Record Store Spotlight: Euclid Records in New Orleans (Bywater Since 2010)

Most record stores that talk about being part of the local music scene mean they put up flyers. Euclid Records means there is an upright piano on a stage in the middle of the shop, and somebody whose day job used to be booking one of the best rooms in New Orleans decides who plays it.

The Bywater store has been at this since 2010, and it has quietly become one of the shops people name when they list the best record stores in the country. It is roughly 4,000 square feet of new and used vinyl, a used CD section worth actual digging time, and a cassette supply that comes and goes depending on what walks in the door.

A Record Store With a Working Stage

The stage is the thing that separates Euclid from a very good shop with a very good jazz section. The upright piano on it came from local promoter Matt Russell. The bookings are handled by Lefty Parker, a Bywater resident who spent years as the talent buyer at the Circle Bar, which is a credential that means something to anyone who spent time in New Orleans clubs in the 2000s.

What that produces is a shop where record release shows happen on site, where in store sets are programmed by somebody with taste rather than by whoever emailed first, and where the calendar is a reason to walk in on a given afternoon rather than an afterthought.

The St. Louis Connection

Euclid Records New Orleans is not a franchise, but it is not an orphan either. The shop is run by James Weber and Brian Bromberg with Joe Schwab, who owns the original Euclid Records in St. Louis, a store that has now been in business more than 45 years.

Weber came to New Orleans in September 2009 after managing a record store in St. Louis. Bromberg arrived from New York. They opened at 3401 Chartres Street in September 2010 and later moved to the current spot at 3301 Chartres.

That structure is worth paying attention to, because it is one of the few models that reliably works in independent record retail. A shop with decades of buying experience behind it can take inventory risks a first year store cannot, and it can absorb a slow summer. Plenty of well loved stores fail on cash flow rather than taste.

What Is Actually in the Bins

New and used vinyl is the bulk of it, and the local sections are the reason to make the trip. This is New Orleans, so the jazz, funk, R and B, and brass band shelves carry regional pressings that are much harder to find anywhere else at sane prices.

The used CD section deserves a specific mention, because most vinyl coverage pretends CDs stopped existing. They did not. A used CD at four dollars is the best value in physical music, and enormous amounts of jazz and catalog reissue material exist on disc and were never given a vinyl release at all. If you are building depth rather than a wall display, the CD bins are where your money goes furthest. Euclid also keeps a rotating cassette supply, which shifts with whatever trade ins come through.

Plan Your Visit

Euclid sits in the Bywater on Chartres Street, and it keeps unusually civilized hours for a record store: eleven to six, every day of the week. That daily schedule matters more than it sounds like it should, because plenty of independent shops are closed exactly when a visitor has a free afternoon.

Give yourself longer than you think. Four thousand square feet with a deep used section is not a twenty minute stop, and if something is booked on the stage that day you will want to stay for it.

More New Orleans shops, including Louisiana Music Factory on Frenchmen Street, Peaches Records on Magazine Street, and Domino Sound Record Shack on Bayou Road, are covered in our guide to the best record stores in New Orleans. For everything else in the state, start at the Record Store Directory.

Eleven to six, every day, on Chartres Street. Give it an afternoon.