Celebrating National Record Store Day: Employees at Houses of the Holy

and also you can go on tour and stuff, and record stores are pretty lenient with you leaving if you need to.

I think it offers a little getaway that you can come to as long as you want to, and invest your time to kind of get away from the world. Records — which are the old vinyl discs — I think there is just something so precious about them. How big the artwork is, and what era they were made in, and the design.

Patrick O’Dell

Employee: Elvin Estella Band/DJ: Blank Blue. “I’m also known as DJ Nobody, and I make instrumental hip-hop.” Instrument: guitar, sampler, turntables Record store: Poo-Bah

Patrick O’Dell

Employee: “People might know me as DJ Rhettmatic, and I represent the world-famous Beat Junkies and Visionaries and a couple other crews.” Instrument: turntables Record store: Fatbeats

Patrick O’Dell

Employee: Ged Gengres Band: Pocahaunted Instrument: drums Record store: Freakbeat

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• Retail Trade
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Are record stores still a vital part of the scene
Oh, yes! I think record stores are like libraries for music, and I don’t think people are really thinking about that right now because we are so amassed with stuff, because everything is digital, but all that music that was manufactured in that brief time, although we think was a long time, was pretty brief, it was only about 30 years of vinyl. That stuff all needs to be catalogued so we know what Americans were doing during that time. I think it’s really important and no one really seems to take it seriously, but eventually people will; they will start to look at it more as historical artifacts rather than just these pop records or whatever.

Craziest/best story about working here?
The only thing that ever stands out is the night we had to kick out this crazy homeless lady; she likes to come in and dance and sing with the headphones on and take the record players off of the stand. Usually we are pretty tolerant, but one night we had to go crazy and she got crazy back at us. I can’t really put it into words except that she screamed at me and her eyes got really big, and it was awesome!

Employee: “People might know me as DJ RHETTMATIC, and I represent the world-famous Beat Junkies and Visionaries and a couple other crews.”

Instrument: turntables

Record store: Fatbeats

What’s the best thing about working in a record store?
Vinyl, and me personally being a DJ and a producer helps me keep my ear to the streets. Especially because I’m very busy and I’m very lucky to be active in my career, it basically helps me keep seeing what cats are really into these days. Even though, with technology and the Internet and whatever, cats are downloading ... the main essence of being a good DJ is having a good, extensive record collection.

What do record stores offer that getting music off the Internet doesn’t?
The experience of looking for and researching a record. The fact that with today’s technology, if you know the name, the genre, you type it in and it’s there, but you don’t have the essence of when you find something — what we call “digging”: Regardless of what type of genre, you find the actual perfect beat, break, sound, whatever, and discover it and feel like you’re the first person to find it. And then when you really get into it, to actually hold the material and read the credits. I love reading the credits. I love looking at the artwork and seeing how much hard work, and the concept that went into it. The Internet doesn’t give you the same experience of actually going out there and just really looking for days, months, years until you find that record. It’s the actual hunt. It’s the journey of not only finding the record but the process. It’s, it’s ... it’s fun! And when you buy the record, you can remember the memory of when you bought the record, and it brings back nostalgia.

Craziest/best story about working here?
I have too many stories.

Employee: GED GENGRES

Band: Pocahaunted

Instrument: drums

Record store: Freakbeat

What’s the best thing about working in a record store?
The records. Flexibility, going on tour. They’re very understanding about me not being able to be here all the time. That’s really good.

What do record stores offer that getting music off the Internet doesn’t?
The experience of being able to find stuff you didn’t know you were looking for. Before the Internet, you would go into a store and look around and buy things based on the cover or whatever looks cool. Finding things you wouldn’t know about otherwise and having it be more of a personal experience as opposed to having somebody else tell you about it.

Craziest/best story about working here?
We have a lot of crazy customers who come in. We’re right off a bus route, and we get a lot of people just off the bus and a lot of insane characters. Whenever we have the 99¢ sale, the 99¢ room just gets filled up with absolutely insane people, and you can’t even walk by there ... the smell and the noise and —

L.A. Weekly: The smell? What kind of smell?

G.G.: The smell of the unkempt record collector! It’s pretty amazing.