Redscroll Records Rocks Your Tuesday

We recently had a chance to talk with Josh & Rick, the owners of Redscroll Records which has been selling vinyl in Wallingford, CT. for the better part of the last decade. They cater to old and new collectors alike and are known for their love of a particular extra terrestrial as well as a vast knowledge of underground music and culture. If you’re ever in the Wallingford area we highly recommend stopping in to find a new or old artist you’ll be sure to love. Can’t make it to Redscroll in person? That’s okay; they’ve got an online shop which you can visit simply by clicking here!

So, without further ado, let’s get to the questions:

 Why the name ‘Redscroll Records’?

The name “Redscroll” was chosen virtually at random from a fantasy novel several years before the store opened. Back then we were just a label releasing records by our friend’s bands.  We combined the words “red” and “scroll” into one word which gives us a very unique brand.

When did you first open?

The store first opened in April of 2007. 

We see you’ve got a promotion called ‘T-USED Day’. Can you tell us more about it?

We constantly have fresh used records hitting the floor. Every Tuesday we post a list of the more interesting titles that have made their way into the shop over the last week. The T-USED Day list gets posted on our website and is promoted through our social media. We do the same thing for all our new titles on Friday. 

What’s one of your favorite memories while running the store?

From the time we were painting the walls before we opened our doors to the public through today we’ve been creating memories. We’ve met a ton of great folks, worked with a ton more and created memories with all of them. Before we filled our basement with stock we used to have bands play regularly which was great too.

The Body, Thou, Waxahatchee, Potty Mouth, Iron Hand, Mind Eraser, Paul Baribeau, Hora Flora, Spraynard, Swear Jar, Benn Grim, Night Bitch, Ipsissimus, Estrogen Highs, Medication, Crappy Dracula, Make Do And Mend, Hostage Calm, California X, Failures, Greg Ginn, Dead In The Dirt, Cathode Terror Secretion, Halflings, Cowards, Pharmakon, Theologian, Author & Punisher, Work/Death, Call It Arson, Phemale, Living Laser and a whole bunch more have played for us. 

Have you ever come across a trade-in or any other record that you just couldn’t sell? If so, what was the record and why couldn’t you bear to part with it?

We’ve definitely had trade-ins that have gone home with one of us owners or employees, but nothing we’ve held onto as trophy pieces or anything like that. Actually, we do have a fascination with E.T. in general that goes back to a promotional head-in-hole standee we had made and still use to this day.

 After that got made we started putting little Easter egg type displays of E.T. (sometimes with M.J.) around the shop (toys, picture discs, posters). Our friend Todd Rogers who does a lot of design work for us also encourages this behavior heavily and has brought us some Easter eggs himself. 

You sell online with Discogs and eBay; do you sell anywhere else online?

We sell online primarily through our Discogs store, but we do dabble in eBay. We don’t maintain a private online shop.

Speaking of online sales, what are your thoughts about online vs. the traditional brick and mortar?

Unfortunately, not everyone has the luxury of having a record store in their area. Selling online brings us into the lives of many folks who are out of driving range of a local shop like ours. In a perfect world we’d just have a portal entrance you could enter by looking into a mirror and saying “Redscroll” three times.

When it comes to protecting records, what do you recommend?

We bag ALL of our records with 4ML bags (No flap for easy access!). 

Redscroll Records is located at 24 North Colony Rd. in Wallingford, CT.

They’re open Sunday & Monday 12PM-6PM Tuesday-Saturday 12PM-8PM

This is the first in a series of interviews about locally owned and operated record stores who purchase their supplies from Bags Unlimited. If there’s a locally owned record store in your area that you think we should cover, let us know!