The first time I walked into Sunrise Records in Burnaby, I was greeted by some thrash punk music and a friendly smile.
The smile was from the clerk who asked how my day was going, but actually sounded like he was interested and not just programmed by corporate training.
I felt right at home.
I discovered Sunrise by accident by turning the wrong way at Metropolis at Metrotown. I actually had no idea the place was there.
It blew my mind and cemented its status in my head that it is the coolest store in all of Burnaby.
Sunrise is a throwback by selling vinyl records, CDs, movies, posters and more pop culture items.
I had just bought a Blu Ray player and was stunned to find such a large collections of movies as well as TV collections.
I actually started hyperventilating when I spotted the complete series of the 1970s TV show The Rockford Files with James Garner. I grew up watching the show and had been looking for this for years. And there it was along with a lot of other hard-to-find TV series and movies.
Sunrise also has a kickass collection of Criterion movies, which is the gold standard of movie collections because of how they put the best print possible into digital form.
I don’t have a vinyl record player, but my brother does and I found a mint copy of an early REM album that we both love.
And the staff are all so awesome. You can chat away with them about music or movies and they just groove along. It feels like a place you want to hang out in, which is something that record stores used to offer back when I was a teen in the ‘80s.
Today, most stores are about getting in and out, but Sunrise makes you want to keep looking because you just might find that old school gem that will cap off your entire entertainment collection.
Playlist services have pretty much killed off record stores, but there is still a niche market for the discerning fan.
I’m glad our city has Sunrise to fill that niche.
Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.
