Thirsty Moon Records
5.15.5 Michael Parme

Standing in the doorway, I was overwhelmed with a sense of dumb humility. I had been plunged into the rock n' roll nerve center.

Hunched in a shoebox shaped merchant space on Evans St. (Hillcrest), this was Thirsty Moon Records, home to what may be San Diego 's most unique record collection. The store's high attention to quality is evident from the second you step inside. However, it's not until you've been thumbing through the stacks for ten minutes that you realize that Thirsty Moon has more to offer than just a handful of quality records. It has quality bleeding down the walls.

The brainchild of long-time friends Jeff McDaniel, Mike Eginton and Mario Rubacalba (also known as the thunderous rhythm section of Rocket From the Crypt, Hot Snakes, and Earthless), Thirsty Moon Records feels as much like a radical experiment as it does a quality record store. It is unique because many of the titles are rare and unfamiliar. It is a quality record store because every single one is good.

"There isn't a record in the store we can't tell you about or one of us doesn't already personally own," said co-owner Jeff McDaniel. "Everything is hand-chosen and unique. We only have a limited amount of space, and that forces us to be very selective."

Looking around the store, this dimension of painstaking care to quality is evident everywhere. The cabinets, shelves and counter are all hand built, painted and customized specially for the store. In addition, many of the records at Thirsty Moon have small stickers on them, indicating what they sound like, similar artists or the band's country of origin. Flipping through the bins, the crooked little handwritten notes read like benchmarks on an epic journey through some of the most obscure, freakish and devastatingly brilliant music to come out of the last half century.

Specializing in punk, psychedelia, garage, free jazz and funk from around the world, Thirsty Moon gives you the cream of the crop on LP or CD. It's a who's who cabaret of the drugged out, the pissed off, and the "you don't know who I am, but I stole your car and took your mama to Las Vegas ."

Though it has its share of bargain finds, Thirsty Moon Records is like a trip to the jewelry store after spending your life in the mines. There is little if any filler. If it is rare, and they don't have it, you can bet they will try to order it for you and probably talk to you at length about it. Although the prices of out-of-print and rare vinyl can make your stomach churn, the returns undoubtedly outweigh the expense.

"I think the most rewarding part of this is just getting to learn about what everyone else is listening to," McDaniel remarked. The demeanor of the Thirsty Moon staff is more akin to that of the avid record collector or rock n' roll animal than salesman. Their enthusiasm for their work is contagious. They have the answers to your questions, and if they can't find the record you're looking for, they can at least point you in the direction of the lesser known (and probably better) Latin or European alternative.

Thirsty Moon Records is located at 525-A Evans Place (Behind Rite-Aid) in Hillcrest.