Darkside Records

A Poughkeepsie Treasure

The small, charming Hudson Valley town of Poughkeepsie is home to Darkside Records, an impressive independent record store offering a diverse collection of new and used vinyl, CDs, cassettes, DVDs, Blurays, gifts, CBD merch and more.  It also has a hi-fi room and a stage for live music.  And the best part of the store for me (besides the awesome deals) was the He-Man and She-Ra signage on the restrooms.

This past weekend the store celebrated it's 9th birthday and offered customers a sale with incredible deals.  Not only were there several crates of used vinyl for $1 (in these little treasure troves I found Bonnie Tyler, Suzanne Vega, Laura Branigan and Toni Basil), everything in the store was 30% off!  Now that is what I call a sale.  In addition, there was free coffee from Poughkeepsie Grind, food for sale and beer on tap.

As I entered the store, I realised I was going to be there for a while.  It is well-laid out and easy to find what you're looking for - and if you couldn't find it, the friendly and knowledgeable staff were available to assist you.  There are a number of used records in excellent condition and selling at 30% less than the already marked down prices, such as a hard-to-find copy of Bette Midler's No Frills album.  I was also impressed by the soundtrack selection - I was very tempted to get the Beverly Hills 90210 soundtrack.  However, the regular prices of the CDs are a little high and, while I browsed the $5 bin, I didn't find anything that caught my eye on CD except a copy of Kacey Musgraves' 2013 album, Same Trailer Different Park.

The selection of gifts is also impressive: magnets, air fresheners with cats and dogs and other bizarre designs, Golden Girls hot sauces, Garbage Pail Kids chocolate bars, socks, notebooks, key chains (I spotted a Britney Spears one) and a bunch more. 

It's easy to see why the store has been voted Best Record Store three times - 2015, 2016 and 2019.  I loved the juxtaposition of new and old, mainstream and alternative, which is often lacking at record stores in NYC, not to mention more reasonable prices than most stores in the city.