Welcome to Summer Fun at Rediscover Records! Our hours will remain the same throughout the summer. They are listed in our bio, but we'll post them here too!

Monday: 12pm - 6pm
Tuesday: 11am - 7pm
Wednesday: 11 - 7
Thursday: 11-7
Friday: 11-7
Saturday: 11-7
Sunday: 11-7

John and Paul appear to be enjoying "Freewheelin' Bob Dylan"

We will be closed on July 4th in observance of Independence Day. That's the "Day", not the film!

Look for extended hours on First Fridays of the month when there may be downtown Elgin activities going on. We welcome buskers in front of the shop. Busking rules in downtown Elgin are pretty relaxed but they do need to be observed. Elgin Busking Guidelines

The Art and Soul Festival will be on August 6th and 7th and is a great event for downtown Elgin. We'll be OPEN that weekend with possible live entertainment in front of our shop or in-store. Stay tuned!

Please follow us on Twitter @RedscvrRecords, Instagram @rediscover_records and "Like" us on Facebook for very up-to-date notes on new releases, brand new preplayed items to the shop, and live music in the shop! Share your photos and hashtag us #rediscoverrecords.

Until then....

Holiday Greetings one and all! We've extended our hours for the holiday shopping season. We'll list them here. If you're visiting via our website, thanks for following up. Yeah, we know with some mobile devices the black background, literally, blacks out everything.

12/17 Thursday 11-8
12/18 Friday 11-8
12/19 Saturday 11-8 (Watismu plays a live in-store show at 6pm! Don't miss it)
12/20 Sunday 12-4
12/21 Monday 12-6
12/22 Tuesday 11-8
12/23 Wednesday 11-8
12/24 Christmas Eve 10-5
CLOSED CHRISTMAS DAY! Merry Christmas everyone!
12/26 Saturday 11-8
12/27 Sunday 12-4
12/28 Monday 12-6
12/29 Tuesday 11-7
12/30 Wednesday 11-7
12/31 Thursday NYE 11-7
1/1/16 New Year's Day 11-5

We're more than willing and able to stay later if business warrants. If we have a crowd, or even one person, we'll hang with you til your shopping is complete! If you are running around and can be here minutes before closing, give us a heads-up, in nearly every case we can stay later.

Don't forget, gift certificates make a great gift too. We have them in $10 and $20 increments. Buy as many as you need. As always, thanks for your continued patronage of Rediscover Records.

Plenty of Record Store Titles still available, as mentioned in our previous post! Check it

Here is our Record Store Day list for Black Friday, November 27th, 2015. We'll open promptly at 8am (probably a few minutes before) and please enter in a civil manner (like everyone does every year). RSD records will be in the 3-tiered rack where the new vinyl normally is. They'll be alphabetical and one of us may be there helping you find titles. You may purchase multiple records but just one title of each. With limited supplies of each title, we just ask you get one title of each.. One other suggestion, read this list before you get here, please have a good what you are looking for so we can expedite the initial rush of customers in a relatively fast and smooth manner. Thank you all so much and best of luck.

We'll have complimentary fresh coffee, fresh fruit, and pastries. It'll be like a continental breakfast at a Hotel, but at a record store! Live MUSIC at 4pm with Shakes & Rumbles and then at 6pm Ocean and Oceans will perform!

The Arcs vs. the Inventors

B-52’s - Live 1979

Beck - Dreams 12” single

Behemoth - Pandemonic Incantations

Big Star - Jesus Christ

Bloodshot - 6 Pack To Go

David Bowie - Earthling

Jeff Buckley/Sly & the Family Stone - Everyday People

Buzzcocks - Another Music in a Different Kitchen

Cardigans - Long Gone Before…

Johnny Cash - Live Denmark 1971

The Clash - The Clash (blue/white vinyl)

Coheed & Cambria - Orig. Demos

Color of Noise - Official Soundtrack (OST)

Damnation A.D.

Deerhoof - Fever

Dressy Bessy/Lady Liberty

Easy E - Merry Mutha ------ Christmas

Neil Finn/Paul Kelly - Goin’ Your Way

Gang of Four - Songs of the...

Get Up Kids - Red Letter Day

Green Day - American Idiot

Ben Harper - Fight For Your…(500 random copies are signed by Ben!)

Jimi Hendrix - Burning Desire

High Fidelity - OST

Roscoe Holcomb - San Diego 1972

John Lee Hooker - Two Sides

Houndmouth - Picture Disc 7”

Howlin’ Wolf - London Howlin

International Submarine Band - Safe at Home

Jesus & Mary Chain - Barbed Wire Kisses

Judas Priest - Painkiller (shape of an circular saw!)

BB King - Thrill Is Gone

Kinks - Dedicated 7”

Kinks - Kwyet 7”

Jerry Lee Lewis - Sun Records Debut

Love & Mercy - OST

Nick Lowe/Los Straitjackets

Lynyrd Skynyrd - Sweet Home Alabama

McCartney/Jackson - Say Say Say

Megadeth - Threat Is Real

Mekons/Robbie Fulks - Jura

MGMT - Time to Pretend

Mighty Mighty Bosstones - Live

Wes Montgomery - One Night

Nine Inch Nails - Halo I- IV

NRBQ/Terry Adams - Monk

Outkast - Stankonia

Les Paul - Christmas Cheer

Pharcyde - Runnin’

Elvis Presley - If I Can Dream 7”

Queen - Bohemian

Otis Redding - Shake 7”

Run-DMC - Singles Collection

Sons of Anarchy - Songs of Anarchy

Spoon - TV Set

Stormtroopers of Death/Deftones - Milk

True Detective - OST

Vitamin String Ouartet perform Modest Mouse “Moon..Antarctica

Link Wray - Rumble 7”

Frank Zappa - Feeding The Monkies...

Zombies - BBC Radio Sessions

"C'mon and take your best shot

Let me see what you got

Bring on your wrecking ball"

-Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen's new release, "Wrecking Ball" (Columbia Records) has been hailed in many circles as one of the better new releases of 2012. The song "Wrecking Ball" is about the demolition of Giants_Stadium in the Meadowlands of New Jersey, or as one might say, "somewhere in the swamps Jersey".

As with most of the gentrification of these United States, the City of Elgin is no stranger to the destruction of the wrecking ball. Take a look at any older picture of downtown Elgin and you will see the landscape of this urban city dramatically different than what you see today.

The most significant building in Elgin to suffer the wrath of the wrecking ball was the Elgin National Watch Factory. The Elgin National Watch Factory (on National Street) was in operation from 1867 to the early 1960's. It was the premier watch manufacturer in the world. Over 1 million watches were produced at the factory. Over half of the pocket watches produced in the United States were manufactured at the Watch Factory. To tie some music into this, the Robert_Johnson recording "Walkin Blues" mentions an Elgin Watch, "She's got Elgin movements from her head down to her toes." We can count foreign competition, like the themes of some Springsteen songs, as the main culprit for the Watch Factory's demise.

The photo above is an actual Elgin pocket watch (placed on the Springsteen album cover "Wrecking Ball") from around 1948. It is a "Railroad" watch. Railroad watches had to be calibrated to such precise times that trains and their conductors could run their train schedules around these watches.

Here is the Elgin Watch Factory in it's hey day. Today, if you are familiar with the Elgin Grand Victoria Casino, the GVC is just to the left of this picture on Grove St.

The wrecking ball came to the watch factory beginning in the summer of 1966. These photos here are from the E.C. Alft's book, "Old Elgin: A Pictorial History". The Watch Factory clock tower had a face and hands that rivaled the size of London's "Big Ben". Its almost criminal the powers that be of Elgin didn't at least have the foresight to at least preserve the Tower. They did not.

"All of our victories and glories have turned to parking lots" -Bruce Springsteen "Wrecking Ball"

The Watch Factory land, more or less, stood vacant until a shopping center was built in the mid-1980's. Much of the soil under the factory had to be eradicated because of radium. In fact, the layout of the parking lot is in such a way to encapsulate whatever radium that may have remained. Today a Butera Grocery store and several other strip mall type stores occupy the Watch Factory grounds.

To see a fantastic exhibit on the Elgin Watch Factory visit the Elgin Historical Society at 360 Park St. in Elgin. In it is an actual hour hand from the Tower.

Find Bruce Springsteen's new record "Wrecking Ball" at Rediscover Records. Here is Springsteen performing "Wrecking Ball"