this image will soon only exist in pictures (and Seinfeld)...

The NY Times reports:

Bleecker Bob's will close its store at 118 West Third Street at the end of April, according to a manager, Chris Wiedener.

"It's kind of disappointing," said Giancarlo Caccamo, 19, a customer at Bleecker Bob's on Thursday evening, upon learning the news. The vinyl records that pack the wooden bins and milk crates in the cluttered, narrow space are an increasingly endangered species, said Mr. Caccamo, who was in search of a record by Mott the Hoople.

The store's closing seemed to sound a death knell for vinyl itself. "I just love the warm fuzz that you get," he said. "There's nothing like that sound."

Javier Medina, 43, who began shopping at Bleecker Bob's in the 1970s and has worked there as a salesman for the last decade, was more concerned about the loss of a piece of history. "This place should be a landmark," he said while chatting with Gary Rookard, 53, who sells glass pipes on a table outside. "Everybody in the world knows it."

BUT NOTE, despite what you may have heard, the NY Times posted an update to their story that reads "While a manager at Bleecker Bob's said it would become a Starbucks, the company says it will not open a store there."

Watch the Beastie Boys video "Open Letter to NY" (Bob's shoutout included), below...

Continue reading "Bleeker Bob's closing (but not becoming a Starbucks)"

As far as vinyl records go, there are some that are ten a penny and others that are a little rarer, but a Sex Pistols recording of "God Save The Queen" has been named by Record Collection as the most valuable vinyl in the world. And it is up for sale now.

The 1977 single, which was recorded before the Pistols were dropped by their record label and most copies of it were destroyed, making the number of copies actually released limited. -[Music Rooms]

Get your copy for $15,500 at 991.com. The owner describes it as "obtained from an ex-industry source with impeccable credentials, this is not only one of the rarest records in existence but is certainly the most sought after and no serious record collection is complete without it, regardless of your thoughts on the band or indeed the music itself".

If you buy now, you can probably still get it in time for Christmas,

by BBG

After 16 years, Fat Beats has announced the closing of the legendary label's two remaining retail locations in New York and Los Angeles. Fat Beats will celebrate the legacies of the stores, which are scheduled to close in early September (New York: September 4th, Los Angeles: September 18th) by throwing a series of blow-out sales and tribute parties open to the public during their last weeks. Fans can check www.FatBeats.com for updates.

Fat Beats' longest running and most famed location is at 406 Avenue of the Americas in Manhattan. Since the 1994 opening of Fat Beats' flagship retail location, hip-hop fans have traveled far and wide to visit the iconic store. With locations soon following in Los Angeles (7600 Melrose Ave.), Atlanta, Amsterdam, and Tokyo, the record stores were a place to experience hip-hop culture and its legacy, which became a global phenomenon. "The closing of Fat Beats is just like one of my friends passing away. They promoted vinyl at its highest degree for the culture of good music and that makes it more difficult to say goodbye," says DJ Premier.

I should have asked my job to pull out pre-tax dollars for Fat Beats back in the day; I used to EMPTY my pockets there on a weekly basis. The Fat Beats label and distro will live on, but the retail store is sadly no more. More on those "tribute parties" soon, but until then, long live Fat Beats!

Continue reading "Fat Beats closing NYC & LA stores"

Live bands included. More details below...

Continue reading "2009 WFMU Record Fair this weekend (w/ live bands)"

by Andrew Frisicano

NY EYE & EAR FEST II - JULY 9 - 12, 2009!
4 DAYS - 3 VENUES - 2 BOROUGHS
Knitting Factory & 92Y Tribeca in Manhattan & Death By Audio in Brooklyn
Pendu presents: NY Eye & Ear Fest II ... a massive 4-day New Music and Arts Fete showcasing some of the most exciting bands, artists, and filmmakers currently living and working here in NYC. In addition, NYE&E assembles a Record Fair featuring NYC-based Record Labels and Vendors selling LPs, CDs, 7''s, cassettes, lathes, comics, zines, stickers, and art prints.

The fest is a part II to the December event of the same name. The Fest's four days of music kick off at the Knitting Factory on July 9th. The bands there include Grooms, Liturgy and Love Like Deloreans (to name a few) with headliners Nymph and Neg-Fi. The fest returns to the Knit on Friday, July 10th, for a show with Magik Markers, Child Abuse and more. In addition to the venue's two floors of music, its already-creepy basement will be turned into a "Video Art Installation and a 7-hour Continuous Drone Room."

The Fest then switches to the 92YTribeca on Saturday for a concert and a free record fair. Also at 92Y will be a program called "Women of NYCinema," with films and music from Sarah Lipstate (aka Noveller), Liz Wendelbo, Rachel Blackwell and Dirty Churches. The vendors range from big names like Matador Records to the recently featured Journal of Popular Noise to notable jazz label ESP-Disk.

The fest's final, fourth day moves to Brooklyn for a closing party at Death by Audio. That lineup includes Murdertronics, Team Robespierre, Talibam!, Total Abuse and Drunkdriver.

Tickets for Thursday, Friday, and a variety of Saturday packages are available.

Separate from the festival, on Thursday, July 9th the 92YTribeca will screen filmmaker Brendan Toller's I Need That Record, a documentary about the problems facing record stores around the country. It will be the NYC premiere of the movie that was getting some attention already all the back on Record Store Day 2008. The movie includes interviews with Thurston Moore, Ian Mackaye, Mike Watt, Chris Frantz and more. Toller will be on hand for the showing. Tickets are on sale.

More details on the film (with video trailer) and the Ear and Eye Festival, below...

Continue reading "NY Ear & Eye Fest II - shows & record fair this weekend @ KF, DBA & 92Y Tribeca (also screening 'I Need That Record')"

Record & Tape Center (Tishon)

It's nearly the day the music died in Park Slope.

The Record and Tape Center, a dusty, cramped record store that has occupied the same spot on Fifth Avenue, near Ninth Street, for the past 38 years, will be shuttered by May 31, the result of an eviction notice that store owner Tony Mignone said came out of the blue.

"The letter just arrived at the beginning of the month," said Mignone, who opened his store on Fifth Avenue and Sixth Street in 1965, and moved to his present location in 1971. "I've never even been late on my rent!"

According to the letter, the landlords, a family that owns several grocery stores in the neighborhood, including the Deli and Smoke Shop next door, do not want to renew the lease and will take Mignone to court if he does not clear out.
Brooklyn Bridge Realty

"If he's still there [on May 31], we'll go to court," said John Wilson, the family's lawyer. [The Brooklyn Paper] (via)

This is the saddest record store closing news I've heard in a while, even if admittedly every time I stop in the Record and Tape Center I think, "how is this place still in business?" I'm always so happy it is though..

I would have probably last stopped in if I had made it to the Park Slope 5th Avenue Street Fair (and Southpaw record fair) that happened on Sunday (but I didn't).

The Virgin Megastore in Union Square will basically be closing the same day.

WNYC's Siddhartha Mitter went NYC record shopping on the recently-passed Record Store Day. Video below...

Continue reading "Park Slope's Record & Tape Center evicted, closing!"

by Andrew Frisicano

Record Store Day - a nationwide event created to support independently owned record stores - will take place on Saturday, April 18, 2009. A list of participating NYC stores is available online at the Record Store Day venue list.

On RSD, Generation Records (210 Thompson Street, NY, NY) will host an acoustic in-store by punk band The Bouncing Souls, free for customers who pick up a copy of the band's 20th Anniversary Volume 1 7-inch the day of the show.

Other events, such as in-stores at Williamsburg's Sound Fix, which announced its intent to celebrate the event with live music despite ending shows after losing its liquor license in February, are still being announced.

Many record labels are supporting the event with limited-edition records. Matador, for example, will be pressing 2500 copies each of Jay Reatard/Sonic Youth and Sonic Youth/Beck split 7-inches, plus a Pavement Live In Germany LP. Thrill Jockey is sending out 900 copies of Records Toreism, an LP that includes tracks from Mountains, Tortoise, White Hills, Trans Am featuring Tim Soete, and Baltimore's Double Dagger (who cover "Stagger Lee") and will be packaged with two zines (feat contributions from Ian MacKaye and more).

Record Store Day, which coincides with the 2009 Coachella Festival, will also be running a record shop at the fest. The press release, copied below, notes that the Coachella on-site store, "previously operated by Virgin, is noted for its high profile foot traffic and good vibe." Both events come in the same month that the Times Square Virgin Megastore will close - the NYC shop is notable for having the nation's highest sales volume. Its sister location in Union Square will be gone soon after.

Full list of Record Store Day exclusives, in the form of a press release, below...

Continue reading "Record Store Day 2009: lots of bands releasing exclusive vinyl, a Bouncing Souls in-store & more..."

"The movie has obligatory interviews with Thurston Moore (keeping his promise to be in every documentary ever), Mike Watt, Brian Poole (giving Athens bootleg lords a shout out!) and a coterie of other luminaries including....Noam Chomsky (!?!?!)." [Chunklet]

In honor of Record Store Day, four videos below....

Continue reading "I Need That Record: The Death (or Possible Survival) of the Independent Record Store -documentary (videos)"

FNAC's ad agency borrows shamelessly from Sleeveface.
Flickr pool here.

BAREFOOT BAY -- Paul Cole was in one of the most famous photographs of the 20th century, and yet he wasn't famous.

Cole, a longtime Barefoot Bay resident, died Wednesday in Pensacola at age 96. He is clearly seen in the famous shot of the Beatles walking across London's Abbey Road, used as the front cover of the group's classic 1969 album, "Abbey Road." Over the years, the picture has been reproduced in books, on posters, coffee mugs, T-shirts and hundreds of other places.

The retired salesman is standing on the sidewalk, just behind the Beatles. Gawking at them. [TCPalm]

(via Thighs Wide Shut)