Courtesy of the author / Sheetz forever

Sometimes I go on spur of the moment adventures. This Saturday morning I woke up early on my own accord and decided I was going to Frederick to go antique shopping. I had never been to this specific spot in Maryland before, and all I knew about it was that there are cute little vintage shops and at least one record store, making it a good enough place to explore for a weekend adventure.

The Store: Rock & Roll Graveyard

This store was a hit and a miss in different ways. First off, it‰’s a little too small. This could have been a layout issue, making it feel smaller than it actually is, but that’s okay since not every store has the ability to be sprawling and also stay open. Second, the entire store was organized in a way that gave me extreme anxiety when looking through records. My process to record shopping is walk in, flip through the typical one rack punk section, leave. Except this store didn’t organize by genre only alphabetically. An entire store filled wall to wall with records only organized alphabetically. I was beyond stressed out, that was, until I found their discount section. 

I have to say, that this $1-$3 bin area is one of the best I‰’ve ever had the chance to rifle through. Not only in content, but in physical quality of records. Everything was in great condition, most things were records from artists that most people have actually heard of and to top it off, all records were in plastic sleeves, making flipping through much more enjoyable. As if it couldn’t get any better, the entire section was buy one get one free. I left with 5 LPs for $3.80. Cutting myself off was hard, but considering I am officially out of storage space for vinyl, 5 records was my limit. Guys, this place is magical as far as $1 bins go and if you have a car (it’s about a 45 minute drive from DC) it’s highly recommended.

The Finds

Cat Stevens – Buddha and the Chocolate Box

My mom made me buy her “Morning Has Broken‰” by Cat Stevens on iTunes for her first iPod. She then played that song on repeat for weeks afterward because she never learned how to download any other songs. This, and the Harold and Maude soundtrack, were my only exposures to Mr. Stevens until now. Based on my love of Harold and Maude, this album held up my high expectations of Cat Stevens. It‰’s got a lot of tempo range, and it’s upbeat and happy but not in an annoying way. It also has some twinkly moments throughout, which some of you new wave emo fans will likely appreciate.

Sea Level – Cats on The Coast

Continuing with the cat theme was the only reason I chose this record while at the store. I had never heard of Sea Level, the album cover is relatively normal, but the inclusion of the word “cat” in the title was enough to convince me to spend $1. To my complete surprise, this is an instrumental jazz record. In case you didn’t know, jazz really, really isn’t my thing so this record was an automatic letdown for me.

Spooky Tooth – You Broke My Heart, So I Busted Your Jaw

Just look at that album title. There’s no way anyone could resist finding out what this sounds like based off of that title. As for the music, its your basic ’70s pop rock. Its not bad, but not great. I give it a solid B- for being slightly better than average, and well, that name of course.

Boz Scaggs- Down Two Then Left

Oddly enough, I really enjoyed this record. Its something my grandmother would comment on liking while walking through Macy‰’s, but it‰’s light and danceable and overall enjoyable.

Paper Lace- Self Titled

Sometimes good advertising is really all I need to be convinced to buy a record. With the little sticker on the corner of this record sleeve advertising its best selling singles, it was an easy choice. This band is kinda weird, a little too theatrical for my taste, but not enough to completely turn me off from it. The verdict on this is still up in the air.

Overall Verdict

This haul had some hits and some misses but I would highly recommend the store and if you can get yourself out to Frederick because its a cute place to walk around on a Saturday afternoon and find weird records and antiques.