New York City Record Stores: Bleecker Street Records

Record Shops, vinyl road rage, , , ,

Bleecker Street Records is famous for those living in the area–and for many of us from farther away, too. And with good reason. This two-floor New York City record store, located at 239 Bleecker Street between Carmine & Leroy in the West Village, is chock full of excellent finds.

If you start on the main floor and work your way down, a first-time visitor will probably find it easier to pace themselves than if you go down to where all the amazing goodies are (downstairs). By the time you come up for air you’ll be flat broke! Unlike some of its NYC counterparts in the Village, Bleecker Street Records is efficiently organized and very easy to browse in spite of a huge volume of titles.

For the first-time visitor, Bleecker Street is a bit deceptive in terms of layout–you’ll probably get through many of the stacks in the basement before you discover the Collectibles side of the house (which is behind you as you walk down the stairs.) Just about the time I was asking myself where all the hidden gems were located, I found them waiting on the opposite side.

It has to be said; Bleecker Street Records is NOT run by a bunch of clueless record buyers. They know what’s collectible, and these LPs are priced accordingly. Experienced collectors looking for holy grail LPs will do well here, but newcomers may be put off by some of the prices until they learn what’s reasonable and what’s not. There truly is something for every stage of collector here, but it’s best to know what’s a steal and what’s not before trying to navigate LPs sold in ANY shop as “collectible”.

The selection in the Bleecker Street collectibles area cannot be beat. These records are plentiful, as well cataloged as the non-collector stuff, and there is a nice cross-section of genres and artists for sale. There are LPs, 45s, 10-inches, the whole gamut.

This is one hell of a record store. Vinyl junkies, this should definitely be a destination for you when you’re in the NYC area. I WILL be back!

–Joe Wallace
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Are You Down With OPV?

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OPV as in “Other People’s Vinyl”. Lots of people have posted vids of their vinyl collections on YouTube. So many that I’m starting to think that there’s a subset of people out there who actually want to see these clips. Collection envy? Looking for previously undiscovered titles? Or maybe folks are just looking for new or new-to-them ways of storing and preserving vinyl records. Regardless, I’m trying a little experiment with a series of posts called, you guessed it, Down With OPV.

Behold the very first entry courtesy of a YouTube account by VinylElvis.I’d love some feedback on the OPV series. If you like it, hate it, or feel left out because your vid isn’t featured here yet, please leave a comment and let me know what you think. I’d love to know more if you’ve got vinyl related videos on YouTube, Vimeo or elsewhere.



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The Turntabling Posterous Site

Media, , , , , , ,
Turntabling.net is now updating on Posterous.com, which is an app I’ve known about for some time but never tried anything with until now. I’m  still learning the ins and outs of this interesting service which lets you do blog posts and updates via e-mail.
It seems quite handy so far and I’m quite pleased with the ease of setup and the fact that it will convert seemingly any type of media including video and MP3s. You might see a hiccup or two in this space as I test the features out but all should settle back down to normal soon-ish.

–Joe Wallace

New York City Record Stores: Rebel Rebel

Record Shops, vinyl road rage, , , ,

We finally move into the New York City record store portion of Vinyl Road Rage 2…there were record stores aplenty in NYC and while there’s no way I could possibly hit them all in the short time I was able to go, I did manage to find a fair number of them. Rebel Rebel was my first stop on the New York leg of the trip. Located in Greenwich Village at 319 Bleecker Street. This is what they call the West Village area…I’m still sorting all that out in my head, not being from there and all…

Inside the shop, it’s a bit of an insane hodgepodge. Records are literally everywhere, as you’ll see. Sorting through the stacks I found Rebel Rebel to be a good place for completists to shop, especially if you’re into bands from the UK and you want to fill gaps in your collection. The store is cramped, but the rabid collector of certain UK imports is probably going to want brave the size restrictions to snag the sounds.

Somebody in this shop has a big crush on Madonna. It seems everything she ever did (literally? Probably not, but you get the message) was stuck to any available wall space in Rebel Rebel.

Yes, children, that IS a vinyl copy of the Ministry album With Sympathy. And yes, that is a $24.95 price tag you see on it.

It’s a jungle in here, but amid the boxes and the tottering piles of vinyl stacked everywhere willy-nilly, the dedicated crate digger is bound to find stuff to bring a smile.

It was very funny listening to the guy behind the counter explain for the benefit of the clueless ladies shopping for party music the differences between ambient, chill-out music, trip-hop and other genres. He seemed to be transmitting his message to a far-off galaxy that doesn’t understand this earth thing called dancing. The lady was very impressed. The patrons were very amused.

Final verdict? If you don’t own a turntable with a preamp in it and don’t know what VAT stands for, chances are Rebel Rebel isn’t for you. But the rabid collector will have a field day here. Bring deep pockets though–titles are pricey.


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