other music hyperbole? or are they all that

yeah i'm sure they considered it, but who knows, maybe the owners are just burnt out ... 21 years is a long time. kind of surprised they aren't keeping the mail order thing going, seems like they must've made some cash off of that. at least they made some cash off of me with that ...

They were my fourth stop when I was regularly buying music in NYC:

1) Mondo Kim's (the city's best used CD section)
2) Tower on 4th & Broadway (incredible jazz section)
3) Downtown Music Gallery (out jazz shit that neither of the other two had)
4) Other Music (if I couldn't find what I wanted anywhere else - also, they sold tickets for shows at Tonic)

You never went to Rockit Scientist and let him try to sell you an overpriced Zeppelin boot?

sorry to hear about another record store biting the dust. Have to say I hadn't been there in years (Kim's going was a bigger thing to me). In Manhattan, now I guess it's just Academy Records, Generation (for metal esp), and like, Best Buy? Guess I should visit DMG before it goes too!

Bleecker St is still open, right?

There's still Good Records, and Academy in Manhattan has two locations, Turntable Lab, various others... this isn't counting Brooklyn

Bleecker St and some of the other(s?) in that area have inflated prices. Other Music had realistic market value based prices.

yeah i'm sure they considered it, but who knows, maybe the owners are just burnt out ... 21 years is a long time. kind of surprised they aren't keeping the mail order thing going, seems like they must've made some cash off of that. at least they made some cash off of me with that ...

― tylerw, Monday, May 9, 2016 1:40 PM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I'm just saying that's the biggest part of the shock for me, as I'm used to many of the stronger NYC stores just moving to new locations rather than calling it quits.

i never shopped there. i always went to Tower.

you know, in the 90's, when i found myself in that vicinity.

Tower was awesome.

also discount Tower store. awesome.

i miss tower... and virgin in union square

assuming this means the other music label is shutting down too, which is too bad -- they put out some great stuff, especially the xylouris white and 75 dollar bill records ...

No, thing I read said they are keeping the label going.

Remember the prior label that they were involved in, Omplatten?

Bought so much from them over the years. Made friends with many of the folks there and was honored when they gave my music its own little section a couple years ago. Fuck NYC mach 2016.

wait, what section was that, if you can tell us?

In the Electronica (or whatever the section with Techno vinyl is called now) "J Velez/Professor Genius"

This news is lame. Yeah there are other remaining stores in mhat/bklyn but can I actually reliably buy new CDs of weird shit there? Academy rules but it's used so catch as catch can. The rest of em are p much vinyl focused. Bleh.

Fond memory: day of release for bish bosch, with 17 dollars left in my bank account, hurrying to OM on my lunch break to spend 16 of that on it

Haven't been to NYC in about 15 years, but Other Music was great, sad news

Just remembered an awkward moment buying the s/t Panda Bear record from Panda Bear back in 99/00.

RIP OM.

Whenever I went to OM I was always blown away by how many used Tzadik/Avant CDs I could find, plus cheap indie imports. RIP, Other Music. Hang in there, Dusty Groove.

i recently watched the (frankly horrible and transparently hagiographic) tower records documentary "all things must pass" and the moment of truth comes when one of the now retired execs talks at length about how great record stores are - so much to see, so many people to talk to, look at all that fabulous product - but sheepishly ends by saying he can't remember the last time he went into one and that is the epitaph on the stone.

Ughhh. I still remember the first time I went there, when I was 15, on a class trip 12 years ago. I bought a Casino vs. Japan CD. Of the 8 times I've been to New York since, I always made a point of going. Definitely got a lot of significant albums there - especially a lot of great, hard to find used cds for cheap. On an emotional basis I assumed it would just exist until the end of time; on a more rational basis, I admire their endurance of both record industry fluctuations and NOHO rent.

Bad news :(

Also, re: "it was a neat place but tbh i never really felt like they were friendly there"

To whatever extent they had a reputation for hiring the mythical "record store jerk" types, I never noticed it. More importantly, who cares???

i mean, i think i could feel intimidated at OM, just because it was clearly staffed by connoisseurs, but anytime i interacted w/ anyone they were always nice.

it's hard to judge for me because I'd have to correct for the moderate intimidation I feel in basically any record store, plus the low-level intimidation of having my taste out in public in general

i found them to have the most interesting and best curated and most expensive selection in the city

definitely wasn't a place to bargain hunt

in 2005 or so, getting three discs with a c-note wouldn't have been out of character

i got a good deal on a nina nastasia album there

i don't have a huge problem w/ unfriendly record store clerks, it doesn't bother me that much, but i've been to enough places w/ cool welcoming friendly people and i'd rather shop at those places other things being equal

if you like music but do not frequently spend time & money in actual brick & mortar record stores, i would like to set you on fucking fire

― da vinci beaver testicles (contenderizer)

awesome, i am sick to death of this fucking planet and i've been looking for someone to light me on fire lately. do you provide your own gasoline?

no

to the extent they ever had them, they'd sell punk/rock records for cheap. presumably not out enough.

agree w/ tyler abt the staff. they mostly seemed pretty nice, once past the initial "and who the fuck are you?" moment.

http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_400/MI0000/104/MI0000104240.jpg?partner=allrovi.com

The only guy who I ever got even a mild "who are you?" moment from was one of the owners, so I just refrained from using him as one of my go to guys for any questions I might have had or chit chat I might indulge in and I was fine from then on in.

damn first music store i shopped at in NY back in 2002 rip

no

― da vinci beaver testicles (contenderizer)

that's ok, i can provide my own gasoline. it's pretty cheap these days.

The co-owner Chris in particular was always extremely nice and helpful. He always seemed like recommending and talking about music made him happy.

Also regarding prices... everything seemed very reasonably priced, and as a former buyer and pricer at a store myself I have some experience in that department.

i'm sure there were PLENTY of people who lived in new york and bought from OM online and never went to the store in recent years. because they were too stoned to leave their apartments.

i have no problem with rudeness in record stores. this usually just means that the people working there leave me alone. which is ideal really.

I never encountered rudeness there. Maybe intense indifference on their faces at worst but they'll still help you find something.

Rent, on the other hand, has more than doubled from the $6,000 a month the store paid in 1995

if your new york city rent has only doubled in 21 years, you are incredibly lucky. which is to say, if that's true, you can blame lots of things for OM's demise, but not their landlord.

just to clarify my position, i still see the value of music stores in places where the rents aren't as insane as in NYC

If rent was the main culprit, again, they'd have just relocated like all the other stores that have done so in NYC.

well sure; there's not really demand. But in a smaller city, the social qualities may prove a lot more necessary.

They attempted a Cambridge, MA branch in the early '00s, literally around the corner from Twisted Village. It didn't last long (a year or two at most, iirc), and it was largely due to the loyalty many locals felt towards Twisted (which was better curated, lower-priced, and had in-store performances).

Never liked this place, and amazed they held on this long. Kim's were assholes too, but that store had its heart in the right place (especially Mondo Kims). I saw a good OM in-store by Richard Davies and another by Junior Boys, and that's about all the good things I can say. I liked Rockit Scientist: he was like the 20-something who lived in his parents' basement in the suburbs of NJ and turned everyone on to Floyd and Zep and weed. Other Music was like the 20-something guy who lived with roommates in Williamsburg and tried to turn everyone on to...oh god, what was that horrible OM related band that was trying to be the Residents. It's gone completely out of my mind now.

I think the point of the Cambridge, MA store was that it was also across the street from a Tower Records.

Pre-mp3s/ILM/youtube/streaming, OM gave me access to a lot of underground stuff I would only read about but never find. I am grateful to them for that. I definitely owe my early Kompakt records obsession to them.

shameless plug, 75 dollar bill are also playing thursday with C Joynes and Metal Mountains (my wife's band) in Brooklyn.

ian, can you get that bill to come out to colorado, klausman and i will pay everyone in beer and records.

thank u in advance

i'll be sure to tell rick & che.

Watched the doc over the long weekend. *sigh*

Any ideas as to why LCD Soundsystem doesn't show up on that list?

I liked Other Music a lot, and bought plenty of albums that were important to me, and even though I didn't live in NY was sad to hear they were going. But I think the doc hit hard as just a story among so many re: loss of shops/community in music. And that was before Covid...

Rewatching the final crawl just noticed that ILX0r Capitaine Jay Vee got a credit under the Archival Materials Courtesy Of rubric.

There were a couple (few?) OM employees posting here at one point, don't want to dox anyone though...

I'm in the credits too. I retouched a few old polaroids (cleaned up dust and scratches) as a favor to Rob.