other music hyperbole? or are they all that

re. that other music blurb: OM is the store that had (still has?) an "american primitive" section where they stuck (stick?) all their "roots music". this is around the time that john fahey was all over the place, seemingly, and revenant put out a comp of the same name. but still, offensive much?

A lot of stores do this. What would Aquarius be if they didn't rep for every home-made black metal release from Outer Mongolia or describe anything slow and down-tuned as being doooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooom? I don't mind the AQ blurbs at all though because they're in on the joke and seem to have a lot of fun with it.

Sadly...

https://www.facebook.com/othermusicnyc/photos/a.10150137848829766.328238.329518529765/10154185526504766/?type=3

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/10/arts/music/other-music-record-store-closing.html?_r=0

LAME

:'-(

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

by which i mean you, personally

jk ;)

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

was gonna say, how much of OM's revenue had to go to paying ridiculous manhattan rent

sorry to see it go, but my record purchasing* more or less stopped 6-7 years ago, and i probably haven't bought anything in OM in at least 3.

*and listening to new music

Yeah me too. I have no place to put any new physical media anymore and don't pass conveniently by OM on a daily basis anymore. My brick and mortar dollar now goes to supporting live music, especially at local venues that are doomed to close soon. Still, wondering if I will be mentally thrown back to 1997-2003, my heyday of OM transactions, the way I was thrown back in a funky time loop to 1984-1985 a few weeks ago, from which I finally slowly emerged from this weekend.

Also, who gets custody of the dog, Django?

figured OM was the kind of place that had carved out enough of a niche over the years to keep on keepin on. i guess not, though 21 years is a good run for a record store. always loved going there when i was in NYC, and apropos of this thread, loved contributing blurbs the last couple years. actually found a lot of the writers extremely insightful, and liked getting the weekly newsletter ...

figured OM was the kind of place that had carved out enough of a niche over the years to keep on keepin on.

yea me too

And I just got the email. Ned always has the scoop.

it was a neat place but tbh i never really felt like they were friendly there

People always say that, but I never felt it. Perhaps my shell had already been hardened at Bleecker Bob's and Kim's Video but they didn't give us nearly the 'tude that you could find at other places. I mean God forbid you ask the guys at J&R for help.

And I just got the email. Ned always has the scoop.

Raise your hand if you ever owned the OM coin purse.

*raises hand*

time to file other music in the "then" section

i don't really get to NYC anymore but i used to always make a point of going there

the other place i used to hit (rock in your head) is also gone

RIP NYC

I even saw Momus play at OM.

bitterly hilarious what will probably go in the OM space ... and be profitable! some shitty cupcake place with lines wrapping around the corner most likely.

the other place i used to hit (rock in your head) is also gone

bitterly hilarious what will probably go in the OM space ... and be profitable! some shitty cupcake place with lines wrapping around the corner most likely.

― tylerw, Monday, May 9, 2016 12:52 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Other Frozen Yogurt

How many people remember when Rocks In Your Head also had a yogurt shop- inside the record store?

Fond memory of consigning my early aughts solo noise disc there and the buyer running outside to flag down N1ck from YYYs to tell him that they'd sold out of the 10 copies of the ep he'd consigned earlier that week. He looked so happy and surprised. Nice moment...
Fast forward 13 years and I just bought my own disc off discogs cause I never kept one. It arrived with an Other Music price sticker on it.

really sad to hear this. i think i've managed to visit once a year, every year since it opened and always picked up great stuff. i will get one more chance to visit and say goodbye before it closes.

I go all the time. What's most sad to me is that it's not just rent, that they don't seem interested in taking the brand to a more affordable location and keep it going.

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

I noticed the other day that one record store further west that I almost never went into, Rebel Rebel, is still in business and I actually wondered why.

And then in the West Village you had

Bleecker Bob's
Generation
Rebel Rebel
Revolver
Rockit Scientist
Strider
Vinyl Mania

and on Prince St., Rocks in Your Head

Rebel Rebel just closed, I think

Norman's Sound and Vision

oh yeah, this was the place i was referring to above.

there was one small place i liked, on st. mark's, it was on the 2nd floor of what had been a stone two-flat, i think. and there was another down in the street in a basement, it was (predictably, i guess) very dark in there.

second hand rose and bleecker bob's were always the most expensive places. i never bought anything at BB's, although i overheard some very amusing conversations in there.

bleeker bob's must have been something else in some other era, right? i only knew it in the early 2000s, and it was terrible, just the worst. overpriced, nothing interesting, vermin underfoot.

temple and shrine a bit later

second coming, it's only rock-n-roll a bit earlier

Rebel Rebel just closed, I think

I didn't realize they'd hung around this long. I always wondered what their relationship (if any) was to Record Runner as they were so similar in name, stock, and physical layout/decor. Just decided to Google it and see that it was opened by a former Record Runner employee -- also surprised to see that Record Runner is still open. I never bought much at either store, just a couple of Sisters of Mercy 12"s if I remember correctly.

Somehow missed this article about Rebel Rebel in the Times a couple of weeks ago -- apologies if posted already:

Vinyl Mania Can’t Save the Greenwich Village Record Stores

Anyone remember a record store that I believe was on E 6th right off Taras Shevchenko Place? What was that one called?

Ah, Record Runner is the one on Jones Street, was having trouble remembering the name. Second Coming was on Sullivan, maybe? What was place decades ago on 6th Ave in the low 20s, Pyramid Records?

Don't forget Golden Disc on Bleecker, as immortalized in that one song by The Records.

Bleecker Bob's was never not problematic in my short happy lifetime of record buying, it's golden age has "always been gone," as the saying goes.

I bought bad brains Quickness from Bleecker Bob's in 89, the first week I lived here. and then 10cc Original soundtrack in 2010. That's it… it was unappealing in every way and should not be lamented, frankly…like CBGB's and many shitty Bleecker st. clubs like the Bitter end or Kenny's castaways, it coasted for 20 years on its reputation and mgmt never made any effort to remain seriously competitive. Yet the professional lamenters like EV grieve seem to want the EV and Manhattan to never ever change in any way, and so shake their fists at the sky when any formerly meaningful "institution" closes.

St mark's Sounds has not been mentioned…that was more or less where EVERYONE sold promo CDs. Maybe that the two flat wizz mentions…and venus had a basement. Rebel Rebel had Qs and Mojos before everyone else, and so I spent probly thousands of $$$ there as such over the years. Midnight was the one on 23rd and 8th and was run by this french guy who was WAY into garage and 70s punk.

Subterrenean on Cornelia and Finyl Vinyl (that was the one on Taras S. in the '90s, although it was on 2nd avenue for much longer) were my favorites in the 90s. there was also Etherea, which was on Ave A and then 10th or 11th. Mark Ibold worked there, but it eventually could not compete with Other.

Happy that Downtown is still kicking, although I cannot imagine that Bruce, a great guy, has not been operating at a deficit for years.

(I was just about to post this when I saw the above) I forgot about Etherea (slightly farther away on Avenue A). As I recall, they focused more on electronic stuff, but also did indie rock etc. a bit. It was a cute, no-attitude store in my experience.

Apparently their old owner Richard Kim works for Beats. Slightly odd as 1) Kim's Video started out on Avenue A (Kim is a common name, so no idea if there's a relationship) and 2) Luke Wood (of Sammy, whose other member is part of the Two Boots pizza dynasty on Avenue A) is president of Beats. Basically, record store Avenue A ended up selling expensive headphones.

Etherea seems to have moved a few times. I remember them a bit farther down Avenue A, around 4th Street. I thought Ibold was a waiter.

Let us not forget the tiny but excellent Throb on 14th (rlectronic/techno/house et al) and Temple

Both long gone as well. Satellite, Sonic Groove...

Oops sorry Josefa already mentioned them.

Sounds was so awesome in the 80's. lots of unplayed promos in their dollar bins back then. though their stupid stickers were impossible to get of a record cover.

Bleeker Bob's was okay in the 80's too. though i mostly bought t-shirts there and bootleg tapes.

man, The Sound Library. that was right by my sister-in-law's apartment and they were too rich for my blood. everything i wanted was like 20 dollars more than i wanted to spend.

when i did the EMP conference at NYU i was REALLY impressed by Generation. that's my kinda store. i got all kinds of good stuff for cheap. i was kinda shocked by how good the prices were. got really cool old cherry red records for like 7 bucks apiece.

Sounds/St.Mark's Bookshop/St.Marks comics was all a degenerate kid from Connecticut like me really needed in the 80's.

i liked Second Coming for classic rock in the 80's though.

Etherea replaced Adult Crash, which was my favorite Kim's competitor in the pre-Other Music days. Now it's Mast Books.

people always talk about bleeker bob attitude but they were always nice to me there. the only store that used to intimidate me when i was a kid was Colony. at night it would be bustling and it seemed like there was always some old man employee running around with huge stacks of records in his arms and customers jostling every which way. the fulton fish market of record stores. i was out of my league. my dad always had to stop there for jazz.

there was also free being on 2nd ave off st marks. i got my ramones leave home signed there.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ChOgG1BW4AAWYbn.jpg

this will be a useful document in the decades to come

when i did the EMP conference at NYU i was REALLY impressed by Generation.

during the brief time i lived in nyc, generation was one of the most day-to-day useful record stores i knew of. ugly, horrible vibe, careless employees, but lots of reasonably-priced metal & punk vinyl downstairs.

Now that OM is gone, Generation is the only record store in that area worth going to anymore. Bleecker St. used to be great for bootlegs but it's useless now.

Alex in NYC blogpost: http://vassifer.blogs.com/alexinnyc/2007/03/dont_bother_loo.html
Related thread: Bleecker Bobs is closing.
Alex in NYC thread: NYC'ers: Favorite Long Gone Record Shops

NYT Times roundup from 3 decades ago: http://www.nytimes.com/1984/09/21/arts/music-to-go-a-guide-to-disk-and-tape-shops.html?pagewanted=all

Extensive Ben Sisario list: http://charmicarmicat.blogspot.com/2008/04/death-and-life-of-great-manhattan.html
which links at the top to this article by him: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/18/arts/music/18reco.html

Amusing memorials and obits for the owner of Discophile, a legendary classical music store that also carried other imports:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/04/arts/music/franz-jolowicz-86-dies-owned-a-noted-record-store.html
http://thevillager.com/villager_135/franzjolowicz86.html
http://neveryetmelted.com/2005/12/05/franz-of-discophile-dies-at-86/

Still trying to remember the store across the street from Discophile on the northern side 8th Street in the 80s that was below street level and had a very generic name- Record Exchange? Music Exchange? that never seems to show up on these lists, but they had a lot of imports, although all I can clearly remember buying is Seventeen Seconds and Faith.

Ah, must have been the Record Factory, 17 W 8th.

Guy who has been the ringer singer in The Monks/Left Banke/Moby Grape reunions posted about Discophile on Alex's blog.

Tiny bit of very old school West 8th Street nostalgia: http://www.nysun.com/new-york/once-bustling-west-8th-street-slows-down/32670/

8th Street was the spot for Prince boots, latest Melody Maker/Nme and UK mags, imports when I was a teen lad.

last in-store performance today at 5:30: 75 Dollar Bill

And then we take our music to the streets! After the in-store, 75 Dollar Bill and the incredible Matana Roberts will lead us on a march from Other Music, across 4th Street, down the Bowery, to the Bowery Ballroom on Delancey. We want to celebrate 20 years of New York City music and arts culture with all of you, and we hope that whether or not you have tickets to the Bowery show, you will join us for this free event -- let’s show NYC that music still matters! We will start gathering at Other Music at 5:30, and the parade will begin moving at 6:30, with Matana’s crew taking the lead, and 75 Dollar Bill bringing up the rear guard after their in-store performance.

great way to go out, 75 dollar bill are dope.

75 Dollar Bill = the best band

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.