In Store (New Vinyl Peddler Column): Shaxul Records

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In Store is a new All Shook Down column in which we find San Francisco's quirkiest, most beloved, weirdest, and/or otherwise-most-interesting record stores, talk to people there (employees, volunteers, customers, cops, whoever) and find out what's up. Along the way, we hope to paint a fun little portrait of each shop.

Record stores are part of what makes San Francisco special. From the Mission to North Beach, this burg's unmistakable friskiness and its cultural capital emanate from those dusty, creaky, hard-to-find, money-losing, neophyte nerve-racking, cheap, expensive, insanely huge, hilariously small, and often-crowded (at least with stuff) outposts of recorded music. We have our eyes and search engines a-huntin' for choice music outlets, but if you're curious about a specific one, please send a name or other useful information to iportmusic@gmail.com.

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Name: Shaxul Records

Location: 1816 Haight St.

Tagline: We sell Metal!

Existence began: April 2008

Owners: Two -- Stone Clement and a friend.

Employees on payroll: None.

Metalheads who sometimes come around and help run the place: Two.

About the size of: A generous suburban closet with high ceilings.

Reason for existence: Spreading the gospel of metal. That is, metal music --dating from Black Sabbath to classic early metal groups such as LA's Saint Vitus and SF's Brocus Helm, big names like Metallica and Iron Maiden, and current bands, with a focus on local music. Also, metal posters, metal T-shirts, metal flags, metal patches ("nobody has this many patches in the Bay Area") and a few non-metal things that metalheads may find tolerable, such as rock and punk records.

About the name: "Shaxul" comes from a chant uttered by the space monster Ctuluhu in the writings of H.P. Lovecraft. The chant was later quoted in a song by the death metal band Morbid Angel. "People who are into metal are gonna know what it is," Clement tells us. (We confess having to look it up.)