Mike Breton has been selling records since the 1990s, and opened the Electric Buddhas’ Oak Street location three years ago.
“I collected records before the store, and when I first opened I used a large part of my collection,” Breton said.
Those records were sold many years ago and most of the records now in the store are from collections people are reducing or liquidating.
“I still consider this whole place my own collection, but if I kept all of the good stuff it wouldn’t be much of a store,” he said.
Breton carries all genres of music, and loves to get his hands on blues and jazz albums.
“I had a mint mono first pressing of a Miles Davis’ “Kind of Blue,” which has been pressed many times, but to find the first pressing, was exciting,” Breton said.
Electric Buddhas is organized similarly to most record stores, with larger bands like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones separated into their own sections, but Breton said he likes to concoct section names with phrases like “Blow Baby Blow” for Jazz and “Damn Near Everyone’s Greatest Hits.”
“In my perfect world, nothing would be organized, but this is my compromise,” he said. “It promotes discovery. You have to keep flipping to find something you’ve never listened to before.”
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