Voice Choices
May 1, 2013Dig for vinyl at Smorgasburg
Blogs
April 26, 2013Last Saturday marked Record Store Day, a global celebration that encourages folks to head down to their local record store and buy some vinyl. Pleasantly, the initiative has done wonders for local businesses. Besides boosting sales, Record Store Day also offers an invaluable service to writers: It p ... More >>
Voice Choices
April 17, 2013Take a break from your iPod
Blogs
February 19, 2013While the corpses of corporate music retail chains litter strip malls where outlets like Tower Records and Blockbuster Music once stood, Amoeba Music is an independent juggernaut with three California-based stores the size of supermarkets. They've been a celebrated shopping destination for music afi ... More >>
Music
August 22, 2012Blogs
June 25, 2012Piracy is theft.
Piracy isn't theft because nothing physical is being stolen.
You are taking money out of the hands of artists.
Artists were already being ripped off by labels.
Artists can make the money back by touring.
Kickstarter.
Blogs
April 23, 2012Last week a ton of stories about Record Store Day percolated through blogs—Feistodon! The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends! St. Vincent! Beach House! Holy crap, you gotta get on line at 8 a.m. to get the best picks! On Friday, when I got an email from a store that contained both a list of records ... More >>
Voice Choices
April 11, 2012Bands show record shops some love
Music
September 28, 2011The band closes the book on their legacy
Voice Choices
August 10, 2011Voice Choices
August 10, 2011Voice Choices
June 8, 2011Blogs
May 4, 2011Ian ConeThe 100 Biggest Assholes in Rock Issue, The Shit List Issue, The Overrated, The Rock Bible--Chunklet mastermind Henry Owings redefined the 'zine aesthetic with his deliciously wisecracking, ass-chewing tongue, dumping on everyone and their mother while taking a little bit of time to e ... More >>
Voice Choices
April 20, 2011Blogs
April 15, 2011If you can snag this, congratulations, you've won. Saturday marks the fifth annual Record Store Day, the celebration of all things indie, vinyl, and limited edition-slash-noble ploy to get customers through the doors of the music stores still standing in the spring of 2011. It's basically the ... More >>
Voice Choices
April 6, 2011Pick a record shop and have a party
Blogs
August 18, 2010
"The slogan is it's the 'Last Stop for Hip Hop," a Fat Beats employee told us last year. "But now it literally is. All the other ones closed down." From XXL now comes word that Fat Beats itself will do the same, shuttering both its New York and L.A. locations. (They'll continue on at fatbeats.com ... More >>
Voice Choices
June 8, 2010Vinyl will not go gentle into that good night
Blogs
May 17, 2010And thus, the pasty record clerks and furtive customers of the old Tower Records space on East 4th give way inevitably to the musclebound men and women who beat them up in high school. That vacated storefront on the corner of Lafayette--home, variously, to Halloween costume pop-up shops and h ... More >>
Blogs
April 22, 2010This week's album chart has in its first two positions the two biggest stories in pop music last week. Once again, the pole position was assumed by Canadian teenager Justin Bieber, whose first full-length, My World 2.0, sold 92,000 copies--only the second time this year that the No. 1 album h ... More >>
Blogs
April 16, 2010It's that special time of the year again: Record Store Day, which is like Teacher Appreciation Day for independent record stores. Saturday, to celebrate their tenacity, among other things, record stores around the city are holding performances, releasing exclusives, and offering once-in-a-blu ... More >>
Voice Choices
April 13, 2010Blogs
April 12, 2010Subversive culture thermometer NPR has uncovered a trend over the weekend, and boy oh boy, is it subversive, all covered in ironic mustaches and plaid!
In the grand and cringe-worthy tradition of old people talking about young people as if they know what young people are actually doing, and ... More >>
Blogs
January 25, 2010
I am somewhat obsessed with this song, magnificently unhinged highlight of Spoon's new Transference, delivered here solo acoustic, which robs the tune of its volatile bounce but allows you to focus on Daniels' nonetheless still magnificently unhinged voice. Primal screaming in record stores is on ... More >>
Blogs
January 14, 2010The vacated Tower Records store on East 4th Street has been a symbol of the decline and fall of music retailing in NYC since the day it closed, back in 2006. Since then the space has hosted flea markets, Halloween stores, and any number of other temporary enterprises. The store's newest tenan ... More >>
Voice Choices
January 12, 2010Tower Records lives again, sort of
Voice Choices
January 12, 2010Don't forget your cardigan
Blogs
November 17, 2009This work permit would fit nicely next to the FBI logo on future CDsWhat happens to record stores in the great hereafter? They become Subway Restaurants, of course. (Unless they become discount Nordstroms, or whatever the former 4th Street Tower Records is when it's not a Halloween costume sh ... More >>
Blogs
August 4, 2009A week after the Mountain Goats revealed the name (The Life of the World to Come), release date (10/06/09), and theme (biblical) of the follow-up to last year's excellent Heretic Pride, the band has posted a slew of tour dates. John Darnielle, Peter Hughes, and Jon Wurster come to New York on ... More >>
Blogs
July 30, 2009
--The Walkman have announced a fall tour. The band, still supporting last year's massive You and Me, will play the already-announced Guggenheim August 14 as part of the It Came from Brooklyn series and then play a stacked double-bill with Dinosaur Jr. in Central Park on August 16. The rest o ... More >>
Blogs
June 15, 2009photo via Jeff Baum
Yesterday was the final day of business for Union Square's Virgin Megastore, where random in-stores and greatest hits albums you didn't even know existed provided a convenient meeting place for friends on the way to the movies, or Irving Plaza. The Times quotes a former employee ... More >>
Blogs
June 12, 2009In 2009, the traditional practice of exchanging physical copies of records for money is a trade that might best be called quixotic. But New Yorkers are stubborn people, and the record store is not dead. Below, the top ten records that actually sold in the last week at a store near you.
Photo of Tak ... More >>
Voice Choices
May 13, 2009Voice Choices
April 15, 2009Voice Choices
April 15, 2008A special day to visit your lonely record-store pals
Blogs
April 10, 2008Blogs
July 5, 2007Music
December 19, 2006Jazz notables who passed away this year
Blogs
October 10, 2006Music
March 21, 2006Biz bites the kids that feed it as radio battles everybody
Music
February 14, 2006Music
May 24, 2005Starbucks boldly markets its mild music blend
Music
October 19, 2004Indies battle chains over product as industry kicks John Doe
Music
May 25, 2004Real record stores open, close, move, struggle, and thrive
Music
October 7, 2003Driving independent retailers, and you, out of business
