Munich Record Shops

Last October I found myself in Munich. Not during Octoberfest, thank God! I would have enjoyed the folk music, traditional costumes and parades, but who wants to pay an entrance fee to get crammed with millions of loud drunks? And, judging by the quality of service during a normal period, I shudder to think what kind of service one gets during the busiest time of year. Have you heard of the famous Bavarian hospitality? About the warm and friendly German manners? No? Well, there's a reason for that. But it would have been a shame to go to Munich and not experience its famous beer culture. So, Octoberfest or not, we did drink the local beers from the huge Maß-glasses (a maß beer portion is slightly more than 1 liter, or 2 pints). With the obligatory Bavarian snacks, of course: pretzels and saucages served with sauerkraut and kartoffelsalat. Our stay was short (2,5 days) but we visited the most famous beer halls: the huge Hofbräuhaus, built originally in 1589, is very touristic but a must nevertheless. Folk brass music, huge halls with frescos, and the typical Bavarian food and beer. It was here that the German Nazi party was born 100 years ago - the 1st floor of the building will remain closed until the end of 2020 to deter neo-nazis from celebrating the anniversary at the very place it happened. We also visited another must-visit beer hall, the Augustiner-Keller. The biggest part of its famous garden was closed, but the interior is just as impressive. But if you want to know where we ate the best, I'd suggest the Nuernberger Bratwurst Gloeckl am Dom and Andy's Krablergarten - the latter is less about the decor and more about the giant schnitzels and delicious spicy saucages at affordable prices. Both places also have friendly staff and fast service.

Now I know that, apart from eating and drinking, there are a lot of fun things to do in Munich: join the Third Reich walking tour for instance (no, they're not goose-stepping around the city). Or visit the nearby Dachau concentration camp, currently a museum. As pleasant as these sound, my first idea was to hit the local record shops. But I must have chosen the wrong time: most closed early on Saturday, none opened on Sunday, and many opened Monday only in the afternoon. Seeing how the Germans always deride us Greeks for our perceived laziness, I was surprised with these opening hours: most of them open 3 to 5 days for between 4 and 8 hours per day, mostly afternoons. I cannot imagine a Greek small business owner working less than 50 hours per week. Well, good for the Germans I guess. But it meant I couldn't do my tour of the city's record stores as I planned. I'll nevertheless share my impressions plus all the info I found on the net, which I think you'll find interesting. My first stop was musicandbooks, a shop specialized in (guess what) 2nd hand books, LP's and CD's.

Lots of CD's, usually €4-7 but also many bargains for €1-2. Vinyls go normally for €11, 16 or 22, but some of the unsold stuff is on discount so you may find something good among the cheaper stuff (€4,7, or 11).Schallplattenzentrale also carries 2nd hand stuff and apparently consists of two shops: zentrale (Fraunhoferstrasse 26) and filiale (Lindwurmstrasse 209). The latter caries the overstock and offers, but I didn't catch it open. Zentrale has a large collection which is arranged alphabetically instead of by genre. CD's typically cost €4.99, 6.99 or 9.99. LP's are €6.99, 9.99, 14.99 or 19.99. There are some unreasonably expensive records at €30/40, but generally the prices are normal: I got a near mint copy of The Beatles' White Album for €19.99 which I consider a good bargain. Optimal (Kolosseumstraße 6) may probably really be the best record store in the city. An eclectic mix of new and used, mainstream and cult artists. DJ's will find everything they need, from techno to Anatolian psych.

Albums are well divided by genre and new/used. New LP's cost mostly €17-30, and offers (including used) usually €10-12, sometimes less. Here you won't just find the best sellers but also a lot of cult records for the music connoisseur. There are also small sections with books and CDs. And, of course, like all German cities, one can always shop music at the Saturn electronics chain stores. There's a large one at Neuhauser Strasse 39. I know, we all prefer shopping at actual record shops but the fact remains these megastores keep normal shopping hours, offer listening stations, cheap CD's (I bought some compilations and box sets €5.99-7.99) and an ever-growing variety of new vinyl (€18-28). The best used records shop, at least among the ones I visited, was Dock's CD Börse. Don't let the name fool you, there's a big variety in vinyl (jazz, soul, indie, metal, rock) and the prices are actually affordable (mostly €5-10).

Behind the back door and down the stairs, there's a huge selection of CD's (priced €3.5, 5 or 7.5) which will take you a whole afternoon to browse. There are no listening stations but the clerk was kind enough to play some records for me so that I could check their condition. Near Dock's you'll find Public Possession, a record shop that is apparently considered to be among the best in the world. I can't figure out why: it's small and only carries a handful of dance 12' singles. A bit to the north, near the Josephsplatz metro station you can find maoz Vinyl & Kaffee (Hiltenspergerstrasse 15) A cozy place with a nice vibe. You can drink your coffee and talk about music, or browse its big collection of LP's, both new (€20-30) and used (€5-15, rarities €20+). There are 3 rooms choke full of stuff: Kraut/prog, jazz, alternative, classic rock, Record Store Day specials etc. There are rare and cult items to be found here, as well as a few boxes of cheap stuff at the sidewalk in front of the shop. A short walk further (Theresienstrasse 114) there's Second Music & Fun, a big place packed with Rock, Indie and Soul CD's (€5-10, mostly €5) and LP's (many offers for €5, but mostly €15-20 for the good stuff). With few bargains and a no-fun feel despite its title, you may want to keep walking to Best Records (Theresienstrasse 46). This shop has a great reputation but I didn't catch it open. It is supposedly small-ish but with a big variety of good 2nd hand Soul, Jazz and Rock LP's and normal (neither cheap nor excessive) prices. I'll continue with a list of more Munich shops I didn't get to visit because of time shortage and/of weird opening hours.

This info comes from the Heartfirst Records blog (very detailed descriptions) and/of vinylhub and google reviews: Black Wave Records (Westendstrasse 49) is one of those shops that open only 20 hours/week. Apparently it carries a lot of indie/punk LP's - vinyl only, mostly new stuff. Mono Records (Breisacher Str. 21) is apparently a good shop for indie rock, selling both new and used vinyl as well as CD's. M2 Music (Rosenheimer Str. 77) seems to have a pretty big selection of used vinyl and CD's.  Gutfeeling (Maistrasse 1) is the shop of a local label and sells used vinyl plus, of course, all the releases of the label. Der Schallplattenladen (near the train station, Pariser Str. 50) sells new and 2nd hand vinyl. There's also Monkey Island (Stein Str. 67) which apparently is also a bar, Die Tonabnehmer (Belgradstrasse 31) and Rille & Promille on Untere Weidenstrasse 14 (2nd hand vinyl, CDs, vintage clothes and wine). I hope this info proves useful to someone. Just remember to check the opening hours before you set off on your quest.