Esoteric Records Cd’s & Dvd’s

This store has been around for years… hell I use to shop at it when it was on Broadway many years ago. It’s still a great place to find a great clean vinyl records for a fair price. I walked away with a nice little stack last week. Owner is still cool and very knowledgeable on the inventory. It’s in a nice clean strip mall on fulton avenue. .very nice. I will be going back for sure on a regular basis. I love the record hunt!

What’s it been? 22 years as a visitor to ESOTERIC!!! Great selection of music (all formats)… fabulous deals… wonderful, friendly staff… extremely «musical» atmosphere… stellar discussions… I never leave empty handed… KUDOS, BRAVO, EXCELSIOR!

I was a regular customer and the owner accused me of stealing. What a jerk. I’d rather shop anywhere else.

Esoteric’s new location is nicer than their previous one, a lot less cramped. Lots of rare records, many for only $ 1 each, and they are the last place in town that still stocks laserdiscs, which are also only $ 1 each or still-​sealed ones are $ 2 (I grabbed all the ones I wanted, hopefully they’ll get more!)

Apparently they moved to a new location on Fulton.

Great Record Store that I hope stays tucked away from everyone else so I can keep the records to myself.

This was my first trip to Esoteric. I stopped here as part of a larger single-​day trip visiting all of the (open) Sacramento record stores in search of country vinyl. After the disappointment of The Beat’s grossly over-​priced (but great) selection, it was refreshing to find a similarly great selection but with prices for the rest of us. The staff were polite and went out of their way to answer my questions. Definitely the highlight of my trip.

Rating this store was tough initially because it is really unlike any of the other shops I’ve been to in the Sacramento/​foothills area. It is small, seems out of place in its neighborhood and is decorated with various transient folks (not that they can’t be vinyl lovers too-I’m just sayin’). So, I didn’t know what to expect but… the place was cool! I was really suprised by the number of albums/​singles that jumped out at me that I have never seen anywhere else. I’m not talking the Beatles butcher/​baby album here, but I did find a whole lot of promotional copies, imports, and out of print stuff that I was excited to pick up at a very reasonable price. The fact that all that great stuff was there made the enviroment of the shop seem somehow strangely appropriate. Esoteric is kind of what I envision an old school record store to be like. Thumbs up from me.

Note: closes at 6:00pm during the week, which is too bad because I didn’t have nearly enough time to go through the stacks. Good amount of used vinyl at reasonable prices. Even more boxes of $ 1-​type records that I didn’t have a chance to hit but are probably full of goodness. Also lots of used CDs.
Kind of on a gritty street (I blame the Wal-​Mart across the street) but don’t let that keep you away because it is worth the trip.

this place is a rad diamond in the rough in the sacto area. don’t bother coming here if you are looking for the new Kanye or Gucci Mane CD. This is a small store that packs a lot of unique and cool stuff in a dense location.
This place has a great selection of used records (my main interest), CDs, VHS, DVDs, cassettes, and other stuff. Prices are very reasonable, and since the store is so small it seems like they constantly rotate things out of their shelves into the dollar bins or piles in front of the store. There are always heaps of cheap records and other things whenever I come here. I only found out about the store about 6 months ago and I’ve been 4 times, each time leaving happily with a fair stack of records. Seems like they have had new stuff each time (wish I could say the same for The Beat).
There’s a CD listening station and none for vinyl, though I’ve brought my own portable turntable and the staff are fine with me using it.
very rad store, definitely better than the beat and dimple by a longshot. if this store was in S.F. you can bet the prices would be 3x higher and the cool records you find would be snatched long before your arrival. good thing for you its in a rundown sprawled out part of Sac waiting for you to score.

Esoteric Records was the FIRST independent record store that I went to as a high school kid (circa 1976) that was ALWAYS consistent with a far reaching (esoteric) selection that the other independents never, EVER had and still don’t have.
Sure you could get the latest Rolling Stones or Earth, Wind & Fire but you could also pick up the latest Residents album or a rare Robert ‘Pete’ Williams album.
Rick DaPrado and then later Denis Tomassetti were/​are always knowledgeable and helpful and turned me onto everything from Sun Ra and John Coltrane to pre-​WWII blues artists to the then «new» bands that were playing this crazy rock and roll the media was calling Punk Rock.
Esoterics (especially Rick) musical minds were like a parachute, they functioned well because they were open and as a previous post said, they did it all without any pretensions what-​so-​ever!
Every teenager who is a musician and into music should be half as lucky as I was to get a good start in a musical education like I received hanging out (and later working at) Esoteric Records.
Whenever I’m in Sacramento I always try to stop in and I am NEVER disappointed by the selection or the prices (and I have local access to both bay area Amoeba Records, that REALLY says something).
I really don’t think that the better part of Sacramento has even begun realize what they have here in Esoteric Records.

What a used record store should be, cramped, dusty, and filled with other travelers looking for that VG++ copy of whaterver. A tribute to their selection that I found a few CD’s and records that I didn’t know existed. The owner/​operator walked up as I was browsing, said «You like jazz?» I said yes, and he then pointed me to the rare stuff. Well done, sir. It reminds me of a stripped down version of one of my favorite record stores, Recycled Records in Reno.

Esoteric is a tiny, cramped store in a run-​down strip mall across the street from a monstrous Wal-​Mart. And that’s the only bad thing I can say about it. Everything else is good.
While some independent used record and CD stores flaunt their hipness while offering the same old stuff (The Beat, I’m talking to YOU) Esoteric quietly stocks their shelves with obscure treasures and classics. I’ve found George Jones, Buck Owens, Wanda Jackson, Hawkshaw Hawkins, Neko Case, Jim Reeves, Junior Brown… okay, you may not know or care for these artists, but this is my kind of music — and Esoteric has it. They happily ordered a Flying Burrito Brothers CD for me after Virgin, Tower and Dimple all said they couldn’t get it. I’ve been satisfied with the prices, happy with the service and thrilled with the selection I’ve found at Esoteric.
I don’t visit as often as I’d like because I no longer work in the neighborhood, but a special trip may be in order. I’m getting a hankerin’ for some Loretta Lynn, and I know just the place to find it…