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2nd Avenue Records
Category: Shopping Books, Mags, Music and Video Music & DVDs Music & DVDs [Edit]
400 SW 2nd AvePortland, OR 97204
Neighborhoods: Southwest Portland, Downtown
(503) 222-3783
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Street
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
28 reviews for 2nd Avenue Records
Review Highlights
28 reviews in English
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Review from Robert O.
12/9/2011
It began as a mistake.
Then Henry Rollins got involved, and let's just say it spiraled out of control from there.
That morning we awoke groggily in the hostel, rolled out of our bunks in soiled clothes, reeking from the previous night's revels and horrors. I felt remarked pain, the kind of pain that a hung over Paul Westerberg probably felt back in '82. So naturally we sought out coffee, and that's where the rabbit hole begins.
My brother sipping on his chai latte looked up from the steam and foam and espied 2nd ave. records and there was no question, in my mind at least, that I'd be plundering that mother. So we strolled in.
The place is laid out like conspiracy theorists archives, or what I envision comic book guy's basement to look like. Boxes upon boxes of records and cd's just stacked behind the counter, with frantic, polite, and overly knowledgeable staff scurrying to and fro, hither and thither, as it were, to find just that perfect obscure Richard Hell & the Voidoids album or Desmond Dekker lp that you're demanding. These guys are pro's, and the smug complacency of "the record store clerk" is just not there.
As my brother and his friends from Eugene perused the store at leisure, I got down to serious hunting. As always with my addled brain, the second I stop in a good record store I completely forget what music I even like, I'm overwhelmed, and 9 times out of 10 end up walking out of the record shop empty handed and confusedly head scratching. But this time I was on a mission, and easily scooped up some old replacements albums and a Brian Jonestown Massacre ep on the cheap. As I was geeking out with the clerk talking shop, my brothers buddy Miles finds an old mad magazine and starts diggin' on that, eventually buying it. As we are checking out, there is this flyer that grabs all of our attention. In bold, imperious text it states flat out that Henry Rollins will be signing his new book at the shop later in the afternoon, like 13 year old girls we all gush and vow to show up at the appointed time.
Fast forward past some idle tokes in the alley and a few day drinks at Cpt. Ankeny's we rush back to see a line that ensconces half the block. With a groan and a shrug we waited. and waited. made fun of some kids with their copy of his book. and waited. realized we had nothing for him to autograph. waited. got made fun of in return by aforementioned kids for not having autograph material. still waited.
At a point we gave up, and after another round of brews, bummed out, we walked past 2nd ave records again. This time no line, rather an empty store, and lo and behold an unsequestered Henry free of the mob! My brother and I rushed in headlong, our meek Eugenian stoner friends hanging back outside. In a moment of inspiration my brother snatched the mad magazine from Miles. He grinned at me and to my horror I knew what was coming.
Trepidatiously, we approached the greyed and wizened rock star. He stood there and immediately I thought he'd be taller. Mr Rollins was in a heated conversation with the record store guy and they were ripping off each other dropping band names and references- everyone else in the room may as well not have existed, so deep was their conversation. We stood within an arm's reach of Rollins for like 15 painfully slow minutes, as we stared at his profile and nervously awaited him to acknowledge us.
Finally my brother clears his throat, Rollins slowly looks over, my brother is holding this goddamn ridiculous mad magazine and is offering it to him like an ass. I stared speechless and dumfounded. My brother, confident expected him to autograph this ridiculous joke leaflet. Rollins takes one brief glance at the magazine, looks up at my brother glances at me, and turns back to his enthralling conversation with record store guy. In shame, we turned around and walked out. Confused, betrayed, and a little wistful. I still love black flag, but now I cringe when I see his cameo in Heat.
http://www.youtube.com... -
Review from Brooke S.
3/16/2012
Checked this record store out tonight and was pretty impressed. As cluttered as this place looks, everything was surprisingly organized and well labeled. Huge selection to browse through. Prices were very reasonable and in most cases cheaper than other stores in town.
I dropped by to look at hip hop vinyl, but left with a Fleet Foxes album. A+, would come back again! -
Review from Perry H.
3/9/2012
I read a review below that categorized this place as scatterbrained and I think that's pretty dead on...from the merchandising to the clerk and all points in between. Not saying there's anything necessarily wrong with that. This is an old school, punk rock flea market of a record store. There are t-shirts hanging all over the ceiling and the stock is almost exclusively vinyl. While they do stock lots of genres the main focus is hard rock and metal. I'm not certain but I'm sure 99% of the times you visit you will hear Motorhead, again, not a bad thing. If you're a crate digger....head on over...if you want a more refined experience head to Music Millennium or Everyday.
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Review from B C.
Portland, OR
4/12/2012
I was just looking through my record collection and got really annoyed that i have so many records from 2nd avenue that have several price stickers on the LP jacket. These dip shits have been running a record store for too god damn long and should know better than to put the stickers on the LP jacket. STOP PUTTING GLUE STICKERS ALL OVER THE GOD DAMN RECORDS. There are to many good record stores in portland to even bother going to this one anymore.
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Review from Sean W.
Portland, OR
1/14/2011
My name is Sean and I'm a record junkie
Second Avenue Records is a wonderful record store. I look forward to walking in here at lunchtime and seeing Cathy behind the counter listening to the freakin Melvins or Dead Moon at 90 decibels. Shit cracks me up to see someone close to my mom's age rocking out like that. I love it.
I'm in here a few times a month. Shhh..don't tell my wife or she'll put me back on an allowance.
As far as vinyl goes, they have it all here. Jazz, World, Soul, Punk, Country, RockABilly, Metal. Whatever you're into. Original editions, limited editions, reissues. And the prices are always fair. Always a dollar or two cheaper than Jackpot.
They have an excellent selection of CDs too.
Check them out and support your local, independent record stores. -
Review from Josh B.
9/10/2010
I would like to give this place a zero star review to spite them for the many times I have entered the store with little to no money to spend, and left with a stack or rare Vinyl and a deep concern on how the electric bill will now get paid...
Alas, this is my favorite record store in Portland. I have came across things in this store that I have only seen (or could not even find) on Ebay\Amazon...
Radiohead's "Radioshow- Live performance"-Check
The Black Keys -Blackroc Project - Check!
Portishead - 1997 Live performance of Dummy - Check!
Original Press of Snoop Dogg Doggystyle! - Check!
They have a vast selection of Rock,Hip-Hop,Metal and Harcore. The store is a bit cluttered but everything in the store is worth digging through. Knowledge able staff, thanks to the 50-60 year old clerk\lady who asked my girlfriend if she had searched the Hardcore section when looking for an At The Drive In Album. (not quite sure why a 60 year old lady talking about Hardcore is funny to me...)
If your looking for Vinyl this is an awesome place to check out.
Everyday Music wins on volume
Music Millenium wins on Nostalgia
2nd Ave wins on Quality and Reliability (it is the Toyota Camry of record stores!) -
Review from Bort S.
Draper, UT
2/7/2012
2nd Avenue is the best record store in downtown Portland. They have a nice selection, including quite a few harder to find titles.
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Review from Andrew C.
2nd Avenue Records is a lot like my desk:
Two laptops, one mine, one not mine
change scattered everywhere
a free chalupa coupon (thanks Jordan)
four free drink tickets for southwest airlines (thanks Jeannie)
three phones, one landline, two cell phones - one mine, one not mine
one half of my keys
a photoshop elements CD
about four, .73mm nylon dunlop guitar picks
AAA auto insurance card I have yet to put in my car (the old one expired a month ago tomorrow)
two coffee cups
some half working speakers
a bag of banana chips
two or three paychecks
a comcast remote
empty and full film canisters
stickey notes
and an external hard drive
I know where everything is.
Everything I want and use is on this desk.
I know where everything is.
But you don't.
That's how I feel about 2nd Avenue Records. There's albums upon albums. There are albums stacked up in the window like someone put them there one day and just forgot about them. They're probably so sun damaged by now that you could get a hell of a discount if you were brave enough to slip through the cobwebs and grab one. Shirts and other random shit hang from the ceiling like it's friggan' Halloween. Drawers are full of cassettes, cardboard record bins sit strewn on the floor. Show flyers fill in any voids where dust, shirts, or albums are not present.
Sure, they've got a good selection of stuff, if you can find it. I wouldn't recommend hitting the "Various (letter)" sections of the bins, you might fall in. And no one would ever find you. Mainly because the staff doesn't interact with the shoppers whatsoever, unless maybe at the counter. Not sure, I've never bought anything from there. My head explodes from disorganization long before my desires manifest into a removed wallet and swiped card. -
Review from Devon H.
Portland, OR
8/31/2010
Meh... Obnoxious,vain,scatterbrained,shit storm. These words come to mind when I think of this place. This is everything I don't like in a record store. I guess some people are into this kind of thing, but not this girl.
Of course there are the elusive, misleading category names, too many records packed together per section and the nuerotic placement of the categories.
Somehow I was unable to find the last half of the "E" section of Rock. Next thing I knew I was in Gangsta Rap. Then upon finding the rock section again, the letters had jumped to "M".
I gave up and left.Listed in: Mediocrity: 2's
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Review from Oreanna T.
Portland, OR
6/9/2011
This is my kind of place. Guess I never really noticed how "disorganized" it is... I've never found anything wrong with "the staff", they leave you alone unless you have questions and when you do they are helpful. I show up here inebriated on weekday mornings; I touch every punk record, get all up and along their glass case; leaning over it as I read all the CD titles, simultaneously requesting all of their stacked boxes of punk tapes and compilations which I then splay out across the counter... And while I spend an hour or so in there doing those things I always do and walk out with one LP; I don't get any attitude.
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Review from Rex S.
Newberg, OR
1/16/2009
5 stars. Why? I went in there one day looking for some very obscure stuff, and the pessimist in me asked "why waste your time with this?".
Looking for Matisyahu on vinyl - yep, they had it! Wow. Kyuss's debut CD, out of print for awhile, do you have this...let me check. Yes!
They have a ton of vinyl and ten tons of CD's. If you don't see something, ask, as they probably have it in a box somewhere and the girl is very cool about digging through the boxes to find what you are looking for.
I'll keep giving them my hard earned cash for the good stuff - download the rest. -
Review from Phil M.
4/11/2011
While walking around downtown on my lunch break last week, I saw 2nd Avenue Records and made a mental note to make a visit there during the weekend. I did so and was not disappointed. I've been out of record collecting for a couple of years, but I found a couple of new releases that I picked up and made mental notes of ones to get on future visits. The selection here is incredible. Lots of punk and metal and discount bins that I plan on digging through when the time and funds present itself. I don't want to say that I found my store when it's the first one I've hit since moving here, but I'll just say 2nd Avenue sets the standard in my mind that I'll use for comparison.
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Review from Lenny L.
Seattle, WA
1/25/2010
I liked this place a lot. It has a good selection of hardcore and metal and was reasonably priced. One that that I thought was funny is that the It was a bit misleading as the placeholders for the vinyl all had bands that I was looking for, but they were all empty. Names such as Biohazard, Merauder and Cold World, all records I was looking for. I got all excited and they were just empty!
If you are a record hound, this place is great! It is cluttered with tons and tons of records, both new and used. -
Review from A'dje D.
Olympia, WA
6/2/2011
Best record store ive found in portland so far. Unfortunately i hardly get down there, but they always have a ton of punk stuff i can't find anywhere else. THis place is amazing
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Review from Tommy T.
3/22/2011
2nd Ave. is one of my favorite record stores in Portland. They have a huge selection of vinyl and the staff is very friendly and helpful. The lady who owns it is super sweet and very knowledgeable The CD's are in boxes behind the counter that you have to ask for the genre that you are looking for. It gets a little confusing sometimes but it's worth the time. I can spend (and have spent) hours here. My only complaints are the lack of a used vinyl section and the categorizing of the the punk/ hardcore and metal section.
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Review from Tom L.
Santa Cruz, CA
3/23/2010
Another one I ran into while wandering downtown. Well I usually don't like digging through disorganized cluttered shops but I had plenty of time to kill and all of the 45s I was looking for were alphabetized in one big giant filing cabinet for easy flipping.
I found some great $2-5 deals on some semi-rare stuff and bought a decent stack then I went back the next day to it those hundreds of $1 records scattered all over the store. I only found a few keepers in the LP section but it was still worth the effort.
Yeah it was a little messy and cluttered but I will certainly hit this spot again next time I'm up North! -
Review from Taro B.
Portland, OR
4/2/2011
This record store specializes in metal, punk, hip-hop, jazz, & reggae/ska. When I say specialize, I mean they focus on those genres with laser accuracy and precision, and when I say record store, I mean actual vinyl records . For a record collecting junky like me, this place is a dream. I curse 2nd Ave Rec though for emptying my wallet every time I step foot in the place. For anything other than those aforementioned genres, you might want to try Jackpot Records or Everyday Music.
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Review from Buddy M.
Carson, CA
11/13/2011
Up from Los Angeles on a major vinyl shopping binge came across this gold mind of t- shirt and vinyl heaven. Huge selection of metal and 7" and tons of great dark t- shirts. Love the mayhem of the store this is what a record store should be like. A find on every wall .
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Review from Michelle H.
Portland, OR
10/28/2008 1 photo
In my twenty-three years of existence, I've never stepped foot in a record store. Blasphemy, I know. Vinyl is foreign to me. The novelty tempts me with its various colors and gorgeous artwork. The few records that have graced my presence have undergone intense scrutiny as I soak up every word and picture like a sponge. I'm intrigued and intimidated all at the same time. It's really somewhat overwhelming. I handle them like delicate flowers, afraid that any sudden movement on my part is going to ruin everything. I've been tempted as of late to pick something up, actually own something of my very own, but it feels so cliché. Wouldn't that just make me a sheep? I mean all the cool kids are doing it, right? My own awkwardness haunts me, ready to tease me for jumping in. At the same time, do I really want to open that door? I have a feeling once I get my hands on one, I'll start a new addiction I'm not sure I'm ready to handle.
Cue 2nd Avenue Records, my first real foray into the world of records. I've heard that it's not very special as far as record stores go, but I have nothing to go off. I hardly doubt a few random record bins in an old school Dutch town count.
As a n00b, I felt overwhelmed by the haphazard organization. It felt surprisingly like a garage sale. It bordered on charming though. Bins, shelves, and tabletops full of records attack you from every angle. Where do I start? I could see how hours could be passed amongst the band t-shirts wallpapering the walls, scouring each and every record for a new addition to your collection. If you wanted to be in and out in a hurry, then I suppose the hunt and peck system they've got going on would grate on the nerves.
It was about 50/50 as far as what I wanted to look at and what was actually available. Several sections sat empty, the handwritten Sharpie scrawled tabs staring back at me. Is $12-$20 a good price for this stuff? I have no idea.
I can't imagine I'd go out of my way to pop my head in. If I were in the vicinity? Sure, why not. -
Review from T F.
Louisville, KY
10/14/2010 1 photo
The best heavy metal record store in America. Incredible selection of vinyl and CDs. Very helpful and friendly staff. I went through boxes and boxes of well organized metal CDs and pulled out 13 albums. Eventually I had to force myself to stop looking. I left $165 poorer, but very very happy. I wish I lived in Portland so that I could return on a regular basis. Highly recommended for metal, hardcore, punk, and even hip-hop. Lots of rare and hard to find albums. Goldmine!
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Review from Lauren C.
South Hadley, MA
11/2/2007
This was one of the stranger music stores I've been in recently. And by strange, I mean simultaneously confusing and *awesome.* I found 2nd Avenue online when searching for music stores in Portland - I'm in the area for business and wanted to hunt down some cds in my free time.
The store itself is small, but they make the most of it! T-shirts and posters hang from all available ceiling space, and the main sales floor is mostly taken up with vinyl. A LOT of vinyl. The cases circling the counter have almost exclusively rock, hip-hop and metal cds. But behind the counter lies the most peculiar arrangement of used cds that I've ever seen. Boxes upon boxes of cds sit on the floor, shelves - just about any open horizontal surface. And they have labels like "Beatles 3," "Living Legends," or "Death Metal." I swooned when I saw this veritable leaning tower of music, but wish it were easier to access. You have to ask one of the two salespeople to get you a box, which involves some preparation on your part and much labor on their part. I don't know about you, but when I shop for music it's 1 part what I'm looking for a 3 parts what I randomly find in the collection I'm presented with. It's a little harder to discover buried treasure when you need to request the "New Order/Cure/Erasure" box.
I did enjoy the sticker collection, however - I walked away with about 10 random stickers (Green Day to Bright Eyes) and a Shins cd. If you can handle the chaos, 2nd Ave Records is worth a visit.Listed in: Music Stores that hook me up
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Review from Patrick A.
Portland, OR
3/16/2008
Knowledgeable staff, courteous service and reasonable prices. Unquestionably the best shop for metal in the city, but it fits the bill for punk, soul, reggae, post-rock and indie too.
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Review from Fernanda F.
Portland, OR
5/30/2010
This place is exactly my idea of what Heaven is like. I simply LOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE this store. I can find anything I want. And every time I stop by there I try to control my demons to not leave completely broke. They have brand new CDs and used too :) I love to go through all those Metal boxes and find CDs that I have been looking for years. Anyway, I'd give it a million stars. This store is simply the dream of any metal music lover \m/
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Review from Taylor A.
Del Mar, CA
9/23/2007
I recently stopped in here right before dinner on a trip to Portland. On this trip I was hoping to find a great record store; this was certainly the store. I found four vinyls and a cd for a cumulatively reasonable price. I spoke to a woman about audiophiles and how the store was a family business. Most music played was of hard rock and metal, though all genres can be found in some medium format. All in all, a wonderful store.
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Review from Jeremy S.
Portland, OR
8/7/2008
The bane of my existence, cuz they take all my money. When I want something on vinyl and don't care if it's first press or new, I'll go there and get the reissue. They almost always have it for 10-20 bucks. The reggae section is the best I know of in town, and the staff looks uninviting but actually incredibly helpful and knowledgeable.
The older gal is my favorite record store employee in town, and here's why: I went into her store a couple years ago and asked if she could special order "Scientist Rids the World of the Evil Curse of the Vampires." She immediately said "I don't think that's in print right now, but I'll check." She waffled through her book, and was correct. Impressive. But then it gets awesome-er. I went away for the summer, and about four months later I'm at 2nd Avenue again getting my fix for Black Crack. I go to the counter, and she informs me that she remembers me, and that they now DO have a copy of "Scientist Rids the World of the Evil Curse of the Vampires." So I buy it and it is pure dub radicallity.
Either
a.) I am unforgettably handsome (a distinct possibility)
or
b.) Second Avenue records has extraordinary selection and an awesome old punk gal who knows her shit about dub and rock and everything else and is immeasurably helpful. -
Review from Aimee F.
Portland, OR
11/25/2009
Awww, I love 2nd Ave. I miss the tinier version of it when I was in high school, where it was a little closet of a store, digging around for new Cure and Nitzer Ebb and Depeche 12" singles, and batting my eyelashes at a certain boy who shall remain nameless. Glad to see it still around - definitely a Portland classic. I still have my vinyl and love the occasional addition to the collection. Hallelujah for 2nd Ave.
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Review from Andrew D.
San Francisco, CA
4/6/2010
very impressed with the selection this place brings to the table. many many genres with many many albums that you just dont find in record stores of such a small size. luckily i was far from "pressed for time" so i was freely able to check everything out without having to ask for help with anything, so im not quite sure how knowledgeable the staff is. but all in all i really dig the place.
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Review from Justin N.
Los Angeles, CA
7/17/2008
Having to get the staff so involved in your purchases (well for cd's not the vinyl) can be a little weird, but they are so knowledgeable you might find that you are happy you did so. Definitely the top of shop to go when you can't remember the name of the song but 'it kind of goes like this...do you know what I mean'?
