Sundays are For Record Shopping

Photo Credit: Nathaniel Silberg, @VinylandVicesLA

Nathaniel Silberg is a LA based record collector, culinary enthusiast, and soon to be father of two. Find him on Instagram at @VinylandVicesLA

As a collector of 28+ years, and a dad of two come September, the booming vinyl record scene in LA can be tough to navigate. With swap meets, vintage markets, record fairs, and traditional record stores all around us, it can be a bit overwhelming. But one thing is for certain, and even my wife agrees: Sundays are for record shopping.

My five year old, Ziggy, to his mother’s chagrin, has become quite a little collector himself. Primarily focused on toys of course, anything Pokemon, Mario, Sonic, and Ninja Turtles related, I’m proud to say he’s got the eye of a hawk, just like his old man. And the kid loves music and records to boot. The perfect places that combine our interests are the revolving Sunday vintage markets that pop up around LA County, weekly.

Every FIRST Sunday: The PCC Flea at Pasadena City College is expansive, fun, and has a whole vinyl record vendor section in the parking structure. Great pop up vendors like Jason, of Kultura Ink, and the legendary OG, Kevin, from As the Record Turns, are mainstays, and always come correct with juicy heavy hitting rarities. Dozens of vendors fill the parking structure, and there are plenty of distractions to keep the kiddos busy.

Every SECOND Sunday: The Legendary Rose Bowl Flea is the largest one-day monthly market in the entire country. It’s overwhelming and unfathomable; but a few deep breaths and reassuring words will have you walking the expansive aisles finding vendors primarily focused on vintage offerings with a couple crates of records set up as after thoughts. I’ve found many-a-steal at this historic market.

Every THIRD Sunday: The Long Beach Antique Market AND the Los Angeles Record Fair…a true double header! Robbie, the former host and curator of Beat Swap Meet, has switched his focus to his monthly event at Arts District Brewing…and it doesn’t start til noon! A morning in Long Beach, followed by a trip downtown, is hectic and ambitious, but quite doable and fruitful.

Every FOURTH Sunday: The most daunting Sunday of the month features the excellent Topanga Vintage Market, the Santa Monica Airport Vintage Market, AND the Orange County Record Fair. All three have their share of excellent record vendors, but the OC Record Fair takes the cake as one of the best vinyl events on the west coast. Held at the UFCW Union Hall in Buena Park for 40 years, Ryan and Cynthia took over the show a few years ago from the old timers and truly invigorated it. My son is one of the few kids that attends, as this is really a fair for experienced diggers, but everyone is super friendly, and Ziggy somehow always seems to inevitably find packs of Pokemon cards in the room.

A few kid friendly record shops around town:

• Record Safari in Atwater Village is tops because they have an old school arcade game in the back of the shop with a couple dozen games. What a beautiful distraction to give us diggers time to tackle the expansive shelves and bins in this very well curated and busy shop.

• Asteroid Vinyl Café in Inglewood is a lively and eclectic shop with fun artwork, books, toys, a wonderful selection of records, and delicious coffee to boot. They have several interactive community events on their schedule, and an artist of the month series featuring local artists.

• Sole Folks in Leimert Village is a unique co-op space with a variety of vendors. The owner, Akil, writes children’s books, and there is a highly curated selection of albums, featuring some historical spoken word albums, as well as jewelry, clothes, books, magazines, vintage posters and artwork. Akil’s dog, Prince, frequents the space on occasion, and loves kids.

Happy digging!

-Nathaniel Silberg