Rare Punk Rock Vinyl Music

The question is posed by The Skulls, who will release their second album today at Dr. Strange Records, a punk rock record store as out of place in Alta Loma as Best Buy might be hawking CDs on Haight Street. Store owner Bill Plaster, who will stand behind the counter today selling the album, is equally out of place.

Browse Rare Punk Rock Vinyl Music

At 38 years old, he's something of a punk himself -- informal in speech, irreverent in attitude, with two earrings and punk style from shirt to shoes. It's those credentials -- and the fact that he owns the store, the label, and a mail order business bearing the same name -- that qualify Plaster as much as anyone to know whether or not a guy can pay the bills working in the world of rare punk music. "I started with the mail order business 15 years ago," Plaster said.

"Now the rare punk rock vinyl music store is doing better than the mail order business, and I'm here paying the rent and eating pizza. Which is all that you can ask." In what was once downtown Alta Loma, in a structure built in 1906 that at times housed a general store and the Alta Loma post office, Plaster runs a store with the biggest selection of hard-to-find rare punk music in California. It's one that attracts mail order business from as far away as Israel, Tahiti, and South Africa.

On the quiet corner of Amethyst Street and Lomita Drive, amid a residential neighborhood and the future site of a retirement home, the pierced and tattooed flock from miles around -- particularly after 3 p.m. when school gets out. "Our typical customer is a 16-year-old punk kid, maybe with a mohawk, or body piercings," Plaster said. "But nine out of ten are really cool people. We've never had a complaint from the neighbors, and I think that they like having us here." Not that Dr. Strange Records is completely at peace with the suburban ethic. The store embraces the rebelliousness and irreverence of rare punk rock music culture -- typical band names include The Subversives, Bad Religion, and the Beastie Boys. The record label's motto: "Our disease is spreading."

Rare Punk Rock Music

Inside punk rock paraphernalia is everywhere -- from posters on the wall, to the shirts and shoes sold in the back of the shop, to the syringes that serve as a decorative theme throughout the store. But assumptions based on punk stereotypes -- and those who decorate with syringes -- don't capture Plaster. "I'm someone who's never smoked pot in my life," he said. "I feel good about trying my best to be a positive influence on kids, to get across that it's awesome to be a good person and go for your dreams, to try something and if you don't make it, so what, at least you gave it your best shot." Before giving the music business his best shot, Plaster was waiting tables after graduating from Upland High School. A longtime punk fan, he then discovered that he could buy rare punk records for $5 through contacts in England that cost as much as $20 in Los Angeles. Soon after, the mail order business was born. A year later, he began the record label, which still loses money, "but it's worth it." Six years ago in October, he opened the store. See also rare punk rock vinyl music, and pages relate to rare punk music | more