Budapest, Dresden and Stockholm: record stores and other things of interest?

[re:evolution]

Through September I will be visiting Budapest, Dresden and Stockholm and surrounds.  So, I am looking for recommendations of worthy record stores or 'off the beaten track' tourist oddities and other obscure items or places of interest.  The usual or main tourist sites and museum recommendations will obviously get picked up through normal channels, so I am mainly interested in the unusual stuff which would be more of interest to this forum.

Any assistance will be appreciated.

[online prowler]

STOCKHOLM:

two I can recommend....

http://www.nostalgipalatset.com/se/

http://www.recordpalace.com/

[Ritual]

http://www.recordpalace.com/

That one is not in Stockholm. I think it may have been a long time ago, but now it's in a small town outside of Örebro.

Nostalgipalatset is worth visiting, though. Found a copy of "JerUSAlem" by Operation Cleansweep there recently for a decent price.

An Ideal For Living has quite a lot of records and you can find good stuff there. https://www.facebook.com/anidealforlivingstockholmab

[online prowler]

http://www.recordpalace.com/

That one is not in Stockholm. I think it may have been a long time ago, but now it's in a small town outside of Örebro.

Nostalgipalatset is worth visiting, though. Found a copy of "JerUSAlem" by Operation Cleansweep there recently for a decent price.

An Ideal For Living has quite a lot of records and you can find good stuff there. https://www.facebook.com/anidealforlivingstockholmab

Eh! My bad, was thinking of another one, but I apparently got the name wrong. I remember they had a lot of electro acoustic 12" at N-P though. Very wide and well curated selection. An Ideal For Living was good as well.... was that one in the Söder area or what? Can't remember now. If I remember correclty, there should be another one around the Fylkingen area as well.... not sure about the name though... lot's of old '70s Swedish gems there, bunch of metal as well.

[Ritual]

An Ideal For Living was good as well.... was that one in the Söder area or what? Can't remember now. If I remember correclty, there should be another one around the Fylkingen area as well.... not sure about the name though... lot's of old '70s Swedish gems there, bunch of metal as well.

Yes, An Ideal For Living is in the trendy part of Södermalm. The other you mention... could that be Mickes Skivbörs at Hornstull? It's not really close to Fylkingen, but the only one I can think of in that part of Södermalm. The main store of Mickes Skivbörs has a lot of ordinary pop and rock music, soul etc. and metal. There's a smaller shop across the street, closer to Hornstull that focus on electronic stuff and hip hop. Mostly dance oriented music, but if you're lucky you could find something of interest there. A guy who works there sometimes is very well versed in industrial and other experimental sounds.

[untitled]

For Budapest you can try this list but I do not personally guarantee it:

http://welovebudapest.com/shops.and.services.1/top.9.record.stores.in.budapest.for.music.lovers

Here you can find another list:

http://recorder.blog.hu/2012/12/18/budapest_records

The addresses are to the right of the pictures, "ker." means kerület (district), H-P means Monday-Friday, Szo Saturday - the rest is pretty much self explanatory.

[online prowler]

An Ideal For Living was good as well.... was that one in the Söder area or what? Can't remember now. If I remember correclty, there should be another one around the Fylkingen area as well.... not sure about the name though... lot's of old '70s Swedish gems there, bunch of metal as well.

Yes, An Ideal For Living is in the trendy part of Södermalm. The other you mention... could that be Mickes Skivbörs at Hornstull? It's not really close to Fylkingen, but the only one I can think of in that part of Södermalm. The main store of Mickes Skivbörs has a lot of ordinary pop and rock music, soul etc. and metal. There's a smaller shop across the street, closer to Hornstull that focus on electronic stuff and hip hop. Mostly dance oriented music, but if you're lucky you could find something of interest there. A guy who works there sometimes is very well versed in industrial and other experimental sounds.

Mickes Skivbörs - yes on both accounts. I can see the street in front of me when you mentioned it. Smaller shop is of course best. Found a 12" w Bo Hansson there, Ringenes.... Quite good, if not a classic.

[re:evolution]

Many thanks for the tips - a few leads to follow! Cheers.

[hsv]

I like the record store Stockholms Serie & Skivhandel at Sveavägen 104 (across from the city library), they have some metal, experimental/industrial music as well as a lot of nice old movies and comic books... porn...
On the 15th of september SEC_ (noise/tape manipulation from Napoli) will play live in Stockholm and on the 10th there will be a one day experimental festival. Check https://masskulturstockholm.wordpress.com/ for info on the SEC_ gig when it's getting closer, I don't know much about the festival right now but you can PM me if you need more info.

[holy ghost]

Just bumping this thread in the off chance anyone has any additional suggestions for Budapest - I'll be there late September/early October and hoping to check out some cool local record stores, shows, bars etc.

Already got a line on the tourist stuff but any "mainstream" suggestions as welcome. Museum of Terror and the Garden of Communist  Statues are already on my list.

[re:evolution]

Just bumping this thread in the off chance anyone has any additional suggestions for Budapest - I'll be there late September/early October and hoping to check out some cool local record stores, shows, bars etc.

Already got a line on the tourist stuff but any "mainstream" suggestions as welcome. Museum of Terror and the Garden of Communist  Statues are already on my list.

I was there 2 years ago and trawled a bunch of record stores - maybe 6 of them? There was noting remotely interesting I could find in any of them (mostly commercial related stuff of all genres), so unless someone has a very specific recommendation that I somehow missed, Budapest seemed completely miss-able on the record hunting front.  More info here if you need a lead: https://welovebudapest.com/en/toplists/top-9-record-stores-in-budapest-for-music-lovers/

The Buda Castle precinct is interesting enough for half a day's exploring. Both Museum of Terror and the Garden of Communist Statues are must sees and another half day each.

Also look for the Der Blutharsch 'Track of the Hunted' cover image, taken in Hero's Square. 

Various 'ruin pubs' in the old quarter are work a look, with a craft beer bar somewhere on Dohany U I think, close to the main synagogue.

[Duncan]

Just bumping this thread in the off chance anyone has any additional suggestions for Budapest - I'll be there late September/early October and hoping to check out some cool local record stores, shows, bars etc.

Already got a line on the tourist stuff but any "mainstream" suggestions as welcome. Museum of Terror and the Garden of Communist  Statues are already on my list.

Just got back from Budapest.  I'd never been before and I liked it a lot.  Didn't really find any record shops but I didn't look very hard.  Yes, go to the Memento Park.  Really worth it, I found the direct bus with travel to/from plus entry into the park to be pretty worth it.  Dunno if it'll be finished by the time you go but there is a work in progress exhibition in the basement of Stalin's boots and when we went they just had busts of Lenin and Stalin sitting around unguarded on the floor and on pallets waiting to be properly stored.  Highly surreal.


You'll also see little bazaars and antique/junk shops which are crammed full of cheap, interesting artefacts of the communist era plus a few shitty records which will be worth it if you'd like some fairly mainstream Hungarian Prog/Metal/Hard Rock (I do).

Wouldn't normally have gone in for this kind of thing myself but we went to the Rudas Baths which was actually great and I'd do it again in a flash.  Loads of pools with varying temperature, saunas and so on.  There is a hot pool on the outdoor roof which allows views of the river and sights, really great.  Go at night for the best/least busy experience.  It's a tourist thing to do but so is almost everything else in Budapest, you get used to it.

Plenty of craft beer in the old jewish quarter.  Can recommend a cool pub called Macska too which is a bit more hidden and local, has a very good drink selection.  I didn't go but there is apparently a Manowar pub run by the manager of the band not too far from one of the main squares.  

Edit - oh yes! I did note with some sadness that it was after our stay that this event was taking place at the end of September:http://trafo.hu/en-US/uh_fest_2018-09-30

[acsenger]

I'm almost certain there are no record stores selling experimental music of any kind in Budapest. There are probably a few stores for metal, but they wouldn't sell really underground or extreme stuff either.

[holy ghost]

MANY thanks for the responses - I think I will be out of the main city for the KF Whitman show, but I might be able to catch it. That would be a real trip.

Appreciate the heads up on everything else. Ruin pubs are definitely on my list and I don't really plan to find anything cool at the record stores (it would have to be pretty bananas to lug halfway across the world) but you never know. I'd be beyond happy if I even got to check them out and didn't spend a penny.

[holy ghost]

Dunno if it'll be finished by the time you go but there is a work in progress exhibition in the basement of Stalin's boots and when we went they just had busts of Lenin and Stalin sitting around unguarded on the floor and on pallets waiting to be properly stored.  Highly surreal.

Memento Park was awesome - I had forgotten you mentioned this but I also stumbled across those busts including the creepy child-Lenin under Stalins boots - very weird! Memento Park and the Terrorhaus were both fucking excellent - the basement cells were unbelievably creepy. I would suggest both to anyone going. Overall I fucking LOVED Budapest. Great people, great food, although I can't say I'm sad I'll never drink another Soproni again. I hit up a killer punk show and everyone is super friendly and the local bands ruled.

You'll also see little bazaars and antique/junk shops which are crammed full of cheap, interesting artefacts of the communist era plus a few shitty records which will be worth it if you'd like some fairly mainstream Hungarian Prog/Metal/Hard Rock (I do).

I bought a ton of Hungarian prog records and other Iron Curtain oddities - record shopping at most places was underwhelming but Laci Bácsi Lemezboltja in Pest was fucking excellent, one of the best record stores I've had the chance to visit. I walked away with records by Skorpio, Solaris, SBB, East, Illes, Omega and a Yugoslavian press of Rainbow's Rising - the most records were less than $10 Canadian. I had to go twice to really suss the place out, I could have spent $1000 there if I was able to.