Started off as a Rush fan and one of my coworkers (at the record store) said "oh, you like Rush, well you'll love Yes. Oh and King Crimson. And here, try Genesis" You mean like Land of Confusion? "PPffffff. No, that's new Genesis. You want OLD Genesis." Why is Peter Gabriel wearing a flower on this? "He was the original singer for Genesis" whoa. Mind blown.

As he's listing off the bands, he's literally pulling vinyl out of the bins and making a stack of albums for me to listen to. Tales from Topographic Oceans. Selling England By The Pound.

And thus my decades long descent into progressive rock began. I feel like I handled it better than Dean. No Floyd Holes.

Should point out that we worked at an indy record store. We were like the kids in High Fidelity. "I like Billy Ocean". Nooo, what you really want is this. and this. and this. No, put down the Lionel Richie, try this James Brown. And we opened the merch all the time to listen to it, then put it back in the shrink wrap. We were kindof asshole music snobs, but the best was when they came back the next day raving about something we recommended to them and then they ask what else we'd recommend.

You know the scene in High Fidelity where Rob says " I will now sell four copies of The Three EPs by the Beta Band" and puts the record on?

When I was managing a record store in the 80s I would do that with Who's Afraid of the Art of Noise.

Years ago I was on a trip to Rio de Janiero. I found a clerk in a hip music store who spoke decent English. I told him what I liked in my limited knowledge of Braziloans music. Then I said I have about $100 to spend what do you recommend.

So much great music came out of that: Os Mutantes, Rita Lee, Gilberto Gil, on and on..

I used to work at tower records in the 90s and I would do this all the time! It felt great to help younger people find music just like older dudes helped me.

In 2002 I was in a long distance relationship. We lived about three hours away from each other, but we were both young so we'd make it work. One weekend, I was on my way to the bus station, and my gf at the time had a university class to get to, so I was *super* early. I stopped in to the indie record shop around the corner from the bus station. After pleasantries I say "I've got a long bus ride ahead of me. What do I get?"

"Well, I've really been digging this lately."

He hands me a copy of The Creek Drank the Cradle by Iron & Wine. So I bought it. I don't remember how much it was, but I still listen to this record 20 years later. I cried on the bus to how beautiful this album was.

"We found your name across the chapel door, carved in cursive with a table fork."

Right before the 90’s really kicked off. Soundgarden’s Louder than Love… the dude behind the counter said “it’s like Black Sabbath with Robert Plant singing!”

This is how I found out about Mastadon when they first came out. Those were the days

Going to music stores was how you found new stuff. Especially via the staff.

While I don't have any stories of this particular experience, I thought I'd at least share one amusing experience with a music store employee. About three years ago, my wife and I stopped at a dying FYE in a dying mall. I was wearing a shirt from the then-final shows of the band Thursday. I picked up a couple of CDs, and as I was checking out, the employee took a look at my shirt and exclaimed "Shut UP with the best shirt in here!" and gave me a high five. Come to think of it, he did end up recommending another band, but I didn't check them out at the time and have since forgotten. Shame on me.

no, but several times employees were playing something they liked, i asked what was playing and discovered a lot of cool stuff that way

also, this old hippy guy used to bust my balls at this used spot i hung out at, any current band i was into, he was determined to show me that it was copying someone else, when i loved Fugazi's first 3 years, he put on Gang Of Four

Weather Report

There are no record stores by me and I’m too young to have had access to one. This is just a reminder to SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL RECORD STORES if you have one. Thank you

When I was growing up in Chicago, there was this record store wayyy on the NW side called “Rolling Stone Records” (This was circa 1996 and I was about 13 at the time)

They had imports and all sort of random records - They used to have these listening stations where you could listen to CDs that the employees would pick out and put in there.

I was a big fan of industrial rock (NIN, Stabbing Westward, etc..) which was all the rage at the time and one of the employees pointed me to this album that had just come out by this band “VAST - Visual Audio Sensory Theater”

I popped on the headphones and listened to it and it ended up becoming one of my all-time favorites.

The first song has this minute-long orchestral intro - I looked up at the guy like “wtf is this?” and he tells me to just wait…then it drops into this crunchy power riff, I was digging it, but then I move on to the next track, which was “Touched” and bought the CD there and then.

(For those who weren’t around back then, buying a CD was a big deal for kids with no money, you only invested in CDs that you knew were gonna listen to 1000 times because they were ~$15 each which would be like $30 now)

I still listen to a few of the songs periodically, but that recommendation stands out for me.

In the 1990s I went in to HMV, and said "I liked Oasis' first and second albums, but I'm not big on the new one. What'd you recommend?"

I walked out with The Stone Roses and never looked back.

"You like hardcore? Try this" - Angry Samoans - Back from Samoa best recommendation I ever got.

I was slowly getting into rock and metal when I was about 12 years old. I liked Alice Cooper, Ozzy Osbourne, Queen, Megadeth, Guns and Roses etc. When I went to the music shop, there was a guy who actually came over and asked me what I was interested in. I mentioned Metallica and he sorta smiled, said my parents can buy that album for me for christmas. Then he put an album (CD) in my hand…

Odyssey by Yngwie Malmsteen.

When Rising Force started to play, my mind was literally blown away. That year I begged my parents to get me a guitar!

Music store employees led me to Sun Ra and Col Bruce Hampton, and that music completely changed my life. Bummer that that is so rare now.

I was 18 in the late 90’s and was hired at an indie record shop. Played in punk bands and was then given the opportunity to curate our punk/hardcore section. Still one of my fondest memories was turning people onto things I thought were cool. Saves The Day’s “Can’t Slow Down”, Lifetime’s “Jersey’s Best Dancer’s”, and NOFX’s “The Decline” were all new releases around then. Would always love when people came back to say they liked something I recommended them. Ahh the 90’s.

Encore Records in Kitchener, Ontario. 1990. The couple that ran that store always had top notch recommendations. The best record shop I have ever set foot in. Queen Street location was absolute heaven.

Yep. Mastodon’s Leviathan.

Not a recommendation, but once in 2006 I was in a record store with a friend, who was taking a long time thoroughly perusing the used DVD section, and the store was playing (what I later learned was) Arctic Monkey's first album in full. I'd never heard of them, and when we walked in "I Bet That You Look Good on the Dancefloor" was playing. I thought, what is this awful, trashy punk noise??

But as the album went on, each song got better and better, and by the time "Red Light Indicates Doors are Secured" came on, I had to go up to the counter to find out who it was and what aisle I could find the CD in. Been a massive fan ever since. All except "Dancefloor."

Back in the 80’s I was an expat in China for several years, where it was very hard to keep up with new music. On occasional trips to Hong Kong, I would stock up on cds, but it was hard to know what to buy. On one trip the kid at the store recommended The Smiths. Mind blown. I still listen to them all the time.

Dude who ran this tiny little local record store turned me onto some great shit over the years including Big Star, Spacemen 3, 13th Floor Elevators and I think Suicide, though I think I may have gone in looking for Suicide and he just happened to actually have it. I wouldn't go into the major chain stores looking for music recommedations, but this guy was cool as hell. He told me a story about being at a party with Gene Clark from the Byrds one time, but he was too drunk to go up and talk to him, and after that he quit alcohol. And yeah, he just ran this tiny little record store where he carried lots of metal and obscure alternative stuff like I mentioned above. He would take the c.d.'s out the packaging and throw it on the stereo in the store for you to listen to before buying. Great dude. I hope he's still doing alright.

I used to hang out at the local music store in my teenage years. The staff were all band members in the local scene. I remember one day walking in and one of the guys tells me to wait and heads to the back and cranks up the music and plays the first song off Wiseblood by Corrosion of Conformity. When it kicks in I was sold and became a huge COC fan. They also recommended alot of other stoner/metal bands but that's one that stuck out with me. I still get pumped when King Of the Rotten kicks in.

I’ll try this one day. Very spontaneous

This thread reminds me of High Fidelity: "I will now sell five copies of "The Three EPs" by The Beta Band."

Love The Bad Plus! You've heard their cover of Comfortably Numb with Wendly Lewis, yes?

Dog faced boy - Eels.

Opeth- Blackwater Park

Newbury Comics in Massachusetts was still an actual music store and there was one near my work so I got to know a couple of the guys. Saw I was into metal and prog and correctly guessed I would dig that.

Yes when Blockbuster Music was a thing. L7- Bricks are Heavy, still a good album.

Lol this still happens to me. I like my physical copies of certain novies/albums/whatever.

The local vinyl store special ordered a bunch of REALLY obscure chili peppers stuff for me as a GIFT once because I spent a good chunk of time/money there.

But yeeeears ago being told to listen to king crimson by a guy at a completely different store was pretty fucking good. I was like "how did I not know this? This is like... exactly what I want"

I grew up outside Toronto, and there used to be a music store in Orangeville called Hardcore Soundz. I used to make the treck there every month or so for new music. They would always have recommended albums on the wall that changed regularly and I got into a lot of cool bands from their recs. One time they were playing Ctrl Alt Delete by Missing 23rd, which I loved and bought. They also recommended I pick up For Dancing and Listening by Guns 'n' Wankers and I was able to pick up a promo copy of AFI's Art of Drowning.

When I bought Refused's The Shape of Punk to Come they told me about The (International) Noise conspiracy and The Hives. Basically, I never left that place empty handed and I still listen to those albums to this day.

I did but they were also friends whose judgement I trusted. The rec was Widespread Panic's Space Wrangler. One of the employees loaned me his personal cassette tape to try out for a week and I was hooked, bought it soon after.

Stooges Funhouse

I didn’t ask for a recommendation but the guy at the store I frequented recommended me genesis’ “the lamb lies down on broadway” just based off the records he knew I owned and enjoyed and it definitely changed me, it was my first experience with early genesis and now I am a huge genesis fan and saw them live last year and it pushed me more towards playing keys and synths because of the amazing Tony Banks!

I was that guy at the record store that could recommend anything for anyone in any genre. Like Sinatra? Try Buble. Like Slayer? Try Savatage. Like the Art of Noise? Try Herbee Hancock. Like Marley? Try Peter Tosh. Like John McClaughlin? Try the Friday Night in San Francisco record. etc...etc...etc...

My favorite memory was this little old man, probably long sense dead, who came up to me, apologetically, and handed me a CD he had just purchased for his wife. He said that they couldn't get it to play. I said okay...what does it do when you put it in the machine? And he said that the needle just slides all the way across. I looked at him and asked "Needle?"

And he said yes...and told me that he came in a couple of nights before asking about a song his wife liked and the sales person gave him that silver record. I had to explain that he didn't have a vinyl record but instead had a new technology called a CD and he needed an old technology called a 45. I then asked him...didn't you think that $16 was a bit much to pay for a $2 record? and he said yes but figured that because it was silver that it was a collectible.

In like 2001 or 02 or so i mentioned to a guy at FYE that i really liked blink 182 and he handed me a MCR cd

my life was never the same

I told the local record store shop I liked Black Sabbath 1-4, ac/dc, and “weird punk.” They handed me Zappa’s Apostrophe (‘). As a small child that was mind-bending

I used to go into HMV as a rural white kid around 12 years old and buy all the latest rap albums regardless of who they were. I'd then sell them for a 100% markup to the rich sheltered kid in elementary school for a tidy profit. The HMV employees would usually try to intervene and steer me toward cleaner rap like Jurassic 5.

never. What I would do is go and buy compellation CDs which was a pretty big thing for Metal. Found so much music that I went on to go and buy the artists albums.

Budget Tapes and Records, Idaho Falls ID. Went in high school with some buddies 3 or 4 times a summer from our tiny ass hick town to the “big city” (35k at the time, 70k now…)

Said “I don’t want any country music shit like everyone else in my town, and I hate New Kids on the Block, what should I listen to?”

Kid hands me “Mother’s Milk” by RHCP on cassette and off I went to discover alt rock, punk, ska, and all sorts of music way better than country or pop. So wish I could thank that kid today.

I worked at a record store in the early 90s. A teenage ballerina and her mother came in looking for nontraditional music for a dance recital. So it needed to be danceable, suitable for classical ballet and unique.

I suggested the Balanescu Quartet – Possessed. An avant-garde string quartet covering Kraftwerk. They thought it was perfect and thanked me profusely. It was very satisfying to know of just the right thing.

Way back in the day - Roxy Music.

A guy at Spec's Music (in Miami) showed us Refused-Fanning the Flames of Discontent AND told us about a show they were playing, a few months hence. It turned out to be one of the craziest pits I have ever been in, and that was 16 year old me in that pit. When they started to play 'Hook, Line and Sinker' a fight broke put like right next to me and it didn't ever get broken up and eventually it was just part of the show and people were like running over guys still punching each other. It was nuts.

In 2003, an employee at a small record store introduced me to Opeth, and it changed my musical taste forever.

Everon, Fantasma.

Chris DeBurgh, Into the light.

Pain of Salvation, The Perfect Element.

Also, I need to point that Marco, the owner of the store, had this wonderful technique to open a cd without damaging the plastic cover of the case, extracting the disc and let you listen to it. Then he would put it back, glue the cover and you would never know the disc had been open before.

A friend of mine worked at a record store while we were in high school. When de-loused in the comatorium by Mars Volta came out she says to me "listen to this shit you'll dig it". That was a quality purchase.

For me it was Myth Takes by !!! and Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters by The Twilight Sad, both based on their covers.

I was buying a Medicine album from a used CD store and the guy told me to check out My Bloody Valentine. I’d heard of them before from a young lady I briefly dated, but I never tried them out.

I eventually picked up Loveless and it’s stayed in the rotation for almost 30 years.

Yes major Matt mason.

I was studying in Buenos Aires and walked into a second-hand record store one evening. I liked what was playing and asked the two guys at the counter who it was. They looked at me like I was from another planet. They spent the next 30 minutes explaining to me who Gustavo Cerati was, what happened to him (he was still in a coma at the time), why he was important, and why Bocanada was his best work. I left with that album and have loved it ever since.

No recommendations. The people who worked at record stores were pretentious assholes. You didn't talk to them or ask questions. Just quietly pay and get the fuck out. That was my experience at record stores

Never done that, but I sometimes grab random CDs (usually based entirely on cover art) at libraries. I tend to enjoy folk.

I really enjoyed:

No Mermaid - Sinéad Lohan

Roll the Bones [X] - Shakey Graves

Wary + Strange - Amythyst Kiah

Monterey - The Milk Carton Kids

Fox Confessor Brings the Flood - Neko Case

Rat A Tat Tat - Jason Collett

Radiohead

I got the first album by the Deftones, Adrenaline, on the day it was released thanks to a recommend by an employee at The Heavy Metal Shop in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Still my favorite Deftones record and something that instantly time-warps me back to high school when I hear it. I can remember exactly where I was the first time I listened to it all the way through.

Music Millennium was the place in Portland for me when I was a young trumpet player interested in jazz, funk, classical and blues. At one of their stores they dedicated about half of the space to classical only and staffed the place with people who knew music. I asked a lot of questions and got a lot of advice, there were so many discoveries. I built up a nice collection of CDs and most of them were recommendations from employees.

Went into a store to buy the Scar Tissue single walked out with the Californication album. No regrets. Sales guy convinced me to jump in feet first. Stopped buying singles after that, just jumped in for albums.

My thing was walking into this one local record shop where I live and hearing stuff I really liked…..then asking the workers who it was.

I still listen to tons of artists I got into that way.

I still get into artists that way but not as much. It’s still happened occasionally at restaurants (asking the waiter what artist is playing or the modern version…Shazamming it).

I had that all the time. In the 70’s I started my interest in electronic music. Kraftwerk was a thing, Klaus Schultze started Timewind and so on. In the nearby city here was a record store, run by guys that were very well into that same scene. I used to go visit about once a month and they always gave me a few records that they knew would interest me. So I would spend the next few hours in the back of the store, listening to brand new music. Got my self quite a collection from those visits.

Enya

I went to buy some drum sticks at a music store and cashier recommended Hiatus Kaiyote.

This was maybe 2016 or 2017…lol still something anyone can do.

Bad Plus is dooooope. Ethan Iverson is such an under-appreciated pianist imo.

My cringelord 11 year old self liked Creed and asked my local record store guy for stuff like it. He basically roasted my ass and was like “dude listen to ACTUAL grunge.” I walked out with Alice in Chains’ Jar of Flies and Dirt and never looked back lol

An employee at Karl Graf Records and Tapes, way back in the day, suggested a new group that had just came out. He had the 8-Track with this great looking skeletal mascot on the front. I bought it and fell in love with Paul D’ianno and Iron Maiden.

The Pillage by Cappadonna. This was in like 2008 or so

I was buying a Tori Amos and NIN CD, started a conversation with the clerk checking me out and we were talking about Tori. Her eyes get wide as saucers and says "You will LOVE Portishead!". I never heard of the band and just kind of gave her the "Yea, I'll be sure to check it out." Thinking she was just trying to upsell me.

Fast forward to a few months later and they made an appearance on SNL and I was absolutely hooked! She was right. The very next morning I went out and bought both CD's (sadly, she wasn't there).

Oh, I miss music stores so much. I used to spend some of my free evenings just hanging out at the local music store. That was my forum. I'd stay in there for a couple of hours at a time just discussing music with the workers.

I don't recall them ever recommending anything, specifically, because it was usually I recommending music to them, ironically.

The record shop I loved was run by two guys who played some kind of weird European industrial dub all the time. It was unlistenable shit, but I think they took a perverse pleasure in never playing anything that any of their customers would ever have heard of.

Loved the shop, but would never in a million years have taken a recommendation from the staff there.

I worked at one of these stores. Paid like shit and you were literally constantly on your feet but man, I loved it. Discussing films and music with people…

To answer OP, I was really into Sigur Ros at the time

Well this was obviously more recent but my husband went into his favorite record store and when he walked in the owner was like “do you like hardcore? Do you like 311?” And recommended Turnstile Nonstop Feeling

Didnt ask but when i was 18 or so, my record store owner gave me “The who live at Leeds” for free and only requested, “I play it loud”

I probably sold 100 copies of Portishead “Dummy” when I did the music retail gig.

Mid 70's - Patti Smith - Horses

Cake - Comfort Eagle

Still in my rotation 20 years later

Used to hang out at the Downtown Music Gallery in NYC and while sifting through albums/CDs one day. They put onJohn Martyn - Solid Air and by the 3rd song, I had to ask "who is this"? I listened until the end and then bought the CD they played as it was their only copy... Great Album, Great Artist! It is still one of my favorite background albums but I could just as easily listen to it while driving or working.

A country album I can't even remember who it was I think it might have been dolly. At that point I had been listening to either hardcore rap or heavy metal. But I also am a singer you can't sing those things. Country opened up a wall for me that I could just sit at home and sing and sing because it does so good to clear your spirit even if you don't sing well just pressing all that breath in and out. So I realized I rather listen to songs that I could sing. Plus now I'm old and all that stuff sounds like it would make me have a headache 😭🤣

Most of the work I did to find new stuff was to find artist I enjoyed and check other bands the artist and production staff may be involved with. Check liner notes for any thanks or shout outs.

As a worker at an indie record shop in college I knew what most of our regular customers were into. I would watch the section new customers were looking at an throw something on the stereo I thought would fit. About 1/2 the time they would buy the album if they didn't already own it.

Edit: Your jazz story makes me think of two bands you should check out.

Galactic is a funk jam band with some great grooves.

Coolbone has changed over to Dixieland and Big Band jazz but started as a brass band playing live R&B and Jazz samples with both rapping and singing, their first album is called 'Brass-Hop'.

No, but I did have a guy at the record store say to me when I bought, what would become my fav album of all time (and still is) "ah yeah, it's just more of that thing where its quiet and then they get loud"

Black Market Brass.

High end record store. Back in the '90s. Not just records, audiophile stuff. I'm talking marantz, macintosh, limited edition tech 12s, grundig. That kind of stuff. And wall to wall wax.

Long silver haired dude pretty much just hung out in the place and listened to records all day. Personality-wise, he was kind of a prick. Pretentious as all hell.

Anyway, I tried loitering there. He didn't really have it, but he didn't kick me out. I was his fly buzzing around asking all kinds of jackassy questions.

He introduced me to Sun-ra. Space is the place. Mr bungle's Disco volante. And John Zorn. The naked city release. The residents and the mole trilogy. And that sent me down a lifelong rabbit hole.

Yes! It’s called the Exclusive Company and one of the few surviving music shops. I used to love going there. I asked the employee what to get and he asked me do you want super popular or kind of indie. I said “popular I guess?” He said Jagged Little Pill will be one of the biggest albums ever. He was right. I still have it twenty years later.

Not exactly the same scenario as your question poses, but I like to try out albums based solely on the album art. No idea who the band is or even the genre, but it has cool album art I'll give it a listen. That's how I discovered Rilo Kiley's "Under the Blacklight." Never could get into their other stuff but that album was good all the way through.

When I was in Japan, I asked the employee for a random record. I got a band named Princess Princess, and actually loved it.

I'm not Japanese.

Two come to mind: Special Ed, and Company Flow, if anyone is in the mood for real hip hop. Its oldschool though, with Special Ed being really old school

For me it was when I did a road trip in Norway. Just picked up our rental car and found out the radio channels were shite. So in Oslo I went into a cd store and bought Slim Cessna’s Auto Club the Unentitled album. It is a great album. Loved it from the beginning and had it on a log during that trip. I also went to a live concert they had in Amsterdam a few years ago.

I'm 43 years old and the best job I've ever had was being a manager in a record store in my late teens. I made sure to hire an ecclectic group of people; particularly a person who identified with each major genre of music. The wrapper was working hand in hand with the Mohawked punk rocker. The musical conversations daily were reminiscent of barber shop arguments about who the best boxer was. When people came in looking for something, we as the people working there were each an encyclopedia of good music. Even though we were a corporate store we played whatever we wanted to over the loud speakers. We would bet each other on who could sell out of an unknown artist first. Its things like this that future generations will miss out on when it comes to buying or listening to new music. I miss those days.

I was at the record store one day and the guy behind the counter was playing Filastine - Burn It. It was so dope that I bought the copy he was playing.

I sort of miss those days, going in every Friday to see what music was new.

There was a Sam The Record Man in my Canadian city that had a fully soundproofed glasses off section of jazz and classical. They’d be playing bestselling top 40 music out front but once you passed those back room doors you were immersed in Charlie Parker or one of the Marsalis family or something from New Orleans.

Tower Records used to have listening stations playing a preselected set of CDs. The one that blew my mind and make my insta-buy it was the album Dirt Track Date by Southern Culture on the Skids.

I opened for the bad plus right before the pandemic. Really great live performances!

Always went to music stores / hot topic when visiting the us from germany. Even a random mall hot topic would have CDs Id never get for a reasonable price at home. One time the cashier looked at my cds (story of the year / thrice / stuff like that) and asked if I ever heard of "brand new". He said something like "This record is tearing my soul apart".

Ended up sitting in a park close to central square and listening to degausser on a rainy day, just looking at the skyscapers while my friends were playing a magic tournament. Amazing record.

In the 2000s an employee at the Langley A&B Sound put this young man onto Spoon and Blonde Redhead

I’m too young for this experience. And I don’t have a record player so going to a record store is a moot point. But I’m here for all the music recommendations!

I just did. Was looking at Justin Townes Earl album, Saint of Lost Causes and owner said that if I like JTE, I should give a listen to Gob Iron. Never heard of them. Opened me up to huge rabbit hole of great music that I've never heard of or thought I would like. If ever around Wheaton, IL, check out Mile Long Records. Small.i dependent. Great store and owner

Pantera. Cowboys From Hell

The day I walked into my record store for some kind of AOR and "London Calling" by the Clash was on. That started a journey.

I never asked for one but the one I frequented 02-05 had staff who knew what I was into and would toss out a rec on occasion. A couple that come to mind quickly : Buck 65 - Man Overboard, Ethel Duath - The Painter's Palette, Radiation 4 - Wonderland On top or that I was always checking out the section that had employee picks and I know I discovered a few artists and albums that way.

In 1981, I heard my first Rush song on the radio. Tom Sawyer. I was 13. Took my allowance to Listening Booth, picked up Moving Pictures, and proceeded to the check out. Dude behind the counter recommend 2112. I said "sure". I have never been the same since.

The teller noticed my mouth was open when I walked in and he had on the turntable an album spinning from a folk duo from Hawaii called These Trails.

Put out one album in '73. Amazing fantastic and otherworldly. An original pressing goes for thousands.

A desert album for me. I tell everyone about it

In the mid 70s I felt like I needed to hear something "different". I asked the guy in a record shop and he took me to the Brian Eno section. I chose Another Green World, took it to my grandma's house and dropped the needle on Sky Saw down in her basement on an old massive record player console - life changed.

Not really but my friend stole a Megadeth album without knowing who they are. That’s how I got introduced to megadeth

When traveling through Waterbury CT on business I would always stop at Brass City Records and ask the proprietor for recommendations. Got turned on to the likes of Orbital, Psychick Warriors Ov Gaia, System 7, and many more. Still listening!

Did that at Full Moon record store in 1974 and the band he turned me in to was Supertramp

And Here We Test Our Powers of Observation is the sickest track off that album. It’s as if the pianist, Ethan Iverson, is able to independently operate each hemisphere of his brain. Highly recommend.

I remember getting turned onto a band called [Screaming Headless Torsos] (https://youtu.be/8nHc5oqbFyw) that has such an unbelievably funky sound. Plus [Jojo Mayer] (https://youtu.be/Fd6_NR-nZsM) on drums, who is just a god. Damn. Stud.

Lyrics Born - Same Shit Different Day

Driving across country in the mid 2000s and stopped in Bloomington, IN. Walking around near the university and stepped into a record store. Michael Franti had a new release out and I asked the clerk if it was any good. She said, “Meh, it’s kinda cheesy. You should get this.” She was not mistaken.

Early Portugal. The Man

"Fat music for fat people." It was one of those fat wreck chords compilation disks. Got me away from the "radio friendly unit shifter" mentality.

There was a small store in Lanceston, Tasmania, i believe called Foggy Mountain Music. I was just scratching the surface of country/bluegrass music, and went in just to take a look around. Started talking to the owner who recommended some Alison Krauss and Union Station, absolutely fell in love with the music and am ever thankful for his taking the time to share his love of the genre with me.

Our local music shop guy turned me on to Michael Franks. Def worth a listen.

I was mainly a heavy metal kid in the late eighties early nineties and would buy anything and everything they came out, so I was at the record store constantly. Guy that worked there handed me a tape on day and said that it wasn’t my style but to give it a listen, he said that they were a great band but it was going to be the only album since the lead singer had passed away, and that’s how I discovered my favorite band of all time - Mother Love Bone. A year later he gives me a bootleg copy of a tape by some of the former band members who were now calling themselves “Mookie Blaylock” which would then turn into Pearl Jam.

You got upvotes at the Bad Plus. We are … connected.

They never did to me what is described in the title, but I was one time very surprised; I was in the local music store buying a CD of Jean Michel Jarre (aero) and a week before he gave a concert in Denmark which was a disaster because of the rainy wheater and the clerk started talking about this, he was 23 or so. Not many people around that time (it must be around 2005) of his age knew the music of JmJ....

Was into classic rock and asked the old hippie guy what to get when I was young and he introduced me to The Yardbirds - Roger the engineer. So good

20 years ago that's how i discovered trivium. The roadrunner all stars had just come out and the dude at the store was going crazy about this whiz kid that was one of the primary songwriters on the record.

Shortly entering 40 and i still love trivium.

Reel Big Fish

I discovered The Bad Plus-Prog at a library book sale. It just looked interesting. $1. Now a life fan.

A clerk told me about the first slipknot album. That shit was out of this world when it came out.

Bad Plus are awesome! Their cover of Aphex Twin’s “Flim” was always a personal favorite

Wax Trax in Denver 1983 - picked up Husker Du’s Everything Falls Apart on the recommendation of the woman at the register (who was the coolest-scariest woman I’d ever seen). Fundamentally changed my musical life. Still have that LP.

In a record shop many years ago I asked the guy behind the counter for an album recommendation, regardless of genre or style or anything else. I just wanted something to listen to, really. He told me it had to be Goat by the Jesus Lizard. And yeah, he was right.