Bop Street Records to Curate Vinyl Selection for Wayward Bellevue
If you happen across our Wayward Bellevue location in the near future, you’ll notice some new additions to our offering of cherished vintage goods. We are pleased to have recently partnered with renowned Seattle record shop, Bop Street Records, to bring a highly-curated selection of revolving vinyl onto the shop floor.
These LPs have been carefully selected and vetted by Bop Street Records, located in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle, WA. Founded in 1974, Bop Street is recognized among the top record stores in America by The Wall Street Journal (“One of the 5 best stores”) and USA Today (“One of the 10 great stores”). Each of these LPs is an original or early pressing and is a vibrant example of its musical genre.
Bop Street hand-picked these selections, then carefully vetted each visually for imperfections under their store’s highly revealing lighting, made from rare-earth minerals. Then, each record was subjected to a play-test on advanced audio equipment to make sure it meets Bop Street’s exacting standards. Only those LPs that survive this gauntlet of visual and audio examination are qualified by Bop Street for sale at Wayward or in their store. Finally, the records are washed on professional record-cleaning machines and encased in custom-made audiophile sleeves to preserve the vinyl’s qualities. The results of this time-intensive process are LPs in their original or early pressings that reveal the authentic life-like musical performance each of these superb artists truly intended.
We caught up with Bop Street founder, Dave Voorhees, to learn a bit more about how he got started, what he looks for in rare vinyl, and how Bop Street has become such a wild success in recent years.
How and when did Bop Street start? How many iterations of the shop have there been throughout the years?
What are some of the rarest and most precious LPs you’ve come across in your thirty years of dealing?
You position yourselves as more of a specialty shop, catering to collectors with studied musical knowledge. That being said, has the recent resurgence of vinyl amongst modern enthusiasts affected Bop Street much?
What in-store experience has stuck with you the most over the years?
We hear you used to be a DJ…. tell us a bit more about that!
What gets you jazzed about coming in every day?
