Tone Deaf Records is an independent record store located in the lovely Portage Park neighborhood of Chicago. We carry new and used records, CD's, shirts, record cleaning kits, and other fun stuff for the vinyl junkie. We specialize in punk, metal, jazz, soul, indie, classic rock and a ton of other musical genres. We have been open since June of 2019 and look forward to your visit. Drop in and say hi when you are in the hood!

Recent News!!

Happy 2020 to everyone out there. I hope the holidays were as good and relaxing for you as they were for us. We want to say thank you to everyone for a wonderful 2019 and we look forward to seeing everyone soon in the coming year. 

We have some big plans for 2020 that are in the works, specifically a number of in-stores and movie screenings that we are looking forward to. Stay tuned while we work out the dates for these. 

We have a handful of new releases that came in this week including the rager below that we made album of the week, also reissues from Super Heroines, Queens Of The Stone Age, Fela Kuti to name a few. We also have refilled the used new arrivals bins with some gems!! We are looking forward to seeing your smiling faces soon!

So here we are, the obligatory end of the year best of list. For the most part we put this list together of releases that we had a real hard time keeping of the store record player. Its overwhelming (and wonderful) how much good music is being released nowadays. Keep it up!!!

10. V/A - Too Late To Pray -2xLP - Bloodshot Records - The wonderful Bloodshot Records released another essential compilation of local alt-country/honky-tonk/tex-mex/etc bands. Chicago is still musically rich in these genres and this comp proves it. This entire album is great, not a stinker in the bunch.

9. Rakta - Falha Comum - LP - Iron Lung Records - Rakta are an all female band from Brazil that plays some of the darkest and most beautiful post-punk heard in a while. Ambient soundscapes on top of tribal drumming with Siouxsie Sioux-esque vocals. We loved playing this record on Halloween, and so did our customers.

8. Drahla - Useless Coordinates LP - Captured Tracks - This fairly young and exciting band from the UK had put out a series of singles in the last few years that perked our ears up. They then unleashed this LP and it really grabbed a hold of us and hasnt let go. Think Sister era-Sonic Youth with a bit of a punk edge to it. The songs are catchy, complex and fun.

7. Thee Oh Sees - Facestabber - 2xLP - Castleface - We love Thee Oh Sees at the shop but the last few albums seemed underwhelming to us, until Facestabber hit the deck. If you aren't satisfied with an Oh Sees LP, you only have to wait a few months for a new one to arrive. This 2xLP is chock full of the usual noisy psychedelic punk the band are known for, but they really dialed up the jamming on this one and it is pretty great. The final track is a killer clocking in around 20 minutes or so, and the entire thing rips!

6. Eddy Current Suppression Ring - All In Good Time - LP - Castleface - A real pleasant suprise this one. A new Eddy Current Suppression Ring LP after a 10 year hiatus. It contitnues where they left off with their usual blend of super-catchy garage rock with a nutjob of a singer. Love this record.

5. Exek - Some Beautiful Species Left - LP - Digital Regress Records - Another great Austrialian band (whats in the water out there?). These guys summon the spirits of old Cabaret Voltaire and Factrix while adding their own twist of dub, goth and drone to it. They get better with each new release.

4. DIIV - Deciever - LP - Captured Tracks - An album of beautiful grade-A shoegaze. So many bands give shoegaze the old college try, but DIIV are one of the few that get it right. Swirling guitars, beautiful melodies and the perfect sounding raw production (shoegaze bands tend to be overproduced at times). A beautiful record.

3. Possible Humans - Everybody Split - LP - Trouble In Mind - The stellar local label Trouble In Mind put out this sleeper and it stayed on our stereo for a month straight. Another band from your guessed it, Australia, who play an infectious mixture of Flying Nun influenced indie-pop with a touch of GBV and The Embarrassment. The songs on this record will be stuck in your head for days. More please!!

2. E'Lepee - Diabolique - LP - A Recordings - What do you get when you mix Anton from Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Liminanas and Roman Polanski's wife? One of the best albums we have heard in a long time. This album is a gorgeous blend of garage rock, french pop, surf music and a little psychedelic thrown in. A pleasant surprise. We are fans of all the musicians involved in this so it makes sense now.

1. Follakzoid - I - 2xLP - Sacred Bones - This Chilean krautrock band were known for their killer stoner jams in the past but this 2xLP is a huge departure and a wonderful drone record. One 60 minute track of ever evolving drone with minimal guitar work and a bit of percussion, but always enough to keep it interesting and driving. This was the soundtrack at the shop every morning for a few months (and was even on most of the day today). If you like drone music then don't miss out on this one, it is killer.

Honorable mentions: Fetish - World Eater, Purple Mountains - Self Titled, Blood Incantation - Hidden History Of The Human Race, The Paranoyds - Carnage Bargain, Boris - Love & Evol, The Subhumans - Crisis Point, Earthen Sea - Grass & Trees, Parsnip - When The Tree Bears Fruit

We don't have any events at the moment but we are working on a number of things for early 2020!! Stay tuned!!

If you have any records you would like to sell for cash or store credit, you can bring them by the shop or give us a call to setup a house call.