NYC vinylstores
in november 2009 i visited my old friend tammo and his family in philadelphia. during my stay i took the chance to go to new york city, wich is a smooth 2 hour ride from philly. 13 years since i been to new york. an old friend from german school days in DC lives there, so i had a place to stay. while erik was pretty busy with his own project “Bipolart” i had two days of walking around, checking out some vinyl stores in manhatten and brooklyn.
i had 7 on my list, of which two, etherea and vinyl market, were closed or at least are only selling online now. but there are actually quite a few vinyl dominated record shops left in new york, if you look in for example west village. i was walking down bleeker street and found rebel rebel and bleeker street records plus one other in a side street. they did not have any electronic so, i went on to other music on 15 E. 4th Street in greenwich Village, a pretty big store with mostly cds, but some selected vinyls as well. i bought the red (beautone) and the blue (the dramatics) / klang elektronik “Farben”, but went no further because of my schedule and the fact that there was no chance to prelisten the vinyls. so it’s either “you know or you go”.
next stop (walking distance 15 min.) turntable lab at 120 E 7th St., a small store with some very nice pieces in there! the store carrys mostly house, hip hop and disco stuff and some detroit. jamah, the owner is a nice guy, i am shure he’ll welcome you as friendly as me. perfect setting to hang out and browse. boughtmichna, selections from magic monday (ghostly international, comes with t-shirt!), the revenge/forever in their debt (hometaping 07) and an double album called local customs “downdriver revival” numero 026. a collection of recordings made by felton williams from 1967-1981. the release includes a dvd with 200 sound recordings plus a 30 minute documentary. nice. enough funk, jazz and for this winter.
on thursday i went over the east river to brooklyn. first stop at dope jams at 580 Myrtle Ave. If you decide to walk there, do so from Williamsburg over Bedford Ave. through the orthodox jewish quarter. dope jams is a very friendly place with lots of vinyl. some said it’s the place to be when it comes for electronic stuff, so expectaitions where high. first of all, they have big motherfucking speakers in there for shows they organize. The owner Francis (the owner) and Vince Patricola were giving me a warm welcome, especially beacuse i met vince 2 years before in detroit, were he worked at the recordtime shop. He was running the deq magazine, which still sits beside my stereo. 2 hours browsing through records brought OMAR-S 210 Side trackx volume2 on FXHE, moodyman/freeki (whitelabel MM VOL 6) and Terre Thaemlitz/you again PT.1 on Mule19
my last stop lead me almost directly under the brooklyn bridge where the halcyon store is located at 57 Pearl St. on the corner of Pearl and Water Street. If you go there by nightfall take a cab like i did. well, i try’d at least to catch a yellow cab … until i found out from erik laine that the cabs in brokklyn are black limos driven mostly by latinos. yeah right i thought and stood aside the street to raise my arm like iv’e been told and … BAM. cab. black. limo. latino. no comment… when you arrive be shure to check out the brooklyn bridge. nice view from there! the store is awesome too. erik “liondub” is superchilled and played the whole fucking second release loud in the store. unlucky me i had left over, so i just quicly browsed through the various labels and artists. everything is very well sorted, so you’ll fin quickly what your vinyl heart needs. next time erik, i will stay longer! all the labels all house and techno. european and american. best selection of newer electronics in nyc i thought.
