Asbury Park, New Jersey
Groovy Graveyard
658 Cookman Ave, Asbury Park, NJ 07712
Record shopping in New Jersey
New Jersey produced Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band out of Asbury Park, the Misfits' horror punk out of Lodi in 1977, Hoboken's Maxwell's venue and Yo La Tengo (with Frank Sinatra born in the same Hoboken in 1915), and the Newark-East Orange R&B and hip-hop axis that raised Whitney Houston, Lauryn Hill, Wyclef Jean, and the Fugees. Princeton Record Exchange has anchored the state since 1980 with 100,000-plus LPs/CDs/DVDs and routine 'world's best record store' rankings from Rolling Stone, CNN, Time, and USA Today. Jack's Music Shoppe in Red Bank traces its roots to 1948 and runs in-store performances from artists like Bill Callahan, Jesse Malin, and Anthony D'Amato through the year. Randy Now's Man Cave moved to Hightstown in 2022 and runs 49-folding-chair shows inside the store, while Hoboken's Tunes and the Asbury Park duo of Groovy Graveyard and Severedwing keep Cookman Avenue stocked. Take 287 around the state, ride the Parkway down to Asbury, swing the Turnpike north through Newark, and see what the Garden State has been keeping in the bins.
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BEYOND NEW JERSEY: VINYL JOURNEYS FROM THE GARDEN STATE
As the stylus lifts in the Garden State, every shop you flipped through today is just one verse in a much wider East Coast circuit. The Hudson, the Delaware, and the Turnpike connect New Jersey's shops to New York, Philly, and the rest of the Mid-Atlantic indie network in a single drive.
New York Record Stores: Head north into New York, where Manhattan's Generation Records and A1 Records anchor the East Village dig, Brooklyn's Academy and Captured Tracks Shop fuel the borough's indie pulse, and Upstate college towns from Ithaca to Hudson hold the back issues no one else carries.
Pennsylvania Record Stores: Cross west into Pennsylvania, where Philadelphia's Repo Records and Brewerytown Beats anchor the city's soul and indie circuit, Pittsburgh's Jerry's Records houses one of the country's biggest used collections, and the Lehigh Valley's college-town shops catch the Philly spillover.
Delaware Record Stores: Drop south into Delaware, where Wonderland Records has been open in Newark since 1972, Rainbow Records and International Groove anchor the same Main Street block for the University of Delaware crowd, and Wilmington's Jupiter and SqueezeBox split soul, indie, and vintage hi-fi across the city.
North Carolina Record Stores: Roll south to North Carolina, where Asheville's Harvest and Static Age cover mountain folk through weirdo punk, the Triangle's All Day Records and Sorry State hold the college-rock and rare-soul flame in Carrboro and Raleigh, and the Outer Banks stores catch Jersey families on the long summer drive south.
Virginia Record Stores: Travel southwest to Virginia, where Charlottesville's college shops chase jam-band and Americana, Richmond's Plan 9 and the Carytown crates run punk and rare soul in equal measure, and Virginia Beach and Williamsburg keep the Tidewater coast stocked for the long drive down.
Puerto Rico Record Stores: Cruise south to Puerto Rico, where San Juan's Viera, OYE, and Electroshock keep 180,000-LP-deep salsa, jazz, and Latin trap stacks rotating, El Discotecario digs into salsa, boogaloo, and disco on Calle Cerra, and the island's bomba and reggaeton lineages stay close to every counter.
At Record Store Directory, every state line is an invitation to keep exploring. Share your finds, connect with fellow collectors, and chase down that next unforgettable album, because the perfect record is always closer than you think.
Happy hunting, and we'll see you in the next stack!
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