Meteor Music

Wish I could give Rockin Ron and Mark six stars!!! Best record shop around, great selection of all genres. Rons a huge collector himself and his knowledge base is ridiculous. Marks forte is more current, but the same ridiculous knowledge! You can go back and browse the rear part of the store contrary to another review I read, all you have to do is ask! Best part about the store is almost everything is negotiable, and those guys always cut a great deal! Don ‘t miss it on your way through!!!

Ron is great! Not only is he knowledgeable about music/​records but he knows a lot about record players/​equipment. Nice selection of vinyl and sincere customer service. Make sure you bring cash as credit cards are not accepted.

these dudes are the best. tons of records, great prices, super friendly. mark and ron RULE!

I had a fantastic experience here back in June of 2013 while on a 3000 mile record buying trip. I found a very RARE record that has been on my list for years. After talking a while with the owner I was allowed to look at the backstock. It’s not off limits if you are there to spend money and know about music. I was a little worried when the older guy called his son in to do the pricing but his son was also a very cool dude and the prices turned out to be very fair. You can appreciate their love of the art. I think it’s awesome that a father and son had the desire to open a record store based on their mutual love of music especially in this modern age with this crazy economy. I ended up leaving with over 3 full boxes. I hope they remember me as I will definitely be back to buy another 3+ boxes on my next visit as I didn’t even really begin to get into the 45 backstock. And thanks again for the RARE record you guys sold me.

With its ¾-​vacant downtown ever dwindling since the dawn of the interstate freeway system and its Eisenhower-​era timewarp feel, virtually unknown musical history, relative isolation, and annual outflux of fun-​starved «cool kids» to hipper pastures like Portland and the Bay Area (and even Sacramento), the town of Anderson hardly seems like the kinda place that could support a good record store. Or even *any* record store!
But consider this little known fact: Some 12 – 13 years ago, Melt Banana was already recognized by a growing fanbase in the USA as Japan’s most transcendent force of brimming hardcore-​punk intensity, exquisite appropriation of outer-​zoning noise, and exciting, unpredictable, yet cogent rhythms further mapping the z-​axis of rhythm on which Captain Beefheart had embarked 30 years prior. They had been playing packed shows at DIY spaces and warehouses for 4 – 5 years then. But on their fourth U.S. tour, they played the Grange Hall in Anderson! Still, this fact is virtually unknown anymore. And I think most of the audience at that show had driven from Davis, Sacramento, and the Bay Area, and maybe also from Chico where a then-​obscure Melt Banana had played on their first tour with a reunion lineup of the Red Krayola. So it really doesn’t rate as an explanation for how Anderson could have a pretty decent record store in 2012.
To be sure, Meteor Music is an uncommonly good record store for a semi-​rural town, even in the age of eBay
and
which makes the collectibles biz viable from anywhere… so long as the proprietor knows what people want and how to get into it cheap enough to turn a profit. And be fastidious about mail-​outs! Probably half of these sellers don’t even have storefronts anymore, and that is why Meteor is special to offer this outpost here in California’s outback.
I didn’t actually buy anything because most of the A-​Z rock selection was not my cup o’ tea. But I recognized that a more typical record enthusiast would likely be happy here with so many Beatles and Stones titles, some Springsteen «fanclub editions» of live concerts, and the like. I was tempted by some nuggets of first-​gen American independent underground bands, but they were priced a little too high for me since I wasn’t so much on a vinyl mission during my visit to the area. Still, someone on Discogs is probably gonna snatch those up! The «new arrivals» section had some interesting titles. I’m gonna check on a couple of them to make sure they’d be worth my $ 15 apiece.
Coolest thing I saw was a Bell-​Howell ¼-​inch tape of Black Sabbath’s «Paranoid» ready to play on your refurbished Teac reel-​to-​reel machine.
A pretty good record store in a podunk town deserves five stars on principle, but I will deduct two stars for keeping the rarer titles behind the counter. Probably ²⁄₃ of the store’s square footage is inaccessible to the general population, and no one’s free to just go back there and browse. The owner wants you to tell him what you want, and he’ll tell you if he has it. I didn’t have 30 minutes to just spout off all the names from the Nurse With Wound list or Killed By Death comps, and who knows if he has any of that kinda stuff back there?!? But maybe someday I can do some browsing ‘cos I am more of an impulse buyer when I come across a rarity that I like for a price that’s pretty good.
This place is on the old Hwy 99 (now 273) which is an awesome corridor of weird 2^nd-​hand treasures for its entire length, but it’s also just a couple minutes off I-​5, so it’s recommendable for a stop even if you don’t have all day to scavenge.

I never miss an opportunity to stop by here when I’m visitng my sister. The owner is friendly and super knowledgeable! a true gem (just off the main highway) of the highway 5 experience, I highly recommend this short detour. your vinyl soul and rock ‘n’ roll collection will thank you!

Great Shop, outstanding prices —take time to stop by right off HWY 5