Vinyl Revolution
309B Forest Ave., Pacific Grove 646-9020, vinyl-rev.com
Bob Gamber started working in record stores half-a-century ago, as a 14-year-old in Florida and way before records were a throwback. By the time it became cute to use vinyl as home decor, Gamber had long since developed his downright encyclopedic knowledge of music, from old to new, metal to funk, and made his record store into a Monterey institution and a local rock-n-roll hall of fame. About 20 years into that, he was forced to relocate in 2013 to Pacific Grove, where he’s created a similar space in a slightly smaller venue, with walls covered in posters and records stacked everywhere. It’s a temple to good music delivered in its best possible format (not a category in this guide, but we said it – vinyl rules).