Looking for photos of SF record stores (Record Rack / Butch Wax)

[Michael Koeppel]

Howdy all,

I am helping to produce a documentary about the early days of the San Francisco rave scene. Part of this film deals with DJs and their quest for records. Both the Record Rack and Butch Wax are mentioned in one of the interviews we conducted and how these were some of the meccas for finding records back in the early 90s.

We would like to find some photos of these record stores to help tell the story from a visual perspective. If anyone has any photographs of these now closed down record stores, I'd be very grateful for them. We need high-resolution scans of the photos if at all possible.

Thanks in advance.

Mike

[Cory Ander]

there was also the Gramophone Store on Polk Street and I bought lots and lots of DJ and disco records at the Streetlight Store that used to be on Castro way back in the good ol' days....it was part of my Friday night ritual to stop in at Streetlight on Friday nights before hitting the local clubs (The Phoenix, Oil Can Harry's, the 'N Touch, Buzzby's) Megatone Records, San Francisco's premiere disco label, was also on Castro Street in the 80s. If you can locate some of the former owners I'd imagine they'd have photos but speaking as a customer it would never cross my mind to take pictures of a store because of course I thought they'd always be there. 5/3/2011

[PierreConstantin]

Mmmmm, Streetlight... I love seeing on my records now their little yellow tag price with prices oh so low. When did they move from Castro ?

[keefelc]

Hey Mike, if you can find friends of the late DJ Michael Garrett, who owned Record Rack, they might have photos. DJ Jerry Bonham worked at Record Rack! As for Butchwax Records, I can't remember Brian's last name, but he opened up Butchwax after Aloha Records closed, which is where Markydefad and I worked at in the 80s. Aloha/Butchwax were located on 18th Street near Castro. Brian hired the kind and wonderful, Ralph Brown, who was one of the later buyers at Aloha Records. When we worked at Aloha at night, when things were a little less hectic, Ralph would get in the store's DJ booth and introduce us to all this wonderful new music. So, Brian was anxious to hire Ralph for Butchwax. Then, when Brian passed away, he left the store to Ralph. Ralph had a small staff of some terrific people working for him too. Jimmy, was friends of Sylvester and Jason Williams. I'll have to ask Jason if he knows how to get in touch with Jimmy. He might have some photos of Butchwax.

Cory, don't forget that Gramophone opened up a second store on Castro near Market at one time. Another ex-Aloha employee became a store manager over there, Steve Tsepelis (I hope I spelled that right). Streetlight Records is actually on Market Street near Castro and they had another store on 24th near Castro (the 24th Street store is now closed). Ron's Records was located close to Streetlight on Market Street and they survived a little longer than Aloha.

It used to be so much fun spending the afternoon digging through the bins at all these stores!! :o)