Parasol Records posted some disappointing news today. They’re closing up their mail order business on December 17. I’ve bought a number of records through the mail order over the past few years, though I must admit that my number of orders has been waning ever since moving away from Champaign-Urbana. It’s still one of the first places I look when trying to find a record online though. It’s going to be really sad to see it go. At least the label is sticking around; it would be a really sad day if that went away as well.

I remember the first time I discovered Parasol when I was a junior in college at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. The other record store I used to go to, Green Street Records (I think that was the name anyway), had closed down the previous year and I was lost without a place to go shop for music. I finally had an apartment with room enough to keep more than just a handful of CDs so I wanted to find a shop to browse through music. I searched around and found Parasol. The website (which has remained essentially unchanged since then), almost made it seem like they didn’t have a shop open to customers, but I found a paragraph on the About page that said they welcomed walk-in customers. I called just to verify and they confirmed that, yes, they love when people stop into the store.

It was a cloudy autumn day. I hopped on my bike and headed over to Parasol, knowing just the address. The address will forever be burned into my brain: 303 W Griggs Street, Urbana. Where the hell is 303 W Griggs Street in Urbana? Seriously, where is it? I biked by where I thought it should be around 5 times before I finally saw the tiny Parasol sign in the lawn near the building. It was a nondescript one-story red building with 2 big windows in front. I parked my bike in the driveway and walked in cautiously, still not quite sure I was in the right place.

I walked in and a woman (who turned out to be Angie Heaton) was packing some records for the mail order on the left side of the building and some other folks were on computers on the right side of the building. I couldn’t help thinking that I had seen the woman that was packing records somewhere before. It turns out she was one of the opening acts at a show I was at a week or two before that (I think at the Cowboy Monkey in downtown Champaign). She welcomed me in and showed me where the CDs were. They were amazingly organized. All of the new CDs in alphabetical order on shelves that reached from the floor to above my head, and there were tons of 7 inch records for next to nothing. I have no idea what I picked out that day, it might have been The Like Young’s first CD (which Parasol put out), but that isn’t important anyway. I biked home one CD richer and about $10 poorer.

The important part was that I found a new record store and I went back to dozens of times. I went back and bought the rest of the Like Young albums, all of the Wolfie LPs and 7 inches, all of the Field Mice reissues, Low’s Lifetime of Temporary Relief, a ton of Swedish pop, and countless other albums and singles. They were always there, just a short bike ride away. Or to some people it was a shipment away. I went in one weekend and Angie was spouting off all of the countries she was shipping records to. I don’t remember what they were offhand, but I think they were some countries in eastern Europe. Soon it won’t be a bike ride or shipment away though. It’s a sad day. Parasol was one of the best parts of Champaign-Urbana. I even head over there when taking a trip down to Champaign-Urbana. I guess that won’t be the case anymore.

I never really got to know anyone at Parasol but it was a great part of my life when I lived in Champaign-Urbana. I wish the best for Angie and Roy in whatever they do in the future, and to Parasol Records in general. I hope they continue to release great records.