Big hits at Small Mall record shop in South Elgin

Friend, informant and popcorn aficionado Katie Anderson informed me the Small Mall on Route 31 in South Elgin, across from the Foxtrail Restaurant, had a sign in the window that read something like, "Vintage LPs, $3 each."

Curious, I went in and checked it out last week. Their selection was surprisingly large. They had mostly classic rock, pop and new wave records.

After tracking down the Cheap Trick stock to see if there were any LPs I didn't have, more records at the opposite end of the store caught my eye. There were the 7-inches, hundreds of them, unsorted and most without sleeves. There was a lot of polka on red vinyl and old music I never heard before on blue vinyl.


What else? After the jump.

I decided it would take too long to look through every one of them, so I looked around the rest of the place, which proved to be interesting. For example: a motorcycle in the front window the owner claimed is not for sale but is a project he is working on. There was an old car in the store, as well.

After having my fill of tumbling antique kitchenware around in my hands, I went back to the music section and scoured their $1 crates.

"Yes!" I thought to myself. "This place has dollar bins too!"

The $1 crate had some decent LPs in it by artists like Blind Faith. I wasn't in a money-spending mood, so I resisted the temptation to fill out my "staple hit albums" collection. But it was there. I noticed they also had a decent selection of cassettes and 8-tracks. I noticed albums like Depeche Mode's "Violator" on cassette and other goth/rock/new wave artists filling up a tall wood stand.

I purposefully didn't finger through all their LPs to force myself to return to the Small Mall in South Elgin the next time I am bored or get the kick to round out my "staple hits" LP collection.


Listen to local music and connect with your hometown newspaper on MySpace at myspace.com/couriernews.


-- Jason Duarte, Music Blogger

Link: http://blogs.suburbanchicagonews.com/cn_bylines/2010/09/by_jason_duarte_friend_informant.html