Vintage Vinyl

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Vintage Vinyl of Evanston, Illinois is a record store frequented by some of the world's most famous musicians and used as a reference in works of popular culture.

Over the years the store has been a favorite haunt of many noteworthy actors, musicians and authors, many of whom have referenced it in their work. The most noteworthy example of this is when former Evanston resident John Cusack chose the store as the original filming location for the movie High Fidelity. A different location was used, but the name "Vintage Vinyl" is still referenced in the film.

More recently, author Audrey Niffenegger used the store owner as a character in her bestseller, The Time Traveler's Wife.

While it's not uncommon to spot musicians such as Billy Corgan in the building, most of the noteworthy rock stars who frequented the store in the 1980s and 1990s, specifically members of Thrill Kill Kult would hang out enough to almost become a nuisance. During a period in the 90s, notoriously transgressive writer Peter Sotos (also a member of seminal industrial-noise band Whitehouse) was an employee of the store.

There are several other independent record stores named Vintage Vinyl, including one in New Jersey [1], one in the Delmar Loop area of St. Louis [2], and another one in Regina, Saskatchewan.