Rough Trade New York moving to ?

Discussion in 'Music, Movie and Hardware Store Guide' started by Mazzy, Jan 19, 2021.

  1. Funky54

    Funky54 Coat Hangers do not sound good

    By continue to serve do they mean I still will wait over 5 weeks to receive an album?
     
  2. Chee

    Chee Forum Resident

    Location:
    Denver
    I like music. I buy high end MINT albums at Twist And Shout Denver if I need them. I'm just helping out the people who get hosed on $12 ringed out Abba and $18 ringed out Stevie Nicks albums. This is the norm. NO value to such. Buy the remastered CD's. NYC prices are ridiculous. My brother needed a towel to cover his mouth to stop the laughing....hard to do with a mask. What I can't stand is Dave Clark and the estate of Allen Klein not 2-ferring their catalogs....the stuff is near 60 years old out of print and they are millionaires many times over. I want my Chubby Checker and DC5 2-ferred like Gary Lewis. Lewis with the Hal Blaine beat.
     
  3. Funky54

    Funky54 Coat Hangers do not sound good

    I didn’t read anything except half the first page and half page 8… with that said, hope I’m on topic lol.

    I struggle a lot with brick and mortar. Even a year ago my attitude was I really wanted to support my local record shop. Deep in my heart it’s kind of an iconic thing that should be protected. But it really isn’t anything that I enjoy anymore. The majority of the vinyl that I buy is specialty and hard to find. And thinking that I’m going to walk in and find a first press of anything that I want, It’s just a dream of yesterday. In my neck of the woods what is circulating out there is beat up crap or the latest remastered sealed crap at a premium price. I guess at 50 I’m old. Because I don’t relate to anyone in the record store anymore either. My record store is filled with goth teenagers who pontificate their view of the world. It doesn’t give me much hope lol.

    I like the owner. When he first started out and I bought a lot of records from them, he was pretty darn cool. These days I think he’s just too burned out on pot and unfocused to socialize much. He replaced himself with 16 year old girls with Mohawks who don’t know who the Beatles are.. Its just not cool anymore. It might be for the crowd that hangs in there. The deals are just ok.

    I guess I’m trying to justify the ease and ability of looking on line and having it arrive at my door with no effort. I wish I could say the hunt is part of the fun, but I work for a living. My time is limited and what time I do have, I’d rather just listen to records than look for them.
     
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  4. Danby Delight

    Danby Delight Forum Resident

    Location:
    Boston
    O...kay. Unclear what any of this has to do with the Jazz Record Center or why you think anyone in this thread is buying low grade ABBA or Stevie Nicks at any price, but the stream of consciousness on display is becoming absolutely fascinating. Please proceed.
     
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  5. baconbadge

    baconbadge Chooglin’

    Location:
    Queens, NY
    "NYC is done" is a generic and meaningless statement. I got great stuff at Grouch & Academy two weeks ago. And I live here, so I actually know what's going on.
     
  6. Collapsed Lung

    Collapsed Lung Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York, NY
    Clearly @Chee is just a malcontent who will never be happy with anything, and his brother went to a few of those past-their-prime West Village shops that charge tourists $30 for Monkees LPs. Time to stop engaging him -- it's not worth it. I'd rather be out shopping for records and supporting the great shops we have all over New York City and its surrounding boroughs.

    Exactly! Go to Brooklyn and add in Record Grouch, Academy on Oak, Earwax, Captured Tracks, Face, and Human Head, and you have some world-class record shopping just a subway ride away...

    I can appreciate that...I work in the music/entertainment business, so the hunt just feels like an extension of my job, which I love. Count me among the lucky ones! What I really like the most about going to shops is discovering stuff I'd never heard about, getting recommendations from employees, and enjoying how record stores function as a social nexus. Pre-COVID it was also great to peruse their bulletin boards for gigs, "musician wanted" flyers, etc. And I like having cool businesses in my neighborhood and want to support them...

    Amen to that: I mail ordered an album they said was in stock but not in the store...ordered it on December 6, and it arrived today (December 29) -- with the return address listed as their warehouse in Brooklyn. Apparently they employ a bulk mail process to save money. I would have been happy to pick it up in-store, but that option was not available for this record. Ugh...

    Rough Trade was never among my favorite shops. Its prices were generally high -- often 10% or more over MSLP -- and it took them a while to get in new stock when it wasn't a hotly anticipated release. But I certainly don't want to see them fail: They have some genuinely nice and knowledgeable employees. The new location, in addition to being much easier for me to get to, will hopefully expose them to a much more diverse clientele than gentrified/hipsterfied Williamsburg did...and they won't have to worry about dealing with so much space. That old building was an albatross.

    The best thing about Rough Trade for me was when they'd have their "OH NO WE BOUGHT TOO MUCH INVENTORY THAT WE'LL NEVER MOVE" blowout sales. I got some great stuff for peanuts from those bins...but now that they are lean and mean, I doubt we'll have too many sales like that going forward...but if they ever do, I'll make sure to give @Chee and his brother a call so they can enjoy the bargains (even if they are grimacing under their masks).
     
    dj-crypto, Funky54 and baconbadge like this.
  7. Chee

    Chee Forum Resident

    Location:
    Denver
    I suppose Greenwich Village still has those tourist spots that look like the late Bleeker Bobs. Every Japanese dealer I know blows off NYC except the WFMU sale which I know of one dealer from Shibuya who buys a table to get in early and gives it away for 50%. Imagine walking in even with the "early buyers", the tables are already looted. I'm sure Grouch and Academy didn't look them up...like who cares if they are great when you can get the same records on eBay. Is The Thing round? I heard it got rolled over like Goths upon Rome for years and was beat to pulp duffers. I'm waiting for a Rockaway Records parking lot sale.....I miss Arons/Rhino/Record Surplus sales. I'd drive 2 days to get to them, besides Vegas. I bought 80 Motley Crew sealed albums for $3 each from a Rhino sale once. Most record stores employ the tatted young set, I can't see them in suits and ties. They have no idea about music. Amoeba looks like a punk asylum behind the counters. Restaurants are worse. Have you been to Hooters in recent years....the days of the tall 26 year old blondes are long gone and cheap wings.
     
    rubberhead likes this.
  8. baconbadge

    baconbadge Chooglin’

    Location:
    Queens, NY
    Uhhhhhhh... ok
     
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  9. Danby Delight

    Danby Delight Forum Resident

    Location:
    Boston
    It's like he's having a stroke, but in print. It's genuinely kind of fascinating.
     
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  10. jjhunsecker

    jjhunsecker Senior Member

    Location:
    New York city
    Can you compare ANY of those places (many of which I've been to) to the late lamented J&R Music World ? Or Tower ? Or Virgin or HMV ? In terms of amount and variety of stock, you couldn't even compare them to the Wiz or Record Explosion ....I'm sorry, but compared to what were the options in NYC in say, 1985 or 1994 or 2000 to what is here today , it's no contest in my book. Can I walk into any of those stores tomorrow and be assured I could walk out with a copy of "Maggot Brain" or "Money Jungle" or "Elvis in Memphis" or "Saved" on CD ? Hell, I probably couldn't find "30" in most of those places.

    If LA and San Francisco can have a store like Amoeba, we need one like that in NYC...We USED to have them.
     
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  11. eddiel

    eddiel Senior Member

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    It's common. I'm a member of a few local Facebook record collector groups and a lot of members talk about how little they pay for stuff more than they talk about the actual records.
     
  12. jjhunsecker

    jjhunsecker Senior Member

    Location:
    New York city
    I want to walk into a store in NYC that has "Exile on Main Street" in stock, in whatever format I want, at ANY time....something that we had here in New York 15 years ago, but now don't anymore

    No knock on the stores that you guys love...they are just not my cup of tea. I'm not into crate digging per se
     
    dlemaudit likes this.
  13. Collapsed Lung

    Collapsed Lung Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York, NY
    I'm sorry your so disappointed. Perhaps it's time to leave New York? Is your apartment rent-controlled? Asking for a friend...

    The rise of the internet and streaming -- which allow you to get exactly what you want immediately -- has made the deep catalog superstore model of record shop pretty irrelevant. You might as well ask why there aren't trolleys or steam locomotives or zeppelins to Siam. We are in the era of more specialized shops, and I've decided to embrace the benefits that come with it rather than lament what is gone and never coming back.

    Virgin, HMV, Tower, J&R, the Wiz, Record Explosion, etc. -- heck, even the Williamsburg Rough Trade or Other Music down on Fourth -- were all great stores in their era, but that model just isn't viable anymore, at least not in New York City. I'm amazed that Amoeba can still exist out west, but there car culture makes it easier for people to come from miles away to shop...and something tells me they sell as many t-shirts and tote bags as they do LPs and CDs -- a phenomenon discussed in this four-year-old thread. When I lived in Boston, Newbury Comics was pretty deep on catalog, but nowadays they mostly sell action figures, shirts, posters, and other knick-knacks, with CD and vinyl scaled pretty far back.

    It sounds like you don't want a record store as much as you want a time machine...but no amount of red convertibles, rogaine, lipator, or leather jackets is going to bring back Tower Lincoln Center.
     
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  14. Chee

    Chee Forum Resident

    Location:
    Denver
    Tower was great store in the Village. You mean there isn't one Tower like retail store in NYC? Amoeba's profit margin on new product must be horrible but they seem to be the only place around with deep catalog in L.A.. They pay nothing for used product so they can get lots of cash on that stuff. I'd watch the buy counter and see people walking out calling them all sorts of things after being offered squat. I'd like a time machine toNYC '83....Farfels, Tower, Golden Disc. Downstairs Records, Jerry Ohlinger's Movie Collectable s Store, Jimmy's, Disc-O-Mat, Rockages record conventions.
     
  15. Danby Delight

    Danby Delight Forum Resident

    Location:
    Boston
    Some dude here once said something like “Any record store that doesn’t have a decent selection of Beatles albums isn’t worth shopping at.”

    I don’t understand that mindset at all. I don’t care if a record store has Beatles or Stones albums, since I have owned all the ones I need for over 40 years. Give me the store that has things I don’t already own.

    And if it turns out the store’s focus is on styles that aren’t to my taste, that makes it more likely that they undervalue the things I do want. There’s a store in Harvard Square, Armageddon, that’s mostly hardcore and metal. So when they get singles by UK indie acts from the last 45 years, I’m in there picking them up by the bagful for a buck or two apiece. Same with ‘50s-‘70s jazz records, or experimental composers from the loft scene. They don’t care, they just want them out of the store. Glad to help.
     
  16. jjhunsecker

    jjhunsecker Senior Member

    Location:
    New York city
    Never leaving NYC- I have a huge , and Rent Controlled apartment . Paying about a 1/3 of what some of my nearby neighbors pay for much less space.

    I agree with you, those great stores are gone, and to paraphrase the Boss - "boys, they ain't a coming back". Don't mean I can't miss what was once great here, and lament what we've lost. Still, it boggles my mind that LA and SF- cities just as costly as NYC, can have an Amoeba store and we can't have anything similar here...So I have no choice but to go to the Internets to buy exactly what I want, when I want it...and not necessarily walk into a place and HOPE they might have what I might want, or just stumbled across. But those who like it like that...more power to ya !

    It's like this- imagine at one time your were hitting it with Charlize Theron or Beyonce....and now the only choice is Irene Ryan...
     
    Last edited: Dec 30, 2021
  17. jjhunsecker

    jjhunsecker Senior Member

    Location:
    New York city
    God, I remember all of those !
    I still maintain the best time for music buying in NYC was probably the late 90s/early 2000s, when not only all the big megastores open and fully stocked , but the Wiz and then Best Buy were selling hit CDs at rock bottom prices to get in customers , and there were tons of little indie shops in the East and West Village for imports, off the wall stuff, and ahem..."grey market" items.
     
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  18. Chee

    Chee Forum Resident

    Location:
    Denver
    1982 it peaked in NYC. The Golden Disc at Bleeker and 6th was amazing. Punk and new wave 45's from all over the world were in big and small stores. You'd go to a Rockages convention and run out of money in an hour or couldn't carry anymore back to Penn Station/Subway or Grand Central. Hard to get a new big store up...banks are in caution on loaning to media places since most have shelf life....some don't, daddy props them up with old school money to loan.
     
  19. Collapsed Lung

    Collapsed Lung Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York, NY
    ...for what it is worth, Rough Trade is doing one of their "oh no we bought too much inventory and now have to deeply discount all this unreturnable inventory" (because the super-store model for music is no longer viable) sales right now -- both online and in person. I stopped by today after visiting six other shops (Academy, Human Head, Face, Captured Trax, Earwax, and Stranded)...some good stuff at half off and worth perusing. It's not as big as their old clearance sales used to be, but their inventory and square footage have also been greatly reduced. Still, I nabbed a few interesting things for 50% off...
     
  20. Chee

    Chee Forum Resident

    Location:
    Denver
    Eating nonreturnables must be a pain. Some stores still have tons of dead RSD titles
     
  21. quicksrt

    quicksrt Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    I got spoiled on record shows and overflowing used bins in the Los Angeles area from 1982 to about 1998, and from thrift stores from 1994 to 2009 or so. So the now normal common retail environment just plain sucks, and it sucks everywhere, every state I have been to.

    If I want an LP record I go online and I look at every site. I note prices, and if they are high then I check back in a week or two or three. I usually come up with what I am looking for and at decent price. I also tend to get the condition I am looking for. I find it fun to get that package in the mail once or twice a month with a cherished album I really wanted.

    Last moth I found a 1973 UK import of an album I owned when I was 13 years old. And it was in NM condition for the cover and record. I figured I was going to have to settle for a US pressing in order to get a really clean original. But no, I got the UK with thick laminated jacket.

    So yeah, the online search is where the deals on those special items is going to be. You can find folks who just want to unload their stuff, and are not looking to make a fortune. The fun is still in the hunt, but the hunt has moved 100% online now for me.
     
    GentleSenator likes this.
  22. Chee

    Chee Forum Resident

    Location:
    Denver
    I go to different sections of thrift stores and record scouts walk in every 15 minutes. The huff n puff running over 35 year old Discogs dealers to the 60 year old chubby guys waddling over. The VG ringed out Journey and REO albums are gone in 3 hours and the bins a sea of Tijuana Brass and Andy Williams sit. The days of record collecting are indeed online. If a garage sale says "records" you can count on 5 dealers waiting for that 2 boxes of Lauper, Richie stuff and they fight over it.
     
    ted321 likes this.
  23. Collapsed Lung

    Collapsed Lung Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York, NY
    You guys sure are fun. Maybe you should find a different hobby?
     
  24. Danby Delight

    Danby Delight Forum Resident

    Location:
    Boston
    Some people are just collectors of grievances. May we never become jaded and old, no matter our age.
     
    Collapsed Lung likes this.
  25. mrkrinkle

    mrkrinkle so long and thanks for all the fish

    Location:
    USA
    I used to work at that store. Miss it!
     

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