As the city of Indio continues to pour money and effort into revitalizing downtown, new businesses and events are popping up that celebrate arts, culture and community—and one of the latest additions is Rocks & Records.
Rocks & Records sells … well, rocks and records. Music fans hoping to add to their vinyl collection, or perhaps start one, can browse the shelves filled with used and new selections, while mineral enthusiasts can view beautiful fossils, crystals, jewelry—and even edible chocolate rocks! While the pairing seems odd, fans of both records and rocks have been in the store since it opened in early February, often after grabbing coffee from Encore Coffee/Little Street Music Hall, or before heading to shop vintage clothing and oddities at Urban Donkey, or after grabbing a bite at Indio Taphouse or Gabino’s Creperie.
During a recent phone interview with store owners Cristina and Holger Nagel, they talked about how the idea to combine these passions came from a recurring garage sale during the pandemic.
“Both of those—the crystals and fossils and vinyl records—have really been a hobby of mine for many, many years, since I was a teenager,” Holger said. “My wife, Cristina, also loves music, we both do, and she has a nice record collection. A few years ago, during COVID, at our house in Lake Arrowhead, we opened up the garage for a garage sale specializing in vinyl records and the fossils and crystals, and a lot of people came.”
Added Cristina: “It was totally fun, because during COVID, everything was weird, and we made our garage super-cool,” Cristina said. “… We met neighbors who we would have never met before. It was just super-cool, and we made it cute.”
Plans for the business began to form after seeing the looks on people’s faces when they found their “holy grail” records.
“It was fun to see people, their excitement, when they found that record they’ve been looking for, for a long time,” Holger said. “It’s something that continues right now with Rocks & Records in Indio. It’s the excitement of the people when they find the music that they love.”
Cristina said that finding their business’ home in Indio “supernaturally happened.”
“I grew up in Palm Desert, and I actually went to Indio High School and left the desert when I was 20,” she said. “Never in my wildest dreams did I think of coming back to the desert. Holger and I met in Los Angeles, and then we got married and had a family, and then we kind of settled down in Lake Arrowhead. Circumstances with life and stuff brought us back down to the desert, so it’s weird that we’re here.
“Holger—coming from Germany—he loves the desert, and I had to fall in love with it again. We were just walking down Miles Avenue; back in the day, when I went to high school, Miles was fun. There was a Sears and cool vintage thrift stores back in the day; Yellow Mart was always there, and it was just a fun place to go—and then it got really kind of creepy. We were just walking down the street, and we saw the ‘for rent’ sign. Holger called the guy up, and the guy’s like, ‘It’s yours.’ We had no idea that Indio was actively pursuing a resurgence. It was just wildly amazing.”
Not only are Indio city officials getting people into the vacant buildings on Miles Avenue; security and police officers are often seen patrolling the block during events, and on normal days, too, offering assistance to anyone who may need it.
“Everybody in Indio … they’re amazing, and they’re very into what’s happening, and very helpful,” Cristina said. “You feel like you’re a part of a big community that all wants everyone to succeed, and so you feel ridiculously supported in a good way. … It’s a way different vibe from Palm Springs, and I don’t think that’s the vibe that they’re going for. Indio really has more of a locals and community vibe, and even an element of family, which is sweet, because we see a lot of dads and their daughters at the record store. Everybody’s very, very respectful.”
Holger shared a bit of info about the store’s selection.
“The majority of our records are vintage records. We have bought vinyl collections from people who have accumulated them over many years, and took care of their record collection,” Holger said. “We buy their collections, and we go through them and clean them and display them out on the floor. That way, people are really able to find the record they’ve been looking for, for such a long time. We also have brand-new and still-sealed records.
“One of the things that we do as a family is we go up to the state of Wyoming, and we go fossil hunting. Many of the fossils in our store, especially the fish fossils, we went and hunted in Wyoming by going to stone quarries and chiseling them out of the stone quarry wall.”
Live music is happening at both ends of the block, with Little Street Music Hall on one end, and Indio’s new Center Stage on the other. Rocks & Records is neatly located between AMP (Academy of Musical Performance), a youth music program, and Music House Indio, a musical-instrument store. Both Holger and Cristina are all about local music, and they said they’re planning to carry physical copies of music from local bands and artists.
“We just ordered more store shelving for the records, and that is where our new local music section is going to be,” Holger said. “That’s going to be vinyl records and also CDs, because we’ve heard from some of the local bands that it’s kind of difficult to get a vinyl record made. For the local bands only, we’re going to have vinyl records and CDs.”
Rocks & Records also stands out by fostering a personal and inviting environment for families and conversation—as well as a love for all things music and rocks.
“It’s nice that it’s sustaining and making money, but the primary motivation is really the sheer joy of music,” Cristina said. “We are, I believe, less expensive on many of the records; that’s what everybody tells us, and that’s kind of cool, because it’s a bummer when you can’t afford records. … Also, I think it’s kind of cute that my husband and I do it together. Our son helps us; he’s 19; he loves music, and he and his dad go to punk shows together. We have that family element, and actually, we love listening to people’s stories. … It’s not just Amazon, ‘Click, I bought it’; it’s an experience, kind of like going to a bookstore or a library where you hang out and enjoy.”
Rocks & Records is located at 82753 Miles Ave., in Indio. For more information, visit rocksandrecords.com or instagram.com/rocksandrecords.
