The Best Vinyl Record Store in Denver for Reggae
The Mile High City is a great place to be for music lovers. Vinyl music listeners are a special breed, though. Fortunately, Denver is home to many great vinyl record stores where record collectors and audiophiles alike can get their fix. As a collector of Reggae vinyl, I recently made a point to visit every shop I could find that sold vinyl records in Denver, and see what they had to offer in terms of Reggae. Denver was once home to a Virgin Records mega-store, located right on 16th street mall. That has been closed for many years now, but there are many great independent record stores in the city that have had no trouble keeping their doors open for enthusiastic collectors. The other good news is that you can easily visit all of them in an afternoon.
Twist & Shout Records is located on Colfax Ave and first opened its doors way back in 1988. Since then, their moto has always remained, “Service, Selection, & Ambiance”. Twist & Shout is by far and away the largest vinyl shop in the city. I would venture to say that Twist & Shout had more Reggae vinyl than all of the other record stores in Denver combined. Twist & Shout had a wide variety of new Reggae records, singles, used albums and some special releases. I walked out with a new Dennis Brown Crown Prince Anthology as well as a Lee Scratch Perry. The rest of this store is obviously massive as well. If this was the size of the Reggae selection, you can imagine what the other genres sections looked like. You can easily spend your whole afternoon here, looking and listening.
Wax Trax Records is also located in downtown Denver. They have been at this same location for over 40 years and their building is divided up into two distinct shops, one for CDs and the other for vinyl. Their Reggae vinyl section wasn’t huge, but they get bonus points because they were actually playing Reggae music when I came in. They do a lot of buying here, so there are plenty of used records to look through, as well as new releases. I found a Shabba Ranks album and a Yellowman and was happy to see quite a few other albums I wouldn’t expect to find just anywhere. Wax Trax is a local landmark and piece of Denver history now and they have certainly earned the support they receive.
Angelo’s actually has two locations. One is on Broadway and the other is in Aurora. Walk in the front door and down into the basement of the Broadway location and you will find yourself faced with a great selection of new and used vinyl. I was happy to see at least a designated sign and section for the Reggae vinyl that they did have and I left with a promotional Mad Cobra two record set. Both of the Angelo’s locations have a lot more than just vinyl to offer too. It’s pretty much your teenage fantasy land in there with music, posters, band apparel, accessories, smoke shop, and more.
Angelo's Aurora
The other Angelo’s location is in Aurora off of Iliff. I happen to live out here in A-Town, so its actually pretty cool that we have anything like this out here. The main floor is full of new and used vinyl and the staff is super friendly and helpful. Their Reggae vinyl selection is pretty limited, but they had a few new titles to pick from. I would say they had fewer than about 20 records in the Reggae genre, but obviously plenty of other records for everyone else. What’s almost worth more of a mention is all of the Reggae CD’s they had. I am not really in the business of collecting CD’s, but if you ever wanted to score some Reggae CD’s, this would certainly be the place for it. Like the Broadway location, there is plenty to look at besides vinyl in this store so take some time to shop around.
Recollect Records has a great vibe inside and out. The staff is cool and they have their records very well organized, which goes a long way for collectors. While they don’t have the quantity of records as some of these other shops, they make up for it in offering a great selection of good music. They didn’t have a dedicated Reggae section so I was only able to spot one or two Reggae titles in the international section. They did have some good hip-hop and electronica, though, and the store itself just has a real nice environment for browsing. Maybe by my next visit they will have heard enough people ask for Reggae to start building up some inventory. Either way, Recollect Records is still worth a visit if you are in the neighborhood.
Mutiny Information Cafe is a coffee shop first, but they also happen to sell books, comics, and some vinyl. The atmosphere is nice, but I wouldn’t really say they are much of a destination for vinyl shoppers. They have a small bin in the front of the store with a seemingly random selection of new titles along with a bin of $1 records that I doubt anyone is going to find anything good in. So it goes without saying that there was no Reggae to be found. However, we are happy when anyone sells any vinyl, and I will certainly be back for an espresso sometime.
