Evil Clown Compact Disc was one of the north side's more prominent indie record stores in 1990s, specializing in imports, indie and alternative rock, goth and electronica CDs. It opened at 3418 N. Halsted in 1991.
In 1995 owner Tom Garvey talked to The Chicago Tribune about his time working at defunct record stores earlier on and what made him want to open his own store:
"They kept eating each other and now all that's left is Best Buy, Tower and Coconuts." (20-something years later, RIP Tower & Coconuts!) "None of them really carry the product that I, or people that I know, like or want to buy. People were ignoring independent bands or bands that aren't going to sell 10 million copies of an album. They just weren't getting any respect. I decided to cater to a specific clientele and not try to please everyone in the world."
That's something we at Dusty Groove can relate to, and we're sure most other record stores who are making it work this far post-millennium can, too: the feeling that we have a strong niche, and that we can serve it a lot better than the bigger forces out there.
Evil Clown made it work on Halsted well into the post-millennium itself, before moving a bit farther north to 4314 N. Lincoln in 2005. They closed up shop in 2007.
(Thanks to Yelp-er A.S.V for the photos.)
