Wicked Grooves Music & Vinyl, LLC

Wicked Grooves Music & Vinyl in Whitinsville, Massachusetts, specializes in records and physical media, with a particular focus on rock, heavy metal, rare originals, and Japanese pressings. In this interview, Paul Hackney discusses the shop’s regional customer base, collection buying, and building a collection one favorite album at a time.

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Interview with Wicked Grooves Music & Vinyl, LLC

Wicked Grooves — a name with some New England in it. Where did it come from, and what's the shop about?

The shop name came from trying to pair a little New England with records, and since records have grooves it seemed like the perfect name for a really cool shop.

Whitinsville is a small Blackstone Valley mill town. What does the shop mean locally, and who's coming through?

We have had, and continue to have a huge amount of local support from the town, including the Blackstone Valley Chamber Of Commerce, and I have a great relationship with most of the businesses on Church Street and the town in general. We have customers that come from Providence, RI and Connecticut all the way up to New Hampshire and everywhere in between.

What are you deepest in — the genres and formats people come to you for?

We have most all genres of music, with a big focus on rock and heavy metal. We have the best selection of metal around, and that's what a big part of our customer base comes here to shop for, specializing in rare originals and Japanese pressings. Records and CD's are our top sellers, but we also have cassettes, DVD's, BluRay, etc.

When a collection comes in to sell, what's the first thing that tells you it's worth a close look?

Typically it's the condition of the covers--it's easy to tell what has been well taken care of and what's been sitting in an attic or basement.

When you buy, is it usually the whole collection or just the standouts?

Usually I try to make an offer on the entire collection, and we also have a "bargain bin" section of albums that are $2.00 each where some of the records from collections end up sometimes if their condition is not up to our standards, and we take that into consideration when making an offer.

What's the record you most often have to let people down about?

I would say King Diamond original pressings--they always sell immediately when I post them on our page and there are always multiple customers that want them.

What's the biggest store-credit tab someone's ever run up with you?

$400, a trade-in deal that included not that many records, but they were all rare, hot sellers.

New England summers are humid and a lot of records live in basements. What condition damage do you see most?

The damage I see the most by a long shot is warping. When records get hot, they start to melt, causing them to warp. I've seen some fantastic collections that I've had to pass on because of that. It's gotten to the point that I pass on any collections that have been stored in an attic or storage unit--we do not sell records that are warped or scratched to the point that they will skip.

What's your best 'you won't believe what walked in' story?

A lady came in with about 200 records from her "ex" husband, and it was all old-school 80's thrash metal that was obviously from a collector because they were all in near mint condition. After I posted them on our page, they all sold in a matter of days.

For someone just starting to build a collection, what's your best piece of advice?

My advice would be to start with your favorite album/artists and go from there--and to not limit yourself to only original pressings. There are some amazing sounding newly remastered reissues by companies such as Music On Vinyl and Rhino Records that you can count on the fact that all of their albums will sound amazing. At our shop, if you do buy a new album and later we get the same one in an original pressing, you can always trade it in and shape your collection exactly the way you want it.

Last updated: 2026-09-29

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