Beat (The)

Excellent selection of unheard of and obscure music from yesteryear. Very museum-like. I had been shopping for dj vinyl and was scoffed at and directed "over there:" to the hip hop, urban etc. aisle. They said they dont do much for dj's. There was a small but ample cross-section of urban. I made the mistake of bringing my young child inside to teach him about records, etc. Within 5 minutes we were greeted with a repulsive old musty punk song about reciting literally ALL the expletives known to man. And it was just that for roughly five minutes, at a substantial volume as well, as the salespeople looked on. So sweet-felt like it was actually for my child and I. Totally low class and uncalled for. Although quite the "shocker" for the noon crowd on a Sunday. Give me a break. So head shop. Bottom line-if you are a young dj looking for anything relatively new in house/urban, leave the car running. If you still dig patchouli man, and youre ready to drop a ten spot on an old Spirit album, bring your sleeping bag.

The Beat has an amazing amount of vinyl records; more than I've ever seen in a Northern California record store in fact. If they don't have what you want (which would be surprising) then they'll get it for you. They'll even import. It's free to do. They also have a nice espresso bar. They have very cheap prices on most of their stuff compared to other record stores. Go there whenever you can.

THe Beat has a Kick-back atmosphere with friendly and helpful employees. It's a great resource for finding more underground music or the one Cd you've been trying to find forever. I also love that they post upcomming bands that will be playing locally. THe Beat is defifinately one of the top record shops in in Sac.

As high school students, my friends and I would go to the Beat all the time. It was like, our thing to do. Sometimes we walked the whole way, or someone dropped us off downtown, and we'd walk up J st, but it was worth the journey. I've since moved to Orange County to go to college and I haven't found a record store as cool as, or with as much selection as the Beat. Right now, I'm looking for a couple of Nirvana records for my boyfriend for Christmas, and I called a bunch of trendy record stores down here to see if they have them, and they don't. But I just called the Beat, and they've got them!