Tucked neatly away above the Pastry Peddler on Packard is a rather modest-looking store called PJ’s Records — tucked maybe so neatly that you could walk past the speckled shingles of peeling paint and weathered sign every day for a year without ever really acknowledging its existence. Hidden inside, however, is a towering collection of records of all genres and ages, DVDs, CDs, cassettes and a group of remarkably vibrant sixty-somethings.
Opened 35 years ago by Michigan grads and brothers, Jeff and Marc Taras, and long-time friend Steve, PJ’s has succeeded for the most part under the radar, attracting remote, curious customers less interested in the shiny newness of other record stores that have popped up in Ann Arbor over the last few decades.
“Memory is the currency of a musical life,” Jeff said last Friday evening, reaffirming his unbelievably extensive knowledge of all things musical, and without a doubt, of every single record in that store.
