonight. Thanks for all your input guys!
 
If anyone happens to be browsing record stores and sees Basement Jaxx's "Rooty" ping me.
Dead Dog was SUPPOSED to get it like 2-3 weeks ago and I put myself on the waitlist but it seems like it just doesn't exist.

It's also not at Rotate This, Kops or Sonic Boom. I DID see a greatest hits album come in I'd like to say at Kops but I'd prefer the full album.
 
jamieanderson1968 said:
A few thoughts on Canadian Discogs sellers.

Just did a Discogs order from Audiopile in Vancouver. A favourite bricks and mortar store of mine. I have been trying to spread my orders out across a few Canadian stores to try them out. Everything has been new store stock. I have also ordered directly from a few stores but have been finding it easier to just order through Discogs lately.

So far I have ordered since Dec 2020 from:
  • Redcat (Vancouver)
  • Barnacle (Kamloops BC, my teenage hometown)
  • Audiopile (Vancouver - order in process)
  • Kops (Toronto)
  • Tonality (Toronto)
  • Frequences Disquaire (Montreal?)
  • Shortstack (Toronto)
I found Redcat and Barnacle to be the slowest (but greater distance) but I blame that on ChitChat I think. Took almost a week to get processed locally before handed off to Canada Post.

For Ontario and Quebec, all the Toronto shops and Frequences were both really fast, which makes sense. I think all the orders were less than a week to get to me. All sellers have done a great job in packaging.

Redcat, Barnacle, Kops and Tonality all charged sales tax separately. Audiopile (prices in USD), Frequences and Shortstack did not charge sales tax. Not sure if they build it into their prices or what, but something to keep in mind

Shortstack seems weird as they only list a small amount of titles. Never been in the real store before. I ordered a couple of titles before Xmas that were new but super cheap, so not sure what is going on there. But there were no problems with the order.
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Not Toronto related, but I've been dealing with Audiopile a fair bit lately and remembered them coming up in conversation here so wanted to revisit and sing their praises some more - I no longer deal with them through Discogs but through their website as they pointed out with my last Discogs order that it will save me some money as the prices are in CAD and there are new Discogs fees factored in. Firstly, good of them to point that out (Although any used stuff on Discogs isn't on their website.) I've also been doing larger orders with them in order to achieve free shipping ($150 in BC or $200 rest of Canada) and have had great experiences thus far in terms of packaging, quick shipping and solid communication. They also allow you to build toward an order if you just want to buy something before it sells out they'll toss it on a shelf until you reach the free shipping threshold, which is a nice way to spread the cost a bit at times.

My most recent order from them ran into some Canada Post fuckery and got sent back, but that's actually worked in my favour as I'd already picked something else up to build toward my next free shipping and they've just offered to toss it in with the shipment they're about to re-send my way. I appreciate these guys more and more every time I deal with them - and they focus on a lot of sounds that aren't the main thing at my local, which is nice.

Their weekly New Release newsletter has also quickly become my absolute favourite mailing list email to receive every Friday - it's an excellent read and has hipped me to some really cool stuff I might have otherwise missed.

Anyway, not that any of us need any more places or excuses to spend our money - but I also feel like the good ones should get further recognized for their work!

As you were.
 
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