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Sunday Records, 2022.

It’s early June and I’m in the middle of eleven days off from work. I cannot tell you how stunning these last few weeks have been for me. For the first time in a long time I’ve been feeling great about many things. I have been at the top of my game. Relaxed, tranquil, and level like never before. I went to Sacred Bones’ 15th Anniversary and experienced a feeling like no other. I’ve met a few friends from the alternative-music circle whom I haven’t seen in years. I’ve been tasked to do an amazing amount of summer radio shows at WUSB. The Roman goth girl who’ve I’ve been in contact with since February taught me to face my fears, to not be afraid of bad news, and see the greatest, truest value in people. It’s not even halfway to June and I feel something great is yet to happen.

I’ve been spending money on music without worry. It’s a winner-take-all tour of Long Island’s record stores and at this point I’ve hit up three so far with astonishing results. Sunday Records would be my fourth on the list to visit and it had to be. It’s my only Sunday off in the foreseeable future and, still true to its name, only opens on that one day. I didn’t have a choice, did I? It took me only 30 minutes to get there and closing time was 5PM. It’s 2PM as I walked through those doors so I had three hours to Autobahn it through the entire store. No shelf or rack was left unsifted by me.

The layout of Sunday Records hasn’t changed one bit. Nothing’s re-arranged. Upper wall racks of 7” singles and 45’s hovered above the 12” vinyl bins. There was a maze of LP’s front to back, side to side, and in the middle. What also hasn’t changed was the owner’s system of classifying records unique to the store. If not a genre, it’s chart position, week, and radio station. Brian (the owner) was obsessive to detail and nostalgic like that. Then again, so am I.

There’s a section on the front left side of the entrance. It’s where the electronic, dusty classics, and un-priced arrivals sections were. Less than .01% of its stock was electronic and I sure wasn’t going to waste time sifting through Fifties and Sixties jazz greats. I just knew. I turn to my right and there were plenty of funk, groove, and R&B LP’s and 12” singled there. I looked under the bins and there were boxes of records not priced out. That’s where I found various hip-hop and rap singles, uncharacteristic for a store that specialized in vintage jazz, Seventies radio rock, and everything Eighties. It was all fair game and I took what I could. Unstickered singles by Black Moon, Big Daddy Kane, Kurtis Blow, Jeru The Damaja, Fu-Schnickens, Double XX Posse, and an early pre-fame DMX e.p. (“Born Loser”). I knew Brian wasn’t the type who was into West Coast jams or boombox anthems and made me think why he took them in the first place. No matter. It was a lucky out for someone like me to easily stock up on hip-hop and rap vinyl.

Now the 45’s. Sunday Records was always good with pricing them on the cheap. What I purchased in 7” singles from West Babylon’s Looney Tunes, I tripled that here. These 7” singles of Eighties hits from my Atari / Nintendo childhood meant not having to purchase full albums for one or two songs. Why not acquire them? Plenty of synth-pop, new wave, and pop rock. One 7” I might have passed up the last time around was Re-Flex’ “The Politics Of Dancing”. The single that gave me these Sunday vibes was finally in my hands. This visit’s surprises? Gary Numan’s “I Die: You Die” b/w “Down In The Park” and Killing Joke’s “Adorations” for $4.00. Then I came across The Normal’s “T.V. OD” b/w “Warm Leatherette” The good news was that I discovered it. The bad news? It was a $14.00 hit…and without an original artwork sleeve. The price you pay to take home synthpop history.

When that was over, I took a deep breathe and dove into all the vinyl inventory. The great thing about Brian was that almost nothing was out of place. He’s incredibly meticulous in that everything was in alphabetical order and with almost nothing in the wrong bin. Also with Looney Tunes, a good amount of records were alphabetized or sorted by artist, allowing me to fly right over large chunks of sections and straight to the others. What wasn’t hip-hop / rap and categorized by chart position, week, and radio station ended up on the lesser expensive side. Like the 45’s, I sped through furiously through the LP bins and acquired a lot of hits from my childhood. A recent discovery now in my hands? Captain Sensible’s “Wot” for $5.00.

And what I made up in value, I would lose later with some essential finds. That’s even avoiding the new vinyl section. Towards the end of searching was where it started to hurt. The least of my worries? The Cars’ Panorama for $8.00. The Shirts’ debut and Anti-Nowhere League’s The Perfect Crime for $9.00 each. But that’s not all. I found essentials in The Young Gods and Pere Ubu where it stopped at the $10.00.

Now the heavy stuff. No one remembers or know who The Innocent was. The Roman goth girl I mentioned earlier? She’s insanely obsessed with Tent Reznor. While doing a Nine Inch Nails run, I learned he was part of said band right after leaving Option 30. The Innocent’s only album was found in one of the bins and I grabbed it for $14.00. Had I not known about them, I would’ve zipped past it without even knowing. One album I passed up during my last record-store tour was Cabaret Voltaire’s The Crackdown. I found it twice in unopened condition for $20.00 at several stores and gave it up at least twice, thinking I could l buy it for less. Well, four years later I was right on that one. I finally found it again and for $14.00 opened I wasn’t going to pass it up a second time. While there, Sunday Records still maintained a good selection of other industrial and related releases. They had more Cabaret Voltaire records including The Pressure Company (!) and even the new ones (Shadow Of Fear and Dekadrone) which I was impressed that Brian carried. Front 242 e.p.’s were also in the bins and several Ministry records starting with Work For Love (the overseas pressing of With Sympathy), some Twitch-era singles, and all the way up to Psalm 69.

Here comes another unexpected hit in the kneecaps: Kraftwerk’s The Man-Machine for $20.00. Any time I buy Kraftwerk on vinyl I pay that price; nothing less. That’s how much I paid for a used copy of Radio-Aktivitat at a record fair held in Amityville’s veteran hall. Again, take no chances. Finally, a record that I hoped to find in the wild because it was so good: The Raveonettes’ Pe’ahi; $20.00 asking price. Decisions had to be made but not necessarily now. I held on to it for the time being, having to decide to take it now or pass it up and find it again somewhere else for less. Looks like I will take my chances.

It’s not an understatement when I say this, but 99.99% of Sunday’s stock was all vinyl. The other .01% were used cassettes and CDs placed right near its listening station at the front-right of the entrance. I passed it all up as nothing there interested me. So far, Sunday- is the only store where it was all vinyl.

Ten minutes to closing. It’s about time to make some decisions. Brian greeted me and started counting everything up. Of the 75 I had in my arms, I gave five back to him including the Raveonettes album. He was amazed. He tried selling it back to me because he also knew it was a great album. Oh, I agreed. But as I told each and every one of you, I held off just in case. His laptop lost its’ juice so there was no easy way for him to add it all up and keep track of what he sold me. He ended up taking photos of everything I bought and took him about a good fifteen minutes to calculate it all. Then I gave in. I’d take the Raveonettes’ album after all. Take no chances, right?

“You should come here more often!” he told me in an exasperated manner. “Really?” I laughed. It’s not every year that I do this, Brian. I’d try real hard to keep up if I did. Now I knew why he said that.

“That’ll come to $348.00”. Yikes. That was at least triple of what I spent at my last visit here. I was sweating like Rodney Dangerfield on his worst night. (Plot twist: he never had one.) Despite Brian giving me all the hip-hop records for $20.00, the other records made up for it. No coupons, either. But, I had all the confidence in the suburbs to spend with no worry. The stack was so hefty that Brian got me a box from the back to hold all the 12” records in and bagged all of my 45’s so that they wouldn’t slip out of position. I was relieved in the end to nail that Sunday like I wanted to. But the day wasn’t over yet.

After I thanked Brian for everything, I loaded my purchase in the trunk. I had plans on seeing Candy, a Jewish ginger whom I haven’t seen since we left Brentwood. She has a family-owned restaurant out in Calverton and I promised I’d visit the next time I was nearby. I went west on Route 25 and started the peaceful, sunny journey to her eatery. It’s not every day I’m out in Riverhead or Calverton. I took all the time in the world driving through the scenic route of vast farmland and sparse local businesses along the long, quiet roads; ready to catch up with her and walk down a beautiful but bittersweet and tattered memory lane.

Prince: “1999” b/w “How Come U Don’t Call” 7”

Re-Flex: “The Politics Of Dancing” b/w “Flex It” 7”

Normal, The: “TV Overdose” b/w “Warm Leatherette” 7”

Gary Numan: “I Die: You Die” b/w “Down In The Park” 7”

Pet Shop Boys: “It’s A Sin” b/w “You Know Where You Went Wrong” 7”

Robert Palmer: “Simply Irresistible” b/w “Nova” 7”

Pet Shop Boys: “What Have I Done To Deserve This” b/w “A New Life” 7”

Bananarama: “Cruel Summer” 7”

Belinda Carlisle: “Heaven Is A Place On Earth” 7”

Dead Or Alive: “Brand New Lover” 7”

Joan Jett: “Little Liar” 7”

Killing Joke: “Adorations” b/w “Exile” 7”

Mike & The Mechanics: “Silent Running (On Dangerous Ground) b/w “Par Avion” 7”

Tone Loc: “Funky Cold Medina” 7”

Suzanne Vega: “Luka” 7”

Human League: “Don’t You Want Me” b/w “Seconds” 7”

Escape Club: “Wild Wild West b/w “We Can Run” 7”

Erasure: “Chains Of Love” b/w “Don’t Suppose” 7”

Don Henley: “All She Wants To Do Is Dance” b/w “Building The Perfect Beast” 7”

Starship: “We Built This City” b/w “Private Room” (ins.) 7”

Todd Rundgren: “Hello It’s Me” b/w “Cold Morning Light” 7”

Huey Lewis: “Stuck With You” b/w “Don’t Ever Tell Me That You Love Me” 7”

Stevie Winwood: “The Finer Things” 7”

Wings: “With A Little Luck” b/w “Backwards” 7”

Robert Palmer: “Addicted To Love” b/w “Let’s Fall In Love Tonight” 7”

Bananarama: “Venus” b/w “White Train” 7”

Joan Jett: “I Hate Myself For Loving You” 7”

Mike & The Mechanics: “Through The Living Years” b/w “Too Many Friends” 7”

Stevie Winwood: “Higher Love” 7”

Don Henley: “Dirty Laundry” b/w “Lilah” 7”

J.J. Fad: “Supersonic” 12”

Black Moon: “I Got Cha Opin” b/w “Reality” 12”

Big Daddy Kane: Raw ‘91 12”

Kurtis Blow: “If I Ruled The World” 12”

Jeru The Damaja: “Come Clean” b/w “D. Original Dirty Rotten Scoundrel” 12”

Fu-Schnickens: “Ring The Alarm” 12”

Young MC: “Bust A Move” 12”

Chaka Khan: “Crush Groove (Can’t Stop The Street)” 12”

Big Daddy Kane: “I Get The Job Done” 12”

Double XX Posse, The: “not Gonna Be Able To Do It” b/w “The Pure Thing” 12”

Domino: “Sweet Potato Pie” 12”

Masta Ace Incorporated: “Jeep Ass Niguh” b/w “Saturday Night Live” 12”

Fonda Rae: “Over Like A Fat Rat” 12”

River Ocean ft. India: The Tribal EP

Grandmaster & Melle Mel: “White Lines” b/w “Melle Mel’s Groove” 12”

DMX: “Born Loser” 12”

Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five: “On The Strength” 12”

Anti Nowhere League, The: The Perfect Crime 12”

Mr. Mister: “Is It Love b/w “Broken Wings” 12”

Thompson Twins: “Lies” 12”

Roxette: “The Look” 12”

T’Pau: “Heart And Soul” 12”

Dire Straits: Extended Dance EP 12”

Flora Purim: “Stories To Tell” 12”

Raveonettes, The: Pe’Ahi 12”

Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark: “If You Leave” b/w “La Femme Accident” 12”

Nu Shooz: “Point Of No Return” 12”

Falco: “Vienna Calling” b/w “Rock Me Amadeus” 12”

Shirts, The: self-titled 12”

Belinda Carlisle: “I Get Weak” 12”

Captain Sensible: “Wot!” 12”

Young Gods, The: self-titled 12”

Men Without Hats: “The Safety Dance” 12”

Level 42: “Something About You” 12”

Killing Joke: “Sanity” b/w “Eighties” 12”

Pere Ubu: The Art Of Walking 12”

Kraftwerk: The Man-Machine 12”

Innocent, The: Livin’ In The Street 12”

XBXRX: Gop Ist Minee 12”

Cabaret Voltaire: The Crackdown 12”

Cars, The: Panorama 12”

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