Anyone else remember Poo Bah Records?
If you lived near Pasadena, and were into records, you probably visited this spot over the years.
It wasn't a huge store, but they had a great selection, particularly of used records. Unlike some other stores with massive bins to sort through, Poo Bah had one fairly small bin of records....but they were all in mint condition. Perfect covers, no scratches, no worn-out grooves. Every record I ever bought there was pristine. And at the time, these records only cost 3 or 4 bucks at the most. (Today, they could go for $25 to even $100 for the same records, as vinyl has become quite popular amongst a certain niche.)
Poo Bah was also connected somewhat to radio station KROQ, which at the time was centered in Pasadena, and was one of the pioneer new wave stations in the early 80's.
They must have started even earlier than that, as their logo and artwork featured the "Keep on Truckin'" guy and font so popular in the early 70s. Compare this artwork below with the Poo Bah logo at the top.
I would love to find out more history on Poo Bah, but could not turn up much online....
What made Poo Bah special was that it was located in a house with creaky wooden floors. The two owners were always manning the checkout area, usually buried behind a stack of vinyl. There was a house cat that lounged around on the records, waiting to be petted. (Is petted a word?) The walls were of course adorned with all kinds of memorabilia and posters. Along with Rhino Records and a few others, it was one of the best record stores in Southern California.
I hadn't been to Poo Bah in a long time, living fairly far away. And their record bin seemed to have faded in the late 90's. I honestly couldn't tell you the last time I'd gone there.
Last week, I found myself in Pasadena and drove by Poo-Bah. "You know what? I should go in there!"
Well, I parked and walked over. And.....it wasn't Poo Bah anymore! It was a YARN STORE.
I couldn't believe it! Of course I wanted to go inside, but I guess Skein is not open Mondays. But what if someone REALLY needs yarn? In fact, wouldn't Monday be the kind of day where you decide to embark on some kind of craft project?
Now if this were back in the Poo Bah days, the mystery would end there. I would not know what had happened to Poo Bah's.
But of course now we can google things. So I of course did so, and it turns out Poo Bah still exists!
Well sort of. Someone bought the name in 2002. (2002?!) The two bearded dudes who had run the place since probably the 1970s retired.
I guess in 2007 or so, the house was sold. Poo Bah moved into a Colorado Blvd storefront.
The store seems to mainly a rap-oriented place now, based on what I read online. Their website has a very different look:
Looking at their "blog," they do have some old rock records for sale. But you can see they are poor quality, worn out....exactly the kind of records those dudes at Poo Bah would never buy. It was sad.
So sad that I won't even bother to go to the new Poo-Bah's.
